Lake Forest’s Gorton to encourage big ideas at brainstorming event

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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:29AM

Brenda Dick can’t wait to see what the friends and neighbors of the Gorton Community Center have in mind.

Getting a chance to share their biggest wish ever for Gorton is the whole idea behind Gorton’s “Big Think — Help Shape The Next Chapter” scheduled from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7 in the Stuart Community Room at Gorton, 400 E. Illinois, Lake Forest.

“We are coming off a great year,” said Dick, Gorton’s executive director. “Gorton is starting a new chapter. We want people to come in and tell us what they want here.”

Melissa Goltra, a Lake Forest resident and mother of two young children (ages 1 and 3) who participate in Gorton activities, and Lake Forest’s Tanner VanDusen have donated their professional expertise to help the local community center get on the right course for the future.

“This is just sitting with six to eight other people at round tables and brainstorming some questions,” said Goltra. “This is not intimidating.”

Getting ideas from varying age groups is key to the process. Said Goltra, “Gorton’s mission is to serve the community at large. We want to keep Gorton vibrant, to serve the community.”

Goltra’s children partake in a Bubbles class that has been offered at Gorton since the fall. Bringing the popular movement and music class to Lake Forest is one instance of how Gorton can move forward.

‘Great fit’

“Young families came to us and said, ‘We’d like Bubbles.’ So we went to Bubbles to see if they could do a couple of programs here,” Dick said. “It’s been a great fit for us.”

An adult summer bridge program is another recent success story.

“We had 75 people sign up for one class,” said Dick.

“Times have changed so much,” said Goltra. “Today, so many people work. What if Gorton were a hub of opportunity? What if it had Internet access where people could come together and work? That would not have been considered 10 to 20 years ago.”

It’s just that kind of outside-the-box thinking Gorton Foundation Vice Chairman Anne Franzese would like to see emerge at the Big Think.

“Gorton has been reinventing itself and, over the past year, has come a long way,” Franzese said. The overriding mission, said Franzese, is “how we can, as a group — as a family, create a better community.”

To reserve a spot for Gorton’s Big Think, go to www.gortonbigthink.org.

“You’re encouraged to pre-register, but it’s really, ‘Come one, come all,’” said Goltra.