Cabrini Madness 2011...IS HERE!!!!

Last year Assistant Program Coordinator, Bradley Troast, and Administrative Coordinator, EL Da' Sheon Nix, came up with a FUNdraising Tourney based off of the NCAA March Madness tournament.

Students, volunteers, staff, board members, and friends of the program separated into different teams, put together a simple or very detailed fundraising page on Giveforward (to collect donations) and after those two things were done...THE GAMES BEGAN!!!

The mem

bers of the teams just found creative

ways to advocate for the pro

gram as a way of bringing in donations. There were pizza and snack sales, pool parties, birthday party fundraisers, social events for volunteers, grants were completed, just a lot of fun and creative ways to help their team win the tourney...all while bringing in the funds needed for the program. Here is where you can get tourney information from last year.

Bradley and I made the tourney fun by coming up with all of this fun and creative videos that we used as a play off of college basketball, NBA, SportsCenter etc. Here is the first of 9 videos that we put together.

The 2011 season is just about ready to start and we are excited to see what this season will bring and who will be crowned the 2011 Cabrini Madness Champion!!! This opportunity is open to ANYBODY that is interested in joining in our efforts to raise awareness and funds for the Cabrini Connections' program. Please contact EL Da' Sheon Nix or Bradley Troast for more details.

DON'T MISS ANOTHER GREAT SEASON!!!

Alumni News

LaShaun Crosby (with the orange shirt) sent me this message on Facebook.

I already received a Master degree in Education back in 08 and I will be graduating with my second Masters in June of this year. I will be receiving a Masters of Arts in Teaching and Learning. Also this summer I hope to begin drafting a mini book that will be composed of motivational, academic planning and esteem building activities that will be used to guide students in the city..Also it will contain a mini bio of my life growing up in Cabrini and how Ive grown into the person I am today...I hope to get it published one day and distributed to multiple schools throughout the city..Im in here Chicago.

All three of the students in this photo were part of Cabrini Connections in the mid 1990s and all have college degrees. LaShaun and Marquita Hall have graduate degrees.

We hope to help other students achieve this success in the future. If you're one of our alumni, please get in touch and tell us your story.

Right Back At It in 2011

After what was hopefully a very nice Holiday Break for all of staff, students, and volunteers, we kicked off our Winter Quarter of the 2010-2011 tutoring/mentoring year in excellent fashion. With nearly 80 students and nearly 100 volunteers in the program, it looked as though we never had a break. The Wednesday night students and volunteers packed the center and got right down to the productivity they had been putting forth during the first quarter. Many pairs started the night off catching up with each other and talking about the holiday break, but all then got right into the academics and worked diligently throughout the night. Both students and volunteers compiled attendance at nearly 90% on the very first night!!!

The Thursday night set of volunteers and students were not to be out done at all. The productivity throughout the night was great and the attendance for both the students and volunteers exceeded the program's goal of 80%. It was a wide variety of activities taking place within the center. From students and mentors catching up from the holiday break, completion of the day's homework, and playing of games to job and college searching, and the planning of new and exciting student led fundraising projects.

All week the center has been buzzing with activity as if we never took a break at all. We like to use a lot of work analogies here at Cabrini Connections as a way of setting the tone and setting the example today of what it will be like in a career tomorrow. With that being said, we would like to thank all of the volunteers, students, parents, donors, and fans of the program for doing all that they can to ensure that we were back in the workplace in 2011...and for continuing to work just as hard, if not harder, that in 2010. Know that the reasons that hardships that many of our students face on a daily basis in their schools, communities, in their homes ect...doesn't take a day off, therefore programs and the people that make them up to combat those hardships can't take a day off either.

~More To Come in 2011~