Our annual Blackboard Affair is just around the corner! The Blackboard Affair is WITS’ largest yearly fundraising event with over 600 guests in attendance. This year’s Blackboard Affair will celebrate the comic book and graphic novel genres, while also recognizing the heroic achievements of our Chicago school communities.
Since 1991, WITS has provided free literacy mentorship and teacher professional development to Chicago Public Schools. Despite program delivery shifting to a virtual setting over the last two years, our mission has never wavered. Now, WITS is returning to classrooms with our in-person programs gearing up this fall, and we’re asking for your help.
While our commitment to improving student literacy has always been a fundamental aspect to our mission, we continue to acknowledge the unprecedented challenges facing our schools. One of our priorities this school year is centering students’ social-emotional learning and development this year. By making our return to the classroom, we strive to show both students and teachers that their community cares about their well-being in addition to their academic success.
We realize WITS cannot address all of the areas of growth and healing our students need. With your support, WITS will carry on being a consistent source of opportunity, success, and positivity for CPS.
Looking at the data, it is important to be transparent about what your investment provides. Not only does it support more than 5,000 CPS students in 34 schools over the city, but with the activation of hundreds of volunteers who help lead programs as literacy mentors, we also facilitate and train more than 120 teachers. Trust us when we say it makes all the difference.
Honorees
Alter and Stone Volunteer of the Year Award – Jeremy Cole
WITS is ecstatic to honor Jeremy Cole for his ten plus years of service on the Board of Directors at WITS. Since 2009, Cole has been a program mentor, and for over a decade, he has served as Secretary, President, and Chairman of the Board.
Corporate Partner of the Year Award – William Blair
Since their program formed in 2018, William Blair has been one of WITS’ largest corporate partners. Averaging 30 mentors annually, William Blair employees have volunteered for more than 4,000 hours with students from LEARN Hunter Perkins.
To learn more about our partnership with William Blair, read this WITS Blog.
We hope to thank you in person on November 5 to celebrate WITS and our superheroes!
For more information, please visit our gala website: www.witschicago.org/bba2022
