Read All About It!

I’d like to highlight another amazing VWrite volunteer today, Jesse Landstrom. Not only did she do a fantastic job during our six week program helping her student develop a resume and cover letter, but she has plans to continue helping her student this summer find volunteer opportunities! Thanks, Jesse!

Name: Jesse Landstrom
Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Job or school: Student Services Advisor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
Open Books programs and events you’ve participated in: VWrite

The 10 questions We Always Ask!

1. How would you spend your last 24 hours if you knew the world would end in the morning? I would gather my friends and family together to enjoy a great meal together and celebrate life.
2. What was your dream job when you were 5? Forest Ranger
3. If you could have dinner with 3 people (real or fictional), who would you invite and what would you eat? Dinner at an outdoor cafe with: Robert Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
4. What was your favorite childhood toy or game? Favorite game: Clue, Favorite toy: Barbies
5. If you had one superpower, what would it be? Mind reading
6. What secret obsession do you have that no one knew about before this interview? I love the outdoors—this seems to surprise people.
7. What makes you laugh uncontrollably? My friends
8. What book are you reading right now? The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston, with Mario Spezi
9. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate
10. What is playing on your iPod/record player these days? Feist

Lisa Findley is one of our VWrite pilot program’s volunteer all-stars! Lisa is awesome for so many reasons: her cheery e-mails, the wonderful work she did with her student, and the fact that she is currently reading one of my favorite authors of all time, Marilynne Robinson! Thanks for being such a fantastic member of our VWrite mentor team, Lisa!

Volunteer All-Star stats:

Name: Lisa Findley
Neighborhood: Logan Square
Job or school: associate editor at Marketwire, a newswire company
Open Books programs and events you’ve participated in: VWrite

The 10 questions We Always Ask!

1. How would you spend your last 24 hours if you knew the world would end in the morning?
I’d like a place of natural beauty to be the last thing I see, and I’d bring my family and friends along for a day and night of reading, eating, chatting, and singing songs around a campfire.
2. What was your dream job when you were 5?
Probably at age 5 I wanted to be just like my mom and be a teacher.
3. If you could have dinner with 3 people (real or fictional), who would you invite and what would you eat?
bell hooks, Katharine Hepburn, and Mark Twain would join me for a Mediterranean feast.
4. What was your favorite childhood toy or game?
The Skip-It!
5. If you had one superpower, what would it be?
I’d fly all over the world.
6. What secret obsession do you have that no one knew about before this interview?
If you give me a TV and two weeks off in July, I’ll watch the whole Wimbledon tennis tournament.
7. What makes you laugh uncontrollably?
Slapstick, every time–variations on the banana peel gag are variations on genius.
8. What book are you reading right now?
The Complete Short Novels of Anton Chekhov and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
9. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Mackinaw Island Fudge
10. What is playing on your iPod/record player these days?
Black Mountain, David Bowie, Neko Case, Jay-Z

Tomorrow night Open Books is looking forward to celebrating the pilot terms of our new WeWrite and VWrite programs. And they wouldn’t be possible without supportive, stellar volunteers like Margo O’Hara! She helped with both the creative and professional writing sessions of WeWrite, and brought great energy and ideas to the group. Thanks so much, Margo!

Name: Margo O’Hara
Neighborhood: Uptown
Employer: Active Transportation Alliance
Open Books program: WeWrite (There she is below, left, with participant Iwona.)

The 10 Questions We Always Ask!

1.    How would you spend your last 24 hours if you knew the world would end in the morning? Hang out with all my favorite people and go to my favorite destinations and eat my favorite foods

2.    What was your dream job when you were 5? I think I wanted to be a nurse or a teacher depending on the day.

3.    If you could have dinner with 3 people (real or fictional), who would you invite and what would you eat?
a.    Mike Royko
b.    Truman Capote
c.    Lucille Bluth
We would eat grilled cheese, fritos and Diet Pepsi. [Mmmm. . . grilled cheese! - Erin]

4.    What was your favorite childhood toy or game? Hi HO Cherry-O

5.    If you had one superpower, what would it be? To teleport to any location in an instant.

6.    What secret obsession do you have that no one knew about before this interview? I can’t help but mentally correct when advertisements misuse the word “over” instead of “more than.” [OMG, I was just telling another Open Books staffer how OBSESSED I am with this usage issue. I'm trying to make peace with it, but I'm glad to know I'm not alone. - Erin]

7.     What makes you laugh uncontrollably? My best friend Amy

8.    What book are you reading right now? The Princess Bride

9.    What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Cookies and cream.

10. What is playing on your iPod/record player these days? The Decemberists

Last week was a strange jumble of events for me, both in the office and outside of it. (But strange in a good way!) I wasn’t here on Tuesday like I normally am but instead went to Bronzeville and Hyde Park–two neighborhoods that I haven’t checked out before–and spent the day wandering through art galleries, talking with residents, and getting to know a different part of Chicago. That break from the office, though nice, put me at only two entire full days in the office and the rest of my time was shared between Open Books and various Buddy sites. That sounds pretty normal I know (if you’ve been reading my past blogs) but not coming in at all on Tuesday threw me off my normal routine.

All the time that I have spent at the office has been used doing extensive research for an upcoming event in May. I mostly have been checking out blogs to partner with and have found several awesome ones! Some you may want to check out to see what other events are going on in Chicago (including fun things to do on a cheap budget!) are:

http://www.gapersblock.com/
http://www.chitowndailynews.org/
http://chicagoist.com/
http://chicago.metromix.com/
www.thelocaltourist.com
http://www.events.org/addevent.aspx

These have listings of cool events, interesting blogs, photography, etc.

Other than that, much of my time was once again (routinely) spent at my buddy sites. On Thursday we were blessed again with a college group of students who wanted to work with us for the day. I took them with me to Auburn Gresham and for the second time we had as many adult volunteers as there were children! We were able to spend a wonderful afternoon giving each child individual attention and read with them! We also had more men then ever before which was perfect for some of the students who need strong, POSITIVE male role models in their lives. Thank you for all your help! (And once again, nudge nudge to those of you who have some extra time on your hands and love children! We can ALWAYS use more help!) Looking forward to more excitement to come this week!

Open Books would like to extend a warm thank you to volunteer Denise Rondini.  Denise has just finished participating in Open Books’ VWrite  Program, where she was matched with Andrea, a Junior at Gage Park High School.  Denise helped Andrea draft a resume and a cover letter, and has no doubt given her skills that she can apply to whatever she decides to do!  In addition, Denise has helped Open Books with Book Sorts, Open Books Reading Buddies, and the Corliss Author Project. Phew!  Thanks, Denise!

Name: Denise Rondini
Neighborhood: West Edgewater
Job or school: Editor of Successful Dealer magazine
Open Books programs and events you’ve participated in: Helped move books from storage facility to warehouse, Reading Buddy at Oakton Elementary, Corliss Writing Project, VMentor

The 10 questions We Always Ask!

1.   How would you spend your last 24 hours if you knew the world would end in the morning? I would try to gather all the people I care about together and just hang out with them eating good food, drinking good beer and having good conversations about how to stop the world from ending!

2.   What was your dream job when you were 5? Hmmm, excellent question. I don’t recall being aware of having to work when I was five.

3.   If you could have dinner with 3 people (real or fictional), who would you invite and what would you eat? I would invite Barack Obama, David Bowie and Maya Angelou. We would eat homemade spinach and cheese ravioli (made by me), salad, bruschetta, asparagus and something rich and chocolaty for dessert.

4.   What was your favorite childhood toy or game? Jacks

5.   If you had one superpower, what would it be? If I were being silly, I would want my superpower to be to take all the calories out of all the foods I love. If I were being serious, I’d want my superpower to be the ability to erase ignorance.

6. What secret obsession do you have that no one knew about before this interview? I am pretty much an open book (!) so I don’t have a lot of secrets. I do tend to obsess about a lot of little things, but everyone knows that about me.

7.   What makes you laugh uncontrollably? A good play on words.

8.   What book are you reading right now? Shattered Dreams: My Life As a Polygamist’s Wife

9.    What is your favorite ice cream flavor? I rarely eat ice cream. I like it; alas it does not like me. But if I have to pick, it would have to be something with chocolate, nuts and caramel.

10.What is playing on your iPod/record player these days? A wide variety of music from blues to jazz to rock to rap to soul to world music to hip hop. I am a fan of all kinds of music as long as it is good.