It’s the 5th Annual Elizabeth I. Benson Awards, and we’re honoring Ken Dunn, founder of the Resource Center and City Farm!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ
615 W. Wellington Avenue (Lakeview)
Suggested Donation $15 (no one will be turned away)

We hope you’ll join us for an evening of inspiration and fun (and all those other words that prompted you to open this email). After all, where else can you go to see and interact with WCPT’s Mike Nowak from WCPT’s “Mike Nowak Show”, and not only hear, but sing along with The Bullfrogs Community Choir? And…there will be testimonials from fans and friends whose lives have been changed by Ken over the years, hors d’oeuvres provided by Frontera Grill and North Pond Café, and wine by Bodega Ramos.

So who is this “soon to be honored” Ken Dunn? Ken is a visionary who put his ideas into practice:

* In 1975 he founded the Resource Center, the south side-based nonprofit that now has 20 employees running recycling, composting, job training, and community gardening programs. The Resource center also initiated the bike rebuilding program that is now run by the Experimental Station on Chicago’s south side.

* In 2000, Ken started City Farm, an organic garden cultivated on a vacant lot in the middle of the Cabrini-Green public housing development that employs neighborhood residents and sells vegetables to local restaurants and walk-in customers.

These projects demonstrate that it’s not only possible, but preferable to create local economic systems that don’t exploit people and resources, but instead work with our natural environment and, at the same time, provide opportunities for meaningful employment. In Ken’s words: “We need to create an alternative on a scale that can’t be dismissed, and that showcases the pleasure and beauty of life values—of being in the right place with plants, animals, and people.”

Check out Wellington’s website, where you not only can buy tickets, but also can become a sponsor for this event. Do consider joining us …. we promise to put a smile on your face, and shine a light into what good things each of us can do when we dream the possible and join forces for change!

Questions? Contact Pam at: pr******@ec*********************.org or 773.556.3418.