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Logan County Board
September Finance Committee Meeting: Work Camp for Lincoln 2026
[September 10, 2025]
On Tuesday, September 9th, the
Finance committee of the larger Logan County Board met for their
monthly meeting. This meeting was held in the Blue Room in the Logan
County Safety Complex on Pekin Street in Lincoln. Of the five
members on the committee, three were in attendance. These three were
Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Vice Chairman Joseph Kuhlman, and Lance
Conahan.
Once the meeting commenced, Schmidt moved an item from the bottom of
the agenda to the top, as someone was there to present. This item
was regarding a request from the Community Benefit Fund (CBF) for
Work Camp for Lincoln. Todd Henry was present on behalf of Work Camp
for Lincoln to present what their organization is going to be doing
in 2026 and explain what the requested money from the CBF would be
for.
Henry began by talking a little bit about Work Camp for Lincoln,
sharing that this is the third time the organization would be coming
into Logan County. The first time they came was in 2021, and then
again in 2024. In their previous two visits, they have gotten kids
from all over the country to come and donate their time to help
people in Lincoln and Logan County with renovations to their homes.
These people are usually elderly, low income, or veterans. These are
not the only individuals they assist, however.
Henry shared a bit more, stating
that Work Camp for Lincoln partners with an organization out of
Colorado called Group Mission Trips and is a faith based
organization. He also shared that they partner with the Community
Action Partnership of Central Illinois (CAPCIL), which is a
non-profit, to help handle the finances, as the groups and
individuals that come pay a fee to do so. He assured the committee
that, even though Work Camp for Lincoln is faith based, the money
does not go toward a church or religious institution. Rather, the
money goes toward housing the kids that come to work and paying for
the construction materials.
In addition to this, Henry stated that he is also partnering with
Open Arms, located at the former Lincoln Christian University, to
help house all the kids coming to work this year. The number of kids
is much higher than in 2024 as well. Henry shared that in 2024, they
had about 200 kids come to Logan County to help work. This time,
they are already at capacity for 2026, with the number of kids
registered at 300. They are working to get that number increased to
350.
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Henry then showed
the committee a video that showed Work Camp for Lincoln and some
of the work they have done in the past. There were a lot of
homes that the organization has helped with projects such as
painting. There was also a home shown in the video that belonged
to an elderly woman who had a makeshift wheelchair ramp with
wooden planks. The kids that came to work helped to build a
wooden ramp that appeared much safer and easy to use.
When the video was over, Henry handed
out some information regarding the work that was done in 2024.
According to this information, 31 homes were repaired that year.
There were 35 work crews and 202 people that participated. There was
also a breakdown of the type of work that was completed that year,
with exterior painting being the largest amount at 28 projects of
this type completed. In addition to exterior painting, Work Camp for
Lincoln also did projects involving interior painting, wheelchair
ramps, porches, steps, roofing, skirting, and weatherization. They
also had kids from Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. In addition to all
this information, there was also a total amount of money that was
invested in the community, which sits at $297,148.08.
Henry shared that the amount of money they are looking for from the
CBF is $6,500. This amount would be put toward paying for the
housing cost for the kids as well as the construction material. In
2024, they requested $5,000. Henry said the extra $1,500 being
requested this year is due to the higher number of people coming to
work and the increased cost of building materials.
Henry also asked for the board’s help getting the word out about
this event, which is going to be from June 21-27 in 2026. He said
that people are encouraged to go to their website to fill out an
application if they have work that needs to be done on their homes.
They do not have specific requirements on things like income, so he
welcomes anyone to apply who cannot get this work done themselves.
The committee stated that they can send it out to the different
townships in the county to be distributed to the people throughout
the county. The committee then decided to move the CBF funding
request to the Workshop meeting this Thursday for consideration by
the full board.
After this, the meeting continued and addressed all of the other
items on the agenda. To read about the rest of this meeting, please
read LDN’s other article on this meeting.
[Matt Boutcher]
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