2011 Year-End Dinner

Last Thursday, Cabrini Connections celebrated the end of the 2010-2011 tutoring and mentoring year with its 18th Annual Year-End Dinner. About 250 students, parents, volunteers, alumni, staff, and board members crowded the Cornerstone Academy in Chicago to recognize each other for great accomplishments - the greatest of which is that all five of our seniors graduated from high school and are headed to college in the fall. This video shows the presentation of Graduation Dollars and yearbooks to our seniors, with a special surprise at the end ;-)

Thanks to Groupon and ContextMedia, the Graduation Dollars for this year's senior class have been doubled!

Spoil the surprise =>
I would like to personally thank all of my friends and family members who made this such a successful year. A year ago I felt lucky to have the opportunity to remain a staff member at Cabrini Connections, and I look back a year later proud of all that we accomplished. Congratulations!

Bonus video: Video & Filmmakers Club's spring quarter project

Groupon Deal of the Day

We are live on Groupon.com - the greatest deals site in the world! Please take a moment to check out our page at

http://www.groupon.com/deals/cabrini-connections

For every $10 you donate, Cabrini Connections gets $15 thanks to matching sponsor ContextMedia. With 36 hours to go, we are just 22 donations away from reaching the "tipping point" and locking in $2000+ for the program!

Cabrini Connections to be featured on Groupon!

In January, EL Da' Sheon and I had the opportunity to visit Groupon's headquarters at 600 West Chicago Avenue, just across the river from Cabrini Connections. Groupon is a popular daily deals site founded by fellow Northwestern University alumnus Andrew Mason.

Since speaking to a group of about 50 employees there, we have recruited six as mentors (including Cat, above) with several others on the waiting list. In January, I also met with a woman who organizes most of the nonprofit initiatives for Groupon. We talked about many possibilities and have kept in touch since.

Today, I am pleased to announce that Cabrini Connections is going to be featured on Groupon.com with a G-Team campaign during the week of June 6th! G-Team is a community outreach initiative within Groupon that brings communities together to do good, have fun, and make an impact.

This is a tremendous opportunity for Cabrini Connections to gain exposure in the Chicago area and to grant our seniors extra support for college. Our campaign seeks to raise $2000 to double this year's "Graduation Dollars" - our form of scholarships, to be awarded at the Year-End Dinner.

I will post again on Tuesday with specific details on how to get involved. Until then, please share this blog post via email, Facebook, and Twitter, to let everyone in your network know to expect us on Groupon.com next week! Thank you!