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Bridge Communities Opens New Fund to Honor Co-Founders

In honor of its co-founders, Mark Milligan and the late Bob Wahlgren, Bridge Communities, Inc. recently opened its fourth agency fund at the Foundation. We’re pleased to manage the endowed Bridge Communities Founders’ Fund, ensuring its educational assistance program for teens will be available in perpetuity. Services offered through the program include individualized career assessments, ACT and SAT tutoring, FAFSA assistance, educational workshops, and college scholarships.


Foundation President and CEO Dave McGowan was thrilled to recognize Milligan’s retirement with a $5,000 grant supported by the Foundation’s DuPage Forever Fund, Dawn Carol Foundation Fund, DuPage Medical Group Charitable Fund, LeFort-Martin Family Donor- Advised Fund, Snodgrass Family Fund, and Webb-Hutter Fund


Of the DuPage Foundation and Bridge Communities’ 25-year partnership, McGowan said “We are so pleased to support Bridge’s impactful programs over the years since our first grant to the organization in 1994 for its children’s services program. Bridge is a fantastic partner and community resource, and we are honored to have stewarded its endowment funds for the past 15 years.” 


Milligan mirrored McGowan’s thoughts and added, “It was a very easy decision to direct the proceeds of the Founders’ Fund toward aiding high school students as they graduate.” He explained, “Bridge was founded because Bob Wahlgren and I both had experienced seeing homeless children in the community, and we wanted to do something productive for them.”

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