Midwest Veterans Closet to expand outreach
$500K state grant lets nonprofit buy land, plan to build
“When we began six years ago, we didn’t have a dime. Now we have to raise money for the building.” — Mary Carmody, Midwest Veterans Closet founder
Sometimes there is not enough room in the closet for all your stuff.
The Midwest Veterans Closet in North Chicago, where active-duty military and veterans can receive a multitude of services for free, has found itself in a similar situation.
However, that is all going to change now that a $500,000 state grant has enabled the nonprofit to purchase land for construction of a new building.
Mary Carmody, founder of the closet, said the organization was able to purchase the property at 1720 Green Bay Road, where an old nursery stood before a fire in the 1990s, across the street from the Northshore Garden of Memories.
“When we began six years ago, we didn’t have a dime,” Carmody said Wednesday.
“Now we have to raise money for the building,” she said, explaining that most of the grant went to purchase the property. The organization has about 2,000 square feet on which she wants to put a 10,000-square-foot building. The group is searching for an architect to get the permit process started.
“We want to get back in the furniture business,” Carmody said. The Midwest Veterans Closet stopped offering free furniture when it lost a donated warehouse where the items used to be stored. “We have more and more active-duty families calling for furniture. I can get furniture, but I didn’t have anywhere to store it,” she said. The 3.75 acres will also give the group space for a garden, and a building big enough to have just a place for veterans to hang out.
Carmody said she was also hoping to build some housing for disabled or disadvantaged women veterans at the site as well, but it’s still all in the planning stages. “There’s a lot of housing for men, but not much for women,” she said.
Being close to the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center and Naval Station Great Lakes is important.
State Sen. Terry Link, D-Indian Creek, said he was approached by Carmody to see if the state could help fund an expansion over a year ago, and he was well aware of what her organization has done since it opened.
“I just believe in what she is doing. A lot of people talk about helping the veterans, but very few did what she did,” he said. “She’s devoted her whole life to it.”
“He realizes the need,” she said of Link. “This will be a blessing.”
In 2014, Carmody told a reporter that she started Veterans Closet (www.mid westveteranscloset.org/) to “pay off the debt we owe to those who have fought hard and lost much to keep us safe and free.”
It was a success, but the organization needed more space and a place more accessible to veterans, where public transportation could be used. “They’re thankful for this service, but really we’re thankful for theirs,” she said at the time.
Freedom is important, which she learned from her mother and father who immigrated to the United States from the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, now Slovenia.
“My mom said as a child they lived day to day, with authorities coming in and taking whatever they wanted. Her childhood was all hard work, and coming to America was a beautiful dream,” she said.
Carmody talked this week about how some veterans hesitated to go into the coat closet inside the present facility at 2323 Green Bay Road because of their post-traumatic stress disorder. “It’s so crowded inside there, they didn’t feel good going inside,” she said.
“And we outgrew our food and nutrition center pretty much the day it opened,” she added.
Clothing, coats, shoes, food, household products, toiletries, housewares, furniture, books, movie DVDs, leads for jobs, help with resumes, suits and ties for men, and business attire for women have all been provided free of charge over the years to veterans or activeduty families. They once came up with a wedding dress for an active-duty woman in need and a used car for a veteran walking 90 minutes to his third-shift job.
The group also got a food truck sponsored by corporations, the next sponsored by Grainger Foundation from noon to 2 p.m. on Dec. 10, where those in need can get fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy, cheese, cereal bakery goods and more.
“The need for food is never-ending. It’s almost sad. Our military needs food,” Carmody said.
She said they have been busy all week with turkey deliveries and recently the Lake County Sheriff’s Office dropped off “thousands” of coats after collecting them through the county’s many police departments.
On Wednesday the Hilton hotel chain dropped off hundreds of small coffee makers, and the Shriners from Addison also dropped off coats and suits for interviews. This week, the organization was also collecting Boxes for the Brave — care packages sent to soldiers in Afghanistan.
And a new bra drive is just getting started with drop-offs at the Octagon Salon in Gurnee and the closet in North Chicago. “A woman deserves a new bra once in a while, don’t you think?” Carmody said.
She always reminds the volunteers to remember to be thankful for our freedoms and to tell the veterans and active-duty families that drop in.
“We remind each other to thank them for our freedoms,” Carmody said. And for those who have not served in the military.
“We can all serve in some capacity.”