Happy Holidays - Tis the Season

Thank you to everyone who made a year-end donation to support Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 2010. I hope you'll read El Da'Sheon Nix's article about how we're reaching out to friends, family, co-workers to ask for help in finding year end donations. Read the Tutor/Mentor blog articles to see how we're trying to build a support system that would make tutor/mentor programs available to more inner-city youth.

Donations can be made at http://www.giveforward.com/tistheseason . You can also just print this form and sending it to us with your donation. You can also use the PayPal Donation form. We even accept donations of securities.

There are many ways to help us help these teens. We hope your spirit is touched by the work we're doing, and you'll do as much as you can to assure that the funds are available to keep doing this in 2010.

This is a list of donations received since December 1. We thank everyone for their generosity during these difficult economic times. Happy Holidays!

Bill Iwami
Kiera Kelly and Ed Madden
James Dohren
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Hamilton
Chris Kalabogias
Tom Kittler
Mary Alice Gresham
Karen & Kevin Lobdell
Maryann May
Steve Alley
Henry & Peggy Troast
Gena Schoen
Randy and Sharon McCullough
K. Ryan
Kenneth Goldstein
Marquette Bank
Eric and Jill Schiller
John T. Porter
Thomas E. Keim
Anna Dowdle Harter
Jim and Margaret Morsch
Barbara and Daniel Roos
Mr. & Mrs. Cliff Bregstone
Joyce Dunn
John and Mary-Glynn Boies
Loretta Kaplan
R. Fine, in honor of Ilene and Jay Pomerance
Deanna and Paul Danao
Paul Lukas
Schlomo & Oi Crandus
Melissa Moore
Dick and Carol Wray
Carrie Guenter
Rebecca and Keith Danahey
Richard and Sharon Whyte
Joseph Baird
Barbara V. Goschi
Sean & Lilly Wieber
Melinda Schramm, in memory of Cary Schramm
Larry & Carroll Bross
Ilene Fine & Jay Pomerance
Mayo C. Walcott
Carol Ebel
Jennifer (Pines) Lineen
Grant Brown
Prologis Foundation ($10,000 grant)
Gift in honor of Ilene Fine and Jay Pomerance
Pat Hillmann & Richard Shields
Wayne & Anne Coloney
Jill Allread
Hewlett Packard matching gift
R. Lee Christie
Joan Dowdle
Gerald Deneen
Norma Berke
Artemis Parrish
Tracey McGee
George Vinyard
Chase Peyton
Gift in the name of Mary Esther Schmid and Walter Jones
BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, Inc. ($5000 grant)
Ernest Sammann
Peter Goschi
Christopher and Sarah Franklin
Chris Japhet
Julie and Charles Haapala
Judith and Mark Davis
Ruth Iwami
Russell Vandenbroucke
Robert Huster
Kurt Kittner
Joe Rivera
Mark Hamende
Sue McMillin
Ernest and Dolores Komornicki
Jeff Curto
JellyChicago (Dec. 11 party)
James C. Stephen
The Wintrust Financial Corporation (Grant of $15,000)
The Walsh Foundation (Grant of $5,000)
EcoPhones ($27.50 from phone rebate program)
William M. Criscione
Pauline Narens
William Sullivan
Dr. Scholl Foundation (Grant of $5,000)
The Siragusa Foundation (Grant of $5,000)
Jack and Sari Schoen
Dr. & Mrs. Robert Pines
Michael Heyman
The Royal Order of Experience Design
(see Holiday Card from The Royal Order - play entire version and see support for Cabrini Connections)
Sara Caldwell (founder)
Rep. Constance Howard
Mark Grimes
Christina Jordan
John DeWitt
Claudia Crilly Belucci (first staff at Cabrini Connections)
Andrew Evans
Bill Dunn
Zeke and Elaine Dzugan
Gary & Suzanne Rovner
Inez Marie Welch
Derek Casteel
Gus Constan
Susan Nice
Paul & Ann Witt
Eldon & Frieda Andrews
Michael and June Blood
Mike Ozmeral
Cenan and Patricia Ozmeral
Mike & Vicky Trakan
Mark and Nicole Parrish
Jane L. Cray
Raymon and Jane Hung
Richard and Lucy Gaven
Daniel and Emily Bassill
Pat and Donna Dowdle
John and Jill Levi
John and Suzanne Martens
Charles Ohara
David and Lola Hundley


Thank you to those who are helping in other ways

* JellyChicago for making us the charity to support in your Dec. 11 benefit
* Next Computer World for putting a link to us on your web site.

Tech the Halls Event Supports CC - This Friday

This is the season when many people are organizing events and raising money for favorite charities. This Friday, December 11, Jelly Chicago is hostin a party at Noble Tree Coffee & Tea

Donations are encouraged for Cabrini Connections. Read more about this event.

Thank you Jelly Chicago. We hope you have a great party. This shows how others are organizing events to raise money for Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. We hope many people do this so we have the funds needed to continue tutoring/mentoring in 2010.

Tis the Season. Happy Holidays

On the Cabrini Connections blog you can read stories about the teens and volunteers we connect in our Chicago tutor/mentor program. On the Tutor/Mentor Blog you can see maps and graphics that show how urban youth should all have access to high quality, mentor rich programs.

That can only happen if donors reach deep into their pockets this holiday season to fill the stockings of tutor/mentor programs with generous gifts.

Please make a donation to our annual Holiday Fund Raising campaign, either through this on-line portal, or use this form and send your gift to

Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection
800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642

On behalf of everyone who will benefit from your generosity, we thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From all of us at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, we wish you a safe and happy holiday weekend.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Tutor/Mentor Conference on November 19 and 20. Workshop info will be archived here.

Thank you to the 90 volunteers and 77 students who participate each week at the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program in Chicago.

Thank you to the many donors who provide dollars to help us provide these services.

As you give thanks, please consider giving financial support to Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, or similar programs in Chicago or your own community.
Donate Online: http://www.giveforward.org/cabrinitmc

The art work above was created by a Cabrini Connections student during our weekly technology club.

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.