Year End Dinner 2009

Last Thursday marked a very special anniversary for me. Having attended the Cabrini Connections 2008 Year-End Dinner, which was my first official event as a future Cabrini Connections employee, the coming and going of this year's Year-End Dinner meant that I've been involved with this remarkable organization for over 1 year! As inspired as I was last year, attending the dinner with my girlfriend, Alyssa, and meeting many of the students, volunteers, board members and their families for the first time, I left this year's dinner with an even greater sense of the importance of our program. Though last year's event was moving, bringing together over 100 people in one room, public housing residents, fortune 500 company executives, students and their families who would never otherwise shared a meal together, this year's event drew well over 200 folks and left everyone who attended with a true appreciation of the importance of our program on not only the kids we serve, but the entire Cabrini-Green community.

We began the evening with a delicious meal of chicken, salad, pasta, rolls, cookies...etc which got everyone talking at the 20+ full tables we had set up for the event. Next the Youth Leadership Council and I premiered our new documentary, simply entitled "Cabrini Connections", which you can stream in its entirety here. If you haven't already checked it out, I would strongly encourage you to follow the link because this movie, which I produced with help from 2 very generous volunteers Matt Lauterbach and Dinesh Sabu as well as Sean, Savon and DeSean of the Youth Leadership Council, features current students interviewing 30 year veteran volunteers, program alumni and concerned community members about the role of our program in the lives of the people we touch.

Next we heard from 3 parents who spoke about the impact that our program has had on their children. DeSean's mother Ms. Norrine Rhodes, Arden's mother Ms. Rhonda Wright and Savon's father Mr. Rodney Clark all gave moving testimony to the effectiveness and importance of our program, which was great to hear directly from the parents. Following the parents' remarks, a couple of our recent graduates, Jonathan Summers and Kenneth Chapman, spoke about the impact their involvement with our program continues to have on them and how much the program means to them. This was one of my highlights of the night because, though it was clear that they weren't 100% comfortable addressing a crowd of 200+ folks (which is completely understandable for young college students), their commitment to our program allowed them to overcome their anxiety and speak from the heart. Similarly, our Administrative coordinator El Da'Sheon Nix, went without a preprepared speech and wrapped the evening up beautifully with a touching play-by-play of some of his personal highlights from the year.

Some other highlights from the night were a dance performance from Yolanda, Breonca, Cierria and Shante, a hilarious play with a positive message performed by the Cabrini Connections Writing Club, a brave & honest poetry reading by 8th grader Ashaunti Roby, an incredible musical performance by 6th grader Ana Tate and a great keynote speech by Dan. Also, I don't want to forget to mention the wonderful job that our student emcees, Raheem, Vontesha and Victoria, did hosting the event.

All in all, last Thursday was truly a night to remember. This year's Dinner served its job of sending us into the summer months with the momentum we need to keep drawing more and more passionate individuals into our organization that will both sustain us and catalyze our constant quest to offer the best, most comprehensive tutoring/mentoring program possible to the kids we serve. They deserve it.

Year End Dinner

Next Thursday, June 4th, marks a very important event at Cabrini Connections. It's our annual year end dinner celebration, which brings together students, alumni, potential students, mentors, staff and donors together along with their friends and family, for an evening of free food, entertainment and celebration! Longtime volunteer Courtland Madock along with her Year-End Dinner Committee have put together another great night for everyone and I wanted to make sure that you knew that you are personally invited to attend. This event is open to the public and is a great opportunity to connect with everyone whose involvement makes our program possible. Last year I attended the year-end dinner before I started working here and was very impressed by the diverse mix of attendees and presenters. Alumni and current students alike spoke to the value of our program and how it has positively influenced their lives, parents of students and alumni gave testimony to the effectiveness of the mentoring relationships that we facilitate between their children and our volunteer mentors and

This year current students Victoria Rivera, Raheem Muhammed and Ashaunti Roby will serve as the evening's MCs, again introducing inspirational alumni and parent speakers. The writing club will be debuting a short play that they have been working on and our Youth Leadership Council will premiere a short documentary about the history of Cabrini Connections, shot with the assistence of professional videographers Matt Lauterbach and Dinesh Sabu. The theme of this year's dinner is "Hope, Build, Believe, and Achieve" and you can easily RSVP online here, so please join us. The dinner will be taking place at the Cornerstone Academy banquet facility, which is located at 1111 N Wells. Dinner will last from 5:30-8 and those over 21 will continue the night at Spoon, located across the street at 1240 N Wells St. Hope to see you there!

Hope, Build, Believe & Achieve

Change is in the air at Cabrini Connections. Starting in a few months at our Year-End Dinner, Cabrini Connections is going to undergo a slight ideological facelift. Every year the students and volunteers vote on a theme for the Year-End Dinner that captures the spirit of what we do and our goals for the future. This theme helps Courtland Madock and the rest of the year-end dinner planning committee decide on what types of programming/food/decorations they want to include at the year end dinner. Last year's theme was Coming Together, Growing Together. This year we staff, along with the student leadership council decided we wanted to up the ante a bit. So, rather than voting for a theme merely for the Year-End Dinner, we decided to use the Year-End Dinner as a kickoff for an entire year of themed programming based around a theme that was voted on by students and volunteers, eager to get more involved in determining the direction of their program.

So after receiving more than 80 suggestions by current students and volunteers, the Youth Leadership Council whittled them down to the three best which were:

--Learning & Leading
--Connecting & Advancing
--Hope, Build, Believe & Achieve

This past week, students and volunteers spoke as one, overwhelmingly selecting Hope, Build, Believe & Achieve to be our motto for both the 2009 Year End Dinner and the coming year. This means that Olivia Williams, the Schiller school 7th grader and first year mentee who suggested this theme, will be receiving a special prize. So, stay tuned for more details about how Cabrini Green youth will be Hoping, Building, Believing and Achieving in the coming year!