Fall Fundraiser Recap
The annual Fall Fundraiser took place on Tuesday, October 1st. This year’s theme was Brews & Ballads because we added a karaoke twist to our fundraising efforts.
For the third year, we hosted our event at Midwest Coast Brewing on their new rooftop patio, which opened this summer. The location wasn’t the only thing moving up – thanks to our sponsors and community, this was our most successful fall fundraiser yet, raising over $7,000 to support our work in advocating for a more equitable workforce and supporting community-based organizations that drive meaningful change. We were joined by 75 people from over 27 organizations across the fields of workforce, education, finance, construction, hospitality, and more. This shows the diverse array of providers and supporters who make up our ecosystem. CJC CEO Dr. Lisa Bly-Jones thanked our community for all the hard work they do and for their valuable contributions to our work.
Las Visionarias, an immigrant women-run catering cooperative based on the Southeast side of Chicago, provided food for the evening. They are part of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, whose mission is to build power among low-wage and immigrant workers and advance systemic change to stabilize low-income immigrant communities and communities of color. We also had raffle prizes from wonderful local organizations such as the Chicago Red Stars, Black Ensemble Theater, JJ Thai Street Food, Vietfive, Volumes Bookcafe, beelove, Bright Endeavors, Chicago Humanities, Gene Siskel Film Center, and more.
As mentioned above, we introduced karaoke into the mix and heard some extraordinary renditions of songs like "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton and "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele. We hope you stuck around to see CJC staff get the dance party going to “Yeah!” by Usher. All in all, it was a great time of networking and having fun!
Thank you, as always, to our hosts at Midwest Coast Brewing, to all our raffle donors, and to our event sponsors: The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, Chicago Community Loan Fund, Employment & Employer Services, NTG Inc, Origami Works Foundation, Revolution Workshop, and scaleLIT. Thank you to everyone who came out to support our organization. We truly appreciate our community!
