Hope On Tap was a simple event.

Before coming to the simple yet effective formula for the occasion, we hit a few bumps along the way.

It began as an idea to throw a sizable poker tournament. We had this large vision of ten or so tables with certified dealers in a Chicago
warehouse space.

Tall ceilings. DJ. Catering. Open bar. I think someone even talked about trying to tap a celebrity to show up and play.

But as we tried to put the grand idea into effect, it became clear that aside from being outside our resources reach, the event might not be effective as a fundraiser.

That and it takes years to get the liquor license we would’ve needed, and we had months at best.

As David Byrne once said, “If the curtain opened and everything was there, there’d be nowhere to go.”

In other words, we still have room to spread out.

So we changed it to a simple gathering at a bar, with some snacks and the chance to win a slew of generously donated raffle prizes.

It really doesn’t take much to lead to a worthwhile and positive result.

That’s the whole point of the Impact House itself.

All of us at Purse of Hope and Total Impact House would like to thank the following organizations and people for contributing:

-Artist Allen Vandever

-Abt Electronics

-Bone Roofing Supply, Inc.

-Gil and Cindy Pontius

-Hyatt Regency at McCormick Place

-GLO Airbrush Tan

-La Ciudad Mexican Grill and Cafe

-Lifeline Theatre

-The Chicago White Sox

-Joey’s Brickhouse

-El Jardin Cafe

-Tweet

-Spa Forever

-Silver Wrapper

-Jam Productions

-Nisei Lounge

-Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea

-Julius Meinl

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.”
-Mother Theresa

Though the Hope On Tap fund-raiser might not have earned any of us Mother Theresa status, it did show that we were willing to answer her challenge with an emphatic, “Okay then, we will!” The result: a successful event replete with contagious celebration and goodwill.

As simple as it may seem conceptually, we all know showing up for things still takes effort. By doing so, you demonstrated to the girls that they are worth it. This is a brand new concept for most of them. When they see the pictures from the event and the signs and the people in attendance, they will have that much more comprehension of what it means to be valued. “All of these people showed up for us?” They will ask in disbelief. It may take a while, but eventually their confusion will be replaced by, “Wow, all of these people showed up for us!” And they will then make the same effort to show up for someone else.

As the Founder of Purse of Hope, I had a unique perspective that night. With our girls being on the other side of the world, I was the privileged recipient of your efforts by proxy. My heart was flooded by the overall vibe of enthusiasm, compassion, generosity and the earnest desire to affect real change. Because I know both sides, I wanted to scream, “It will! It really will affect change, you guys!” But we didn’t have a mic. So let me tell you now—it will!

Again, I thank you for believing in these girls. They already know that life is a challenge. Together, we are giving them the opportunity to see that it is also a dream and they are allowed to realize it.

-Kristen

Take a look at other pictures of the event.

We hope to see you at the next one.

A toast in just about any language means the same thing.

To life, to health, to happiness and often a ‘thanks’ for these things. Aside from a few contextual differences here and there, it’s a safe assumption that each language has some version close to it.

We would like you all to join us this Friday in Chicago for a resounding toast in honor of everyone that have made Purse of Hope and the Impact House a reality, including the woman living there.

We have a come a long way, but we have further to go.

There are still 14 empty beds at the house, waiting to be filled.

Obligate yourself by going on to our Facebook event page, and face taunting jeers if you don’t come.

Some people think greater use of the Internet will only drive people apart.

Now people were clearly built for activities other than sitting at a desk, hammering away at a keyboard. But the video above certainly proves we can use this technology in meaningful ways.

Please enjoy the lades’ responses to our own video diaries we sent that can be seen on Purse of Hope’s Youtube channel.

It was time for a change.

Since we started participating in the Total Impact House with Purse of Hope, we have used SCRUM to help organize our efforts. SCRUM is used in software development to break down a whole project into all of the tasks that need to be completed. Each single task is written on notes so they can be physically seen, instead of just being known in the mind of a project manager. The visibility of a SCRUM board, with columns marking whether a task needs to be started, is in progress or is finished, allows for a decentralized effort. People can pick up tasks and just do them without needing approval from some bureaucrat.

It’s a big help especially when we still need to do our jobs while working on Impact House efforts at the same time.

Our old SCRUM board needed some improvements. It wasn’t focused enough, but then again maybe we weren’t either.

As far as function, it was used a lot. But looking carefully on the old board’s left side, where projects are listed, there were simply too many efforts going at the same time. In one spot, it appears a project was turned into two sub-projects. That’s not as efficient as this process should be.

It was time for an overhaul.

Aside from streamlining a new board to focus more tightly on a few projects at one time, we wanted the board to be expressive. We added a roof to the board, hung the painting made for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, put up a chalkboard next to the SCRUM area for notes and hung a suggestions envelope.

We also made room for a photo area with small pictures of the women living at the Impact House and added a time line marking our efforts month by month.

The best part of this new approach is that so far it’s working. Within a month, we completed two of the original four projects put up. We made video postcards, with Total Attorneys staff simply describing themselves on camera and also asking questions of everyone in Uganda. While we are still working on fund raising, we also want to communicate with the growing number of women and supporters in Uganda who are now a part of this. We also just held a computer drive to sell old computers, with proceeds going to the house.

The video postcards have been put online for folks at the Impact House to see, and the computer drive is underway. People have purchased 14 computers so far, and we are expecting to sell 20 total.

But the biggest news is a date and location has been set for our first fundraiser event that will be run entirely by our Chicago-area volunteers.

Think of this as an early invitation to join us at State in Chicago, 935 W. Webster Ave., on Friday, April 9 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. for a happy hour. We will be holding a raffle for donated prizes and possibly a silent auction.

We are looking for raffle prizes, so if you know of anyone with goods to donate – electronics, gift cards, artwork, comic relief, anything – contact Kelly Muir, one of our tireless organizers, at kmuir (at) totalattorneys.com.

The event is a slightly scaled back effort from a poker tournament we had originally talked about, but we decided to take the cannonball off the side of the pool before going for the double back flip off the high dive.

Besides, change is good.

New Impact House SCRUM Board from Total Attorneys on Vimeo.

This is just a guess, but it seems like they’re enjoying the visit.

We’ll have more on the Scanlans’ trip to Uganda soon.

Look out as well for an update on our upcoming Chicago area fundraiser, and video message “post cards” featuring Total Attorneys staff that were just completed.

We’d like everyone at the Impact House to get to know us in Chicago a little better, especially since we get to hear so much about them.

But in the meantime…

Holidays are supposed to be a time when everything comes together.

The weeks leading up to late December come with this belief that we can ascend past all struggles. We can make everything right, seemingly perfect.

The idea certainly isn’t a bad thing, but it doesn’t always work like that.

When things don’t exactly work out, people get mad. Really mad. Sometimes people get mad just trying to make the holidays fit that idyllic fantasy. Hearing about a person losing his life when others are determined to be the first to buy a gift has got to be the farthest thing from the “holiday spirit.”

There were no gift-related deaths this year and some of the big retail stores learned their lesson.

But a question remains. How do we make sure as individual people that something like that never happens again?

Perhaps that accident happened in the first place because we don’t exactly look at holidays the best way we can. Maybe we get selfish. Maybe on some level we only want great change for ourselves. It brings to mind an old biblical saying, “If I am not for myself who will be for me? And If I’m only for me what am I?”

Thinking and acting for yourself doesn’t make anyone a bad person. But if we get so narrow that we forget we have a strong ability to help those around us with simple acts, we might find ourselves without support if we need it.

There has to be balance somewhere. If nothing else, we can keep an eye for situations where we can help ourselves and others at the same time. Buying gifts from charitable organizations to give to your loved ones, whether during the holidays or not, is one really simple way to achieve that balance.

Purse of Hope set up shop at Total Attorneys toward the end of December to sell goods made by the women living in the Impact House. In just a couple hours over two days we raised almost double the money raised throughout the entire Hyde Park Jazz Fest.

Let us find the clarity to see chances where we can both help ourselves and others in need. And in doing so, we can show people we help that they can lend us a hand just the same.

Purse of Hope Booth at TA from Total Attorneys on Vimeo.

Origins of the holiday pin it starting around 2,000 years by Celts living in what is now Ireland, other parts of the United Kingdom and Northern France. Called Samhain (pronounced sow-een), the festival marked the end of fall and harvest season just before winter began.

Winter often meant death in some form, so the Celts believed ghosts returned to Earth on Samhain, giving people a touch of clairvoyance with their presence. People wore animal heads and skins to befuddle the ghosts and attempted to read each other’s futures.

Trick or treating stemmed from people asking for alms during All Souls’ Day, a Roman Catholic holiday where people prayed for departed loved ones. “Soul cakes” were given to the poor in exchange for their prayers for the deceased.

With Samhain happening toward the end of October and All Souls’ Day falling on early November, over time the two merged into the cavity-inducing excuse to dress ridiculously we enjoy today.

Between Tim Burton film characters, video game heroes, live action plays on words, historical figures, beloved cartoon characters and a walking version of Tetris with music, staff at Total Attorneys came up with a clever array of costumes for Halloween 2009. Throughout the day’s festivities on Friday Oct. 30, money was raised for the Total Impact House, in the spirit of old and new Halloween.

Looking silly and sustaining the Impact House seem to be going well together.

Halloween 2009 at Total Attorneys from Total Attorneys on Vimeo.

Mustaches and generosity. There can be a connection.

It’s not any more far fetched than using one’s feet to play a guitar.

Convincing people to support a cause doesn’t always have to involve a guilt-laced stab at the heart. It doesn’t always need weighty retellings of tragic, random circumstances and despondent imagery of poverty and violence. Support can also be encouraged even without galvanizing tales of people rising out of awful situations to reclaim their lives – like the women at Total Impact House.

Fostering a desire to help can be as simple as saying, “Want to see your co-workers look ridiculous for a little while?”

The “Uganda Nice Stache” mustache growing contest came out of brainstorming discussions among the crafty Total Impact House committee members here in Chicago. With a few fliers, emails and message board posts, over $1,350 was raised for the women in Uganda. Of course, we also needed willing participants to forgo their face grooming for a few weeks.

On Oct. 2, staff at Total Attorneys gave money in the name of their favorite lip coiffure. There were a bevy of choices: handle bars, colonial style lip-to-chop connectors, weird zig zag-looking things that probably haven’t been named yet, barely noticeable stubble and even a pencil thin John Waters homage.

Aside from harnessing the unforeseen power of facial hair, Chicago was also treated to a visit from Purse of Hope founder Kristen Hendricks. She shared details of her first meeting with the women at Impact House and described the surrounding rural area.

“It takes the girls out of the city and puts them into a family neighborhood,” she said. “Their stories are amazing. They’re tough people, they are used to adversity.”

Hendricks described the joy seen in the women’s faces when they found out they all would be staying at the Impact House. But she also explained what the women went through before reaching their new home.

“Just when you think you’ve heard the most depraved, sick thing it gets worse,” Hendricks said. “And here’s the person sitting right next to you who went through this torture. It’s not some abstract thing. It’s done to real people and it happens all the time.”

Down the road for Chicago-area action, Total Impact House volunteers will be at the Paula Varsalona fashion show this Saturday as part of the Fashion Focus Chicago events. They will be operating a booth and giving out information about the House.

Also, a sizable event solely for the Impact House is in the works to happen tentatively in January 2010, and it might involve a poker tournament. Other sightings and happenings are to come.

In the meantime, the mustaches.

In order of appearance: Adam Partyka, Andrew Kaplan, Bill Barnes, Bob Hannon, Bret Libigs, David Dahl, Denis Dwyer (Conan O’Brien didn’t participate but he probably wanted to on some level), Ed Scanlan, Erik Stokes, Guy Suesuntisook, Jason Priestas, Karl Freischlag, Josh Havenga, Jeff Steinberg, Jackson Fothergill, Rick Leitch, Mark Sadegi, Ryan Burns, Scott Hogan, Scott Pauly, Tom Muir, Timothy Currier, Tom Roberts, Will Reigle, Zach Walsh, Tristan Milner and Vamsi Nadimpalli

{Painting by Betsy Cypert}

It could have gone a lot of different ways.

It’s a safe guess that people attending an outdoor jazz festival would certainly be sympathetic to helping women start their lives anew after great mistreatment, but how willing would they be to actually help? Would people really be inclined to spend money in support of women they don’t know, especially when today’s economic woes are widespread?

We couldn’t have asked for a better response.

On September 26, over $800 was raised for the women at Total Impact House from a tent at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. During the annual gathering in the central green space of University of Chicago’s campus, we sold vibrantly colored necklaces, bracelets and earrings that are handmade by the women at Impact House through a process that turns strip of recycled paper into beads. While the bracelets and necklaces seemed to grab the most interest from our visitors, the purses, laptop bags, aprons and wrap skirts sparked their share of recognition.

The day started out overcast and murky, but that didn’t seem to affect the attendees’ moods. People who stopped at the tent were eager to learn more about the House and the women.  Many stuck around to share tales of their own work with charities, the joys of New Orleans radio and spontaneously ending up at the fest, without any intention of going.

Since it was our first attempt at raising money and awareness for the House outside of the Total Attorneys confines in the Loop, something had to wrong. It’s a distinct, almost ritualistic aspect of a first attempt at anything. The first time I tried riding a scooter, I flooded the engine, lost control as the scooter suddenly shot forward and flew off after hitting a nearby curb.

Fortunately, the only thing we were missing that day was an Internet connection to relay details as time went by through Twitter and other online means.

But a wise teacher once said, “Never depend on gear, especially anything electronic.”

Long before wifi, laptops and phones that really are small computers, we sent messages through written words.  So, to give a rundown of the day, I present “Analog” Twitter:

1 p.m.:  “Teaching” the Impact House to passersby, beyond just the jewelry and bags. Seeing people’s eyes with the signature “light up” effect when they find out the House supports women who escaped the sex trade.

1:30 p.m.: A nice woman named Evelyn bought the best apron, one of the two blue ones with all of the Eastern Hemisphere countries on it.

1:35 p.m.:  A woman and her son got really excited about the colors on one of the bracelets. Wide open mouths as they flipped through the choices.

1:40 p.m.: The sun finally came out! A mother and her daughters came directly from the Chicago-area run that morning, and are fascinated by the recycled-paper beads.

2:15 p.m.:  A couple from New Orleans are in a long conversation with Clé Torres about WWOZ 90.7 FM, a legendary NOLA radio station. They’re interested in the aprons too. Who knew?

2:24 p.m.: Eyes are still getting big when we explain the cause. Adam Mikolaj and Clé are savvy salespeople, tag teaming everyone passing us. “Hi, how are you?” goes a long way.

2:33 p.m.: Adam made a good point. “It’d be helpful to know the region of Uganda that the house is in.” And the region is Gulu!

2:42 p.m.: An attorney from Madison is talking with us about how she can fix up her website.

2:51 p.m.: A woman said she wasn’t planning on stopping at the Jazz Fest, but she got out of her car, heard the music, and found the nearest parking spot. She said, “I fell in love with this jewelry right away! All the colors, and it’s for a good cause.”

2:53 p.m.: Another passerby suggested we sell the goods on a website…hmm…

3:15 p.m.: A woman with her glasses hanging from her shirt button suggested the women use their method for making purses to make cases for glasses.  She said she really could use a case about now.

3:45 p.m.: A young man just walked up, overheard what the House is about, and said, “I don’t want anything, but here’s some money.” He then dropped a five dollar bill on the table and then walked away. Thanks?

4:02 p.m.: Sharon Spinos really wanted to buy Betsy’s painting. She suggested more paintings be made to sell for the Impact House.

4:20 p.m.: Jason Taylor, Jessica Stephens and Brian Ott arrive. Immediately the energy goes up. Jessica puts the necklaces on everyone, and Jason figures out a way to use his iPhone for credit card purchases.

4:30 p.m.:  I run into a friend, Steve, who tells me about Tatsu Aoki, an upright bassist who plays with Japanese Taiko drums along with his band. That’s right. This is a jazz fest.

5 p.m.: Edwin Sanchez’s Latin Band put a Salsa twist on “Don’t Mean A Thing if Ain’t Got That Swing.”

5:20 p.m.: Back at the tent. In 30 minutes, Jason completely redid the table arrangement and has his laptop streaming videos taken at the House. Call it Taylor Feng Shui. Jessica is captivating passersby with her take on the “cause” speech.

5:55 p.m.: “I think it’s time for my first beer,” Jason said.

6:25 p.m.: Guy Suesuntisook, wearing a headband, and me, wearing a headband and apron, do a lap around the tents and the sitting area to see if we can take the show with us on a walk. Didn’t work so well…

6:30 p.m.: Tristan, who had been laboring for at least two hours on a sign to explain the tent, the sales and the cause is finally finished. At times, he looked as serious as a surgeon.

6:45 p.m.: A man holding his young daughter talks with us about a church effort he was just a part of to raise enough money to feed 20,000 kids in Kenya for a period of time. The look in his eye says he is very pleased with Impact House, but he isn’t quite as surprised like many other people.

So, a reader might at this point ask, “How do we know this ‘Analog’ Twitter is real?”

The proof:

A sizable thank you is in order to all who participated: Kelly and Tom Muir, Adam Mikolaj, Sarah Widner, Ellen Margovsky, Clé Torres, Jessica Stephens, Jason Taylor, Morgan Brickley, Brian Ott, Colleen Dorn, Jon Olen, Ryan Postel and Guy Suesuntisook. And a special thanks to Tristan Milner for his painstakingly precise efforts on the sign, which led to more people stopping by.

See the other pictures here and here.

Results of our charity mustache-growing contest for the Impact House will be up next.

Is there such a thing as facial artistry? If not, facial comedy should suffice.

Stay Aware.