Tag Archives: Community Service

Summer 2025

Community Service Committee Annual Report – 2024-25

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In 2024-2025, the Community Service Committee was chaired by Leah Whitesel.

The members of the committee were Jim Fortsas, Kristen Naik, and Julie Melvin.

Volunteer Opportunities
We successfully coordinated the following three volunteering opportunities from September 2024 to March 2025:

Fundraisers at Business Meetings
Additionally, in conjunction with each of the quarterly CALL Business Meetings, a specific organization was selected that met the charitable organization selection criteria created by the Executive Board. CALL membership was encouraged to make monetary donations to the following entities:

This approach of direct donation did not permit us to track the total number or dollar amount of donations made by CALL membership to each organization.

However, each organization could accept donations via credit card and/or PayPal, so we are confident that CALL members who wished to make donations were able to do so quickly and conveniently.

Winter 2025

CALL Goes to the Friendship Center

5 CALL members in front of a brightly colored mural

Five CALL members volunteered at The Friendship Center on Nov. 2. The Friendship Center is a full-choice food pantry serving neighborhoods on the northwest side of Chicago. The Center also provides dog and cat food, as well as other pet supplies.

CALL volunteers sorted donations to stock the pantry and helped prepare for The Friendship Center’s pet food pantry next week. The total amount of food added up to 1,440 meals.

Thank you to all CALL members who donated their time.

Fall 2022

Community Service Beach Clean Up

 

In conjunction with the September CALL Business Meeting, the Community Service Committee coordinated a beach cleaning event.

CALL members Don Mac Gregor, Carrie Port, Mike McMillan, and Jack Door (pictured here) participated in an Adopt-a-Beach event at Montrose Beach coordinated through the Alliance for the Great Lakes. 

Continue reading Community Service Beach Clean Up →

Winter 2022, Community Service

CALL Volunteers Help GCFD to Wrap up 2021

The Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD) is Chicago’s food bank and partners with over 700 local agencies and food assistance programs, including pantries, soup kitchens and shelters for children, older adults and veterans to fight hunger.

They rely on volunteers to repackage bulk amounts of food into smaller, shareable quantities that can be distributed throughout the Chicagoland area and Cook County.

On December 4, 2021, five (5) CALL members volunteered at the GCFD to do just that. Continue reading CALL Volunteers Help GCFD to Wrap up 2021 →

Fall 2021

Committee Roundup: Community Service Montrose Beach Cleanup

October 9th was a beautiful sunny day in Chicago. On that day eight CALL volunteers assembled at Montrose Beach with our garbage bags and rubber gloves and got down to business collecting trash. And there was plenty of garbage to be found, unfortunately. As we walked along the waterfront, everything from food wrappers and pieces of broken toys to Bulls baseball hats and cell phone accessories mingled with the sand and surf. Small bits of plastic are a disproportionately large pollution hazard that can travel well beyond the lakefront shore when wildlife fatally ingest them. Our group sent at least eight garbage bags of trash off to the landfill, a great start to getting some of the mess contained for proper disposal.  Continue reading Committee Roundup: Community Service Montrose Beach Cleanup →

Spring 2019, Community Service

Volunteer Day at Greater Chicago Food Depository

Packing Pears at Greater Chicago Food Depository
packing pears

On Saturday, March 9, 2019,  the Community Service Committee organized a trip to the Greater Chicago Food Depository with nine volunteers, to help repack bulk fruit for distribution to local shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries.

At the February 2019 Business Meeting, CALL’s Community Service Committee collected $249 in cash donations for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and 4 bags of non-perishable food for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Continue reading Volunteer Day at Greater Chicago Food Depository →

Spring 2018

CALL Community Service Committee Benefits the Greater Chicago Food Depository

As has become tradition with the CALL Community Service Committee, this February we collected donations to benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository. At the February Business Meeting, we collected several grocery bags of food donations and $203 in cash donations. Combined with the generous donations made through our virtual food drive, CALL members gave a total of $576.58. Why such an usual total? The food bank’s Virtual Food Drive provided an opportunity for donors to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, protein, and dairy for the food depository to distribute through its large network of agency partners throughout the city. Donors were able to purchase items such as a case of canned tuna ($23.48), a case of 9 gallons of milk ($13.64), or 50 lbs. of carrots ($26.50). Continue reading CALL Community Service Committee Benefits the Greater Chicago Food Depository →