Thanksgiving Meal

Eric, his sister, and 3/4s of our parents volunteered to help serve a Thanksgiving meal at Trinity United Methodist Church in Des Moines, Iowa.  Children and Family Urban Ministries orchestrated the meal and gathered up all the volunteers.  The Iowa Energy basketball team even came to help out!  The kids were running around asking for their autographs... on napkins.  It broke my heart.  I had a family sitting at my table, mainly made up of kids.  I was astonished at how much they were able to eat.  I wanted to send them home with backpacks full of food.  The experience was very eye opening.  We've still got work to do...

Place settings -

Mom

Eric & his mom

A local elementary decorate the placemats, so cute!

They just received free tickets to the opening night of the Iowa Energy basketball game.  Precious.

More please!

All Stars Project Bowl-a-thon

All Stars Project, a local Chicago nonprofit hired me to take photos at another one of their events (yay!).  Their Annual Bowl-a-thon was this past weekend and I got the opportunity to take photos at the unique celebration.  The lighting was very challenging to say the least, but I think I still got a couple good action shots.

Photo Class: Location #2

The Fourth Presbyterian Church is located on Michigan Avenue and Delaware. It is pretty much at the north most point of the Magnificent Mile - directly across from the famous John Hancock Tower. It was built in 1912 and has some beautiful archways and a cute little courtyard. It was a perfect place to stop between Lincoln Park and Downtown. Below are a few photos I took from this location.

The best thing about this church is that each year, they have an awareness exhibit where they tie a bunch of ribbons to their trees lining Michigan Avenue to draw the public's attention to a particular social issue. Here are photos from last year's demonstration. It's so crazy to see these beautiful blue trees from a distance... and then you get closer and realize it is thousands of ribbons tied to the tree... and then you get even closer and read the sign and realize that perhaps it's not a beautiful thing at all. I am really looking forward to seeing what they have in store for this year.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Kickoff Breakfast

This past Thursday morning, I got up bright and early to volunteer with the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Kickoff Breakfast. It was held at the Chicago Hilton's grand ballroom this year and they had a great turn out! The room looked great and I was really happy I could volunteer my time, reunite with some great friends, and even snap a few photos of the event. I'm still finding ways to incorporate my two loves... photography and nonprofit work. Stay tuned for future attempts to combine my two passions.

The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is a great event. It will be held on Sunday, October 16th in Chicago (for information on this walk here), but there are Strides Walks all around the country. Find your closest walk here. Help with set-up/clean-up, volunteer at the event, donate to a walker, or get a team together and walk. I hope to see a cure for this disease in my lifetime, but it won't be possible unless we all get involved.

Packed house at the Hilton Chicago! What a gorgeous room -

Reveling the new Making Strides Against Breast Cancer commercial! Keep an eye out for it!

Mary Kate Raminski and Tessa O'Connor, the American Cancer Society is so lucky to have them as staff and I'm so lucky to have them as my friends!

The 2011 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer T-shirt. Love it!

View from Chicago Cares

Tonight I attended a volunteer training at the Chicago Cares office... and boy do they have a great view! Check it out.Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge proponent of volunteering and getting all my friends and family involved in various charities and nonprofits (hopefully at a young age so they will become life-long volunteers and pass on this lifestyle to their children).

If you are in Chicago, look up Chicago Cares. They are a wonderful organization with 215 ongoing volunteer opportunities throughout the year plus a handful of large one day volunteer events ranging in

-helping the hungry & homeless

-improving our environment

-uplifting senior citizens

-hanging out with troubled youth

-painting with individuals with disabilities

-tutoring adults going back to school, etc. etc. etc... you name it, they've got it. They've got something for absolutely everyone. If you aren't in Chicago, look up a local nonprofit that you are interested in. If you aren't interested in anyone in particular, consider going to a large diverse nonprofit that is going to offer a variety of opportunities such as United Way or Salvation Army or of course, any local school, hospital, church, etc. Or check out the nonprofits in your area that are currently advertising for help at VolunteerMatch. Or just come to me, I'll happily find you a nonprofit who needs your help!

Too busy to volunteer in person? Volunteer online at Sparked.

You have no excuse anymore...

Go Do Good

Connecting Art to Action.

Today's reason I love Chicago -

It is truly amazing what one person with one idea can do. Kay Rosen is a midwest-based artist who is known for her paintings, drawings, prints, collages and installations on walls, billboards, and buildings. She had an idea for an art installation in the Chicago Loop. She wanted to find a way to connect her art to action.

In partnership with the Chicago Loop Alliance and the United Way of Metro Chicago, this installation turned in the Go Do Good campaign, a summer-long, city-wide movement with the goal of preparing Chicago's kids to succeed in school. In an effort to build a stronger community, Chicago was challenged to reach 100,000 good deeds this summer.

On State Street, you will find a large billboard on the side of building reading "Go Do Good." Banners with the same saying line the street lamps along State as well as the State & Lake L stop. There is even a block-like thermometer tracking where we are at to our goal of 100,000 good deeds. We are currently at 40,000, but I hope we will be able to reach our goal when all is said and done.

But most importantly, I would like to give props to Chicago for being so freaking awesome. What city do you know that actually encourages volunteering and little random acts of kindness. It really makes me proud to be living here.

Cheers to Chicago for encouraging its residents and tourists to do something good with their summer. Let's hope the good deeds and gestures - large and small - public and private - last once the summer is over.

Will you join in? It's easy. Learn more about Go Do Good here - http://godogoodchicago.com/

Learn more about the artist here - http://www.kayrosen.com/

State & Lake L Stop -

Thermometer -

Banners lining the streets -
Banners colorful reflections -

New technique I'm trying called zooming - pretty self explanatory - you zoom your lens in or out during exposure. This one's not too bad, but we will see if I can can improve any on this technique in future posts.

Have a great day everyone, and remember GO DO GOOD!