Bob Muzikowski, founder of Chicago Hope Academy, shares his experience as a mentor to children, Tuesday at the Kiwanis Club of Aurora at the Prisco Center in Aurora. He is the author of “Safe at Home”, a book about his work in starting an urban baseball team and league. Chicago Hope Academy opened in 2005 and is a private Christian preparatory high school on Chicago’s West Side. In 2004, Muzikowski sold his business and formed a group which purchased a shuttered school and parish from the Archdiocese of Chicago. He received help from many individuals, including former president of the U.S., Barack Obama, a Columbia University classmate. Two-hundred volunteers from Aurora Christian High School spent their Spring break in 2005 sleeping on the gym floor by night and executing the demolition plan and chapel stage reconstruction by day. The school was in the news last year when two opponents forfeited football games due to concerns about violence in the neighborhood where the games are played. There was a shooting near the football field.
Jason Crane/The Voice