URBANA – Crisis Nursery officials say two donations will make it possible to completely fundraise the organization’s recent building expansion.
Crisis Nursery is the only emergency-based child care facility in Champaign County open 24 hours, 365 days a year for the entire community to access with no fees or income eligibility. In addition to shelter for children, the Nursery also provides family support and parenting education.
The donations, totaling $300,000, were made by the Liautaud Family Foundation and an anonymous donor. This is the first-ever donation made by the Liautaud Family Foundation, established in December of 2016 by Jimmy John Liataud, Jimmy John’s owner, founder and chairman, along with his wife, Leslie.
The Liautauds learned of the Nursery’s need to complete its $1.9 million capital campaign from the anonymous donor and agreed to make a gift of $200,000 in conjunction with the anonymous gift of $100,000.
Jimmy John Liautaud says the donation meant a lot to his family.
“Family is everything to us, so when I got the call about the Crisis Nursery’s financial shortfall, Leslie and I said, ‘We’re in! Boom, the deal was done!’ Life can get tough for folks and sometimes people need help. The Crisis Nursery provides that help to keep families together,” Liautaud explains.
However, Crisis Nursery has still not received $285,000 from a State of Illinois DCEO grant that was awarded for the expansion in 2009. The promised funds were what initially spurred the project, but they were frozen due to the lack of a state budget.
Crisis Nursery’s Executive Director, Stephanie Record says the Liautauds and the anonymous donor stepped in at a critical time.
“Their gift, along with other generous community donations, allows us to now direct our fundraising efforts toward hiring and training more staff to serve more children and families in our community,” Record says.
The goal for the capital campaign and building expansion is to serve more children and reduce the incidence of turning families away.
