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Health & Fitness

Warriors Dance the Night Away at 3rd Annual Night for Opportunities Gala

But if you were there, chances are you would say that the evening's true high point was when ten OK Participants performed 'Dancing with the Warriors,' encapsulating more than 450...

Some might say that the highlight of Opportunity Knock’s April 14th Night for Opportunities Gala was the live auction, when in a matter of twenty minutes, more than $20,000 was raised. Others might say that highlight came when the Carmody Brothers made a special request from the crowd to help raise money for a new bus and the crowd responded by offering a total of $35,000. All told, the event’s net proceeds exceeded the $90,000 mark, making it the largest OK fundraiser to date, so you could technically call the whole event a highlight.

But if you were there, chances are you would say that the evening’s true high point was when eight OK Participants performed ‘Dancing with the Warriors’ in front of a completely encapsulated crowd of more than 450 people.

It was a five-part performance that was rehearsed during the ‘Ballroom Dancing’ activities over the past two program sessions at OK and all eyes in the room were glued to the dance floor when the program began with a salsa by Rebecca McIntyre & Jarvis Hart. Following the salsa was a waltz by Racheal Rice & Scott Birkentall, the tango by Andrew Effgen & Jackie Finn, the swing by Georgia Hunter & Charlie O’Connor and the show stopper came from Bill Canavan, Mike Phelan and Darius Nichols when they ‘Taught us How to Dougie.’ At the conclusion of ‘The Dougie,’ the room erupted with applause, as the Warriors high-fived and hugged congratulations on their performance.

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After ‘Dancing with the Warriors’ came the live auction at the conclusion of which, Mike and Phil Carmody took the stage to make a special request of the crowd to help ‘Fund-A-Need’, asking for assistance in building a fund for the purchase of a new van. Prior to their presentation, word of this request had reached a very generous and anonymous donor who pledged to match up to $20,000 of donations received from the crowd.  With an awe-inspiring collective effort, the guests on hand offered up more than $17,000 for the van. Collectively they raised nearly $35,000, putting them within $15,000 of their goal to purchase the vehicle. The fundraising effort will continue in the coming weeks.

The van need has been an increasingly growing concern at Opportunity Knocks. Program enrollment has continued to increase, resulting in the need for more community-based activity offerings and demanding a more accessible and larger means of transportation for the program. Close to 12 participants per day are leaving the OK home base for activities at a community partner’s facility. The current vehicle is more than 18 years old, not a wheelchair accessible vehicle and is reaching a state of disrepair that will soon remove it from service.

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The live auction fell between the dancing and the van request and featured some great surprise items donated on the spot that night, including five tickets to a first-round Bulls Playoff game and 25 tickets to a Cubs game that included the honor of throwing out the first pitch. The star of the live auction was surely the 12-week-old Shorty Bulldog puppy, Spike, who found himself a great new owner.

The evening’s program also included honors to the The Board’s Director of the Year, Karen Hunter; Auxiliary Board Member of the Year, Tim Caronti and the Program Support(s) of the Year Maria Prevolos, Mike Eggum and Helen ‘Honey’ Badger.

Additional honors were presented through OK’s ‘Key Awards’, an award to recognize the organization’s community partners who have made outstanding contributions to the program. This year’s winners were the River Forest Community Center, accepted by Executive Director, Dick Chappell and Greenline Wheels, accepted by Director of Programs, Abigail Miller.

The evening’s final honors, The Warrior of the Year, were presented posthumously to Brian Jones, a Warrior who lost his life to illness earlier this year. In an emotionally charged speech, Michael Carmody presented the award to Brian’s parents Sheila Neil and Anthony Jones and proclaimed that the ‘Warrior of the Year’ award would be dedicated from here forward in Brian’s name.

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