Hunkee Hollows Athletic Club Presents 55th Annual Check to Center for Possibilities

Without the donations made by the Hunkee Hollows Athletic Club, the Center for Possibilities would not still be operational after it first opened 55 years ago.

Shelley Boender, the current Director of the Center in Hobart, accepted the $30,000 check on Tuesday morning, an annual gift that never loses it specialness.

The check is the accumulation of three events held by the Hunkee Hollow Athletic Club, a club composed of generous businessmen from around Northwest Indiana.

“The Country Lounge,” Cary Brooks said, adding that it used to be a country club in Hobart. “That’s where it all started.”

In 1961, a group of Lake County businessmen learned about a young girl who was living with autism - which at that time was undiagnosed. Because of her disability, she was not accepted into any type of school. The Center for Possibilities was opened that year to help school children who suffer with mental disabilities, usually autism and cerebral palsy.

“It was literally a group of businessmen that hung out at the Country Lounge and over lunch one afternoon, they put this school together,” Brooks said. “The Hunkee Hollow, through all the donations, represents about one-third of the budget for the center. We really rely on the Hunkee Hollow for their support.”

Brooks is the Vice President of the Club, as well as the Board President of the Center.

The money goes toward funding the operational costs of the Center each year. Hunkee Hollow holds a June golf outing, its sixth annual event will be next June, a summer picnic, which will be the 48th annual event next August, and the December auction, which has been in operation since the Club’s existence. Each year the club gives about $20-30,000, current Club President Joe Benjamin said.

“We have 42 members who belong to the club now,” Benjamin added.

“These guys were really prominent business men who were higher up in the Steel Mill, and were literally the captains of industry,” Brooks explained further. “They took sympathy for the cause and really opened their wallets and were really generous.”

Over the years, the Center has grown into the toddler and adult day care center, with a pre-school upstairs and tables and supplies set up downstairs. There are about eight children and 17 adults attending, which Boender said, is a bit low for them right now.

Boender joined the Center after a few years of taking her son, who was born with a disability, back and forth after high school. At the Center, the instructors continue lessons, such as math, science and history, for those who graduate high school and cannot continue onto a job or more schooling.

She took over the job as director from Pat Starbuck, who still stops into the facility to help out after retiring from the position five years ago. She has been the liaison between Hunkee Hollow Athletic Club and the Center since the relationship began, she said, gratefully accepting the donations of the club.

“Their main drive has been to fund this Center,” Starbuck said. “They are a social organization for most of the year.”

The social aspect cannot be ignored and is probably the reason for the name ‘Athletic Club,’ Brooks said laughing.

“I think it was a way for the guys to get out of the office and tell their wives or secretaries, ‘Hey, I’m going to the athletic club,’ but really they were going to the Country Lounge for drinks and lunch,” he said.

The Hunkee Hollow Athletic Club has and continues to be a generous group of men who support their community in an unique way.

“The Center for Possibilities now has a toddler department and an adult department,” Brooks said. “On a local level, this Center is a great thing. It really is.”

For more information on the Center for Possibilities, click here.