PEORIA MAGAZINE May 2023

COVER STORY

BUILDING PEORIA … one soul-saving, belly-filling, neighborhood-protecting project at a time

BY DENISE JACKSON PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

S pring can be a coming out of sorts for central Illinoisans. Many shed winter’s layers of clothing with the arrival of warm weather. Others head to the ballpark for opening day and another season of Peoria Chiefs baseball. May also signals a shift at one local nonprofit. This month, Build Peoria will choose five finalists for its annual community building project after accepting nominations through March 31. Each year, Build Peoria selects one community project to receive a sizeable grant. All projects are vetted and must be completed within one year. Since its inception six years ago, Build Peoria has raised nearly $400,000 in private contributions for these endeavors. The ultimate recipient is chosen by public vote. Build Peoria Board President Nick Yates says that the projects must be tangible. “We want to be able to point to it and say, ‘We did that,’” Yates said. A WING AND A PRAYER Yates laughs as he describes Build Peoria’s impromptu beginning. “We were sitting down at Wing Fest, where a bunch of restaurants got together and donated their wings to compete for whoever has the best wings. I was sitting there and thinking to

myself, ‘Wait a minute, they didn’t incur any costs. But we all paid $30 a ticket and there’s a thousand people here.’ “Someone came to the mic and said, ‘Thanks for coming out today. We just raised $30,000 for Friendship House.’ I’m like what, all we did was drink beer and eat wings. Wow, I would like to do more of that.” In 2017, Yates pulled together a small group of friends, who then mapped out plans for what soon would become Build Peoria.

the nonprofit had raised $50,000 through ticket sales, sponsorships and in-kind donations. Soon Build Peoria was offering memberships to stimulate more community involvement. Now, anyone can nominate projects through the organization’s website. With a focus solely on fundraising, Build Peoria does not operate like many traditional nonprofit organizations that operate out of an office with staff. There is a volunteer board of directors. “We are a bunch of young profes sionals who wanted to give back to the community. Our mission is to be able to unite the community through our love of the Peoria area and to … physically build it into a better place,” said Yates, 40, who works as a manager at Caterpillar. NEIGHBORHOODS TO PROTECT One symbol of Build Peoria’s success is the resident police officer house on Madison Avenue in the city’s North Valley neighborhood. Peoria Police Officer Keith Burwell now lives in the house, which was built by an Italian stone cutter named Pete Pendola in 1925. Many people who knew the history of the home wanted it preserved. In any case, there was a consensus that having a police officer occupy a long-vacant apartment building that had been the site of multiple search warrants and arrests over the years was a superior alternative.

Build Peoria Board President Nick Yates at the Donovan Park sculpture garden, one of the organization's projects

GOING TO THE DOGS Build Peoria’s first project was a dog park in Peoria Heights. For that first chili cook-off fundraiser in 2017, people were willing to pay $30 a ticket. Within a span of about seven months,

46 MAY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE