Community Outreach at the Nineteenth Century Club
Because we believe in good citizenship, The Nineteenth Century Club is always ready to provide a forum to discuss community projects and problems. We regularly donate club meeting space for local groups when the issues are important to the people who live and work here. We also serve as a polling place for two precincts.
Because we love to help a young imagination grow, we offer fun, free programs to the children of our community.
Because we know even the best helping hands can use a little extra assistance, we often reduce or waive our rental fees so other organizations can save expenses when they have their fund-raising events here at the Club.
Here are some of the ways we serve our communities . . .
Community Outreach
May 15, 2009 update - we happily announce the the recycling of TWO truckloads of computers and computer-related components that were brought to our building for pickup by PC Builders and Recyclers.
Due to numerous requests, we are again partnering with PC Builders and Recyclers and offering computer and computer related recyling from February 1 through April 30, 2009. PC Builders and Recylers provides schools, not-for-profit organizations and homes of children-at-risk with quality refurbished computers including service for those computers.
We are happy that we can again offer this opportunity to keep older computers and computer accessories not only out of landfill, but providing other organizations and children with computer equipment.
We are also accepting paper towels, toilet paper and dish detergent for the Animal Care League from February 1 through April 30.
More details about our latest project(s) are on our GO GREEN page.
New ideas and projects come with new members and one of our newest members, Mila Tellez, introduced Contra dancing to members and the public in the western suburbs. The Nineteenth Century club hosted their first Contra Dance on October 9, 2008. Here is Mila's story . . .
"In January of 2008 I was visiting my brother Al Svoboda who had recently retired to Bushnell, Florida. When we arrived he was excited to tell us about a new passion that he had developed since moving to Florida. It was Contra Dancing. I said what? Well that weekend he took us, as well as my sister, to our first Contra Dance. It was held in an old Elks Club and the people, live music, and caller were utterly amazing!! There were a round robin of musicians so that the music never stopped. It was old country music with a number of fiddlers, guitar, piano and violin players. All of this along with an experienced, humorous, and incredibly talented caller.
The caller runs you through a dance to teach you the steps for each dance so that you don't get lost when the music starts to play. He then calls out the moves, and steps during the round. The difference between Contra and Square dancing is that you don't make a square and you move up and down a line with a partner. After every dance you are reminded to change partners, and that is part of the fun. During some of the breaks, there was a table of cookies, crackers, cheese, and other goodies that dancers brought to share with other dancers. It created a wonderful community feeling of togetherness.
The evening of Contra Dancing in Florida was so memorable and energetic, that when I came home I started looking for Contra here in Chicago. There were a few places but they were far from Oak Park. However, I was determined that bringing Contra Dancing to Oak Park because I knew it would serve the Community in many ways. I enrolled the President Sherlynn Reid, our Executive Director, Pat Leavy, and several other members to go on a field trip in early September to the north side of Chicago and experience their first Contra Dance. Needless to say, they loved it!!"
A nominal request for a donation covers the costs of the musicians and the caller. This is done intentionally because the purpose of the Contra dancing is to bring community together in a sharing experience.
Want to join in the fun? Visit Dancing for schedule.
In the fall of 2007 we were discussing ways to provide additional recycling opportunities for our community and the surrounding communities. Since our building is centrally located in the area, we decided to research how we could GO GREEN and also help other community organizations.
Therefore, a main part of our GO GREEN effort has been to partner with other community organizations and assist them with their efforts. We also carefully screened the recycling agencies to assure that they are recycling responsibly.
The response has been very, very successful, in fact, some people drove from both the northern and southen suburbs to take advantage of our computer recycling program in early 2008.
Image at right depicts some of the 2 truckloads of collected computer and related equipment recycled in early 2008.
For more details about our GO GREEN project(s), follow this link:
We donated space for the annual meeting of the Family Service & Mental Health Center of Oak Park & River Forest, a not-for-profit social service and mental health agency licensed by the Illinois Department of Human Services. This agency's work includes:
- Behavioral Healthcare
- Crisis and Emergency Services
- Youth Services
- Psychiatric Rehabilitation
- Prevention and Risk Reduction Service
Optimist Club of Oak Park had their Youth Appreciation Luncheon on November 18 at the Club. The Optimists honored outstanding students in the Oak Park and River Forest area. Their teachers and their parents also attended. To show support for the organization, Club Manager Pat Leavy waived our rental fees.
Gallery Photos
Each Veterans Day the Club invites all local veterans to be our guests at a special program followed by a luncheon. This year we honored 16 vets.
Annually in November the Club displays the hundreds of garments made for premies by members of the Social Welfare Sewing Group. This incredibly dedicated group knits, crochets and sews these garments for donation to local organizations. The Club has suppored this group of nonmembers and members since the 1940's by providing building space and through funding of materials by the Benevolence Fund.
The need for these garments continues to be great and the Sewing Group welcomes you to join them.
Voters turned out in record numbers this November 4.
The "First Lady of Kids' Music," the renowned Ella Jenkins, gave an outstanding performance to an enthusiastic audience of children and their parents at a reduced fee program on March 3 of this year. The Emmy-nominated Chicagoan, Jenkins has entertained and educated four generations of children with her trademark "call and response" style of singing in which she sings either a word, lyric or verse and then has children repeat it. Some of her more famous songs are "You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song" and her rendition of the traditional African-American chant "Mary Mack."
In the accompanying photo, Ella and President, Sherlynn Reid are standing amongst children from the Oak Park-River Forest Day Nursery, a program started by The Nineteenth Century Club in 1912 and still going strong today.
The Day Nursery is the only preschool childcare provider in our aea that provides services to lower-income families that pay tuition according to a sliding fee scale based on family income and size as well as to high-income families paying full tuition. The Day Nursery also accepts very low-income families who qualify for state-subsidized childcare programs and provides scholarships to those moderate- to-low income families who do not qualify for the state program. As a result of the financial assistance provided to families and its participation in the state-subsidized daycare program, the Day Nursery helps parents and families to continue employment, education or training, and thus maintain self-sufficiency.
Gallery Photos
The Club has twice (December 2006 and 2007) been the site of the Ten Thousand Villages sale of distinctive handcrafted holiday gifts and home decor from around the world. The Ten Thousand Villages organization provides vital, fair income to over 60,000 artisans in 33 countries by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. For those who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed, this fair trade income helps pay for food, education, health care and housing and provides stability to families.
The mini-store craft store at our facility was part of the successful community effort to bring that business to Oak Park.
The Club donated space for a lively meeting of area residents with the West Cook YMCA, Oak Park Township, the Oak Park Residence Corporation and Catholic Charities to discuss uses of the YMCA building after the Y moves to a new facility in Forest Park in 2009. More than 250 attended the meeting and made their opinions heard.
The Club offered the ballroom when the Village Manager and developers wanted to hold a public meeting to explain plans for developing the Lake Street - Forest Avenue area. More than 200 interested villagers showed up to ask questions and express their ideas.
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