With 2018 behind us, Chicago Market – (YOUR) Community Co-op – would like to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to ALL our volunteers for your time, talent, and enthusiasm.

These may be two short, simple words, but this “thank you” is filled with a lot of genuine gratitude for your work in moving the Co-op forward. Whether it was through support at one of our many Ownership Info Sessions, our inaugural Up & Under Fest, the My Buddy’s Mixers, the recent Holiday Pop-Up Market, or maybe helping out with the Owner Loan Campaign, your efforts helped us reach important milestones. We are now at over 1,500 Owners, and raised $300,000+ in the first phase of the Owner Loan Campaign. Our Owner growth rate increased five fold last year! And that is because of your support.

We would like to take this time to not only recognize how awesome each of you are (because you are!), but to highlight some individuals, and the activities they have been involved with, to reflect the many ways Chicago Market volunteers are integral to our reaching the goal of opening day.

Michael Davis took on a leadership role organizing those all-important To-Do Lists for our Info Sessions, and then taught others how to manage the lists and coordinate event logistics. Info Sessions have consistently resulted in new Owners, so having more folks to lead these has been important and impactful (did we mention we are now at over 1,500 Owners?!)

James Gignac worked with Michael to learn event logistics and also helped identify potential locations for these critical events.

Hilary Stifler showed off her creativity by conceptualizing and orchestrating the My Buddy’s Social Mixers. These events were fun, informative, and resulted in many new Owners.

Annette Mambuca writes blog posts for the Market in addition to newsletter and social media content. She has taken the initiative in anticipating our communication needs, keeping stakeholders informed through her great voice and sense of humor.

Rachel Ramirez stepped up to support the Owner Loan Campaign as a dedicated caller and made sure the Owner Loan Campaign team was kept updated on progress. Additionally, she volunteered at several information sessions where she also fielded questions about the Owner Loan Campaign.

Jonathan Glick has been instrumental to the Site/Architecture team by contributing insights, participating in discussions, taking notes in meetings, and generally keeping the team on track by doing whatever needs to be done.

Meg Glick took on the unglamorous (but much needed) task of helping us formalize efforts around invoicing, payments, finances, and other operations that allow us to execute on the Market’s plans.

The entire Chicago Market Board of Directors cannot express enough our gratitude for the many ways each of you, and all our many volunteers, stepped up and contributed to our success in 2018, and we look forward to sharing soon the many more ways we will be engaging with you to make 2019 an even bigger success. Happy New Year!