Member Spotlight: Chrystal Maxwell-Grzejka, Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central Illinois

For 35 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central Illinois has been making a lasting impact on young people throughout the region. What began in Elgin has grown to 52 locations serving more than 2,000 children and teens each day through after-school programs and summer camps.

Leading corporate engagement efforts is Chrystal Maxwell-Grzejka, Senior Director of Corporate Engagement, who connects businesses and community organizations with opportunities to invest in the next generation. Through volunteer projects, career exploration panels, workforce development initiatives, and fundraising partnerships, she helps create meaningful experiences that prepare young people for successful futures.

The organization's mission focuses on four key areas: academic success, good character and citizenship, healthy lifestyles, and workforce development—ensuring every young person has the tools, support, and opportunities to reach their full potential.

Chrystal's passion for the mission comes from personal experience. As a single mother working multiple jobs, she faced the challenges of frequent moves and watched her daughter attend five different high schools before graduating on time. That experience reinforced the importance of safe, supportive after-school programs. Today, she is especially proud that Boys & Girls Clubs now serves the very community where her family once lived without those resources.

She also celebrates her daughter's accomplishments—a college junior on the Dean's List, an avid gardener and baker, and now a wife and mother—proof of the resilience and determination that can flourish with encouragement and opportunity.

Among Chrystal's proudest achievements is helping expand workforce development partnerships with businesses such as NICOR, ALDI, Bear Construction, Lauderdale Electric, Office Depot, and many others. These collaborations introduce teens to career possibilities and provide valuable real-world experiences that help prepare them for college, trade schools, military service, or the workforce.

Outside of work, Chrystal enjoys researching her family's genealogy and dreams of visiting Switzerland and Wales, where her ancestors originated, along with Ireland and Poland to explore her husband's family heritage.

The best advice she has ever received continues to guide both her personal and professional life: "Be generous with yourself and others, and be as compassionate with yourself as you are with everyone else."

Thanks to Patricia M. Szpekowski, APR, PR Strategies & Communications, Inc. / PmS advertising, inc. for the interview!