Results tagged “community”

During an interview with Chicago Public Radio, North Kenwood resident Lauren McCadney says she chose to live in the South Side neighborhood because of its parks and affordability - but to shop for groceries or other household items, she has to get in her car and make a “destination trip” to a Dominick’s or Target. McCadney says she spends between $500-$700 a month for groceries, dining out, and trips to Target, money spent outside her community which she believes could ultimately support the business.

Just a reminder that the Swan Creek Farm Online Auction ends tonight. This is your last chance to bid on a dinner for 6 prepared by some of the city's best chefs in your own home. so if you want to pool your money with five of your pals and try to win a chance to have Stephanie Izard cook you dinner, don't dawdle; the high bid on Izard is currently at $1100.

Still looking for ways to give back this holiday season? The Resurrection Homebound Elderly Program – a program that supports Chicago’s “low-income, socially isolated and chronically ill” homebound elderly – makes it possible to provide a little holiday happiness for these seniors in our community. Calling (847) 568-8531 will get you the name and information of a program participant who will need a gift this year, or a contribution of $25 will be enough to purchase a hot holiday meal and gift box delivered directly to their door. You can also always make a tax-deductible donation to the program, which services patients regardless of their ability to pay. For those who have a little extra time to volunteer, help is needed to drive and distribute gifts to each home and with helping to write the program’s handwritten holiday cards.

The holidays have arrived, and though we always encourage our readers to Give Back, please consider doing what you can this season to spread a little extra holiday cheer.

Now in its third year, the annual Mustaches for Kids fundraising event in Chicago combines an in (on?) your face concept with a commitment to raise money for Chicago public schools. M4K growers compete to sprout the sweetest ‘stash in four week’s time while soliciting the most pledges and donations to the campaign.

800 South Halsted St., Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 11/10, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Free, Reservations recommended by calling 312.422.5580 or at events@prairie.org

Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark St., 11/6, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., Free

Lectures

Emanuel Kuntzelman, founder of the Greenheart Initiative, will be at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts tonight to host a free "lively” discussion called Our Singular Moment, a look at how the present time has the potential to change the world. Kuntzelman’s theory is based on the idea that while society creates its own realities, it can transcend cultural conditioning to evolve a healthier personal and social awareness. The discussion has a foundation in Kuntzelman’s research and experience from his travels, using quantum physics, systems and chaos theory to support his model of social evolution.

213 W. Institute Place, October 26, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

A new gourmet catering bakery opened earlier this week in Goose Island to great fanfare from the Mayor’s Office, as the new business is meant to help the homeless in Chicago – something the Mayor certainly finds helpful for his ten-year Plan to End Homelessness. The bakery, Sweet Miss Giving’s, is a both a business and social service organization, providing job training, employment, and support for formerly homeless persons with disabilities. Twenty paid interns are staffed as bakers, packers, and delivery assistants.

Harris Theater for Music and Dance celebrated the opening night of their fifth anniversary season to great fanfare last week, hosting a gala on Thursday night in Millennium Park to kick off their week-long engagement with the San Francisco Ballet while raising nearly $1.4 million to benefit the theater.

A marketing slip-up in the merger of two large corporations can cause customers to feel angry and betrayed, especially when a company with local ties is being overtaken by a national company. We saw this with the Macy’s corporate take-over of Marshall Field’s, which some are calling this decade’s “New Coke” of marketing disasters.

Oh, Charlie Trotter’s. It is so choice. But recently, diners at Trotter’s were not only sophisticated foodies, but the kids from Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, who were enjoying a signature eight-course meal, compliments of the house.

Even before Chicagoland got its first 70 degree day of the year, area beekeepers were preparing for spring. Beehives—like the ones on the roofs of City Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center, in Garfield Park Conservatory, and the 100-plus hives in a North Lawndale co-op community— have already been checked to make sure the bees have survived the winter and have enough food to last them until the first dandelions, willows, and soft maples bloom. Keepers have cleaned and medicated the hives as necessary and might have ordered a few more thousand bees or a new queen, which are shipped through the U.S. Postal Service.

The Chicago Public Schools are alway a hot topic here, mainly for discouraging news. Now, there's a chance to make a positive impact and get involved. Chicago Public Schools, in conjunction with the Chicago Teachers Union, have a unique opportunity for you: become a teacher for a day. Whether you're looking to scratch that teaching itch you've always felt or just trying to become more involved in your community, it's a unique chance to lend a hand. The event is designed "to give business and community members a better understanding of and develop a deeper appreciation for the work Chicago Public Schools’ teachers provide each school day."

Like his old man, Mayor Richard M. Daley is determined to transform public housing as part of his legacy (here's hoping it turns out better than Sr.'s effort -- several detractors don't have high hopes). His plan is creeping forever forward -- it's currently many years behind -- and the city will eventually replace CHA high rise projects like Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini-Green with mixed-income housing.

Demetrius Warren, 17, was charged yesterday as the gunman in Amadou Cisse's murder. Warren had already been charged with other crimes from the robbery spree that night, and three others have already been charged in connection with the case.

As every committed localvore knows, the best way to get fresh local produce (aside from a farmer’s market) is to join a CSA. A CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a farm that has decided to sell directly to the public. By investing several hundred dollars in the spring, you can receive deliveries of fresh produce throughout the summer and fall. However, some of us aren’t ready to commit several hundred dollars up front to the cause of fresh produce, or we might not be around in the summers. But we still want to help out local farms, and we cringe a little every time we pick up shallots shipped all the way from Uruguay at Whole Foods.

We know winter can be a bummer. And sometimes ... it can be more than a bummer. Chicagoist heartily endorses getting some therapy — help helps, cupcakes — but we know $150 per session can be prohibitive. Luckily, there are other options.

Barrington Community Unit School District 220 canceled its classes today because its fleet of school buses were vandalized. Unknown culprits slashed the tires on "24 to 26 large buses and 15 to 17 smaller ones," apparently with an ice pick. School bus tires cost about $200, which means someone's on the hook for a lot of damage. A note from the district's superintendent says about 7,000 of Barrington's 9,200 K-12 students take a school bus...

Lotsa burgling going on: Two gunmen robbed the AMC Rivers East this morning, tying up but not injuring four employees. And yet another North Community Bank was robbed yesterday, bringing the total to five robberies at North Community banks in the last two weeks. Another story of animal hoarding, this time a little closer to Chicago but a lot less severe: An Oak Lawn woman had at least 30 cats and 2 dogs in her...

The president of Southern Illinois University plagiarized his thesis back in 1984, but school officials decided today that it was just a mistake, and he should keep his job.

Members of SEIU Local 20 held a one-day strike Monday at Roseland Community Hospital. Most hospital workers strike over staffing levels and quality of care issues, but this strike was purely economic. "People aren't lined up to work at Roseland. And we think by the hospital adjusting the pay rate so that it's comparable to other South Side hospitals, that speaks to better recruitment, better retention and ultimately better patient care," Local 20 President Byron...

"I saw the face of Nailah Franklin so often, I began to feel as if I knew her," writes Mary Mitchell in a thoughtful column that contextualizes Franklin's disappearance and the media attention it garnered (1, 2, 3) as part of a broader narrative of how the media responds — and how families approach the media — when black women vanish. "Franklin has been humanized in a way that so many missing black women have not been," she says, citing Nancie Walker's 2003 disappearance (a case Mitchell wrote about back then, too).

Though Sara Mair may not have won the whole kit(chen) and cab(f)oodle, it seems that her stint as a contestant on Bravo's incredibly addictive Top Chef has not been a complete waste of her time; now she has speaking engagements and a wider audience interested in her take on jerk chicken, Top Chef judges and, most importantly, cheese. Perhaps you're a member of that potential audience? If so, then you should be making plans to...

Englewood residents held a demonstration yesterday on 74th and Green, protesting the city's lack of effort to curb drug dealing and prostitution in the area. And the Defender reports that Englewood has some of the worst air quality in the city and the highest incidence of lead-poisoning cases of any neighborhood in Chicago — 17.3 percent of kids tested in 2003 had elevated levels. Yesterday's protest was organized through the Chicago branch of ACORN (Association...

Shawn Campbell, CHIRP

We completely forgot to mention that this weekend is the annual Fiesta del Sol in Pilsen. Now in its 35th year, proceeds from Fiesta del Sol benefit the Pilsen Neighbors Community Council. Over the course of the PNCC's history, they've helped in the formation of Benito Juarez High School, Alivio Medical Center, and today is a major lobby for immigration reform and provides college scholarships for deserving students. Fiesta del Sol is the largest non-smoking,...