Community House looks to public for $2.8 million to fund renovations to historic theater, building

For 115 years, the Community House in Winnetka has provided a space for the residents and neighbors to attend performances, celebrate occasions and participate in programming.

Now, a newly launched campaign aims improve the oldest part of the building so those traditions can continue for the next 115 years.

The Always Home Campaign, a $10 million campaign to renovate and update the Legacy Building, was publicly kicked off during an event at the Community House on Tuesday evening, Sept. 29. More than $7 million has already been raised toward that goal, according to the Community House.

A nonprofit, the Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., offers programming for people of all ages that includes performing arts, sports and education.

Amy Skalinder, president and CEO of the Community House, said the Always Home Campaign is a “once-in-a-generation effort to revitalize” the oldest part of the campus.

The Community House was founded in 1911 as an outreach center for Winnetka Congregational Church. It became its own entity, and a nonprofit, in 1932.

Skalinder said that the Community House is about people, both within Winnetka and the surrounding communities.

“Generations of people have come here to the Community House, and in the seven years that I’ve been here in this role, I have just loved hearing all the stories about what this place means to all those people,” she said, adding those stories have ranged from people getting their first jobs to children finding confidence when performing on stage.

In fact, Skalinder said the theater will be a primary focus of the Always Home Campaign.

“The campaign will allow us to renovate the theater into a performance space for today and tomorrow, with new flooring, flexible seating, modernized lighting and sound,” she said, adding it will also include “stage and greenroom improvements, new HVAC and electrical systems and accessible features.”

Another area funds will be used for is the theater gallery, which Skalinder described as a “bottleneck” in its current state.

The planned improvements will expand it and “allow people to gather comfortably for conversation before and after performances, while waiting for children in a class, or, really, anytime.”

The Community House’s Pine Street entrance is also set for renovations that Skalinder said will include a new entryway, ADA accessibility, and a portico covering the area to protect it from weather.

Other improvements include a new kitchen and behind-the-scenes work such as new safety systems.

While the public phase of fundraising began Tuesday evening, officials said the private fundraising has been ongoing and has so far raised more than $7.2 million.

Among the donors so far are Carol Hansen and her late husband, Jim, who reportedly donated $2 million and are the honorary co-chairs of the campaign.

Carol Hansen spoke briefly Tuesday, showing emotion when talking about what the Community House has meant to her and her family. She said she was a costumer for about 20 shows at the Community House, and the facility hosted her daughter’s wedding reception.

“This is the place to be. This is the place to help,” Hansen said. “It’s a little piece of magic, and we could use all your help.”

Skalinder said there is not yet a timeline for when renovations will begin, and that it will depend on how fundraising goes.

She encouraged all in attendance to tell everybody they know about the campaign, and to share their own personal stories of what the Community House means to them.

Skalinder said the people who built the Community House “believed this community needed a place where everyone belongs. We are the community they were building for. And now it’s our turn.”

“If the Community House is going to thrive for the next 100 years, we are the ones who have to make it happen,” she said. “It has to be us, and together, I know we can reach that goal.”

For more information on the campaign, visit the project’s website, mycommunityhouse.org/alwayshome, or contact Cam Johnson, the Community House’s director of advancement, at camj@mywch.org.

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