Lake Forest group continues to reach out to help children; ‘We want to open up their world’

In 2007, Annie McAveeney and her husband took in a 9-month-old boy into their Lake Forest home, as they saw the child’s mother was facing difficult circumstances raising the infant.

When the McAveeneys realized the situation they encountered was just one of many throughout Illinois, they recognized mothers and children with little support were homeless, living in abandoned buildings, garages or cars.

“That is when my husband and I realized how many children were in crisis throughout Illinois,” she said. “We knew we needed to do more.”

With a desire to help others, the McAveeney family soon launched Fill A Heart 4 Kids, an organization that has grown over the last 17 years. Fill A Heart assists more than 2,400 children ages 5 to 18 by providing food, clothing and personal items, along with educational services such as tutoring and conducting classes at multiple locations, including their Lake Forest headquarters.

“It is all about education and building a brighter future,” Annie McAveeney added.

Specifically, Fill A Heart has partnerships with 23 mostly Lake County schools, building off direct connections to administrators, teachers and social workers in their collective goal to reach the most vulnerable children.

They also partner with foster care facilities, which send their children to the Lake Forest center for educational programming. Fill A Heart also supplies tutors that go to foster homes, assisting students with school work and life-skills opportunities.

“We want to make sure the children are engaged, and back at school and ready to learn,” McAveeney noted, adding some of the children receiving assistance often become Fill A Heart volunteers themselves.

McAveeney stresses there are requirements for students to be part of Fill A Heart programming, and it is not just charity.

“All of our children that we work with have to turn in their homework, and have to have a good attendance record,” she said. “We know if they are safe in school, they are on the road to success and learning.”

The Market Square location in downtown Lake Forest can be a bundle of activity on many days, as the first floor often has volunteers assembling packages filled with food or toiletries bound for schools.

“It reduces peer shaming, and increases attendance,” McAveeney explained, referring to the need for toiletries.

On the second floor, there is a computer lab next to a dedicated space for various types of classes, ranging from STEM courses to lessons on banking and budgeting in business incubator classes.

A kitchen provides the opportunity for cooking classes from both professional chefs and retired teachers, in addition to art classes with the walls highlighted by drawings created by the students.

Overall, students learn about many different career opportunities.

“We want to open up their world,” McAveeney said. “We want our children to learn and have a bright future. Our goal is for children to see there are so career options to choose from. We want them to know there is a wonderful world out there, and they are capable of achieving success.”

While McAveeney remains at the helm, Fill A Heart only has three full-time employees, augmented by six part-timers and board members who volunteer.

“We are very lean in that respect, but the volunteers and the board we have are amazing, and everyone works hard to get all the items out to the kids that need it most,” vice president Margie Alpert said.

Fill A Heart, which moved into its current Market Square location in June, seeking funding through sponsorships from the philanthropic community and looking for volunteers to assist with the programming.

“It is all about restoring their dignity in their childhood,” McAveeney said. “And showing them they are worthy and capable of achieving success.”