Summer has finally arrived, which means it’s time for Make It Better’s annual “Best Of” survey! From restaurants to theaters, salons to boutiques, wedding vendors to landscapers, each year we poll you—our fabulous audience—to determine which businesses and resources are leading the pack in Chicago and on the North Shore. Voting is now closed. The winners […]
When you think of classic movies like “The Sandlot,” “Little Rascals” or “Now & Then,” there is a common theme among them: the summers of our childhood. And throughout these movies we witness the adventures, mishaps and entertainment brought about by what child specialists call “free play.” Free play is voluntary, unstructured activity completely initiated […]
The Steppenwolf Theatre puts on nearly 700 performances a year, and provides professional productions to over 12,000 students, teachers and family audiences each year. The theatre hosted their 2015 Gala, attended by over 550 guests, on May 9 and raised $1.2 million for educational and community programming. The event took place at the Downstairs Theatre […]
The Better Makers section of our print magazine features photos of guests and honorees from some of Chicago’s top fundraisers. We highlight these events in order to shed light on all of the hard work the people of Chicago and the North Shore are doing to raise awareness around important causes and make a difference […]
Whether you were chosen first or last for the team in elementary school P.E., you are our first pick! Make It Better invites you to join our team as we Race Against Hate on Sunday, June 21, 2015 in Evanston. The Race Against Hate was founded in loving memory of Ricky Byrdsong, a Skokie resident who […]
Larsen Jay doesn’t know anything about flowers, other than how happy they made him feel after a near-fatal accident left him confined to a hospital room. The Knoxville, Tenn., native and former film and TV producer—“Erin Brockovich” is among his credits—was repairing a roof when he fell from a ladder, about one and a half […]
We’ve long known that ours is a very generous, other-centered, philanthropic community. But now—thanks to a survey conducted by Indiana University’s Lilly School of Philanthropy on behalf of The Chicago Community Trust (the Trust)—we know that our community is at the national epicenter of philanthropy. No hyperbole. “Chicagoans are generous…significantly more generous than the national average—by some […]
UNICEF is committed to saving children’s lives, and while many of us have heard of the organization, we may be unaware how we can personally make a difference. Glencoe resident Wendy Serrino is the Chair of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s Midwest Regional Board of Directors. In addition to her work with UNICEF, Serrino is […]
Sadly, one in five cancer deaths can be linked directly to malnutrition. Families battling cancer can be so exhausted from the intense treatments that food often is the last thing on their minds. “Chemo days were so stressful,” says Carolyn Nugent, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 33. “My mother, boyfriend and I […]
On Saturday, May 9, Lang Lang will perform his only Chicago recital of 2015 at Lyric’s Civic Opera house. Although I’d long been his fan, I didn’t meet Lang Lang until May 2013, when he received the Dushkin Award at the Music Institute of Chicago gala that I co-chaired. He won my heart then because of the […]
