Community Corner

A Night For Opportunities: The Opportunity Knocks Benefit

On the heels of the celebration of the one-year anniversary of the opening of their after-school programs, Opportunity Knocks will host the 2nd Annual Night for Opportunities, it’s first marquee event of 2011 on Saturday, April 2nd at The Carleton of Oak Park.

This gala benefit event will feature food and fun that includes fare of cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, raffles, auctions and live music from the band How Far to Austin.

The evening’s ceremonies will be highlighted by the Volunteers of the Year Awards, a feature short film produced by the OK Warriors and a well-stocked live auction.

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This year’s live auction includes exciting one-week vacations to an estate in Naples,Florida that sleeps 13, a seaside condo in Sea Pines Longboat Key, Florida, a mountainside ski resort in Steamboat, Colorado and a lake house in Long Beach, Michigan that sleeps 10.

Also included in the auction are an in-home cooking class with Rosebud’s Executive Chef Mike Ponzio, a landscaping package from Oak Park’s award-winning Harrington Design and the remodeling homeowner’s dream package that includes the donations from professional tradesman from project start to finish.

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“We had tremendous success in our first year of hosting this event,” said Opportunity Knocks Board President Phil Carmody. “It’s exciting to take an event into its’ second year and try to make it better. We’ve got some incredible auction items, an awesome band and the Carleton does a tremendous job putting out the spread.”

All proceeds from this event will go to benefit the local non-profit Opportunity Knocks and their mission to provide opportunities and resources for individuals with developmental disabilities so they may pursue their educational, occupational and social interests.

Opportunity Knocks is a completely privately funded non-profit organization and relies on these events to offer effective and meaningful programming to the developmentally disabled population in the Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park communities.

Since it’s inception more than a year ago, OK has served more than 35 local ‘Warriors’ to their brand of programming. The programs offer developmentally disabled teens and young adults between the ages of 15 and 30 the opportunity to explore activities of all kinds, from yoga to archery.

Unique to their programs is the inclusion of the participant in the development of each program session’s activities.

Through a series of dynamic surveys, the OK staff employs the OK participant as an equal architect in program development.

“This is one of our cornerstones,” said Executive Director Michael Carmody. “Not to say that we’ve reinvented the wheel here, but we believe strongly in this effort toward empowerment. By allowing them to have that much of an effect on what we do here, I think we accomplish that in some respect.”

A Night for Opportunities will take place on Saturday April 2, 2011 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at The Carleton of Oak Park, located at 1110 Pleasant St. in downtown Oak Park.

Tickets are $75 and can be pre-purchased online at www.opportunityknocksnow.org or at the door.

Ticket price includes four hours of open bar, passed hors d’oeuvres, carving stations, dessert, coffee and complimentary valet parking. Semi-formal attire is encouraged.


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