Latest news with #BEDSPlus
Chicago Tribune
06-05-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
BEDS Plus fundraiser puts spotlight on survivors of domestic violence
Five years ago, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Erin Molek asked her friend Mike McNamara to help her raise money for women who had experienced domestic violence. In her work at BEDS Plus, the La Grange non-profit addressing homelessness in the southwest suburbs, she had noticed a surge in battered women needing assistance. McNamara, a mortgage banker with OriginPoint, said Molek requested help raising money. 'She said we're paying for hotels and for people to find safety,' he recalled. 'So I did.' But it was tricky trying to organize events amid the pandemic, he said, as sheltering in place became the rule of the day. But BEDS Plus supporters found a way. 'We got together and raised money,' McNamara said. 'It's great.' So began the tradition of the BEDS Plus yearly fundraiser specifically for battered women. This year's event, titled the Road to Independence, was at Imperial Oak Brewing in Brookfield, directly across the street from the BEDS Plus facility in La Grange. About 150 people paid $30 each for tickets, which included an Imperial Oak Celebration Ale, live music, door prizes, a split the pot raffle and live auctions. There was also a Harley Davidson photo booth and access to Monk's Food Truck. 'It's a personal thing for me,' McNamara said, explaining that a family member had been in a long-term abusive relationship. 'She has been away from her abuser for 20 years, and she was with him for 19. She's doing much better, and she is here for the first time.' McNamara stressed abusive relationships are more common than many think. 'There are what I call the invisible women in every neighborhood, and you don't know it,' he said. 'They don't want you to know, that's why they're invisible. They're struggling with a level of domestic violence you probably don't know about. Donating to programs like BEDS Plus helps them get on their feet because they have the programs that will give them counseling and job assistance and, of course, safe housing, and the transportation to get to a job.' McNamara noted that having transportation was the main thing that allowed his sister to gain her independence and singled out Illinois Harley Davidson of Countryside for special thanks for their yearly support. 'We're just excited about the neighborhood feel and that everyone in the neighborhood is behind us,' said Molek, development manager at BEDS Plus. 'How our community comes out to support women who were victims is special.' Other BEDS Plus staff praised the turnout and support. 'This is always an amazing event and we're so appreciative of Mike and what he does for us,' said Terri Rivera, chief advancement officer. 'To bring awareness of the violence programs and assistance, and we appreciate the community coming out to support it.' Miriam Martinez, manager of families in transition, talked about her experiences with the organization. 'So I started working with BEDS Plus as a volunteer,' she said. 'And I was really passionate about working with the homeless population. I'd never had that experience before, so I was really happy to be involved.' Martinez talked about serving various functions at the organization before becoming involved with the victims of crime. 'A lot of the victims of crime that we were encountering were survivors of domestic violence and survivors of sexual assault.'
Chicago Tribune
04-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Soup takes center stage at sold out BEDS Plus fundraiser
Juan Silva ladled out a portion of his abuela's chicken tortilla soup Sunday along with a sizable helping of empathy during the 13th annual Soup and Bread benefit hosted by BEDS Plus. 'My motto is that nobody will ever go hungry on my watch,' said Silva, a former La Grange Park trustee who owns Beach Avenue BBQ in Brookfield, who was among those serving up a variety of warm soups at the Holiday Inn in Countryside. 'If I can support a cause like this, I will always do it.' BEDS Plus executive director Tina Rounds said the idea for Soup and Bread arose from a similar, but slightly different, event many years ago at The Hideout, a Lincoln Park Music Venue. 'I thought it would be a good way to communicate our mission out to people,' she said. For $30 per person, an estimated crowd of 800 people interested in helping end homelessness in the area could sample 22 different soups, including newcomers like Beach Avenue BBQ and Happier Now in La Grange Park, and longtime participants like the Irish Times, also in Brookfield. A silent auction in the main banquet hall accepted bids on items ranging from Disney vacation getaways, a Colorado mountain retreat trip, White Sox tickets and sports memorabilia autographed by hockey greats Bobby Orr and Stan Mikita. Musical acts such as the August James Band playing classic blues, the Vaughn Building playing classic rock music and Crows of Furey playing eclectic covers provided the soundtrack for the evening while Marko the Roving Magician offered an element of surprise. But the main attractions were the soups. Carpi Ristorante Italiano in Palos Heights served pasta fagioli; Brookfield's Irish Times, a Soup and Bread participant from the beginning, offered corned beef and cabbage; Prasino in downtown La Grange brought its cream of mushroom soup; and the Works Hideout in nearby Summit served up chicken dumpling soup. 'This is our second year and it just seems like it's getting bigger and bigger,' Nanette Pecoraro, owner of Antonino's Ristorante in La Grange, said while serving the restaurant's minestrone soup. 'We're getting more and more people volunteering, more people with their soups. It's really popular.' Buck's Pit Stop in Hodgkins served vegetable beef soup doled out by Brian Centers and Julie Wilson. 'I've been volunteering here at BEDS Plus for about 20 years, Julie has been about six years,' Centers said. 'This is about the sixth year I've done Soup and Bread. I've been a volunteer with BEDS for some time. We used to work out of churches.' La Grange officials said the annual fundraiser illustrates the kindness of people in the area. 'This is a great family friendly event for a very worthy cause, with a lot of wonderful people from our community in support of our local businesses,' said Charity Jones, the village's community development director. 'It's really what makes small businesses so special, how they give back to the community.' That included several area providers of libations, including breweries such as La Grange Park's Hop District, Brookfield's Imperial Oak Brewery, La Grange's Milk Money Brewing and BuckleDown Brewing in Lyons, all which served craft beers. Cooper's Hawk Winery and Restaurant served its red and white selections while WhistlePig Whiskey sent representatives from Vermont to offer samples of their rye and bourbon whiskies. 'It's really nice to see all the restaurants that want to contribute,' La Grange President Mark Kuchler said.
Chicago Tribune
04-02-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Point in Time census offers glimpse into suburban homelessness
After years of conducting annual counts to gauge how many people in the area are experiencing homelessness, the team from La Grange-based BEDS Plus have a good idea where to look. 'We come up with hot spots, where we've either met with people in the past or areas where we think people might be,' said Zac Catrambone, BEDS Plus manager of street outreach. Those hot spots include hospital emergency rooms, libraries and gas stations, as well as less obvious places, Catrambone said. 'Twenty-four hour laundromats, park district buildings, or parking garages, like the La Grange Parking Garage on the third floor,' he listed. 'In the winter they rope off that top deck and it's heated up there. (If) they're not able to go to any shelter, or they don't want to go to a shelter … it's a place where they can get out of the elements.' Catrambone was advising volunteers taking part in the annual Point in Time Count on Jan. 29. Sponsored by the Alliance to End Homelessness, the effort serves as a 'homeless census,' on both a national and a local level, giving various organizations solid information on how many people in the area are experiencing homelessness and where they are. 'The Chicagoland area started doing this in about 2013,' Catrambone said as volunteers were assigned to areas throughout the west and southwest suburbs. 'Our areas that we are responsible for tonight are basically La Grange, La Grange Park, McCook, Hodgkins, then we go down to Oak Lawn, Chicago Ridge, Bridgeview, Summit, Justice … all the way down to Orland Park.' Catrambone said the amount of people contacted during the Point in Time count has varied from year to year, 'especially during years where it's really cold, people tend to go to warning centers and might not be found.' While the BEDS Plus home base is in La Grange, the organizing point this year was at the nonprofit's Linda Sokol Francis Summit Service Center at 7666 W. 63rd Street in nearby Summit, Illinois. Opened in 2023, the center in Summit has 18 beds and provides acute and post-acute medical care for homeless people who are too ill or vulnerable to recover on the street, but don't qualify for further hospitalization or nursing home care. Besides the La Grange facility and the Summit Service Center, Beds Plus also has a triage shelter on Cicero Avenue in Chicago, and provides temporary housing at the American Inn in Countryside. The group also has several 'bridge units' that are leased in the agency's name where people can stay until they are matched to a housing program. Catrambone said that these units were typically used for families and people fleeing domestic violence. BEDS Plus had 22 volunteers out for the Jan. 29 count, including four people with the lived experience of being housing challenged. 'It was a good event last night,' Catrambone said the following day. The volunteers began canvassing their territories around 6:45 p.m. and finished around midnight, making contact with eight people and interviewing four of them, who BEDS Plus representatives will follow up with. Point in Time also provided an opportunity to check in with people who've been on the streets for a while, including one person near La Grange Village Hall who 'we know pretty well.' 'The person at Village Hall was usually in the parking structure, but was outside today, ' he said. Once BEDS Plus is able to make contact, they can offer help. 'I do housing paperwork for them and try and connect them with programs throughout suburban Cook County,' said Rick Maltese, who's been with BEDS Plus for four years as an assessor. 'So the paperwork gets uploaded into our system and they become eligible to get the program matches.' Volunteer Jack Rudzinski said the importance of gauging the extent of homelessness is vital because it illustrates the need for funding and programs nationwide. 'The point is to determine funding for the next year's homeless programs,' he said. 'Hey, this is how many homeless we have, and this is why we need to allocate funding. So it's super important to have people out here doing this, as many as we can out canvassing, looking for folks. Not only are we helping the folks that we find tonight, but we're also helping the entire country by making the government aware of how widespread the problem is, and how much needs to be done.'
