Greg Peine isn’t the kind of person likely to have much media coverage, like, say, old news, new restaurants, or some celebrity’s visit to town.

Instead, the 76-year-old retired Caterpillar engineer behind the scenes donates time, money and interest in Peoria schoolkids.

Publicly unheralded, Greg and his wife Jodi privately have seen the challenges of education, especially for the underserved, and stimulated creative ways to offer resources — some maybe unorthodox — that can be sparks to ignite a fire for learning.

His generosity has helped the Peoria Park District, Peoria Public Schools, and Friendship House with funding for resources in or out of classrooms, or for after-school programs.

Over coffee, Greg is hesitant and humble in conversation, but he shares a commitment to having a positive effect on children’s needs.

“It’s about encouraging opportunities,” he says, “— opportunities they wouldn’t get without a little help. We’d like to give them a chance to be able to compete globally.”

Locally, he continues, “we need things on the South Side to let kids be the best version of themselves. In a way, it’s a vineyard ripe for the picking.”

Greg says he realized that there’s little reading material in a lot of homes — few magazines, newspapers or books — so he helped set up a program letting kids pick a book to take and read and keep — “up to five a year,” he says — and build a library at home.

Hedy Elliott, a teacher at District 150’s Lincoln School, said, “They gave to Manual for new steel pan drums, to Lincoln for STEAM club [for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math], to the park for STEAM at Proctor Center, to Friends of Proctor for a photography club for adult literacy / GED students.

“The Peines even funded tulips for Proctor and Lincoln,” Elliott added.

Widening horizons

Julie Craghead, Education Manager at Proctor Recreation Center on South DuSable Street, said, “When Greg and I first imagined this addition to the after-school program, we agreed that one of our main goals would be to get the kids exposed to as many experiences as possible that they might not otherwise have.

“We have been able to create experiences across the scientific disciplines during our after-school program as well as adding these experiences to our summer-camp programming,” she continued. “We are able to embrace a STEAM-based, student-led, and hands-on approach to learning. As an after school program, we are here to support the learning they receive at school. We give homework support daily and tutoring to the students as often as possible.”

Craghead, who also coordinates Proctor’s Summer Camp and DREAM2 (DREAM squared) after-school program, said, “We updated our computer lab and are able to support the students of PPS 150 by making their online learning plans available to them during program time. We also offer online learning to parochial school children.

“We will soon be adding an online reading program to be used throughout the year to help boost students’ reading levels. This is very important, as so many students are below their current grade reading level, especially after COVID. We have seen benchmark data that shows steady improvement in reading and math — especially in the students who are in attendance four or more days per week.”

Real results

So far, statistics are encouraging. “Our data from our grant report last year showed a year-long average improvement in benchmark scores of 8.9 points in ELA [English/Language Arts] and 15 points in math,” Craghead said. “This year, at mid-year, we are showing an average 8.75 point increase in ELA scores and 9.9 point increase in math. We have one family in attendance whose overall school attendance has improved — to nearly perfect attendance (from almost none the year of COVID and about 50-60% the year after).

“We are looking for more ways to keep more concrete data, and are currently working with the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria, who have offered to help us with data-collection support. Currently we are collecting for the SEL [Social Emotional Learning] programming.”

Stanton Hangen, the Family/School Liaison out of Manual High School, has seen more than 90 children participate in a variety of activities the Peines have underwritten, ranging from experimenting with fire, learning about ultraviolet light and engineering a domino robot, to making soap, and working with circuit boards, magnetic tiles and drones, according to reports.

Musical musing

A few miles away at Peoria Friendship House of Christian Service in the Riverside North/Averyville neighborhood, more than 130 K-8 students are active in robotics and drums the Peines funded.

“Learning songs, timing, patience and rhythm are all some of the benefits of our program,” according to a report from Friendship House President and CEO Marcellus Sommerville, who added, “We have seen a great impact with our students’ behaviors/learning styles.”

Summarizing key outcomes — encouraging friendships, improving physical and emotional health, and increasing intelligence — Sommerville added, “We are looking forward to continuing our programs with the gracious gifts donated by the Peine family.”

Most children are enjoying the experiences, but fun doesn’t mean frivolous, said Garry Moore, the Quest teacher and former news anchor who’s also known for his appreciation for and talent with drums.

“I discovered a poster that says, ’Making music makes you smarter’,” Moore said, “and studies show how learning music — reading music, playing music — helps develop areas of the brain that boost cognition and problem-solving.”

There’s also the aspect of culture particularly important to African American kids, he continued. “Our music was lost or appropriated or co-opted or diluted,” Moore said, “and any effort to re-ignite or reaffirm that is edifying. The young need to be strengthened at their core, helping their self-esteem — who they are.”

For Greg’s part, he’s uncomfortable with recognition, but concedes he wouldn’t mind help, especially in quantifying results. “I feel a little better about things having impacts on others,” he says, adding, but “I like the metrics, what we got for that effort — how many kids, hours, projects — beyond anecdotally. Work is being done to quantify in an online dashboard report more useful metrics in support of [anecdotal] results.”

Technically incomplete perhaps, the anecdotes sure seem inspiring.