On a tragic day in October 1992, Dantrell Davis, a seven-year-old from Cabrini-Green, was walking to Jenner Elementary School when a gangbanger’s stray bullet ripped through his head, killing him.

Out of Dantrell’s tragedy a volunteer-based organization called Cabrini Connections was born, and since 1993 it has provided invaluable tutoring and mentoring services for kids in living in low-income housing — kids who might otherwise have been out on the streets.

Cabrini Connections, 800 W. Huron, now has started an innovative fundraising campaign called Cabrini Madness. It’s a tournament with 13 teams competing to see which can raise the most donations for the organization by March 21, when the NCAA’s March Madness tournament breaks down to eight teams. Finals are April 5.

The trophy in this tournament isn’t just a gold medal, or a ribbon, it’s the opportunity to keep Cabrini Connections’ services available to students and volunteers for another year, said Daniel Bassill, its founder and president.

Bassill said that while millions of people watched the Super Bowl, the Olympic hockey game between the U.S. and Canada and the annual NCAA basketball tournament this month, “How many are watching how kids and volunteers are connecting in inner city tutor/mentor programs?”

That, according to Bassill, is the challenge being met by the more than 100 team members spreading the word about Cabrini Madness. Using social media, videos and old-fashioned networking, teams have been using all of the creativity they can muster to encourage people to make donations of any size. So far, three teams have raised more than $1,000 each.

“Finding donors and drawing regular attention to tutor/mentor programs is a daily challenge,” Bassill said. “Yet we can’t help inner city kids have a future beyond poverty, if we can’t get the attention of millions of people, and sustain these programs for many years.”

Want to adopt a team? Contact www.giveforward.org/cabrinitmc, www.cabriniconnections.net, or 312-492-9614. You can also help the organization win a year of funding from Pepsi, $250,000, by voting for them at www.refresheverything.com/tutormentorconnection, and encouraging others to do the same. It costs absolutely nothing except a few minutes of your time.

REACHING FOR THE STARS Lake View resident Dawn Arnold, founder of Moving Dock Theatre Co., celebrates the 30th anniversary of National Women’s History Month with two performances this month of “Unsung Stars,” an original new play based on the lives and accomplishments of early women astronomers.

“Unsung Stars,” is the true story of the women who measured the heavens at the Harvard Observatory. It’s being performed next week at the Adler Planetarium, 1300 S. Lake Shore Drive.

“Since the very first days of our work on this show, I envisioned doing it at the Adler,” said Arnold. “I could see it in my mind. I also knew it would be the best place to engage people in this particular story. It’s a wonderful confluence between science and the arts.”

The play will see first light (a phrase borrowed from astronomy — referring to the first time a telescope is opened) March 18 and 19. The first show is part of the Adler After Dark series, the second is a benefit with a post-performance panel discussion with physicist Alan Lightman, Ph.D., Adler astronomer Michael Smutko, Ph.D., and Arnold.

“We are hoping to get people to come out and support ‘Unsung Stars’ so that we in turn can inspire their inner high reach, just like the ladies of the Harvard Observatory,” said Arnold.

Sounds like it should be a stellar show. Details: www.movingdock.org or 773-327-1572.

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By Daniel Bassill from Near North
Posted: 04/01/2010 8:39 AM

Thank you for continuing to tell your readers about the work we do at Cabrini Connections. Many people think that Cabrini Green no longer has kids who need help. That's not true. We have a full roster of 7th to 12th grade teens with us, and many will need continued support for many years, just to finish high school, and many more years to find their way to jobs out of poverty. Finding the money to do this work has always been difficult. I hope some of your readers will become our benefactors.