The Center scrambles to find new venue for camp fundraiser

When a restaurant that is also a banquet facility suddenly closes, customers who have events planned there can be left in the lurch.

One such drama played out within a 3-mile geographic triangle lastweek.

After Hackney’s Restaurant, on 123rd Street and La Grange Road in Palos Park, suddenly closed the morning of Jan. 22, the staff atThe Center, located 2 miles away at 127th Street and Southwest Highway, found themselves without a venue for their Feb. 21 benefit, ANight to Linger.

The annual event kicks off a campaign to raise scholarship money enabling dozens of kids from financially strapped families across the region to attend summer camp at the Children’s Farm across the street fromThe Center.

“Itwas a bit of a scramble for two days,” said Mark Walker, development director at The Center.

But nearby Palos Country Club, just a half-mile south at 131stStreetandSouthwest Highway in Orland Park, had space and availability.

“Like Hackney’s, Palos Country Club has been a goodneighbortous,” Walker said.

Walker said the new space will cost a bit more, and hors d’oeuvres will be served instead of a dinner. “But at leastwe can still have the fundraiser, which is a big money-maker. Last year it raised $20,000,” he said.

Each year, he said The Center tries to free up $50,000 for partial and full camp scholarships for kids who love the outdoors but whose families can’t afford camp.

The attendees, he said, mostly come from a 5-mile radius but a few kids also come from Indiana, Michigan andWisconsin.

“It includes a lot of kids from some pretty tough neighborhoods in Chicago,” he said. “They come here and their eyes are just opened up. They learn milk comes from a cow and not a 7-Eleven. It is really sometimes at that level, that eye-opening.”

In addition, he said, “We also get some kidswhodon’t always get along with classmates really well but open up when they encounter animals, and their people skills get better at the same time.”

Pat Pykett, general manager of Palos Country Club, said the facility has “enjoyed a good rapport with the Sanders family (who have long run The Center) for many years. We’re happy to help out anywaywe can.”

She said the country club also is helping the Palos Republicans with their Feb. 12 event, which was also displaced after Hackney’s closed.

“We’ve been serving this community for 100 years,” Pykett said. “We want to continue to do so.”

Because of the change of venues, The Center is asking A Night to Linger attendees to buy tickets in advance and not at the door.

For information, call 708361-3650 or go to www.the centerpalos.org.