Urban Initiatives’ most anticipated event of the year — the 2020 Soccer Ball presented by Allstate & Storck — was a smashing success! Soccer Ball was an exciting evening of dancing, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and philanthropy. We celebrated our work, incredible partners, amazing awardees, and supportive community.
Hosted at Rockwell on the River for the second year, we were excited to welcome guests back to this beautiful venue. Lettuce Entertain You returned with 8 of their popular restaurants to provide a delicious assortment of food for the evening. The silent auction featured dozens of exciting packages this year—including new additions like a cruise in Indonesia and a Nashville getaway package! Finally, the 2020 Soccer Ball scarves- presented to donors giving $100 or more- were a crowd favorite. The flashy red and blue design was the perfect complement to every outfit and we were thrilled to see so many scarves by the end of the night. Overall, the evening was fun and festive!
This year’s awardees were a truly special bunch. Sodexo took home the Soccer Ball Award for their generous contributions to our work- including supporting our first ever international exchange program last summer. The Paula Armstrong Memorial Heart of a Champion Award was presented to the Baskin Family, who champion our work at not just one, but two schools on the west side. Finally, we presented the Team Captain of the Year Award to Steven C. from Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy for his leadership on and off the field. Our awardees are all engaged and dedicated members of the Urban Initiatives team and we were so proud to honor them at the event!
This year’s Soccer Ball raised $680,000! We are so grateful to all our supporters and sponsors who gave generously to the event. With record breaking totals for sponsorship and the paddle raise, we are thrilled to have the wholehearted support of our community behind this event.
The Soccer Ball is not just a fun party (although we hope you had a great time!), but also an amazing way to support our work. This school year, Urban Initiatives is serving over 50 schools in 38 Chicago communities, and we couldn’t do it without the success of the Soccer Ball. Your participation in the Soccer Ball allows Urban Initiatives to provide our high-quality, evidence-backed programming to our participants across the city. Thank you to everyone who joined this year, we can’t wait to celebrate again with you in 2021!
See all the photos from the evening on our Facebook page here!