'Tis The Season & Cabrini Connections' Is The Reason

Over the past couple of weeks the Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection staff have been encouraging all in the program to make an effort to share the "Cabrini Connections' Story" and their personal experience with those in their network. We have also been taking part in our annual Holiday mailer. The packages of information will be going out to many past, current, and hopefully future Cabrini Connections' supporters. Our aim is to share a little more about what all we do here at Cabrini Connections with the youth and volunteers who participate in our program, and by sharing this information we hope more and more people will be willing to support our program in various ways.

Beyond just the mailers that we are sending out to the large group, the entire staff, and hopefully students and volunteers, will personalize letters for personal use. Individually, we all have been taking some time to think of people in our own personal network that we feel would not only like to hear more about what we do, but could further support our program. Whether the support comes from just spreading the word about Cabrini Connections to people in their network, donating a dollar or two, sharing other valuable resources, or all of the above...we will be appreciative of any support that is provided.

Over the weekend I will continue putting my list together continue making an effort to reach out to people who not only have been supporting me and my career, but the people I selected to add to my list are also people who care about improving the lives of youth.

In order for this to continue we need your help in finding holiday donors. Please send this form to people you know, telling of your involvement and asking for their help. If you reach out by email, point people to our blogs, or videos, to show the work we do. Or pick up some holiday fund brochures, with art created by our teens, and mail them to friends, family, co-workers. We have these at the Cabrini Connections center at 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642 .

In today's tough economic environment people all over are cutting back on their giving, but if everybody can just give a little, that adds up! And there are still many people in the world who have benefited greatly from having tutors, mentors, and just a variety of support networks, that have the ability give more than others. And as a result of that success, these individuals have the opportunity to GIVE BACK in a huge way, especially during the holiday season!

~Happy Holidays~

Birthday Celebrations At Cabrini Connections

A person's birthday is considered by many to be one of the most special days of the year because it is like your own personal holiday. This is a day where people receive gifts, have a party, get cards, or simply get a lot of "Happy Birthdays" from family and friends.

Here at Cabrini Connections, we strive to make birthdays special to all the students, volunteers, and staff that make up the program. In Cabrini Connections, we designate the first Wednesday and Thursday tutoring/mentoring sessions of the month to recognize those who are celebrating a birthday that month. During our announcements we ask all of those celebrating a birthday to either stand where they are at in the room or to come to the front to state their name, birthday, and age (optional) to the group in the room. We then make sure everybody claps and really just make sure those celebrating a birthday feel special about their birthday.


We then follow the recognition by having a special birthday snack and beverage for all in the program. Typically the staff or volunteers who sign up for snacks brings in cupcakes, cookies, and other fun desserts for the group, and all share in eating the snacks before leaving the program for the night, and these nights are always pretty fun for all.

For the February birthday celebration Thursday night Volunteer Coordinator, John Knight, went above and beyond the typical birthday celebration. John Knight, who is also celebrating a birthday in the month of February, had catered food from Quench. The staff, students, and volunteers last Thursday had chicken, mac and cheese, fish, rice, cake and MORE to help celebrate the birthdays for the month of February!!! The Cabrini Connections' program would like to thank John Knight for this opportunity on Thursday and to new volunteers Tim Minton and Jessica Newberg for the great birthday snacks for the Wednesday session.

And since the Cabrini Connections' program is always looking to help others, we went above and beyond the call of duty to brighten the day of some of Chicago's less fortunate, the homeless. On Friday afternoon, I packaged up the remaining food from the Thursday celebration and drove to the North Ave exit off the 90/94 highway and provided food, plates, cups, napkins, and some bottled water to those populated the area.

So what started off as a great gesture by a Cabrini Connections' volunteer, turned out to be an even bigger act of giving and sharing, and that is what Cabrini Connections and those who make up the program are all about. If you would like to help us in our efforts to help others, please make a donation to the Cabrini Connections' program here.

17 Years and Counting...

This is a photo taken around 1995. Claudia Crilly Bellucci, one of the first two paid staff at Cabrini Connections, and a veteran from the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini Green Tutoring Program, is shown. So are students who were part of the program at that time. Two of them (Tameeka Meekins and Tangela Smith) are now connected to me on Facebook, along with more than 60 other former students.

Most of the 500 teens and over 700 volunteers who have been part of Cabrini Connections since 1993 have hear me say "Once in Cabrini Connections, Always in Cabrini Connections". Now through the technology of social networking, this is becoming a reality. People who were connected, through us, to each other in the past, are now able to connect with each other, and with others from the past 17 years.

They are also able to draw from the extensive library of information that I have collected and which is shared in the files in the Cabrini Connections office, and via the links library on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site.

Our aim is to build habits of learning among students and volunteers and staff, so that we know where to find information we need to solve any problem we face, and we know where to find people who will help us use that information, or find things we don't know. As members of the Cabrini Connections community learn to use this knowledge, and this network, each life will be richer, and the world for our own kids will be better.



I have not been able to keep Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection going for the past 17 years without the help of Ray Dowdle, who has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors since 1994. Ray and his wife Chris started as tutors with the Montgomery Ward program, then became volunteers with Cabrini Connections in 1993. Ray has helped me recruit members for the Board, and Advisory Council, and has been the most reliable fund raiser during all of these years. He is one of those "energizers" who just keeps on ticking.

Thank you Ray, and all of the other volunteers who have served this organization. May you all enjoy a blessed, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Our Holiday Fund has had many generous donors. You can see the list here. I hope others will add their names, and will join Ray in introducing people they know to the work we are doing. This is the only way Cabrini Connections has survived for so many years and it is the only way we will continue to be an anchor in the lives of so many youth and adults in the years to come.

Help with the Holidays

We hope that everyone who has been part of Cabrini Connections, now, or in past years, has been enriched by the people they have met and the experiences that have been offered.

In order for this to continue we need your help in finding holiday donors. Please send this form to people you know, telling of your involvement and asking for their help. If you reach out by email, point people to our blogs, or videos, to show the work we do. If they live in other cities, point out the mapping of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and how this helps tutor/mentor programs in all parts of Chicago. This strategy can be duplicated in any city.

Or pick up some holiday fund brochures, with art created by our teens, and mail them to friends, family, co-workers. We have these at the Cabrini Connections center at 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642

At the Cabrini Fund Raising blog we'll show donors who have responded since Dec. 1. Please send thanks to anyone you recognize on this list. Please help us increase the number of donors so we have the ability to continue to offer this service in 2010 and beyond.

If you are a potential donor or benefactor and want to know more, just email tutormentor2@earthlink.net or call 312-492-9614

Happy Thanksgiving!

Staff and Board of Directors of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection wish all of our volunteers, students, friends, donors a safe and happy holiday weekend. We thank you for being part of this community of people helping people.

Please take a look at the other blogs, to see the wide range of work that students, volunteers and staff are doing. For instance, the graphic on this page was created by one of our students during the weekly tech club sessions.

There will be no tutoring session on Wednesday or Thursday. We'll see you all next week.

As you give thanks, please consider giving, so we have the funds to continue to host this community in 2010 and beyond.