“Teach them well and let them lead the way.”
That’s a lyric from the iconic song The Greatest Love of All which begins, ‘I believe the children are our future’. The gathering at the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois this week gave the foundation board reason to be very optimistic about the future.
The 2017 In Youth We Trust Grantees were recognized and it was an impressive list which included the RTHS Interact Club for its efforts to support The Kitchen Table, Rochelle’s community diner.

Twenty-four years ago the community foundation became a part of the Ford Foundation’s Changing Communities: Diverse Needs initiative. The grant request identified youth partnerships as the best way to bring together a diverse community. That idea has evolved into the In Youth We Trust Advisory Council which empowers young people to identify and solve community problems. The council reviews, discusses and recommends funding of $20,000 per year for youth-developed and implemented projects. The youth council has distributed more than a quarter-million dollars in grants.
Representing Rochelle Township High School on the IYWT Council are Alexis Bialas and Bibiana Milan who excused themselves from RTHS Interact Grant consideration as is procedure to avoid conflicts. Nonetheless, Interact’s Kitchen Table initiative was funded in the amount of $2,500. Taylor Kreider, James Hart and Kelsey Thompson championed the cause to defend the grant before the committee.
“This is a wonderful program from the top down,” Interact Advisor Alison Mercer-Curtis said. “Last year our kids did a tremendous job with the Skare Grant Bridge project, rebuilding bridges via social medial crowdfunding, but this year we stepped up our presentation and were able to secure a grant from a pool of really excellent ideas.”
Other grant recipients: Auburn National Honor Society’s Dance-a-thon, Harlem High Bleacher Project for Blackhawk Area Council of Boy Scouts Troop 32, BAC Scout Troop 181’s Fishing Equipment & Conservation project, Gigi’s Playhouse Soccer Camp, Harlem High‘s Veteran Story Preservation Project, Northwest Community Center 4-H Teen Teacher Organ & Blood Awareness Campaign, and the Talcott Library STEM Club project.
“You can see that these In Youth We Trust Grants are not limited to high school groups,” Mercer-Curtis said.