For the past 7 years, we have been looking for a new property that can cater to the growing number of our community members, especially the children and the youth. Two major issues were always ahead of us. The first was to find a place zoned for religious or educational use without going for a special use permit, and the second was to find a proper building in size, design and location that fits our need. And we didn’t have much luck, until now.
Just weeks ago, we were informed about Arbury Hills Elementary School going on sale by the district in a closed bid auction. We did not hesitate to check out the building and location to see if it might be the property we have been looking for. We placed the winning bid of 1.9 million dollars, one of only two bids according to local news reports.
The school sits on a five-acre piece of land, with 19 large classrooms, a cafeteria, a huge library, a high school size gym, administrative offices and storage, as well as outdoor playgrounds and parking lot. The school is only 9 minutes away from our current campus at the Prayer Center, just one block east of La Grange on 195th street in Mokena.
Our plan is to move all our Quran Academy programs, which include but are not limited to: The Preschool program, Quran Intensive after school program and the weekend school program. In each of these programs we were facing one major problem! Too many parents calling to register their kids with not enough space available. I am sure many who will be reading this post have kids on one of these waiting lists.
Hamdillah, only by the grace of God, this problem will be solved soon. We plan to start the new 24/25 school year in the new campus.
In the beginning, because this happened so quickly, we won’t be able to register a lot of new students due to a lack of available teachers to add new classes. But Hamdillah, because of larger classes, we can add few more students to each current level, since the teachers and aides we already have can handle that.
The other good news is that the current Quran Academy building that we have, will be available for other departments to utilize. In our center, we have Support Departments and Service Departments. The Support Departments which include Finance, Facility, Administrative, Media and Education, provide the needed foundation that aids and supports the Service Departments. The Service Departments which include Youth, Wellness, Religious, Outreach and Da’wah are the program-based departments that our community benefits from.
All these Service Departments will now be able to utilize the new available space at the current Quran Academy classes and banquet to provide and introduce new services that all teams are working hard on right now to prepare for launch in spring of 2025, insha Allah.
We are excited for this new journey of Service that we are proud to provide but we definitely need your SUPPORT.
We had to borrow the money allocated for other projects to make the payment of 1.9 million dollars, and we are expecting that the cost for new furniture and some other customizations might make the total cost around 2.3 million dollars.
That is why I am asking you to help us secure the funds in one of these ways:
- Donate directly with card, PayPal, or Zelle to help us cover the cost of the purchase.
- Make a monthly donation even in small amount, every little bit helps.
- Forward and talk to other family and friends about this project and ask them to donate generously.
- Keep us in your Dua.
Jazakum Allah Khairan.
Imam Kifah Mustapha
