SPINS recently took a hands-on approach to affect positive change in our community. We rallied a team from SPINS along with our loved ones to volunteer in the 2016 Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon. We joined over 5,000 volunteers to spend the day building, painting, and planting to restore and revitalize community spaces throughout Chicago.
SPINS’ dedicated volunteers spent the day at Cook Elementary in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood with 90 other Chicago Cares participants. Together we transformed classrooms, hallways, and the playground spaces with handy tools, some strategic planning, and, most importantly, lots of paint!
Custom murals by SkyArt muralist Dionne & Team
It was an especially hot day, but everyone worked diligently and cleaned up along the way. We were proud to complete all our projects (from scratch!) in just a few hours! And the result?
- 2 newly built wooden planters for the school’s main entrance
- 5 freshly painted rooms
- 5 custom hallway murals
- 11 games and educational drawings throughout the playground
We hope we brought some SPINS vibrancy to the school that will help promote a sense of pride for students and help cultivate higher educational engagement. How rewarding to see our team’s work have meaningful impact in a new setting outside the walls of our Hubbard Street office! After a long day of volunteering, Chicago Cares hosted a gathering of gratitude with cold drinks, food, and live music to celebrate the successful day of service.
This is the second year that SPINS has volunteered as a group for Chicago Cares, and this year we’re proud to say our team’s numbers grew substantially. We’d like to thank the following SPINS team members for a great day of community support:
Brenda Aguirre
David Villalobos
Deepa Narayanaswamy & family
Izabel Olson and family
Joanna Mikosz
Judy Vogt & family
June Hope Lanners & family
Karam Chadha
Lengkimly Kruy
Susan Battaglia
Zhiwei Dai
Our own Susan Battaglia championed initial efforts and provided thoughtful insight, lending her 13 years of experience working with Chicago Cares. In addition to Susan as primary site leader, individual project leaders included Joanna Mikosz, June Hope Lanners, and David Villalobos.
Joanna leading the outdoor play lot tasks
SPINS is proud to participate in the Chicago Care’s Serve-a-thon, to help bring smiles to young faces, and to let them know that Chicagoans from all over the city and suburbs care about them. Couldn’t make it to volunteer with us this year? Plan to join us next year, and find plenty of volunteer opportunities year-round at http://www.chicagocares.org!
