Results tagged “volunteer”

Chicagoist loves our city's architectural history, as well as the way we Chicagoans celebrate and preserve the great structures in our presence. One of the organizations that works to preserve and promote some of the most significant local abodes is looking to recruit some new volunteers. The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, which maintains the Robie House in Hyde Park and Wright's Home and Studion in Oak Park, begins their next volunteer training in a few weeks.

It's a chilly holiday for some but just another Monday for others. Either way, it's also Martin Luther King Day as well as the National Day of Service. If you'd like to get involved but aren't sure how, here's a list of events going on around the Chicago area today that you can get involved in. And what kind of weather will you have to volunteer in? It'll be cold with highs only creeping just past 20 degrees and a wind chill value very close to 0. There's also a chance of flurries this afternoon, but more snow will move in tonight. Lows will fall to the lower teens but new snow accumulations are expected to be less than half an inch. Unless you live in northwest Indiana where you're under a lake-effect snow advisory.

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.

Now, as far as we know you can't just march over to Howard Brown or the Center on Halsted with a cheery, "How can I help?" The former asks volunteers to complete an application, and the latter requires volunteers to attend an orientation first (currently full until February of next year). So instead check out this list of Chicago-area volunteer opportunities if you want to participate. And please stop back Thursday and share with us tales of co-workers who legitimately called in sick tomorrow and found themselves inadvertently outed.

Now might be the time to adopt that dog you keep saying you're going to get. Animal shelters throughout Illinois are taking in hundreds of dogs and cats in need of new homes due to the recent flooding in nearby communities. Sally Matay, president of Illinois Animal Rescue, is receiving up to 1,000 e-mails a day from people looking for a good home for their pets as many families lost their houses or just can't financially afford them anymore.

Apparently finding a summer job is not as easy as it used to be. Kids looking for part-time employment are facing a shrinking job market, and it's already difficult to land a job without experience or job history. And on July 1, the state will increase its minimum wage from $7.50 to $7.75, possibly increasing the squeeze on the number of available jobs.

There have been recent depressing reports of food banks like the Greater Chicago Food Depository suffering from some negative effects of rising gas prices. But the month of June holds some fun and alternative ways to support this particular organization and help to fight hunger in Chicago:

Is there a better way than to validate your Monday night drinking than by combining it with donating to a literacy program?