Last summer, Caring Outreach by Parents in Evanston (COPE) partnered with Evanston/Skokie School District 65, the Evanston Community Foundation, Foundation 65 and the District 65 PTA Council in an effort to purchase school supplies for students in need. During the week of August 9, volunteers from COPE, school PTAs, Starbucks, and students from Evanston Township High School gathered at St. Mark’s Church in Evanston to sort school supplies and build kits for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. We raised over $15,000, meeting the 2015 fundraising goal. The Evanston Community Foundation (ECF) and Foundation 65 launched the effort by donating $2,500 each. Local businesses including Starbucks, Curt’s Café, Little Beans Café, and Maya Papaya & Tony Macarony hosted supply drives to collect new backpacks. The weekend of August 9th, 2015, Volunteers packed 700 supply kits using reusable bags donated by the Midwest Young Artists organization along with cinch sacks donated by Office Depot. An additional 250 kits were assembled for school principals and social workers to distribute to homeless and immigrant children as they started school later in the year. Dr. Maria Allison, District 65 Chief Strategy Officer said, Knowing that many of our students were able to come to school on day one with bags full of supplies makes the effort worthwhile. However, with nearly 2,600 students qualifying for free and reduced price meals, we still have a long way to go." This year, our goal is to raise $20,000 to serve over 1000 school children in Evanston. Will you help? Donate HERE.
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On October 17th, we stuffed a bus with 1000 bags of groceries!Thank you Evanston for your donations and hard work to support our first Stuff the Bus food drive. We are incredibly excited about the success of the event! The school drive generated over $2,800 in donations and about 1000 stuffed grocery bags. On Saturday afternoon, COPE volunteers distributed groceries to almost 400 community members. So many people came to get groceries that we ran out of food items and began handing out the $7000 in Valli cards that we'd collected. We also saved enough non-perishables to support families in COPE's grocery program for the next three months. Below is a quick summary of our results: School drive: 932 bags (~6,500 lbs. or $15K in groceries), $2,860 donations Valli drive: ~70 bags, $1,772 in donations (gift cards + cash) The event was so successful that we are planning our next Stuff the Bus event. If you would like to be a part of it, please contact us! Special thanks to Valli Produce, Whole Foods, BMO, Positive Connections, Justin Wynn volunteers, Dajae Coleman Foundation volunteers, Curt's Cafe, Mike Schwab and all of the individual volunteers that came out to lend a hand. Many thanks to Josh Gilbert and Jenny Breen for a very relaxing fundraiser this past Sunday. For $15, participants were invited to an hour of yoga and a delicious beer tasting! Temperance Trikonasana is a regular event on the third Saturday of each month, with proceeds going to a different charity each class.
Thanks so much to all of the incredible individuals, organizations and businesses that donated and volunteered to make the school supply drive a success. The drive was a lot of work but it was so worth it!
We distributed nearly 700 kits at the 2-day St. Marks event. Thanks so much to the congregation and leadership at St. Marks who hosted the event. We filled an additional 150 cinch sacks (donated by Office Depot) and built an additional 115 kits which, along with the miscellaneous supplies gathered through the partner drives, have almost all been distributed by social workers and principals during the first couple weeks of school. We distributed over 600 backpacks. All told, we served around 950 students - which far exceeded our initial estimate of 600-700! Additional thanks to volunteers from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Evanston Scholars, the Mather Home and community volunteers. COPE would like to provide a HUGE Thank You to the following volunteers:
(Please excuse any misspellings and embarrassing typos) Community Service: ½ Day Kids Service Projects February 2015 – Heart Appreciation Rina Campbell - Dawes COPE liaison March 2015 – Homeless Care Kits Jennifer Golem - Willard COPE liaison Liz McElhatton - Willard COPE liaison May 2015 - Wagging Hearts and Mom Appreciation Becky Liston and Julie Ward - Orrington COPE liaisons Leslie Luning, and Laura Glanz The following for providing toothbrushes, tooth paste, dental floss for homeless care kits: Dr. Barry Walvoord D.D.S. - Orthodontics by the Lake Dr. Brad Weiss D.D.S. Ltd. Dr. Shoel Kerzner, D.D.S. - Kerzner Orthodontics, P.C. Orrington Hilton provided soaps, lotions, shampoos and conditioners for homeless care kits. Courageous Conversations Matt Walsh for leading discussions, donating books - "Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us" and "What We Can Do," and for purchasing admission tickets for teachers and parents to attend the program RACE at the holocaust museum First House Party Candance and Dan Chow for hosting the COPE House Party and Jonas Friddle, accompanied by Maria McCullough with their beautiful music! COPE Grocery Programs A Grant from Evanston Community Foundation (ECF) providing $5,000 to expand our grocery program to four district 65 schools: Dawes, King Arts, Lincoln and Oakton Steve and Lisa Haggerty, ECF grant sponsors Rina Campbell, Dawes COPE liaison Laura Dziekiewic, Dawes Social Worker Julie Weiler, King Arts COPE liaison Emily Johnson, King Arts Social Worker and coordinator of the 8th grade volunteers King Arts 8th graders who participated in sorting and packing groceries December 2014 to May 2015 Stefano Mereu, Kingsley Parent Pablo Boczkowski, Kingsley Parent Allison Hannan, Kingsley Social Worker Laura Jeffris, Lincoln COPE liaison Cathy Graettinger, Lincoln COPE liaison Nicole Dominguez, Lincoln Social Worker Janice Dobschuetz, Oakton COPE liaison Natalia Moreno Polomarkakis, Oakton Social Worker Mike Schwab for Photography Campus Catalyst Program, Northwestern University Students Christopher Erikson Dylan Pager Jennifer Spaulding Kenny Mok Mark Schmid Intern Hannah Kaiser Legal work provided by Patricia B. Carlson, from Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C. to help COPE obtain our 501 C 3 status. Monetary Donations: 5th Grade Kingsley Girl Scout Troop #41818 A Wynn Bailey JR and Katherine B Bailey Alex Dannenhauer Allyson Jurkschat Amelia Kohm Andrea Versenyi Andrew La Fond and Robin Stark Belinda Chen Betsy Levisay BG Turk Candance Parks Chow Cathy Jain Ciaran Gannon Claudia Garrison Dan and Lisa Chiss Deborah Lewis Elizabeth Beckman Elizabeth Hansen Elizabeth Sheikh Gabreille Brooks Gabriel Torres Genevra Gallo-Bayiates Gretchen Doninger Joe and Colleen Chappelle Joyce Bartz Judith Gustafson Julie Koehler Juliet Bond Karen and Douglas Thomson Kathleen Ostrreicher Kathryn Varela Layla Rosenfeld Leslie Brown-Wilson Leslie Luning Lisa Downey Lisa Fontoura Lisa Zolbrod Lynda Olivera Mahesh Patel Mamatha Reddy Michael and Becky Liston Michael and Kristin O’Connor Neal Pearlman Omar Brown Pablo Boczkowski Paul Burton Paul Goren Peter Spies and Rina Campbell Rachel Niemann Richard Rykhus Robert Chrismer Robyn Hurtig Sarah Severson Stefano Mereu Stephen Hagerty Tasha Triplett Terral Taylor Timothy Verrilli Tricia Murray Valerie and Robert Weiss Vanessa Irving Furniture Program heavy lifters: Kevin Bond Mike Schwab Ernst Triplett Anonymous donor for the rental of our Public Storage unit Furniture Donations: Allie Hackney Amy & Prasad Ravi Bridget Nelson Cam Axelrood Christi Silver Craig & Shari Hahn Elizabeth Skidmore Jean Fies Jennifer Dougherty Joe Beatty Jolie Fleming Julie Hoather Julie Zimring Karen McLeod Kathy McDermott Katy Walker Kingsley School Linda Stevens Lisa Chiss Liz McElhatton Lori Remein Marc Kessel Marlene Igel Michael Greene Mike & Julie Green Missy Hedges Stacey Porter Tamara Kaldor Current needs:
Three twin size and one full size bed frames Blankets and sheet sets (twin or crib) Silverware Garbage can Furniture (sofa,chairs,dinette set) Baby high chair, Walker for baby Clothes for woman sizes 12-14 and shoe size 8.5 or 9 dress/ casual for new employment. Curtains/ Curtain rods Area/Bathroom rugs Lamps Toiletries Towels (bath/kitchen) Cleaning supplies Book shelves Hooks for coats Small house tools Small space heater Fans Baby toys Toy box We are excited and sad to see our work with Campus Catalyst end. COPE was assigned an incredible team of hard-working, smart and innovative Northwestern Students to identify structural needs and assist us in addressing them. This fabulous new website you see is due to their keen eyes.COPE is excited to have the support of Jonas Friddle perform at our next fundraiser. Jonas is the winner of the John Lennon Songwriter of the Year award and Maria McCullough. |
AuthorJuliet C. Bond, LCSW Archives
June 2016
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