At Karma for Cara, we talk a lot about volunteering and taking time to give back. We recently decided there is no better way to inspire others to serve than to lead by example, so on Tuesday the K4C team visited the JUF Uptown Cafe for a night of volunteering.

JUF Uptown Cafe, run through the Jewish United Fund, is a kosher anti-hunger program located in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. The program serves both Jewish and non-Jewish clients, but remains kosher in order to be accessible to everyone….

We heard a great story about kids and adults taking action to help their community last week.
Rose Becker and Doug Becker took part in building a playground at a city school in Baltimore.

Pictured here are Rose, her friend Caty, and Doug at the ribbon cutting. Way to go, guys!

Caty, Rose and Doug

Karma for Cara had a busy week last week! Here’s a recap of what happened.

On Tuesday our intern Abby visited a kindergarten classroom in Glenview, Illinois and read our Cara Cookie Volunteers story to a group of 60 students. The children were happily engaged and provided us with valuable feedback. All of the kindergarteners agreed that they would want to read the story again with friends and family. The only criticism the book received is that we did not include pizza in the list of food brought to the nursing home in the story!…

On Wednesday, the Karma for Cara team went to Evanston to meet with two groups of students at Northwestern University. These groups spent the last quarter in school utilizing the strategy of design thinking to promote youth volunteerism. We tasked the students with the mission of designing a way to make volunteering accessible and appealing to high school students. The students’ final projects were incredibly creative and left us very excited!

The first student group we met with, Caroline Borowski, Heesun Eom, Jiahui Guo and Abby Hofmeister, created Service for Others (S40), a phone application that employs user-friendly tools to connect high school students and engage them in service opportunities….

On May 18, we hosted “Remembering Cara: A Special Night With Morley.” The night was a beautiful celebration and remembrance of Cara, full of love, warmth, good food, family and friends and soulful music. Thank you to everyone who was a part of the night!

Below are some photos taken at the event. The full photo album can be found on our Facebook page.

Take a look!

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Karma for Cara is putting the finishing touches on our planning for our May 18 event, “Remembering Cara: A Special Night With Morley.”

We’d like to take a moment to recognize our event sponsors, helping to make the night possible.

Thank you to our “Remembering Cara: A Special Night With Morley” sponsors:

Eric, Jill, Greg and Jake Becker
Erin Becker
Bond Distributing Company
Tony Foreman
Margot, Larry, Gabrielle, Scott and Sara Lessans
MileOne Automotive
Douglas and Michelle Ramer
Frank and Ann Rosenberg

There are still a few tickets available!…

Over the weekend during Kennedy Krieger Institute’s annual ROAR for Autism event, the first ever Cara Becker ROAR for Autism Youth Fundraising Award was presented.

The award, recognizing the individual 18 or younger who raised the most funds for the event and best encompassed Cara’s fundraising spirit, was given to Natalie Newman. Natalie and her team, Natalie’s Never Land, raised more than $11,000 for Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Cara spent years involved with KKI’s ROAR for Autism, a family-friendly biking, walking and running event that raises awareness and money for autism research….

On May 18, musical artist Morley Kamen, along with four accompanying musicians, will take the stage at Cunningham’s for Karma for Cara’s first event of the year, “Remembering Cara: A Special Night With Morley.” The night promises to be full of love and warmth, in large part due to Morley’s performance.

Morley calls her musical style a cross between soul and urban folk, with an emphasis on storytelling. She has played venues from Carnegie Hall to the Nice Jazz Festival to the Nomad Women’s Festival in the Sahara Desert, spreading her message of love and justice….

Rose Becker, a cousin of Cara, recently had her Bat Mitzvah and asked that her friends and family in lieu of presents make donations to Karma for Cara. We could not be more touched and honored by her generous contribution to the foundation.

Below is a message from Rose:

“Cara and I had such a special bond, we were like sisters. Honestly, it was a no-brainer to donate all of the money to Karma for Cara, because the wonderful foundation, and Cara, deserve it beyond belief….

A couple of months ago, we at Karma for Cara learned about a great program called Camp Sunrise, a cost-free, one-week camp for those who have previously or are currently battling childhood cancer. We immediately knew we wanted to support this great cause.

Johns Hopkins Camp Sunrise gives 115 campers between the ages of 5 and 18 a traditional camp experience, including swimming, ropes courses, arts and crafts and making s’mores around the campfire.

The camp is designed to allow the campers an outlet from the everyday realities of their cancer and gives them a chance to just be kids, while providing for their medical needs….