About 20 Loyola students joined benefactors of the Peace Corner Youth Center last Thursday night at the Hot House, located at 31 E. Balbo Ave., to eat, chat and dance the night away. The fundraising event for the Peace Corner featured live entertainment by hip-hop poet Kevin Coval and the Chicago Afrobeat Project, along with tumbling tricks performed by children from the Peace Corner.
Proceeds from the event will support the Peace Corner, a drop-in center for young people in west Chicago. The fundraiser generated about $2,000, enough to pay for the event itself as well as cover a few months' rent and support the center's GED program, job training, computer classes and field trips.
Peace Center founder Fr. Maurizio Binaghi and the Comboni Missionaries opened the Peace Corner in January 2002 to provide neighborhood youths with a safe place to gather, do homework and participate in various recreational and educational activities. The Peace Corner recently moved to its current location at 5014 W. Madison St.
Many of the featured guests were friends and colleagues of Binaghi and Dr. Emily Ignacio, sociology professor at Loyola. Binaghi, Ignacio and LU graduate Geoff Buckhart coordinated the event.
Most students who attended the event are Ignacio's current or former students. Some of the students are volunteer GED teachers at the Peace Corner. They also helped plan the fundraiser.
Junior Alex Trubatisky, who teaches the science portion of the GED program, spoke to the audience about her experience at the Peace Corner.
"My job has not been to teach but to rekindle the knowledge that was already in their intelligent minds," Trubatisky said. "[The youth at the center] understood the importance of an education. Now they can use their education to get jobs and lead a happy life."
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