Founded 1963
Midtown Educational Foundation is established; property purchased on Loomis Street in Chicago for $30,000.
1965
Midtown Center for boys is formally launched; programs include auto repair, boxing, photography, filmmaking, woodshop, band, and a football team (the Midtown Bears).
1985
Metro Achievement Center for girls is launched with a $50,000 grant; programs begin with 40 girls in donated space in the Circle Court Shopping Center, 500 S. Racine. Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne attends the first-ever Summer Awards Ceremony.
Metro to relocate nine times in the next ten years, due to space and lease problems.
1989
Walgreens One-on-One Program, a tutoring initiative, is launched.
1992
$5 million capital campaign is begun to purchase and renovate a permanent space for Metro and to upgrade Midtown Center facilities, now located at 1819 N. Wood Street.
The University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children publishes highly favorable results of their independent evaluation of the Walgreens One-on-One Program at Midtown & Metro, titled "I Want to be an Engineer . . . Like You!"
1994
310 S. Peoria Street building is purchased for new Metro site; renovations begin.
1995
The Walgreens One-on-One Program is selected as one of 44 programs (out of more than 2,000 applicants worldwide) to join YouthNet, an initiative of the International Youth Foundation.
Metro building dedication ceremonies are held with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Mrs. Daley in attendance.
Executive Director Jim Palos is named "Personaje del Ano" (Person of the Year) by the Chicago Tribune 's Spanish-language newspaper Exito.
1996
The National Science Foundation chooses MEF as a site for exploring the integration of technology into education
Volunteer count for the calendar year tops 500, creating a volunteer/staff ratio of 26/1.
First-ever Midtown "satellite" programs are created to expand the Center's reach, one at Robert Morris College and one at Lake Forest College.
The Kresge Foundation makes a $250,000 grant that brings MEF's Capital Campaign (launched in 1992) to a successful close.
Executive Director Jim Palos is named one of the "Rising Stars of Chicago. . . Likely To Lead in the Next Decade" by the Chicago Sun-Times.
1997
A Technology in the Home project is launched with a pilot group of fifteen Midtown Center boys, to build kids' computer skills and increase their weekly contacts with tutors via cyberspace.
MEF is featured as one of fifty model programs in the nation at the April President's Summit on Volunteerism.
Thirty-year Midtown staffer Joe Major is presented with the Benjamin Gingiss Award from the Illinois Humane Society, an annual award made to an outstanding youth worker in the State of Illinois who serves vulnerable children.
1998
MEF is profiled by the BBC in a segment of Earth Report , focusing on children's issues of global scope and broadcast internationally.
2001
The tenth-anniversary Reach for Excellence Dinner is held at Chicago's Four Seasons Hotel, with Alberto-Culver and Walgreens as co-honorees. Fourteen Chicago companies are recognized for supporting this annual fundraiser for a full ten years; ten outstanding Midtown/Metro alums are profiled.
2002
MEF is listed in the Guide to Effective Compassion , which recognizes "the nation's most compassionate and effective human service initiatives."
The Metro Achievement Center completes a renovation that expands its physical space by one-third and includes a Parent Center, a second computer lab and a chapel.
The Midtown Center expands its first floor, making the lobby larger and more inviting and increasing space for parent programs.
2003
Petra Jaime, Parent Program Director at the Metro Achievement Center, is named one of fifty "2003 Hispanic Heroes" in a ceremony honoring Chicago's most influential Hispanic leaders.
MEF hosts A Celebration of Sports and Character at the Four Seasons Hotel, honoring Connie Payton (Chicago Bears), Brian Sutter (Chicago Blackhawks), Minnie Minoso (Chicago White Sox), David Sarachan (Chicago Fire), Billy Williams (Chicago Cubs), and John Paxson (Chicago Bulls). The event raises some $500,000 and cements friendships with Chicago's sporting community.
2004
MEF publishes Character Education That Works, a practical guide for creating a character education program for kids in grades four through twelve. (The book is available at amazon.com.)
2005
An independent consulting firm, new-TRAC, Inc., surveys 209 MEF alumni on their post-program achievements. The findings: that MEF students entered college at nearly five times the rate of their inner-city peers around the country; that 98% of them graduated from high school as compared to 44% of their public school peers in
Chicago, and that they exhibited a vibrant spirit of volunteerism, which they attributed in part to the character-building aspects of the program.
MEF announces a campaign to raise funds toward an endowment, to strengthen its financial future. The goal: $5 million.
2006
The Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Bar Foundation name MEF “The Most Exemplary Youth Mentoring Program in the City of Chicago” by virtue of awarding it the 2005 Thomas A. Demetrio Award of Excellence, a part of the Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Lend-a-Hand Program.
Joe Major, Midtown’s first paid employee, retires after nearly forty years of service.
The MEF Alumni Network is formed (http://www.mefalumninetwork.org) to encourage communication with and among Midtown and Metro alums.
2007
Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., commits $250,000 over a three-year period to launch the Takeda-Midtown Summer Sports Program. Aside from the sheer appeal of sports, the program’s purpose is to help students become physically fit, combat childhood obesity, and prevent diseases such as diabetes. |
I started at Midtown in the summer of 2006. I was very excited and at the same time very nervous. I was a new student and had no friends that attended the program.