Events over the past week have taught some lessons in life. If you watched the NCAA basketball games, you saw Butler and Michigan State play to the final seconds, then you saw the game between Duke and Butler be decided when a final last second shot missed by inches.
If you were following Cabrini Madness you saw that Team Impeccable received a $2,800 donation around 10:45 pm. They thought they had the tournament won. But with 10 minutes left, Guaranteed Victory's last second shot went in... Barry Cofield, a NU alum, and New York Giants football star, made a $2,000 donation that put Guaranteed Victory back on top.
Thanks to these last minute heroics, and the work every team did from February 1 till last night, Cabrini Connections raised $23,109.
In sports, the winners and the losers, are all reviewing game film today, looking at what worked, and what worked for other teams. Here's El Da'Sheon's review of Cabrini Madness.
While the focus for millions of people was on sports last week, several of our teens kept their focus on the work they need to do to win the game of life. Read the articles Bradley Troast wrote about visits to companies where volunteers work, and to colleges. Look here, and here.
Bradley also wrote another article, showing that many people in Chicago were dodging bullets during the past week. The game of life for many living in poverty neighborhoods is far more serious than the games of baseball, basketball or golf.
A program like Cabrini Connections is intended to provide other choices, and an expanded network of people helping kids through school and into careers. The photos and videos on our web sites and blogs illustrate that t his is happening. The maps Mike Trakan shows at http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com show that too many neighborhoods don't have programs like Cabrini Connections.
We raised over $23,000 through Cabrini Madness, and yet we still don't have the money for next month's rent and payroll. That's because we still don't have enough people telling the story of Cabrini Connections or the Tutor/Mentor Connection to people who might make donations like those made in the last few minutes of the Cabrini Madness Tournament.
However, we're not out of the game of "tutoring/mentoring" until we can no longer find volunteers and donors to help us. We have demonstrated this commitment since 1993 when a few volunteers created this organization. We hope our teens learn from our own determination not to give up, and that this helps them in their own battle for a future safe from gunfire, violence, and poverty.
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On April 16, the Annual Cabrini Connections Art Festival will showcase another part of Cabrini Connections. I encourage you to read the art club blog and forward this to friends, co-workers, and family members who might look at the reasons tutor/mentor programs are needed, and look at what we offer.
Cam we find art and video fans who will make donations the same way Cabrini Madness fans did? Can you be the first to donate at http://www.giveforward.org/artfestival10/? Or can you attend the festival and purchase the art created by our students and donated by volunteers.
On June 10, we'll celebrate the end of the 2009-10 school year with our year end dinner. On July 15 we'll host our annual Cabrini Connections golf benefit. Each of these will be opportunities to tell more people about the work we do, and ask more people to provide the dollars needed to do the work.
Follow the Cabrini, T/MC fund raising blog for latest details a
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