Our Mission

Dream - "The Power to Imagine"

We have a special needs granddaughter we have raised since she was born. We realized early on that no one was going to help us raise her or support her and that we needed to see she would be taken care of after we are gone.

We live west of the Fox River Valley, just west of Sugar Grove in rural Big Rock. We are 12 minutes from Aurora and 30 minutes from Naperville. Our little girl is bussed daily to Krejci Academy in Naperville. We are located just west of 1-88, IL Rt. 56, and near Rt. 30 & Rt. 47. We are in a country setting yet only a few minutes from stores.

We are making our DREAM come true. We have worked with the local officials to develop our farm into a PUD (Planned Unit Development) consisting of 33 estates lots from 1 to 2 acres in size. The existing residence we currently live in with our granddaughter will become a group home. The farmstead, 4.0 acres and consisting of five buildings will become a community center and a center for the residence of the group home. When the Development Plan was put together we were told to think 30 years out and put everything on the plan we wanted. The final plan has additions to all of the existing buildings plus two additional new buildings.

The farmstead buildings were made from trees cleared from the surrounding land in the 1940's in order to grow crops. The existing buildings were made from the timber harvested at that time. All new buildings and additions will maintain the rural farm architecture in order to blend in with the existing.

Farmstead Plan: Eight years ago I remodeled the corncrib (farm structure to store grain) into my office. Later I remodeled the machine shed (farm structure to store farm equipment) into a pavilion with kitchen, restroom, and inside seating. The pavilion over looks a half-acre pond. The pond was re-dug, stocked with fish, and a beach was added. The plans allow for additional office with conference center, greenhouse, learning center, sheltered workshop and a two-bedroom caretaker facility.

The three adjoining lots, lot 12, 13, and 15 have the option to be incorporated into the farmstead facility in the future if the need arises. Lot 16 would give expansion for buildings and parking. Lot 12 and 13 have the option of being used for an equestrian center (similar to the Hanson Center) or be left as residential lots. The total build out would encompass 8.0 to 9.0 acres.

The existing residence on Lot 14, that we now live in, will become a group home for our granddaughter and others with developmental disabilities. We plan on building on Lot 17 behind the farmstead.

When we move out of the existing residence we will remodel the existing residence, a brick ranch, into a group home. Our plan is to have individual bedrooms with a shared bathroom between bedrooms. They would share the family room, kitchen, dinning room, and activities room. There would be a room for a 24/7 staff person. In 2005 a 1100 sq.ft. addition with radiant heat was added, room for two full size vans and a large therapy pool. The pool was a gift from Make-A-Wish Foundation.

In Illinois a single-family residence can be used as a group home for up to eight individual residences. Others have approached us for a second group home. At the present time we are not going to market Lot 9 to the north side of the farmstead in case a second group home was to be added. Subdivision covenants would control the design and landscaping so new residences would fit in with the rest of the area.

This type of development allows for people with developmental disabilities to be in a residential area with a country feeling yet be within close proximity to an urban area. The neighboring community knows that this is part of their community and have been very supportive. We have had unanimous support from the planning commission, zoning board, county board, and village board.

In 2008 we founded Farm Friends, nfp (none-for profit) organization to develop and maintain this project. The sale of lots will help fund this project.. We would be glad to share the site development plan with anyone that has an interest. We are trying to make our DREAM for our little girl and for others a reality. Please feel free to contact me on my personal e-mail address. If you give me a name and address I would be happy to pass along information about our DREAM for this project.

Never give up dreaming. My Great Aunt started the first nursing home in Illinois, license no. 1. She out lived three husbands to the age of 96 years. She always had something to live for (her Dream). The day she lost that something to live for she left us. This is what the world is made of, "DREAMS!"