Dinner Celebration Tonight

More than 200 people are expected to attend tonight's celebration of the 2008-09 school year of Cabrini Connections. We'll post photos and stories in the next few days.

Over the past month I've created a list of donors who have responded to our May appeal for contributions. We thank everyone who has given and hope that as you look at these pictures and celebrate with us, you'll help us find more of the dollars we need to offer this program.

Donors of 6/1 to 6/5...

Peter Nam, alumni volunteer
Ali Faraj, Board of Directors
Eileen Steffel
Garett Gilles and Will Bloom, Board of Directors
Dieter Schmitz & Megan Boyle
Shepard, Schwartz & Harris LLP
Autum Sharp, volunteer tutor/mentor


We also received

* a $1,000 matching gift donation from the GE Foundation.
* a $1,500 contribution from the MB Financial Bank Foundation

Thank you!

Celebrate history of Cabrini Connections

This video was created by students and volunteers of Cabrini Connections, a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program serving 7th to 12th grade teens living in the Cabrini Green area of Chicago.



I hope you'll enjoy this, and see how the work of thousands of volunteers and youth over more than 40 years have led to the program we operate today, and the way we support the growth of similar programs throughout the Chicago region, through the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

If you can make a donation, or become a sponsor, please become part of the village who help raise these children.

Thanks for your help!

For the past two weeks I've posted a list of donors who have responded to our Year End Dinner Request for Donations. Two weeks ago and last week 30 donors sent in contributions. Additional donors all sent contributions for the July 16 Golf Benefit.

Thank you!

This week we have received donations from:

Michael and Susan Hayes, CC Volunteer & Board of Directors
Gabriel and Beth Rodriguez, Board of Directors
Mark Miller, Miller Insurance Co.
Michael and Sue Anne Parrish
Terry Smith (IWU - Acacia)
John and Mary-Glynn Boies
Julie and Scot Hamilton - Board of Directors
Joseph and Margaret Flanagan
Audrey Glover - Volunteer from 1970's at Montgomery Ward!
Steven and Lisa Friedland
Thomas Abendroth & Terri L. Mascherin
Grant Brown - Board of Directors

In addition, we received a generous gift from The H. Earl Hoover Foundation

In addition, Anthony Algmin has donated 6 tickets to Cubs/Sox game on June 17. If you would like to bid for these, email your bid to tutormentor2@earthlink.net. I'll accept bids until June 14. Anthony is another Acacia/IWU supporters

Please add your name to this list. More than 700 volunteers have been part of Cabrini Connections since 1993 and several thousand more were volunteers with the Montgomery Ward program, since 1970. If we can find donations of $25 to $500 from just 20% of these people we can offset some of the grants we may not receive due to changes in the economy. We can keep Cabrini Connections in place for our 7th grade students to move through high school to college and careers.

Hope, Build, Believe & Achieve

Our Cabrini Connections students chose "Hope, Build, Believe & Achieve" as the theme for the 2009-10 school year.

As we end this school year we've sent out appeals to friends, family, co-workers, former volunteers and others, asking them to share as much of their wealth, time, and talent as they can to help us keep Cabrini Connections available to our teens, volunteer and alumni.

Our supporters are responding. Last week I posted a list of donations received from 5/11-5/15.

This week I'll share those we receive from 5/17-5/22.

Thank you all!

Ellen Nielsen
John Pellouchoud & Kristyna Driehaus
Karen and Kevin Lobdell (Board of Directors member)
Paul & Ruth Mc Mahon
Bella J. Kim
Robert F. Hirsch
Julie Bordo
Peggy and Te-Hsu Ma

If you have not yet sent a donation, you can use this PayPal link to contribute.


Tuesday was the annual Share A Meal Day for Community Shares of Illinois. This event raises visibility for the workplace fund raising campaigns organized by CS-IL, and raises some money for member agencies and CS-IL to do their work. Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection (CC, T/MC) staff hosted at several locations and have had some great stories to share.

EL Da'Sheon Nix was at Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, 400 N. LaSalle, early in the morning. As he tells the story, "No one was there, but me. A couple of guests came into the cafe' but left quickly with their 'to go' orders. Then this one guy, Mr. Monroe, came in. As he sat down, drank his coffee, and read the newspaper, I introduced myself, but he was waiting his breakfast, so I backed off. I noticed that he was looking at the sport's section and I asked him if he was a sport's fan and asked how he felt about Orlando Pace being traded to the Bears. After I shared with Mr. Monroe that Orlando Pace visited the Cabrini Connections' program less than 3 weeks ago," he looks up and says, "tell me what your organization does". After talking for a while he said "looks like you do good work" and agreed to donate $100 to Cabrini Connections!!!

Tutor/Mentor Programs like Cabrini Connections are needed in all parts of the Chicago region, not just in Cabrini Green. Through the Tutor/Mentor Connection we maintain a database of more than 200 different programs and we organize events, like the May 28 and 29 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference, to bring programs together to help each program get the ideas and dollars and volunteers they need to help kids in their own neighborhood. I hope you'll help spread the word to build attendance (and sponsor dollars) for the next conference which is at the end of next week.

Thank you Schiff Hardin LLP

We have received our first sponsor donation for the June 4, 2009 Cabrini Connections Year End Dinner. It is from the law firm of Schiff Hardin, LLP, and supports future CEOs and Leaders.

Please ask your company, law firm, or professional group to add their own donation to celebrate the work of the students and volunteers who have been part of the 2008-09 Cabrini Connections and help us continue this effort in 2009-10. Thank you Schiff Hardin, LLP!

Tech Woes show need for Stimulus Funds

For the past three weeks Cabrini Connections has had major problems with our internet and internal computer network. Vjeko wrote about last week's problem on his blog.

This week we had a power outage on Sunday that burned out the hard drive on our server (we think). We've not had access to internal shared files or the Internet since Monday (today is Wednesday). If this happened in most companies, the IT department would have the tools and talent to fix this quickly. In fact, such problems might not have occurred because of preventative steps taken.

While we have a creative technology strategy to connect our kids and volunteers with each other and the world of learning and problem solving that is open to them via technology, we don't have adequate funds to cover all of our other expenses, and the additional cost of professional IT support.

It would cost of $300 per month for a service contract to have IT support 24 hours a day. That's $3,600 per year. Business hosting solutions cost as much as $200 or more a month. We're paying $50 a month to the company hosting our Cabrini Connections, SVHATS and Tutor/Mentor Institute sites.

You get what you pay for (or don't pay for).

It's important to have regular tech support, but it's even more important to pay staff salaries, rent, insurance, electric bills, and other expenses that we also have each month. Especially as we face the potential of reduced revenue from fund raising due to the impact of the economy on donors.

We've been able to get by with volunteers, and with the knowledge our IT coordinator can bring. But some of this is beyond what our volunteers and staff can support.

That's why your help is so important. There are more than 5 million adults working in the Chicago area. Our donor list is under one thousand people each year. Thus, there are thousands of people who have never been asked to make a donation, who might give $50 or $100, or even more. If your current and veteran volunteers , and student, tell the story of how they have been involved, these people will get to know us, and some will make the donations needed to cover the costs of making this program available to kids and volunteers.

We do events throughout the year, such as the Golf Benefit in July, the Dinner in June and the Art Festival in April. These give people an opportunity to make sponsor donations of $100 to $5,000 which add up to quite a bit of revenue throughout the year.

You can even make donations through workplace fund raising at your school, government office, or company. Here's a list of other ways to help.

Please tell your friends about what we do and how they can help. You don't need to be in Chicago to be part of the network supporting groups like ours helping inner city kids.