2025 Snapshot Year in Review

At CCRx our mission is to build a city-wide creative reuse economy that provides materials, generates ideas and

fosters creativity and community for educators, artists, arts and nonprofit organizations in Chicago.

2025 was a great year for CCRx. Here are some highlights:

★ Redistributing Surplus We took in 84,800 lbs of surplus -- over 42 tons! from 312 Donors

(warehouse dropoffs and pickups). We welcomed 1,342 Shoppers - mostly teachers - who got 1,200 boxes of

surplus and 833 Special Finds... Special shout-out to NASCAR, Respiratory Health Association, and All Kinds who

donated some especially juicy items for us to redistribute!

★ Helping Hands 927 Volunteers lent a hand in the warehouse, including groups like The Honeycomb Project, Volunteering Untapped, Envision Unlimited, University of Chicago Phoenix Club, St. Barnabas School, EL RIO and several others. And our interns Mila and Emily from the Illinois Arts Council Youth Employment in the Arts, too!

★ Sparking Creativity We brought creative reuse activities to 1,556 people via 37 Imagination Station

events at parks, schools, block clubs, scouts and seniors on the SW side. A highlight were the hundreds who

creatively repurposed all kinds of specialty paper into fans on a hot summer day at Sundays on State.

★ Building Community We held 66 Creative Reuse Events at the warehouse including Puppets Unleashed

with Chio, Libre-Arte: Visual Storytelling for Social Change with Farha Khan, Make Fabulous Cards with Brenda

Ward, Junk Journals for Beginners with Esy Vargas and Jeanine Holmes, and many more. Special favorites were the Repair Fair with Community Glue Workshop, Sewing Machine Maintenance with Colin and Mary and monthly

Mending Nights with Kristine Brandel. We hosted a Bird Migration Workshop, with Jorge Garcia from Windy

City Bird Lab and paraded a giant Red Wiggler Worm in our Compost-themed entry in the Arts in the Dark

Parade, with partners Opera-Matic and The Cornettes.

★ Our 6th annual Teachers’ Back2School Giveaway provided 157 teachers with all types of materials to aid in classroom teaching, mostly gathered during our annual Schools Out Green Out! End of School Donation Drive.

★ Recyclo-Products, Kits + Commissions With the help of Volunteering Untapped and a theme of “Joy”,

we made 450 custom notebooks out of old books, binders and vinyl samples for Young Chicago Authors’ Rooted

+ Radical Poetry Slam. Our CCRx Recyclo-Products + Kits are for sale at the Buddy Shop in the Chicago Cultural

Center, on our website and at pop-up markets.

★ Our 3rd FUNdraising Auction raised $19,000 and made many creative connections amongst bidders and donors, from sports tickets to creative reuse classes and events.

★ ArtSpace Immersion included CCRx in its 2024-25 cohort and we learned the ins and outs of developing and leasing space in preparation for a move to a new location (to be announced later in 2026).

★ Team Spirit: None of this would be possible without our great 2025 team -- interim Warehouse Manager Lisa Hasenbalg, Jennifer Cullerton Johnson, Rebecca Memoli, Mark Molenda, Noemi Villasenor, Nakia Brown, Daya

Stanley, Devin Cain, Kathryn Trumbull Fimreite, and Barb Koenen -- and our new Operations Manager, Tyler

Roth, joined by new team members Teddie Bernard and Ayah Yusef. Thanks to our 2025 Board: President Julia Talbot, Secretary Liz Libby, Treasurer Ilene Siemer, and Amber Ginsburg, Lauren Pacheco, Helen Tsatsos, Katie + Tim Tuten, Cynthium Johnson Woodfolk, Matt Nielson, Sathia Elias, Joy Rifkin and Carmen Curet.

★ Heartfelt Thanks We are grateful to our funders and materials donors: Revada Foundation, Art Works Fund, Harper Court Arts Council, A Road Together (Field Foundation / MacArthur Foundation), S+C Electric Company, The Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities, Artspace Immersion, Illinois Arts Council, Chicago DCASE, Luma 8, Volunteering Untapped and special supporters Chuck Thurow, The Yagan Family Fund, the Stone Family Fund and John Vinci!

★ Creative Reuse is for Everyone Help grow our community! While our focus is teachers, we are open to

everyone. Our “Intro to CCRx” video is a great way to learn about us. Find it at www.creativechirx.org/about. Sign up for Enews.  Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Reduce, reuse, recycle, reimagine!