[Chicago-talk] Dinner Next Week

Mike Fragassi frag at ripco.com
Mon Aug 14 22:13:34 PDT 2006


On Mon, 14 Aug 2006, Joshua McAdams wrote:

> > Ok Josh .. you pick... thursday or friday :)
>
> I'll be greedy and say Thursday because it works better for me...
> seems to work better for most other people too.

OK, then.  But I now feel justified in inflicting upon you a explanation
for why I can't hang out this Thursday.  Every Thursday evening in
Bucktown for the last few years, I've been tutoring middle-schoolers from
the public schools.  (http://www.midtown-metro.org -- and note: I had
*nothing* to do with the making of that site.)

It's basically a Big Brother/Big Sister type program, with a structured
set-up, meeting one student 2 hours a week in a classroom, with other
student/tutor pairs also in the room, and focused on helping them in
school.  The kids in the program all specifically choose to be in it
because they actually want to do better in school, but need extra help:
tutoring, but also maybe motivation, and some role models, i.e., someone
who successfully completed high school, let alone college.  (No joke; the
high school graduation rate in Chicago is only around %55.)

And it so happens that they need volunteers for the fall!  If this sounds
interesting to you, even just to check it out for a week to see if it's
something you want to do, let me know.   If you volunteer, there are 3
possible times to choose: Tuesday evenings, Thursday evenings, or Saturday
mornings (10 to noon).

Now, assuming your spam filters haven't already killed this message, I'd
like to also note that I'm also running a 5k for them this Saturday on the
lakefront.  Although this is my first 5k ever, so by "running" I mean
"attempting to run, probably staggering in a delirious haze after the
halfway point".  So, seeing as you're all going to be having fun without
me, does anyone want to pony up some cash and sponsor me?  Don't do it for
me, do it to ease your guilty consciences for ostracizing me from your
reindeer/camel games.  Oh, and for the children.

-- Mike F.


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