Celebrating Fun Times, Great Friends, and a Fire for Justice
At this year’s A Night At the Races fundraiser event, The Br. David Darst Center welcomed over 80 people for a fantastic evening at De La Salle Institute to celebrate its mission of social justice education. The Darst Center’s Board of Directors gave out two awards - the organization, Chicago Regional Organizing for AntiRacism, received the 2020 Br. Denis Murphy Social Justice in Action Award and Dr. Grant Gholson, a friend and former Board member and of the Darst Center, won the 2020 Heart of the Mission Award.
Both of the awards are presented annually at the fundraiser. The Social Justice in Action award recognizes an external organization or foundation that demonstrates a strong dedication to social justice and community service, and the Heart of the Mission Award recognizes an individual who has exhibited extraordinary service, dedication, and passion for the work and Mission of the Br. David Darst Center.
Chicago Regional Organizing for AntiRacism, or CROAR, won its award for its ongoing efforts to dismantle systemic racism through its workshops, training, and caucuses that it offers to schools, companies, non-profits, and other organizations across Chicago.
The Darst Center first connected with CROAR in the fall of 2013 in an effort to find more resources to help staff educate retreat participants on systemic racism. In the spring of 2014, CROAR staff members came to the Darst Center to present a workshop, prompting even more interest in the anti-racism organization’s work. In the fall of 2017, the Darst Center partnered with CROAR and the Maria Kaupas Center to co-host their annual “Understanding and Analyzing Systemic Racism” workshop, a two and a half day anti-racism workshop geared specifically toward long-term volunteer programs. Since then, the Darst Center has continued the partnership, returning each fall with long-term volunteers and staff to ensure the Darst Center continues to stay informed and knowledgeable about the complex realities of racism.
In addition to this annual fall workshop, CROAR offers a host of other workshops and training for schools, service organizations, non-profits, church groups, and advocacy groups who want to better educate themselves and the people they serve about systemic racism. Resources offered by CROAR include workshops geared specifically for educators who want to learn how racism affects children, caucuses in the city of Chicago for people of all races to voice their racial experiences, and Antiracism Teams, which provide a group of people or organization more intense and personalized anti-racism training.
To learn more about CROAR and the resources it offers, click here.
Derrick Dawson, a Co-Chair Board member and Organizer/Trainer at CROAR, accepted the award on the organization’s behalf. Dawson started volunteering 10 years ago for Crossroads - the bigger anti-racism organization that CROAR is a part of- as a member of its anti-racism team of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. He joined Crossroads full time with the establishment of Chicago ROAR in 2014 and has helped present the “Understanding and Analyzing Systemic Racism” workshop for the Darst Center since the partnership began in 2017.
On the award, Derrick said he was truly thankful the Darst Center chose to recognize CROAR’s work fighting racism.
“I am pleased to receive this award on behalf of Chicago ROAR,” Dawson said. “First, as an organization whose mission is to dismantle systemic racism in the Chicago area, it is gratifying to be recognized and affirmed by an organization with the social justice stature of Br. David Darst Center. But also, [the] Br. David Darst Center was one of the first organizations Chicago ROAR worked with after our establishment as a program of Crossroads AntiRacism Organizing & Training. Our relationship with Br. David Darst Center has been an instructive and foundational part of our work in peace and social justice.”
The other recipient of an award that evening, Dr. Grant Gholson, won his award for his work teaching a community service course for students at St. Ignatius College Prep.
Dr. Grant Gholson has worked at St. Ignatius for seven years, teaching Immersion for three years. The course allows students to earn community service hours for the semester while working in and learning about parts of Chicago they may not have known about. Students are assigned to one of a number of sites around the city which range from homeless shelters to childcare centers to organizations that provide resources to people living with disabilities. The Br. David Darst Center became a site in the fall of 2017 and allows students to help out with cleaning, retreat preparations, office tasks, and anything else the staff needs to help live out our mission. Dr. Gholson also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Darst Center from 2013-2018.
Upon receiving his award, Dr. Gholson expressed his admiration for the Darst Center.
"It is an honor to be recognized by an institution whose mission I so wholeheartedly believe in,” Dr. Gholson said. “Thanks goes to the hard-working Darst staff for facilitating our student volunteer visits, and for delivering consistently excellent programming to their retreatants."
Both CROAR and Dr. Gholson received their awards at the Darst Center’s annual Night at the Races fundraiser, an event where Darst staff, Board members, partner agencies, and friends and family are treated to a night of watching old horse races, betting and winning prizes, enjoying good food and music, and celebrating the achievements of the Darst Center’s partners.
This year, the fundraiser was quite a success and ended up raising over $10,000! The money earned will go towards funding future retreats, finding more educational and spiritual resources for the students and people we serve, and will help our amazing partners, like CROAR and Dr. Gholson, continue their work.