Location: The Shambles
Date: Saturday, May 11, 2013; 6:30-9:30 pm
Technically this would be my
third project of the day, but the walkthrough for ‘Wish Ball’ shouldn't really count.
So this day doesn't quite qualify as ‘Super
Saturday’, through tomorrow may be another story. I had returned from UIC and worked on some of
questions for an interview that Chicago Cares was conducting for
Serve-A-Thon. That completed, it was
time to head to this One Brick event. I took a cab
to the location and arrived to find a dive-type bar which looked like it had
seen better days. I was sure that once
again, I had managed to get lost, but heard some activity happening on the 2nd
floor. I went upstairs to find a group
of people gathered around the Karaoke Machine.
It looked like they were trying to fix it, and leading the effort was
none other than your friendly neighborhood fix-it-all man, Wilson!
.JPG) |
| The location was cozy |
Our contact at the site was
Chelsea and besides her, the other people there were her husband and two other
friends. They were all trying to fix the
Karaoke and before Wilson got there, they had been struggling. However as is usually the case, Wilson had
it under control and it was ready to go before any of the guests had
arrived. Besides Wilson, who was the
Event Manager, we had Jo-Elle who was the Event Coordinator, and 8-10 other
volunteers. Today we had all assembled
to help ‘Tabula Rasa’. According to the information on One Brick’s
website, “Tabula Rasa provides
transitional support services for juveniles returning to society from
incarceration.” Meaning Latin for
blank slate, the information goes on to say, “Tabula Rasa is here to support, educate and guide 17-21 year old
Chicago ex-offenders toward a life free from incarceration. We offer education
and housing referrals, weekly support groups, one-on-one mentoring, individual
and group counseling and life skills classes. Tabula Rasa clients also partake
in cultural field trips and community service projects. We believe that our
holistic approach to rehabilitation coupled with our infinite commitment to the
client is exactly what this population needs to succeed. 73% of incarcerated
juveniles in Illinois return to imprisonment within 3 years of being released.
Without the proper transitional services, how can we expect these young people
to succeed?” Chelsea is the
President and founder of the organization, and this was a fund raiser to support
it.
.JPG) |
| Snacks for the guests |
Amongst other things like raffle,
one of the main fund raising activities was the silent auction. Almost every item had been donated and Jo-Elle
had gotten a beautiful glass piece, which she had made herself. I could tell that unlike some of the other
fund raisers that we had done, this one was more intimate and more personal to
some of the One Brick folk. Chelsea told
us that the previous year; Wilson had made beautiful signs for the event, all
from the supplies in his car! Our job
that evening was to sell raffle tickets, at the entry point where the guests
registered, and also by mingling with the crowd. There were 5 prizes, ranging from ‘Chicago Sky’, Women’s NBA tickets, to
iPad mini. I was one of the raffle
sellers and said that we would have better luck once people had a few
drinks. However, I needn't have worried;
people were helping out and buying the tickets. One guest said to me that he had already contributed
to the cause, when I offered him a ticket.
It was all good-natured and I responded by saying that him buying the
raffle tickets would in fact be the cherry on the cake. He laughed at this and bought the
tickets. The gentleman said that he
would prefer any prize, but the WNBA one and As luck would have it, he won
that one!
The winners were being announced
periodically and after this gentleman won, I was telling everyone that I had the
lucky touch and that they should get their ticket from me. This was in fact turning out to be true, for
3 out of the 5 winners came from my tickets, including the grand iPad prize. In between selling the tickets, I was
chatting with some of my fellow volunteers and one of them was Meghan. She told me that she does art direction for
pharmaceutical companies and design events such as ship inauguration as well as
launch. I asked her about
the tradition of breaking a champagne bottle during the launch of a new ship
and she said that each bottle is actually fitted with an explosive as a fail-safe
in case they do not break, for it is considered a bad sign otherwise!
 |
| Jo-Elle's beautiful art piece |
The party was on in full swing and
the Karaoke machine was being utilized extensively by Chelsea as well as Jo-Elle. Everyone was having a good time and I really
liked the crowd. These were nice people
and almost all of them were Chelsea’s teacher friends, who had come
out to support her. I unsuccessfully bid
on a necklace and Wilson was also outbid on Jo-Elle’s glass art
piece. But that was good since it meant
someone had offered money that we had. I
left at 9:30, but it looked like the people were just getting warmed up. I have been to some fundraisers, but I
found this one to be more special, and I mentioned that to Wilson. It was perhaps because none of the people
there were as rich as some you find at such events. But they were still trying to do their best
to help out and were really having a good time as friends usually do. I was happy to have done
this and while there had been no Tiramisu like before, I had really enjoyed myself
a great deal. Tomorrow would most definitely be a 'Super Sunday'.
No comments:
Post a Comment