Last month the Oak Park and River Forest High School board approved naming rights for two more donors in exchange for sizable donations to the Imagine Foundation which then turned the money over to the school to help defray costs for the current construction project known as Project 2.
Chatka Busck Ruggiero and her husband Tony Ruggiero have pledged $100,000, divided into two $50,000 gifts, and in return the new Dance/Multipurpose gym and a new elevator will be named for Ms. Ruggiero, a long-time property owner and local philanthropist who graduated from OPRF in 1952.
All naming rights designations last for 10 years.
Ruggiero, who grew up in Oak Park and now lives in River Forest, has long been a leader of the Animal Care League, an animal shelter in Oak Park. She is a past president of the board of the shelter and now serves as an advisor to the board. She has also served on the board of directors of the former Community Bank of Oak Park River Forest and held leadership positions with the Infant Welfare Society’s Children’s Clinic and the Oak Park River Forest Museum.
She has run Ruggiero Properties, which owns and owned both residential and commercial real estate, for 55 years. Her company owned the Arts Center of Oak Park for 34 years, from 1989 until 2023.
John and Linda Tibensky are donating $25,000 to have the classroom where Linda Tibensky taught Spanish at OPRF from 1986 until she retired in 2004 named for her. The classroom, in the old portion of the building, is now used for English classes.
“My wife Linda and I have long thought that Oak Park and River Forest High School is really the cornerstone of strength and diversity of Oak Park,” said John Tibensky, who himself served on the board of the OPRF Booster Club.
John and Linda’s son Hank was a star swimmer at OPRF and was a member of the 1999 swim team that won the state championship. Hank Tibensky was named OPRF’s Scholar Athlete for 1999.
After Linda Tibensky retired in 2004 the Tibenskys created the Tibensky Family Scholarship Fund which funds activities and trips for OPRF students.
John Tibensky said he got the idea of making a donation to honor his wife after reading a Wednesday Journal story last year about other naming rights donations.
Tibensky, a wealth advisor for Northwestern Mutual, said that changes in the tax laws made as part of the so called Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress last year made making a significant charitable donation more attractive. This year taxpayers can deduct up to $40,000, up from $10,000 last year, in state and local property tax payments from their gross income on their federal tax returns.
“This makes charitable giving much more attractive to Oak Park residents because of the high property taxes we pay here so it’s now more attractive for us to itemize deductions rather than take the standard deduction,” Tibensky said.
At the Feb. 26 board meeting the new Imagine Foundation president Laura Maychruk and Executive Director Heide Ruhle presented the Imagine Foundation’s fifth $1 million check to the school. The Imagine Foundation has committed to raising $12.5 million to help pay for Project 2 and hopes to raise $15 million. Ruhle told Wednesday Journal the Imagine Foundation now has commitments totaling $11.7 million.
“We’re getting so close,” Ruhle said.
Because many donations are made over a period of years the Imagine Foundation may not give all the money it has raised for Project 2 to OPRF until 2030. Project 2, which includes a new swimming pool, a new gym and other improvements in a rebuilt southeastern portion of the building is expected to be completed this summer.
