Results tagged “charity”

LUPEC, the Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails, is having the prohibition-era equivalent of a pub crawl. The Chicago chapter is led by Sonja Kassebaum of North Shore Distillery, and with a slogan like "Dismantling the Patriarchy, One Cocktail at a Time," what's not to love? On November 12, LUPEC is hosting "Women Helping Women," an evening of shopping, drinking and charity. Participants (ladies or gentlemen) will take a tour through the fashionable shopping of the West Loop, visiting boutiques like Bess and Loie, 2 Sisters and Smitten. At each of the twelve stops, enjoy shopping and try one classic cocktail.

In case anyone hasn’t gotten the memo, the economy sucks. In our beat, that usually means more coverage of expensive restaurants closing their doors, but there is a larger world beyond the reach of truffles and foie gras. Visits to the Greater Chicago Food Depository are up 35% this year, as more and more people need help to feed their families. Some of Chicago’s best chefs have decided to do something about it - and you can help them out. Plus, you can get some pretty amazing food. What could be better?

      

"That mole was the hardest thing I've ever cooked in my life, as I didn't have a recipe available. The 27 ingredients I used were from memory," Rick Bayless told the assembled crowd between commercial breaks at Frontera Grill last night. Bayless threw what was essentially a victory party last night, screening the "Top Chef Masters" finale to a host of media, VIP and haiku masters like Benjy. If you've never witnessed Bill Kurtis firing off the fiercest finger guns this side of Joe Biden, you're missing one of life's guiltiest pleasures.

We weren't really going to report on the ongoing appearance of Patti Blagojevich on the NBC show "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Outta Here." We've talked it about it way too much as it is, though any show in which Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt join Patti for a prayer has got to be off the charts in unintentional comedy, right? Well, it gets better. Each "celebrity" is competing on behalf of a charity. But the folks at Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation don't want anything to do with Patti's charity cash because they're partners with Children's Memorial Hospital, the same hospital Rod allegedly tried to shake down for $50,000. The Sun-Times' Natasha Korecki has the charity's full statement:

We had heard Sting was renting some practice space in Chicago and now we know why. Sting is performing at a private fundraising concert with the Chicago Symphony Ochestra on May 19. There are NO tickets available to the public. Well, almost none. The CSO is auctioning off a single pair on eBay ... so if you've ever wanted to see Sting backed by a world class orchestra break out your checkbook and prepare to drain your bank account before the auction closes on May 13. If you win you don't just get the two seats, you also get In addition to two prime seats to the concert, a night at the Four Seasons, dinner at Tru, and a program autographed by one Gordon Sumner. You'll be broke but it's worth it since you're supporting the arts, right?

With the ongoing success of "Top Chef," it was only a matter of time before Bravo decided that they would expand the franchise by opening up the competition to already established chefs. The idea for this has been in the works for close to a year.

       

No one knows - yet - how many tons of food were collected during the local mobile food drive known as the Chiditarod this year - but more than 500 participants spent a damp Saturday afternoon hauling at least 25 pounds of food per team over the finish line.

Baseball fans across the city look forward to when out North Side and South Side teams square off each summer. This year, collegiate baseball fans can get in on the rivalry action, too. The White Sox and U.S. Cellular Field -- still Comiskey Park to true Sox fans -- will host a baseball game between Northwestern and Notre Dame on April 15 at 7:00 pm. While both universities are better know for their academic rigor and football prowess, the strong Wildcats and Fighting Irish ties to Chicago and the big time stage should add a festive atmosphere to the game for players and fans alike, even if the mid-April weather still winds up more appropriate for football. Tickets are $10 and are available at the U.S. Cellular box office and at whitesox.com starting the week of March 16, with proceeds supporting White Sox Charities.

The oceanic Lake Michigan, like Chicago, has two distinct seasons: from June to September it is the city's personal playground before quickly switching to a dark, impenetrable mass people tend to avoid for the rest of the year. Hundreds of charitable (and maybe a touch crazy) people will ignore this fact and run into the lake at North Ave Beach tomorrow (Sunday, March 1) at 10 a.m. for a good cause.

Still looking for ways to give back this holiday season? The Resurrection Homebound Elderly Program – a program that supports Chicago’s “low-income, socially isolated and chronically ill” homebound elderly – makes it possible to provide a little holiday happiness for these seniors in our community. Calling (847) 568-8531 will get you the name and information of a program participant who will need a gift this year, or a contribution of $25 will be enough to purchase a hot holiday meal and gift box delivered directly to their door. You can also always make a tax-deductible donation to the program, which services patients regardless of their ability to pay. For those who have a little extra time to volunteer, help is needed to drive and distribute gifts to each home and with helping to write the program’s handwritten holiday cards.

      

If there's one thing we can be sure of, it's the high level of vitriol with which locals despise Macy's for forcing out Marshall Field's. But now we've come up with a plan that may allow you to get a little bit of revenge and help a charity in the process. Macy's is running a campaign this holiday season called Believe based on the New York Sun's famous 1897 editorial, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." Ha ha. Anyway. Each store is equipped with a "Believe Station" at which the young and young at heart can write a letter to Santa and drop it in the Santa Mail box. For every letter received, Macy's will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million. So that got us thinking: how can we make sure Macy's has to shell out the full cool million and allows us to express our contempt for the store at the same time? Why, by stuffing the mailbox, of course!

The holidays have arrived, and though we always encourage our readers to Give Back, please consider doing what you can this season to spread a little extra holiday cheer.

We gave a shout out earlier this year to Minds Matter – a great non-profit college-prep program for inner-city high school kids. Their big fall fundraiser [PDF] is taking place tomorrow night and Minds Matter is hosting a three-hour all you can drink shindig at Sully’s House Tap Room & Grill, with proceeds going directly back to the organization.

We support anything that mixes charity and booze and the Starlight Children's Foundation Cheers to the Children Wine Tasting is no exception. Starlight will be hosting a wine tasting next week to raise money to for some of their charity work for sick children, which includes building play areas, providing them with toys and books, and providing families with needed information and support. Besides a fine selection of wines to sample, there will be Hors d’oeuvres, plus a raffle to help raise money as well.

As if you haven't quite reached an overload of election stories yet, Jakks Pacific Inc. has announced that Cabbage Patch Kid likenesses have been made of the 2008 Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates. We won't complain too much: the dolls will be auctioned off on Ebay with all proceeds benefiting the U.S. Marine Corp's Toys for Tots. The auction starts October 30th and continues until Election Day. Still, the image that landed in the Chicagoist inbox this morning kind of shocked us.

Chicago food pantries are running out of food and thanks to our turbulent economy the number of people turning to food pantries for assistance has increased over 30% since last year. Last night the Chicago Food Depository, a non-profit organization that donates food to over 600 pantries, soup kitchens and shelters and to over 500,000 adults and children every year, held its 15th Annual Bag Hunger Auction to expected success.

We were just informed of another local connection to National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: the Chili’s at 2 E Ontario St. is participating in the restaurant chain’s fifth annual Create-A-Pepper campaign, running now through the end of September. Chili’s has pledged to raise $50 million over a 10-year period for St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital. The campaign will culminate with an all-day event on Monday, September 29, when Chili’s will donate 100% of the profits from the day’s restaurant sales to St. Jude’s. Last year’s Create-A-Pepper campaign raised more than $5.2 million for the hospital.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and there are a few local events coming up in support of pediatric cancer awareness. If you can't attend any of the below events, but still want to help with the fight against leukemia -- the most common cancer among children and teens -- consider making a bone marrow donation or registering to become a donor at the National Bone Marrow Registry.

Do you know someone who "through personal effort and tireless dedication, improves the lives of others and makes a positive impact on their community"? Nominate him or her for the White Sox's Roland Hemond award. It honors extraordinarily philanthropic Chicagoans with a trip to the All Star Game, which will be in St. Louis in 2009. Nominations are due August 22, but the form is really, really basic. [White Sox]

Harry Potter fans from around the world will be converging on the Hilton Chicago Hotel this weekend for Terminus, a five-day conference revolving around all that is "wizard". Attendees can expect “academic presentations and lectures, educational workshops, a Quidditch tournament, a bon voyage ball, and certainly, lively discussion about Harry Potter.” Other planned events: a pre-conference Wrock (wizard rock) concert, featuring over 30 wizarding bands over three stages, and the chance to attend the wedding of two Potter fans.

Father Carl Morello, the priest at St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge, recently suggested turning the school's gymnasium into shelter on Sunday nights, from October through April, as part of the PADS ("public action to deliver shelter") program, a network of faith-based shelters throughout Cook County. And his plan hasn't gone over so well.

A dose of warm 'n' fuzzy for today: $5 million dollars has been given to the Salvation Army to put towards building a community center in Chicago's West Pullman neighborhood. Anonymously.

Some events in the next seven days to consider saving your freshly shoveled parking space with a few chairs.

Sen. Dick Durbin sent out an email appeal today urging people to celebrate "A Plumpynut Holiday." Our senior sentator wants his constituents to spend $20 this holiday season on Plumpynuts, a "sweetened mixture of peanuts, essential vitamins, minerals and milk served in foil pouches [that] has become a high-nutrient, high-energy weapon in fighting malnutrition."

Mike Ditka's red-faced this weekend, and not because of overindulging on his vanity wines. A report in yesterday's USA Today showed that a charity "Da Coach" founded three years ago to help retired Hall of Fame football players whose bodies are ravaged by the violent demands of the NFL has only doled out $57,000 in assistance. Federal and state tax records indicate that $715,000 of the $1.3 million raised by the Mike Ditka Hall of...

'Tis the season for free champagne tastings. Get started tonight at the Artisan Cellar (located on the first floor of the Merchandise Mart) with a sample of some rare bubblies from 4-6 p.m. Learn all about the history of smothered foods from author Wilbert Jones, the author of Smothered Southern Foods. Jones' lecture, "Smothered - Southern Style" is being held Saturday at the Chicago History Museum, sponsored by the Culinary Historians of Chicago. The lecture...

Who knew "celebrity" golf tournaments could be such a flustercuck? Not Caddyshack star Cindy "Lacey Underall" Morgan. She hosted a 2006 event, which was supposed to benefit the Illinois Military Family Relief Fund, turned out to be a disaster. A giant no-money-making, friendship-ending, lawsuit-generating disaster. Morgan says only about 100 people played golf, that the Caddyshack cast members who did show (Bill Murray and Chevy Chase weren't there) left early, and now she's on the...

Where Do Cows Go to Retire?

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own...

Hey, kids! Chicago Artists Month is upon us! Although it may feel like there's a different festival/fair/celebration each week in the city, this one isn't one to miss, with a full slate of cool events scheduled to help celebrate one of the city's most vibrant scenes. You can get your culture fix at a number of special gallery exhibits over the next few days, given the bitchin' balmy weather, we'd recommend breaking out your...