Friendship House Executive Director Cheryl Rudd Visits Crystal Lake Kiwanis

Several Kiwanis Club members have had Friendship House care for their children while they were working and members helped build a shed for the not-for-profit organization, so it was only a mild surprise that long-time Director Cheryl Rudd was last Wednesday’s speaker.

Friendship House began as an outreach of the First Congregation Church of Crystal Lake in 1965, Rudd explained.

I remember it was the first day care center I became aware of after I returned from Washington and was elected McHenry County Treasurer, serving from 1966-1970.

It incorporated in 1983, having moved from a house that was located where a new parking lot west of the church to the Lakeside Center in 1978 after the Church bought the Dole Mansion and Lakeside Center when the minor Catholic seminary closed.

In 2003 when the church sold the property to finance its addition and renovation, Friendship House moved to the old Oak Manufacturing building, now called University Center.

Rudd said that children from 6 weeks to age 12 are served and that scholarship money is available to those unable to pay full cost. She cited the $247 a week price for a six-week old. She described the cost as “mid-range.”

The day care center is one of only two not-for-profit ones in McHenry County and receives support from the McHenry County United Way.

30-45% of the children are subsidized by state taxpayers, but Rudd pointed out that “the state does not pay what it costs.”

Friendship House’s licensed capacity is 142, but that could increase.

“If we could knock out a wall, we could add more school age children,” she said. The reason is that adjoining offices have just been vacated. Of course, they would need the money to knock out the wall.

Rudd said that there has been an increase in Hispanic children and children of single Dads.

She explained that communicating with children of Spanish speaking parents is not a problem because they pick up English quickly, that they have one Spanish speaking employee who can translate, but that it would be helpful if someone would translate their handbook into Spanish.

The facility is located at 100 S. Main St., Suite 400. Its phone number is 815-459-6552.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *