Tag: volunteers

Ravenswood Art Walk

The Friendship Center is running the Non-Alcoholic Beverage tent at this year’s Ravenswood Art Walk! We retain all the proceeds generated from selling water, soft drinks, and juices. We are now able to accept cash and credit – should be a fun fundraising event. Join us if you can! Shifts are four hours, and for helping out, you get a t-shirt and drink ticket – there are also beer tents 😉

—

Please read on to find out more information about the Ravenswood Art Walk:
RAW returns this September for its 20th anniversary! Join us for the Ravenswood ArtWalk: Tour of Arts & Industry, a weekend-long celebration of our creative community.
Stretching from Lawrence south to Irving Park along Ravenswood Ave, RAW includes open studios and galleries, pop-up performances and activations, live music and dance, public art, and an Outdoor Arts Market, food truck fare, and outdoor beer garden.

—

2022 ArtWalk Stops Include:
4500 Artists · ACM Music School · Andrea Cook Artist · Ballroom College · Begyle Brewing · Big Teeth Productions · Bill Bartelt Watercolor Studio · Blackbird Gallery & Framing · Chex Studio · Chicago Glass Collective · Chicago Photography Classes · Cultivate by Forbidden Root · Dandelion Therapeutic Art Center · Dovetail Brewery · Forteza Fitness & Martial Arts · Hazel · KOVAL Distillery · Laurie Shaman Ceramics · Lillstreet Art Center · Lucila’s Alfajores · Manifold · Mathias Spider Schergen’s Garage Gallery · Starshaped Press · POW! Photography · Redline VR · SpiderMeka Portraits · Thresholds · VIN312 Winery · Wayward Arts Gallery + Tattoo
Enter our Outdoor Arts Market at Ravenswood and Berteau to shop 50+ local artists while enjoying live music, dance performances, food truck fare, and cold beers from Begyle Brewing!
Details: https://ravenswoodchicago.org/signatu…/ravenswood-art-walk
—
Musical Performances on the GRCC Stage
Sat 9/10
5:00 PM – Of Wondrous Legends (O.W.L.)
3:45 PM – Rami Gabriel Blues & Jazz Trio
2:30 PM – Albion West
1:15 PM – Angela James
12:00 PM – Hard Femme
11:00 AM – The Millers
Sun 9/11
5:00 PM – Olive Avenue
3:45 PM – Junegrass
2:30 PM – Honey Cellar
1:15 PM – Jaewon
12:00 PM – Brox
11:00 AM – Nathan Graham
—
Free Dance Classes & Performances from The Hive
Sat 9/10 & Sun 9/11
11:00 AM – Kids Activities
12:00 PM – Free Jazz Funk Class
1:00 PM – Free Ballet Class
2:00 PM – Free Specialty Dance Class
2:45 PM – The Colony Dancers Youth Performance
3:45 PM – Free Contemporary Dance Class
5:00 PM – Free Hip Hop Class
—
The 2022 Ravenswood ArtWalk is brought to you by the Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce, Ravenswood Community Council, SSA#31, Thresholds, Lillstreet Art Center, Garrett Realty, Begyle Brewing, Luckyprints, Dandelion Therapeutic Art Center, and Access Contemporary Music.
Proceeds from RAW fund small business support and community programming from the Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce (501c6), and public art and placemaking projects from the Ravenswood Community Council (501c3).
Proceeds from all non-alcoholic beverage sales support the Friendship Center Food Pantry (501c3).

A Summer Sorter’s Experience at The Friendship Center

I started volunteering at The Friendship Center when I was four years old. My dad is a teacher, and I volunteer with him in the summer. Once COVID hit, volunteering obviously stopped, but this summer I started to look into coming back. Like a lot of places, there are age restrictions, but then I saw the Summer Sorters program on Fridays for kids 11 and up. I kinda forced my parents to sign me up! 

I immediately loved it. It combines the good feeling that comes from helping people, and organizing, which I love to do. While clients are finishing shopping, we kids are preparing and sorting other things. This includes what is going on the shelves, making boxes for home delivery the next day, organizing pet food for the third Saturday of the month Pet Food Pantry, grinding coffee, or – my favorite – peeling a scratched-up protective coating off of a steel table. (I know that last one sounds weird, but it’s great to do when you are waiting and is very satisfying!) Once the front shopping area is open, we restock the shelves with everything they need from the back, from fresh produce to food rescue pastries to toiletries and more. We end up laughing with each other by the end of the two-hour shift, even if we just met.

After a couple weeks of Summer Sorters, I asked Karen if there were other times I could help out. I filled out a volunteer form, and I’m now an official volunteer. I even helped cook dinner this month! I now sign up for shifts on their great volunteer website. You can see what shifts are open at what times and what a shift entails. 

I find volunteering – especially at The Friendship Center – to be a very rewarding experience. My parents have raised me to do my best to always help others. One thing in particular is that no matter what happens, you are in no way, shape, or form better than who you are giving a helping hand to. In a lot of cases, someone has just hit a hard time and is otherwise no different than anyone else.

I always feel good afterwards because volunteering gives me a purpose and something to focus on. In this crazy world where you can feel so helpless, it is always good to find something to ground you, that helps you ignore everything else and focus on what you are doing. And in volunteering at The Friendship Center, you know that you’re not just helping yourself but your neighbors as well.

-Cora Weiss

About the Author:

Cora is a soon-to-be 7th grader at a local elementary school. She lives in the neighborhood with her parents (her mom, Kelly, is a Friendship Center board member) and their adorable dog, Scotch.

One Volunteer’s Experience at The Friendship Center

What is three hours? That is how much time I spend building food boxes for senior and home-bound clients at The Friendship Center (TFC) every Saturday. It is humbling and heartwarming to see the program’s transformation. What started as one packer working with three drivers to deliver groceries for roughly 30 clients monthly has blossomed into three volunteer packers building boxes for a dozen drivers who hand-deliver groceries to more than 75 clients monthly.

When the pandemic started, I was working at a local Alderman’s office, where we launched a weekly Call Crew to check on seniors and connect them to resources. These calls quickly exposed vulnerable seniors in the ward who were rationing their food because they did not have access to safe forms of transportation or the financial means to restock via grocery delivery apps. Coming from a nonprofit background where you solve problems on a zero budget, I knew I had to tap into my network. TFC delivered – seeing the program go from me emailing Ross Outten every Friday a laundry list of names of those in need and him serving as both packer and delivery driver to coming on as the program’s first volunteer was a tremendous honor.

I hypothesize that many of you reading this feel similarly about the time and treasures you give to TFC. There is a dedicated group that secures and distributes pet food every third Saturday, which allows us to include it for Home Delivery clients with four-legged companions. Others reading this help TFC by hosting food drives that enable us to build boxes catered to each person’s specific dietary preferences and needs, including microwave meals and easy-to-open cans. To everyone who supports TFC in one form or another, know that your unique impact causes a positive ripple.

-Jesi Peters

About the author:

Jesi Peters was The Friendship Center’s first Home Delivery volunteer and packs boxes for clients every Saturday. Jesi lives in Chicago with her beloved cat, Tommy, and is the new Director of Development for Tree House Humane Society, one of our Pet Food Pantry partners.