Charity Event, Shadowing Operations, & A New Dawn

I am really slacking on this blog thing. Or, as I prefer to say, I am very busy working here in the Red Stars office! There's been alot going on in the land of WPS and with the Red Stars and with the City of Chicago in general, so this will be a collection of short stories for your viewing pleasure.

Short story A) "Red Stars Charitable Foundation Night at Underground"

On October 28th we held our first Red Stars charitable event at the downtown Chicago nightclub Underground. It was the perfect venue for our intimately set evening, where Red Stars charitable supporters and others were able to enjoy after-work drinks, h'or dourves, and get the opportunity to chat with one of the first Red Stars players, Kate Markgraf. I felt a great amount of support from many of the current Red Stars season ticket holders, as well as many members of local youth clubs, and the Red Stars own supporters group, Local 134. I was busily mingling, so regretfully didn't even get a chance to welcome and thank Kate for coming out to the event! So a belated thank you to her to being a part of the Red Stars greater mission to serve and better the communities we reside in.

Local 134 board members Nicole Hack, Kari Kouba & Elizabeth Currie with Kate Markgraf:

The evening included a great video used to introduce Kate to the attendees, as well as a silent auction, with great prizes including a jersey signed by the 3 Red Stars allocated USWNT players and tickets to a Red Stars game next season.

The very first Red Stars season ticket holder, Tim McCarthy, and I (I should also note he won the silent auction for the signed jersey! Way to go Tim!):

All in all, it was a successful evening for the Foundation and another notch towards fulfilling all of the items we'd like to achieve as an organization over the coming year(s).

Kate with Red Stars owners Gary Weaver & Jack Cummins, along with local youth club President Dana Plotkin of FC Drive, and FC Drive coach Britt Yankey:

I'd also like to give a very special thank you to Katie Stapely for providing her time and services to take wonderful pictures during the event.

And a big shout out to my extremely talented coworkers who proved at the afterparty that they are totally capable of becoming the next American Idol (or Rock Idol, do they have that show yet?).

Short Story B) "Shadowing the Fire Game Day Operations Team"

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to shadow the Chicago Fire's Operations team for their last home game of the season, last Thursday, October 23rd. Chicago Fire Senior Manager of Marketing Operations, Jason Kolisch, was gracious enough to allow me to follow him around all evening, answer my questions, and give me a real tour of Toyota Park. These opportunities have really given me an appreciation of what goes on behind the scenes to pull a game off smoothly and give the fans a great experience.

Some highlights of the tour included the ESPN truck, which felt very space-age with it's dark interior and literally a hundred screens of all different shots going on all at once. Wow, I don't know how they keep up with the feeds. A trip to the media section where everyone sits on their laptops in an open air window with a brilliant view of the field. Coordinating the team warm ups, national anthem singer, flag bearers, player escorts, etc. And of course the behind-the-scenes ESPN interviews.

It takes a great team to pull off a fluid operation on game day. I have an appreciation for all that work in this capacity, and I look forward to giving fans a great experience at Red Stars games next season.

Oh, and let's not forget while I was standing on the side line during warmups I was pegged in the back of the leg by an errant kick from across the field... I never did figure out which Fire player it was that left the welt on the back of my leg, but may he be relegated to the bench for eternity...

Short Story C) "The Man Who Would Be President"

I'm going to show my flag here... I was a Hillary supporter. But after a transition-period, I put my support behind Barack Obama. It was hard to avoid support for him here in Chicago, his residence. At the end of the day there were two outstanding candidates holding the democratic ticket and I was going to be happy with either.

I've been following this election like a barnacle for a year now. I was still living in Iowa when the first caucuses took place. Des Moines was a media frenzy and it was a very exciting time to be there. I believe Iowa would have split, but the caucus format favored the could-be president, and Obama won his first state. Now here I am full circle, and was in the same city he became president-elect.

It has been an intense political experience, in an even tenser time period in this country. I lived overseas for 2 of the last 8 years and saw the transition this country took in the eyes of strangers overseas. It was difficult for me to watch, and difficult to live through. This election has meant more than any other so far in my lifetime, and I'm sure many others would agree. I encouraged friends to register to vote, found them websites of how to do it, found friends' polling places in many different states, offered rides to the polling station, and double checked that my sister, mother and grandmother had all voted by election day. I watched the electoral votes come through Tuesday night (passport in hand, just in case). My sister, Noele, my good friends Rick and Jess, and I, watched the proceedings while enjoying international cuisine (because we were hoping the rest of the world would soon like us again!) and the nerves turned to joy as state after state showed its color. At 9:59pm we were eagerly awaiting the west coast results when the man who would be president was announced. I jumped up, I probably spilled my sangria, and a wave of exhaustion and excitement overcame me. It has been such a long 8 years, that a moment of such historical significance could not be defined, or contained, by such a small blog.

We jumped up and headed to Grant Park to revel in the splendor with our fellow Americans.

Rick, Me, Jess by the Lions downtown Chicago:

The sea of celebratory humanity:

I'll never forget how I spent that evening...
My sister, Noele, and I listening to President Obama's speech from a distance:

There will be struggles ahead, but struggles that can now be faced with a sense of optimism. I hope our government will work to allow basic human rights, instead of taking them away, as we also saw on historic Election Day.
Let's continue to push this country forward and continue to work towards tolerance, kindness, and compassion, for all, not some.