Glasgow, D'Arcy Motors, Donate Van To Joliet Boys & Girls Club

JOLIET, IL - Thursday afternoon marked a milestone for downtown Joliet's Boys & Girls Club across from the Joliet Central High School campus. The occasion was attended by Joliet's Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, Will County Executive Larry Walsh and several members of the Will County Board as well as Joliet City Councilwoman Bettye Gavin. Eventually, everyone gathered outside during the cold, but blue skies, as the Rev. Herb Brooks, a county board member from Joliet, offered a special blessing over the new $27,000 van being donated by Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow and Terry D'Arcy of D'Arcy Motors in Joliet.

"It is important to note that State's Attorney Glasgow utilized no taxpayer funding to cover his half of the van expenditure. Instead, he used money he seized from criminals who were engaged in illegal activities in Will County to pay for the van," notes a statement from the Will County State's Attorney's Office.

Before everyone walked outside to brace the cold, the crowd heard remarks about the significance of the van dedication from Boys & Girls Club Executive Director Kahlil Diab, Glasgow and D'Arcy. Glasgow was excited the new transport van will be able to bring Joliet's youth to places including the Brookfield Zoo and perhaps to Little League baseball games.

The transport vans can accommodate between 14 and 16 passengers.

"I was at the Forest Park center ... and the two vans pulled in and two Joliet officers got out. They had just taken up the kids to Brookfield Zoo. And none of them had ever been there before. And that's obviously one of many things they need to be exposed to," Glasgow told everyone during Thursday's event.

"Every child has got inherent talents and they don't always know what they are. And if they don't get these broad-based experiences to find out what they can excel at, then they are going to wind up in the poverty-stricken areas that they are at. The gangs are going to prey on them. The drugs can kill them.

"I was adopted from the St. Vincent's Orphanage in Chicago ... It closed in 1976. But they used to match the kids, height, weight, religion, skin color, everything ... they tried to make the most perfect match for you so that you wouldn't feel out of place. And my parents, my adoptive parents, my dad was 5-foot-6 and my mom lied and said that my natural father was 5-foot-6 but he was 6-foot-2. So, all we did all the time that they'd say, 'How'd you get so tall?' Well, I used to eat a lot, whatever.

"But my parents, when I was five they told me I was going to college. I didn't know what that was. Going go college. OK. And sure enough, everything that I ever needed, went to Joliet Catholic, went to University of Illinois, never had to worry about a thing. And my Mom would embarrass the hell out of me, making up stuff, telling these things that I did and I didn't even do them. And, I was talking to Kahlil (Diab) and he gets kids that come here from very dark places. They don't get treated like that. They're told that they're worthless. Or, maybe, there's not even anyone to tell them that. They come from environments that most of us in this room never experienced or would want to experience. And this (facility) is a life blood that we have to make sure that he has the resources necessary to save these kids ..."

Images via John Ferak, Joliet Patch Editor