For 364 days of the year at Opportunity, our focus is global–global communities and the global issue of chronic poverty–but we also know how important it is to give back to our local community. So on Friday, May 11, Opportunity-US closed our Oak Brook, Ill. office to give back to the community with our annual service day. We spent the day out at two churches in the western Chicago suburb of Warrenville, where we did groundskeeping and weeding, cleaned out vans, organized the youth group classroom, and donated food and school supplies, all for the Quest program. Quest is a program of Warrenville Youth & Family Services (WYFS), an agency providing local at-risk junior high and early high school youth with academic support and tutoring, as well as life skills training. (WYFS is part of Outreach Community Ministries, a family of faith-based, community service organizations in local DuPage County.)

We had a great time giving back to youth in our community. Here are just a few highlights from our day: