- Will you consider this?

There is a place that began as a memorial tribute to a grieving father's daughter.

It has evolved into something much more.

I'm Christine Zak-Edmonds.

Stay with me for this story and its upcoming festivities.

(upbeat music) It's not only a place for moms and children any longer.

The Crittenton Center is for families.

Yes, dads too, those who are struggling with any number of difficulties, Sandy Garza is here to bring us up to date and share the fun and exciting ways the center raises funding.

So welcome.

- Well thank you for having me, Christine.

- Now, let's start by Crittenton Centers, well, the center, there was one, was around in the very beginning since 1892.

Is that right?

- Yes.

So Crittenton Center started out as something called the Home of the Blessing in 1892 by a bunch of church ladies here in Peoria who recognized the need for a home for unwanted mothers during that time, 'cause the history books will tell you we were the whiskey capital of the world at that time.

And so we had a lot of people here that were in need of services, and we were filling and bursting at the seams, and Charles Crittenton in New York City had opened an unwanted one mothers home in honor of his daughter Florence who died of scarlet fever at four years old.

He thought if this can happen to my daughter, what could happen to all these other women who are pregnant in the streets of New York?

- And in need.

- And in need, mhm.

And he traveled the country.

He stopped at different places including Peoria, Illinois, because we were the whiskey capital of the world.

And he met with the community and he funded the Home of the Blessing, and it became the Florence Crittenton Home.

- And did it originate... Where was the first place?

'cause I know it had been on Heading Avenue for a long time.

- Yes, it was in the 1930s, we built the home on Heading that had a residential area, a crisis nursery, and an actual birthing wing.

So the women would give birth in the building, and it was way off on Heading, deep in the road.

And at the time, everybody wanted to keep it a secret what was going on.

So even the families that would come to adopt the babies, they would hide their license plates, so the moms wouldn't see, and the moms would keep secrets.

- Wow, how things have changed.

But most people know Crittenton Centers as the crisis nursery.

You've really evolved.

So let's go to the crisis nursery.

- Well, in the late 70s, society changed and started accepting the fact that there could be single unwed mothers and so forth.

And even though it was accepted, it was still hard to do, as you can imagine.

And so, we had some board members at the time recognizing that we no longer had a need for unwed mother's home, but there was a brand new need in society to meet our mission, and our mission is to protect and nurture children and families.

Our goal is to prevent a parent's crisis from becoming a child's crisis.

So the services have changed over time, as you've mentioned, but not the goals.

So, our board members at the time went to Indiana.

Joan Janssen and Terry Best went to Indiana and saw a crisis nursery there and knew that this is what Crittenton Centers needed to change into to meet the current needs of our area.

So they launched and started the first crisis nursery in Illinois, which became the example for the rest of them in Illinois, and it's still here to this day.

So since 1980 when it opened, we've had over 100,000 admissions to the crisis nursery.

- That's just incredible.

And every year you serve thousands.

- Yes, we have thousands of admissions every year.

So COVID shrank that a little bit, but we typically in an average year have around 4,000 admissions to the crisis nursery, and that does not include the number of people who ring the doorbell who just need diapers, wipes, and formula.

- And that's important to know, especially there's a formula shortage.

So what did that do to your services and availability to provide for people who were coming to ring the doorbell?

- Well, we saw a significant increase in need.

People who had never ever considered themselves someone who might ever ring our doorbell were ringing our doorbell.

We had people reaching out even from St. Louis to get the right formula that they needed.

So in an average month prior to this formula crisis, we'd give out 40 to 80 cans a month depending on the need.

In May alone, we gave out 259 cans.

- And who provided them to you?

How were you able to get them, or were they a donation from even before that, or how did that work?

- Yes, so we have, every year, April is known as Child Abuse Prevention Month.

And in honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month, we always do a fill the crib campaign, and we partner with local businesses to collect donations.

and we promote it to everybody.

We also have online wishlists on our website at Target, Amazon, all those places that people can buy and have it shipped to us in addition to we apply for grants with the Community Foundation, things like the hunger grant.

And so all of these resources combined, we were able to have the formula on hand, because we had just filled up - The crib.

- The crib in addition to the grant funding prior to this huge nationwide shortage.

We are seeing our shelves emptied.

I'm not gonna lie, normally that supply that we get in April would last us a good four to six months.

We're already in need of more formula.

- Starting to get bare.

The shelves are bare.

And you also collect a lot of diapers and wipes and things too, because you are serving so many children.

What is the age range of the children that you're serving?

- In the crisis nursery, we can serve them from birth all the way up until their seventh birthday.

So when we see people, a crisis doesn't always conveniently happen between nine and five.

We get phone calls in the middle of the night.

There might be a mom who goes into labor early who doesn't have childcare, and nurses are not babysitters.

So we can take care of her other children while she's in the hospital taking care of herself.

We've had police officers who would utilize... Maybe they made an arrest, and then the police station is not an appropriate place for children.

They would let them stay at the crisis nursery while they dealt with the adult issues they need to deal with.

Some parents have someone babysitting, and then that person might get COVID or might all of a sudden be unavailable and they can't miss work or they won't be able to pay their rent.

So they need someone to take care of their children in that quick turnaround.

- And you have respite too?

- Yes.

One of our big pieces we always talk about is asking for help is a sign of strength.

And you can get to a point of stress that you don't make your best decisions, and you're not the best parent you wanna be, because you're overburdened from a long time of parental care and stress.

So we say, just call us, ask for help.

We will be able to say yes.

We'll be able to take care of your children, give you that respite and the break that you need, so you can do the adult things you need to do and come back fully ready to be the mom you wanna be or the dad you wanna be.

- And you're open 24/7, 365.

- Correct, holidays, everything.

- All right, what is the length of stay that they could utilize the services?

- We offer up to 72 hours typically.

That being said, most people don't utilize the full 72 hours.

They might utilize a four hour period or an overnight for respite.

And we've had a few people, for example, a person in the hospital for more than 72 hours, we then will keep the child for more than 72 hours, because the parent is still in hospital.

- Case by case basis.

Tell me one of the best stories that you know that has come out of your time spent with the Crittenton Centers.

And I will go back a little bit.

I know that there was one young man who's a father now, and he was a Crittenton kid.

He was a crisis nursery kid growing up.

So relay that story, 'cause it's heartwarming.

- Oh yes.

So Del'Shaun, I think you're talking about him.

So he was this wonderful young man.

I met him when he was 20 years old.

- The reason why we came was so my mother can go to work.

She didn't really have nobody to depend on to watch us.

It allowed her to free her mind knowing that we're here somewhere safe.

We're with great people.

We're in great hands, and we're in a great organization.

- So we partner.

We've been a partner agency of the United Way since it opened in 1922.

Crittenton Centers and United Way have been partners that long.

And so we were going out to do one of our agency showcases at United Way.

And I'm sitting there in front of our Crittenton Centers crisis nursery sign, and he runs up with this biggest grin on his face.

And he's like, "I went to the crisis nursery when I was a little boy."

And he was so excited.

He told me all the stories.

Apparently he had a twin sister that came with him.

So they were both five years old, and they got to come to the crisis nursery.

And their mom worked, but she worked third shift and didn't have childcare at that time, and she needed to work to pay the bills and so forth.

So she was able to call the crisis nursery and have them stay overnight.

And they got dinner and bath time and playtime and story time and new jammies, and they washed their clothes for them.

So when mom came back from work to pick them up, they had clean clothes on.

They were happy and fed.

One of the things that he said to me is that he felt so safe and so happy.

And you could tell, because he ran up to me with the biggest smile as soon as he saw the sign.

He said it felt safer than school sometimes, and he felt like everybody was there just to help him and his mom.

His mom felt happy.

- And the kids were provided for.

- And they were provided for.

And he's 20 years old now and he said that he works at Caterpillar, he works in the line, and he just had his son.

And they were having a rolling layoff or something like this.

And he knew right where to go to get diapers, 'cause he couldn't afford 'em, and he knew he needed them for his son.

So he came to the crisis nursery.

He was so excited, and he said, "I don't know how to give back."

And I said, "Would you please tell me this story "and let me just record it, because it's so amazing."

'Cause we hear stories of hearts change from parents all the time knowing that we're there, but to see the light in his eyes of how excited he was to be there as a child and how good he felt.

- Because he knew.

- Because he knew, and so he went on to work, and he became a father locally here, and his sister is off in Virginia going to college.

- Wow.

- And I'm so happy that we were able to be there in that moment of need.

And it was a such a positive experience for them that they remember it 20 years later.

- Now, is there a fee?

I know that most everything is donations that you run, but it's how much per day to run the place?

- So we don't charge anyone to utilize the crisis nursery, but what we say is it's typically $100 per hour of fully staffed crisis care.

So we have a ratio rule, for example, of one adult that is trained in all the pieces that need to be trained in to deal with a child in crisis per four children.

So there's a ratio.

So we can have up to 12 children per hour, but $100.

- That can get pretty busy though from time to time.

- And if you do that 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, there's some math there, (both laugh) and it doesn't include the diapers, wipes, and formula.

- Right, and you take those donations.

Before we get to some of your other fundraisers, how can people help?

- Absolutely, well, we love to have people go onto our website and you can choose to donate and become a monthly donor.

$25 a month allows us to provide items for one child a month, which is wonderful.

You can go online if you have an Amazon wishlist, we have a Target wishlist, we have a Walmart wishlist, and you can just click and purchase and it'll ship it to our front door, which is wonderful.

You can become a member of our Circle of Hands Giving Society and invest $1,000 or more a year knowing that you're impacting the lives of hundreds of children.

One of the other ways that I think people give back is not only volunteering, but they volunteer their talent of knowledge and they share and they advocate, tell other people about the services, and how great is it for like Del'Shaun, for example, to have prevented a crisis rather than to have to recover from it.

So that's what I tell people all the time.

We know that by having that respite, by having that break, - It's so important.

- It's so important.

We can strengthen families and prevent the crisis, so they don't have to recover from it.

- I like that.

I like that.

Put a lot of thought into that.

All right, so let's talk about some of the upcoming festivities that you have.

One is, it's the 13th Annual Festival of Trees.

- Yes, which we are so excited about.

I don't know about you, but I cannot think of a Christmas tree without thinking of little kids surrounded by a Christmas tree excited in the morning, and neither can we, right?

So Festival of Trees, we host in person this year, which we are so excited about to be back in person.

There's something magical.

We always do at the weekend before Thanksgiving.

We kick it off the Thursday before Thanksgiving with our Jingle Mingle event, which you get to see the trees for the very first time.

We have designer decorators that have literally been decorating since July.

- And they have a theme this year?

- Yes, the theme this year is celebrate together, because we haven't been together.

(laughs) - Because we can be together now.

Yes, exactly, post COVID.

- Yes, so it's celebrate together, and we are gonna do it in every way that we can.

We're gonna celebrate together at Jingle and Mingle.

And then on Friday, we're gonna bring back our senior day event where we have the local kids, Crittenton kids, come and perform.

We have Bingo activities.

We have a local band perform, Youth Nights, so Girl Scouts and Cubs Scouts and 4H, and all the kids get come and they get to go through the different pieces and activities and earn little fun badges and so forth.

And then on Saturday, we're bringing back our favorite, which sells out very quickly, our Brunch and Bubbly.

And we're gonna be bringing that back, and it's gonna be all about family traditions and how you can share them since we're now back together again.

- Which is very nice.

So again, you've given it a whole lot of thought.

- Yeah, and Family Day after that.

So all of our local entertainers, so like Nitsch Theatre and Madrigals and so forth are coming to perform, and everybody can come together.

I heard Santa Claus will be joining us that day, so that will be wonderful.

- It's good timing.

He's got a month to prepare for Christmas then.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Now the last couple of years, you've done it, and you've had the trees on display at various businesses and that sort of thing.

Again, is it going to take a few weeks like it did, because of the not being able to be together, or is it just a couple of days this year?

- No, it's just a few days this year.

So, we were so thankful of our local sponsors and businesses who said yes and allowed us to showcase the trees and the scavenger hunt we did last year.

But that being said, there's something magical if you can see 'em all in person at the same time.

So we will launch the online auction.

So you can do mobile bidding just like you have been in the past, starting on November 17th through the 20th, so just that short window, but you can then go in and see them all in person.

- And that's at First Federated?

- No.

- No, where is it?

- We have moved it this year.

That is a great point.

We are gonna be at the Holiday Inn and Suites Grand Prairie Hotel.

- Aha.

- And what we love about this is that it's one room and there's no windows, which normally you would be sad there's no windows, but when you have a room full of Christmas trees lit up, they look stunning, whether you come at Brunch and Bubbly or Jingle Mingle.

- Well, that's fun.

And then what's the price range?

Because you have some tabletop trees, and then you have some... - Seven and a half foot trees, yes.

(Christine chuckles) Yes, we have some really tall trees.

So the price range, we have something as small as a wreath, hearth and home items, tabletop trees, four and a half foot trees, and seven and a half foot trees.

And the prices range from $100 up to a few thousand dollars.

We are excited to partner this year with a local business who's willing to match whatever we sell the tree for up to $2,500.

So we're hoping to sell that tree for $2,500, - I guess.

- And it's called inspiring generosity.

- Inspiring generosity, well, that makes perfect sense.

And so your teams of festival tree designers, they all come up with their own ideas for what each tree is going to be.

So they might have the pink and green thing, or they might have the camouflage looking thing.

- Yeah, we are gonna have about 80 trees, hearth and home items together, and they make all but about 10 or 15 of them.

- Really?

- So these are designer decorated trees.

Every tree is hardwired, and all the ornaments are glued on.

None of them are glass.

So I tell my friends who have children or cats, these are the best trees you can ever get, because they're hardwired, they're fully decorated, and they come in a beautiful plastic bag, and they have a piece of wood underneath that you can literally move it into the closet and then bring it back out and reveal it every year.

And way to go, Mom, you're done.

- (laughs) What a beautiful tree.

And they'll be delivered.

So, the purchasers don't even have to worry about borrowing a pickup truck or anything, because you'll make the deliveries.

- All trees that are four and a half feet tall or seven and a half feet tall will be delivered through the donation and generosity of Federal Companies as they have been for the past 13 years.

They come in on Monday morning after the festival.

They pack and carefully take every one of those trees to the winners.

- You're doing it right.

That's a very nice thing to do.

That's a Christmas gift in itself.

- You know what's really special?

Last year we did something that was so special that we invited it back again this year, and we partnered with Dream Center, because they have little apartments.

And if people say, "You know, Sandy, I already have-" - [Christine] Got too many Christmas decorations.

- "I have three trees in my house, I'm good.

"But I love Crittenton centers "and I really wanna help you guys."

They can sponsor a tree to be delivered to the Dream Center apartment, so that family that's staying in the apartment can have their very own Christmas tree, and then when they move out, they can take it with them.

So there's 26 opportunities for the apartments plus we have charity trees that you can donate to actual charities as well.

- Again, you've thought of everything, or if there isn't something you've thought of, it'll happen next year.

All right, so then there's the stocking stuffer store.

My kids, oh, they just love that.

I still have some great items that they bought for me years and years - Aww.

- And years ago.

Where will that be this year?

When does it start?

- So yes, we're doing the stocking stuffer store again.

It'll be our, what, 38th annual stocking stuffer store.

I can't tell you.

We literally have people come as adults bringing their children, because they remember coming to the store, and it's so nostalgic for them.

So we're doing it at Northwoods Mall.

We do not know exactly what room in Northwoods Mall yet.

We're doing it at Northwoods Mall, and we have all these amazing items on sale from $1 to $8.

And the kids love it, because they get to come in and shop with everybody on their list, and they stick to their budget, and they get grandma and grandpa and their teacher and their aunt and their uncle.

Everybody gets a present knowing that not only that they're buying their family and friends and loved ones presents, but all those proceeds go back to help other kids that might not be able to do that.

And what's really special is we have volunteers, sometimes 13 and 14 and 15 year old high school kids who go around with the little ones and make sure they stick to their budget and get everything on the list.

And it's a wonderful volunteer project for them as well.

And I think there's so many happy memories.

People tell me all the time, "I've come every year, and here's my picture," and they're so proud of it.

- Yeah, really.

Where do you get all of the items provided for that?

I mean, there's enough time.

When does it start and is there enough time for people who want to help donate to those little trinkets, all those very special, expensive gifts?

- Yes, that's right.

So the event is December 8th through the 18th.

So it always runs Thursday through Sunday at the mall, so Thursday and Friday evenings, during the day on Saturday and Sunday, and then the following weekend again, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, right before Christmas, so the 8th through the 18th.

And we get several items donated.

And we work with some companies who like to provide us items as well.

So we always tell people if you would have a lot of items, we never want it to feel like it's... - (laughs) One thing only.

One item only.

- There's only one option for this.

We had a wonderful Dollar General donation one time where they gave us like a whole lot, maybe like 50 Barbie dolls, and we were able to do that, or those really fun pins, or those really fun little... Because we do have the option for some kids who have a smaller budget to have a dollar item, so little trinkets, things like that.

So a lot of companies, if they wanna contact us and they have an extra set of items that they know would be good for us to utilize, we would love to do that, and we would be put their name on it too.

- And you don't have to reach out to them, or do you contact them in order to help fill the shelves?

Free stock stocking stuffer store.

- It's a combination.

Some of them give us a call each year and let us know what they have, and some of 'em we have to follow up with and say, "We are actually in need again this year "if you have anything available."

We have had several different stores over time.

In the past, we've had Farm and Fleet, as I mentioned, Dollar General.

There's been some other places who have reached out to us, and we appreciate that.

- Mhm, a lot of fun.

What's the most fun part of your job as marketing manager?

I mean, you can tell that you have so much passion, and you really believe in what you're doing.

- Well, first and foremost, I always say when you get to work at a place where you know you're truly impacting the lives of children and you're preventing abuse, neglect, the parents come to the door, they're not judged.

They're strengthened.

I know as an adult person who hasn't had those pieces, if somebody comes to me in a non-judgmental way, I'm much more open to advice.

And so watching these parents bravely ask for help and take the advice and take the support and walk away feeling better as a parent, proud of themselves for doing that, that feels very good.

- Because they made the step to come there and ask for help in the first place.

- Mhm, I would also say one of my other favorite roles is that I get to meet with the donors one on one.

And when I meet with a donor who's making the decision to invest in the lives of local children and families, there's not a single one I've met that doesn't have a heart for the mission and doesn't have their own story to tell about why they've chosen this mission to support, and they're at a place where they can do anything, and they're choosing to help someone they may never meet.

And you can just see it in their heart.

It kind of expands a little bit.

- And you always need volunteers.

And you always need donations.

So, how does anybody go about that?

What is the website that they would go to to make sure that... Because there's other Crittenton Centers to make sure that it stays in Peoria.

- So you go to drittentoncenters.org, and if you go on there, there's a button says Get Involved.

You can choose to sponsor, to donate, to volunteer, to go look at our wishlist and shop for us.

All the different pieces, you can go on there and fill those out, and we'll get you right there.

- But does it say Peoria specifically?

- When you get on the site, you will see that it's Peoria, yes.

- Okay, all right.

So, I ask just about everybody this.

Bucket list for you and the centers?

- Bucket list.

(Christine laughs) Oh my goodness.

So we would love to expand our services.

One of the pieces, everybody, as you said, knows about our crisis nursery, but there's an unsung hero that nobody really understands that is the true unsung hero of what we do, because we've learned the best way to truly help a child is to help their parents succeed.

- And you have family, parenting classes.

- So we have a Child Development Center in the heart of the 61605 zip code at a bus stop, which most all of our clients use something called Childcare Connection.

So it's subsidized.

So we have a full... And that's includes all their education, preschool for all, all the pieces, but the unsung here that people don't always know, but makes a huge difference is our Family Services.

So this is parent educators that go either to a parent education class, a support group.

They do something called home visiting, which is proven to break the cycle of abuse and neglect.

And what that is is we have a program called Milestones.

So these parents volunteer.

Nobody's making them do this.

From the time they're pregnant until the baby is three years old, they can have a parent educator who will come to their home once a week, visit with the parent, support them in all of their decisions of developmental screenings and discipline styles and reading and all the things that my parents did for me when I had a baby.

And we've learned a lot of parents know don't hit your child, but they don't know you should read to a baby that's three months old, even though they can't talk.

They don't know what essentially to do.

You should hold and touch a baby.

There's actually parts of their brain that get built if you hold and touch the baby.

You're not spoiling that baby.

Let us show you the research.

You're doing such a great job.

We've noticed that your strength seems to be touch.

Why don't we utilize that more?

They don't need to be told what they're not doing right.

They need to be told what they are doing right.

And they work with them each week and do that and build that bond and support them in that process.

And it becomes so much more than here's how to take care of your child.

Then they reveal their true burdens, and they're able to be supported through that.

But the other piece that we had even talked about is the Family Advocacy Center.

- Okay, we have to get that to another time.

- Oh gosh, okay.

- All right, okay.

But thank you.

I'm enlightened, so we'll have you back after the holidays.

How's that?

- Thank you.

- I hope you learned a whole lot too, because I knew little bits and pieces.

Now I have most of the story except for the Family Advocacy Center.

Thanks for joining us.

Hope you have a good evening.

And stay safe and healthy and hold happiness.

(upbeat music)