Changing Lives...While Having Fun!

Subject: Changing Lives...While Having Fun!

On Thursday July 16th, Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection will be hosting our annual Jimmy Biggs Memorial Golf Tournament at Highland Park Country Club. If any of you are golfers, put together a team of four and you can play in our tournament, which benefits tutoring and mentoring programs throughout Chicago.

If you like to drink and eat, then you should come to the dinner, which starts around 6pm. You can bid on a variety of prizes in our silent auction and get to meet some very special celebrity guests who have plans to attend this year's event.

We are still accepting silent auction items as well, so if you would like to donate something, let me know! And if you just can't come out to support, donate anything...you can still play a huge role by passing the information on to others in your network.

See complete roster of players, donors, sponsors through today

See Silent Auction List as of today

Just added:

Kurt Kittner, Board of Directors, hole sponsor

Bill Kane, foursome
Bill also donated Four tickets to Notre Dame vs Nevada, Sept. 5 game and 4 tickets to an Aug. 19 Sox vs Kansas City game for the (silent auction)

Park National Bank - hole sponsor

US Lending and Finance LTD, hole sponsor

Telander Construction Co., 3800 W 38th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60632, 773-927-5200, hole sponsor

American/Jebco Corporation, hole sponsor

Tami Wielgus - Dinner

Marko Fragassi - Golf (1)

Law Office of Scott B. Wolfman, golf donation


In addition,

We have received a $1000 donation from Nicor!

Susan Garver, a CC volunteer, held a party with friends and raised $210

Thank you all!

Not much sleep if you lead a small non profit

It's Monday morning, and last night was a bit rough. Payroll is due Thursday, and we have just received a new bill for General Liability insurance. I woke up at about 4am and spent the next two hours worrying about where the money would come from.

Fortunately my mail contained a July 16 Golf Benefit Birdie Sponsorship payment of $1500 from Carol and Bruce Ebel, along with a dinner donation from them as well. Carol is a member of our Board of Directors, and president of a small manufacturing firm, Janler, Inc. She's also the current president of the Tooling & Manufacturing Association. Thus, she has her hands full with work and professional responsibilities, but still makes time to help find the dollars it takes for Cabrini Connections.

We also received $250 from US Bank, as a sponsor donation from their branch at 745 N. Milwaukee Ave, for the May 28 and 29 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference.

And Mark Fragassi sent in his check to be a player in the July 16 Golf Benefit.

It all adds up, and we're covered for this week's expenses.

Yet, we have these expenses every month. We've had them every month since we started Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993.

Our commitment to the 7th graders who join us is that we're going to do everything we can to help them stay in school, get a high school degree, then continue to the next level, so that by age 25 they are starting a job and career. The only limits to what we achieve are what our volunteers and donors are willing to do to help us.

In many ways this is like parenting. The kids don't always make steady progress toward these goals. Parents don't kick kids out when they are not doing well in school, or get in trouble with social issues. They find a way to pay their family expenses and continue to try to help their kids.



Cabrini Connections has the same challenge, each week we not only need to find a way to keep kids and volunteers together, and support their interactions, but we also need to find donors who will make large and small contributions to help us pay the fixed expenses.

This chart illustrates that nearly 30% of the cost of Cabrini Connections is rent, utilities, general liability insurance and other fixed expenses. Of the remaining 70% payroll is the major cost. Without generating regular revenue to cover these expenses, week to week, month to month, and year to year, we cannot stay connected to our kids, and we can't keep our commitments to them.

Thus, the work our volunteers (tutors, mentors, board, advisory council, friends) do to help find donations, is critically important.

Yet, in this economy, it has never been more difficult.



Chris Warren has been writing some articles about cause related marketing, and I encourage you to read these. We recruit volunteers who already hold jobs in various industries because they can model a wider range of career opportunities than our normally held by parents and neighbors in high poverty areas.

Furthermore, as volunteers bond with kids and understand the strategy, we believe they can educate their companies, and industries, in cause marketing and other strategies that support all tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region, not just Cabrini Connections.

We're not there yet. But the work we've done with the Lawyers Lend A Hand Program at the Chicago Bar Association since 1994 illustrates that a group within a business sector can form, and take on a role of raising revenue and recruiting volunteers for tutor/mentor programs in many locations.

If we can create leadership in other industries who take on this same role, we can generate operating revenue from many sources, and not loose so much sleep every night worrying about paying the bills.

It's hard enough keeping the kids and volunteers involved.

July 16 Golf Benefit Roster ! Thank you all!

We have 25 foursomes registered which exceeds our goal to have a minimum of 20 groups. We also have a growing group who just plan to attend the dinner and take part in the Silent Auction. We'll look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday.

There is still time to donate and have your name and company web site listed as a golf sponsor for the coming year. Visit http://www.cabrinitmcgolf.org to register and see the silent auction and sponsor list.

July 16 Golf Benefit - registered through 7/15/09

Wintrust Financial, Event Sponsor

Steve Miller, co-chair of the Golf Benefit, is bringing five (5) foursomes!

American Imaging Management, Eagle Sponsor! Foursome will include Brandon Cady (President), James Chow, Boris Spevak, and Joel Cesario

Carol and Bruce Ebel, Birdie Sponsor (includes foursome)

QDI Strategies, Birdie Sponsor, foursome of Steve Bassill, Jeff Clark, Karl Beide and Pat Kilroy

MB Financial Bank will be a Birdie Sponsor, with foursome led by Karen Perlman

Grant Brown, Cabrini Connections, T/MC Board of Directors, 19th Hole Sponsor

Bill Kane, foursome
Bill also donated Four tickets to Notre Dame vs Nevada, Sept. 5 game and 4 tickets to an Aug. 19 Sox vs Kansas City game for the (silent auction)

Chris Schuba, Shuba's Harmony Grill, foursome

Cabrini Volunteer foursome - Jen and Mike Jozwik, Mike Hayes, Mike DiClaudio

Ray Dowdle, Steve Strang - foursome

Ed Madden, - foursome

Julie & Scot Hamilton - golf (1) and dinner (part of foursome)
Stephen R. Tetro - golf (1)

Garett O. Gilles, foursome

The Rodriguez Family - foursome and hole sponsor

IWU Acacia foursome - Andrew Giordano, Anthony Algmin, Andrew Krantz, TBD

Andrew Pillsbury, Paul Ordynski, Patrick O'Toolen and Matt Luzadder, foursome

Mike Ozmeral, Reyes Holdings, LLC, foursome

Miles Taub, Project Lifeline, foursome

Mark Fragassi, golf (2)

Russ Iwami - golf (1)

Walt Vincent, golf (1); Walt also donated United States Proof Coin & Currency Collection, Value $350,for the silent auction

Don Bohling, tutor from 1988-92, golf (1)

Chris Warren and Raymond L. Paul, golf (2)

Austin King, golf (1)

Eby-Brown, http://www.eby-brown.com, has joined as a Contest Hole sponsor

Melissa Moore, Cabrini Connections Advisory Council, Contest Hole Sponsor

Ilene Fine, Donna Pareti, Mike Mazzuca, CC Veteran Volunteers, Contest Hole Sponsor

Kurt Kittner, CC, T/MC Board of Directors, Hole Sponsor

Cliff Rago, RE-MAX 2000, hole sponsor

Matt Stefan, hole sponsor for Golf Benefit

Pat Dowdle, Dowdle Solutions, hole sponsor

Daniel and Emily Bassill, hole sponsor

American/Jebco Corporation, Hole Sponsor

US Lending and Finance LTD, hole sponsor

Telander Construction Co., 3800 W 38th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60632, 773-927-5200, hole sponsor

Park National Bank, hole sponsor

Leo Sheridan, Advanced Group of Companies, hole sponsor

Karen and Kevin Lobdell - hole sponsor

Kathleen Griffin, Attorney - hole sponsor

Billy Criscione - Dinner

Nick Roach, Chicago Bears - dinner

Tami Wielgus - Dinner

Tangela Smith Marlow, dinner (1)
Tangela is one of the students who participated with Cabrini Connections from 1994 until she graduated from high school in 1997





We make our profit from the event through sponsor donations, starting with the $330 hole sponsor donation. Please ask clients, family, co-workers to make a donation at this level. Groups of two or three volunteers can pool donations to sponsor a hole as Donna Pietro and Ilene Fine have done for the past two years.

Thank you for your help.

Sleigh Bells Ring! Cabrini's Listening.

Since volunteer recruitment time, we have really tried to utilize the resources in which we seldom looked as fundraising and development outlets. Now that recruitment time has subsided, we're fully staffed from a volunteer and child perspective, and the weather is starting to chill... we look toward the holidays.

As I work on hopefully our most successful holiday mailer ever, we realize we will be sending these out to several people who may be unemployed, or very fiscally challenged. To ask to be added to the Christmas list this year is a challenge and perhaps rude, but we still hold strong in the belief that every LITTLE BIT helps. Even a $15 donation is $15 more than we had before we cashed your check. Take it all in when you receive your mailer. We are asking you to think OUTSIDE of the sleigh (read: box).

Holiday Party, Anyone?
We are having our own holiday party and benefit concert December 12 at Schuba's which you are more than welcome to come to, but in these tough times, perhaps your company would be interested in gifting what it would cost to throw the holiday party to a certain charity like Cabrini Connections or donating half of what is normally spent on the party and cutting back some this year.

Volunteers Stepping Up to the Challenge
Our volunteers have really taken on a competitive edge to raise money for the program in FUNdraising for Quarters. Here are some of the fabulous things some of them are doing.

John Knight, is hosting an upscale party at KREM Friday, December 5, in which he negotiated that all of the proceeds go to the program. He is also gracious enough to let each volunteer who attends get a portion of their ticket counted toward the competition. See John and I at announcements Wednesday and Thursday for more details. In the meantime, SAVE THE DATE.

AJ Tyson is kicking butt and TAKING NAMES! He is leading the pack with $1,625 raised with $1,500 of that coming from word-of-mouth marketing techniques and getting people in his network to write checks on his behalf. EL Nix and I couldn't have been more excited to see the determination on the faces of so many volunteers to BEAT AJ. We were each approached by several of you saying you were going to TOP that. And we appreciate it and look forward to it!

Frances Kwee, who works for Motorola is looking into her companies GIVING PRACTICES and has offered to submit us as a possible charity this year.

One of our long-time supporters, Nick Infusino, is running a marathon and raising money through a http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif page and donating all the proceeds of his hard work to the program. Are you a running machine? Thinking about running your first 5K , 10K or marathon? Why not make it for our cause like Nick?

Alumnae volunteer, Courtland Maddock is nominating us as a charity of choice for the Kellogg Manager's Ball. A monetary donation is made to every charity chosen.

There are a plethora of things YOU can do too. Be inspired by one of your fellow volunteers who are doing everything they can THINK of and thinking of Cabrini Connections in the process.

As you decide what to do with your Christmas money, remember that their are thousands of at-risk youth across the city who could use a mentor, positive role model, and engaging activities in their lives. We provide that.


Please support Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection this holiday season.