Home Base Bob And Tina Muzikowski

Striving for success on the inner-city streets of Chicago

by Tamara Stokes
 
With seven children of their own, one might imagine Bob and Tina Muzikowski have enough to juggle without taking on the burdens of their community. But the Muzikowskis do not view the needs of their community as a burden, but rather an opportunity to show the same love to others that Jesus Christ has shown them.

In the 1990s, Bob and Tina were beginning their life in Chicago with a new home, family, and successful business. In time, however, their life would prove to dramatically contrast those of their peers. Rather than fleeing to the suburbs for safety, the Muzikowskis decided to make a stand in inner-city Chicago, turning the local dilapidated baseball field into a positive energy source where the community could peacefully unite and grow. It was here that Bob founded what is now the largest inner-city little league in the United States: the Near West Little League.

Mr. Muzikowski titles his commitment to Chicago’s innercity – specifically, the area in and around the Near West side housing projects – and to the little league as “relentless.” Even the murder of a 12-year-old member of his little league did not deter him from his ultimate objective of establishing an urban renewal. The Muzikowskis reside in this area that is overrun by poverty and crime, an area that is the stage for danger and possible harm to their family, in the hopes that “one day the children here will not kill each other, and their desire will be to honor and follow God honestly and faithfully,” says Bob. According to Bob, success is often defined as moving away from pain. “There is a deception about living a certain way, and having certain things; a deception that moving away from pain is success – that is hypocrisy. Moving away doesn’t make the pain stop,” says Bob, reinforcing why he lives and works in the Near West side.

Inspired by the number of people who poured into their lives as children, and the life-change that occurred through their conversions to Christianity, the Muzikowskis have founded a nondenominational, faith-based school as their latest venture: The Chicago Hope Academy. Unfortunately, the process of creating the academy has not been as easy as the Muzikowskis had hoped.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. People can choose whether they participate in sports, but everybody has to go to school” says Bob. Mr. Muzikowski’s dedication to the success of the academy is inspiring; he has even put his own business on the back burner to be an ever-present fixture at the newly renovated facility.

As an alumnus of a parochial school in New Jersey, Bob Muzikowski knows first hand the negative impact that lack of funding has on faith-based schools: the availability is decreased in relation to the funding, and urban children are denied the opportunity to receive the quality of education faith-based schools provide.

Although discouraged by the lack of funding, Mr. Muzikowski continues to pursue the success of Chicago Hope Academy. “It is no secret that this type of institution has saved
several generations, spiritually and economically,” says Bob. According to Bob, twenty-three Catholic schools closed in Chicago last year; the need for good schools is intense, and he and his wife are stepping up to the plate to help fill the void.

“Unapologetically, Chicago Hope is a faith-based school founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ; it is the only non-denominational, faith-based high school in Chicago. There is something broken in the (public) school system that only a lifetime of commitment and connectivity can fix,” says Bob. It is for these reasons that Chicago Hope Academy makes a written promise to each student: “to support each graduate as they seek college acceptance and financial assistance or pursue a meaningful career track.” Firmly believing that every child deserves an opportunity, Bob and many others that are dedicated to the school’s success will offer the connectivity these children need to make it to the next level of education and life. “There is a legacy quota in private education, and even the public education answer with magnet schools doesn’t solve the problems of the kids that live in the inner city. When kids are bused from their neighborhoods to attend school, they don’t have a vested interest in improving where they actually live,” says Mr. Muzikowski.

The Muzikowskis aim to offer hope and open doors to those living in poverty. “We live in a society where we don’t give (of ourselves or money), we tip,” says Bob. The Muzikowskis believe that philanthropists need to get involved with charitable causes on an intensive basis, “the same level of effort they use to make money” and “give until they think they are going to lose their business.”

Tina Muzikowski sums up with a Bible verse the family’s giving philosophy. “Samuel 2:24, I believe, provides a guideline for giving: ‘I can not offer to the Lord my God offerings that cost nothing.’ What we give to others and to God has to be of some value to us.” That is why the Muzikowski’s give their all – and then some.