Festa Parties Donates to Mercy Home for Boys & Girls "Shamrocks for Kids" Campaign

CHICAGO - March 21, 2013 - PRLog -- Festa Parties, a Chicago-based event planning company known for its festive pub crawl events including TBOX, The Twelve Bars of Xmas in Wrigleyville, hosted another lively event for friends, donating proceeds to Mercy Home for Boys & Girls. Festa Parties has been planning and organizing great Chicago party events since its first TBOX back in 1996.

Mercy Home for Boys & Girls began as St. Paul’s Home for Working Boys in 1887 above a Catholic library in downtown Chicago by Fr. Louis Campbell, a Chicago priest. In 1889, it moved just west of downtown, to what is still its current headquarters. With continued growth, Mercy Home opened a home for young women on Chicago’s South Side in 1987. That same year, Mercy Home’s Friends First mentoring program began matching trained adult volunteer mentors with children in need living throughout Chicago. In August 2003, Mercy Home opened the Rev. James J. Close residence hall for boys on its Hay Campus. This new facility, which increased their capacity by 40%, enabled Mercy Home to provide healing for more young people in need than ever before. In fact, “Its residential, aftercare, and mentoring programs provide a safe home, emotional healing, education, and life-changing opportunities for more than 600 young people every year,” according to Mark Schmeltzer, Director of Communications at Mercy Home.  

Schmeltzer continued to explain that, “young people come to Mercy Home in search of safe harbor from environments filled with abuse, neglect, abandonment, violence, poverty and other serious challenges. Mercy Home gives children like these stable, structured nurturing care 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Its expert professional childcare staff provides life-changing therapeutic, academic and vocational support so that children may heal from the traumas of their pasts, prepare for their futures, and become self-reliant and successful adults. The impact of this work on our community is seen in the success of our kids after they go forward and contribute.” In addition, Mercy Home’s admissions counselors “make professional referrals to hundreds more troubled kids in crisis every year whose specific needs may be better met at qualified social service programs other than Mercy Home.”

Mercy Home operates under the mission of answering the Gospel call by ministering to children and families in need. They strive to save young lives by providing a safe, nurturing home, opportunity for an excellent education, and means for personal growth; support healing for families; be committed to raising public awareness of youth in need and encourages support to help them; be sustained by benefactors who believe in the miracle of God’s mercy in action.

The not-for-profit agency is 99.7% privately funded. Schmeltzer noted, “One of the unique aspects about how we help kids is in fact our funding structure. We raise nearly all of the resources we need to operate from private sources, like donations from individual men and women from across the country, foundation grants, corporate sponsorships and so on.”  Their special events and campaigns, like Shamrocks for Kids, play a major role annually in securing the financial support. Throughout the month of March, the annual Shamrocks for Kids Campaign features family-friendly, Irish-themed events and activities to raise funds and awareness, including participation in four Chicago area parades - Forest Park, South Side, Downtown and Northwest Side - and culminating with hundreds of guests at the post St. Patrick’s Day Parade Celebration at the Hilton Downtown.  Volunteers also distribute Mercy Home Shamrocks all over Chicago in exchange for donations that help young people living at Mercy Home. “What’s more, these events give us the opportunity to engage our core supporters in our mission, attract new friends who will help our kids in a variety of ways, and celebrate as a community—in short, to have a good time for a good cause.” Other major annual events include their black-tie gala, Ringside for Mercy’s Sake held in the fall, Leader Council Graduates’ Luncheon in May, and Have Mercy, their Junior Board’s gala.  Mercy Home also either hosts or participates in dozens of smaller events throughout the year.

In March of 2011, Mercy Home ran the “Show Us Your Shamrock Smile” Contest on Facebook, granting the winner and friends access to ride aboard the Mercy Home float St. Patrick’s Day Parade float. Being a lifetime fan of the holiday, Christopher Festa, Owner and Founder of Festa Parties, decided to enter the contest, and he won the grand prize. “I have always wanted to ride on a float in a parade,” stated Festa. “I was very thankful to Mercy Home for giving me the opportunity. The contest helped raise my own awareness of the great efforts put forth by the wonderful organization, and inspired me to continue to get the word out.”

Festa continues to show his appreciation to Mercy Home by donating and raising over $1200, as well as new and used clothing, to the cause. In keeping with the St. Patrick’s Day spirit, Festa rented a bus for the day to take friends around the city to partake in the celebrations. In lieu of requesting payment for the bus, Chris asked each of the attendees to make a donation to Mercy Home. In addition, the group handed out Mercy Home Shamrock Stickers to promote awareness to other members of the community, while handing out promotional cards for upcoming Festa Parties events. Lindsey Glosniak was aboard the float two years ago, as well as the recent bus excursion. Glosniak commented, “It was a great experience, and a privilege to help represent such a wonderful organization. So, when I was invited to be a part of his charity bus trip this year, I couldn't help but jump at the chance! It's a simple recipe for philanthropic success: Take a group of fun-loving individuals who love their city, and love to give back to the community. Throw in some Shamrocks, and it's a win-win situation for all parties involved!” Schmeltzer added, “We are blessed that many good-hearted people every year decide to support the Home by organizing their own fundraising events, or donate the proceeds from existing events, like Festa Parties.”

Festa Parties continues to contribute to several other charitable organizations as well, including Lakeview Pantry, CHICAGO Dance Marathon, and School Street Playlot.  By frequently scheduling different events, Festa is finding new ways to promote the importance of giving to the community, and raising awareness and donations to worthy causes.

Festa Parties produces lively and popular events like TBOX, BeadQuest, and Cover Your Bases and contributes extensively to the local charities and community organizations. Festa’s upcoming events include its next pub crawl, Cover Your Bases 2013, the 5th Annual Baseball-Themed event on April 27th, 2013 in Wrigleyville.