One Week Later

Our time in Chicago came to an end today. We wrapped up a great week at the Benton House on Friday with a day-long, down-to-the-finish line extravaganza. In a great display of teamwork, members of all three teams came together to finish the Benton House entryway. Volunteers worked from 8:30 a.m to 8:30 p.m. on Friday to bring all the pieces into position.

Have a look at the final product and at just what we accomplished in one week:

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

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Before

After

Sophomore volunteer Ryan Richmond dedicated his week to designing and laying out an instillation piece made of antique copper photo plates showing images from the Benton House's past.

Detail of the instillation

Junior volunteers Alyx Sites and Emily Whiteside transformed the main staircase into the centerpiece of the room by adding a bold stripe down the center, echoing the carpet runner that once adorned the stair.

Senior Team Leader Lindsey Ellibee (pictured above) designed the color palette and application for the entire entryway and her team refreshed the room with a new coat of paint. Sophomore Team Leader Jordan Edwards and his team designed a new logo for the Benton House (above) which was applied a wall in the entryway with help from from members of Senior Team Leader Katie Collins' group of volunteers.

In the end, every volunteer had a hand in giving the Benton House the fresh start they've been looking for. It is our hope that this trip has served as a chance for our student volunteers to grow as artists and as citizens and for a worthy organization to receive a helping hand.

For more information about the Benton House, visit their website at www.bentonhouse.org

For more information about CCAD's Alternative Spring Break program, contact Daniel LaFuente.

Our Final Day of Work

Today is our last day at Benton House. As I type this, people are scurrying from room to room adding the finishing touches to each of our projects. The interior crew which has been working on the entryway all week long is cleaning up trim and painting the staircases. The graphic design team has finalized a logo and is working hard to apply it to the many applications that the Benton House needs. They are also working out a way of applying a nine-foot wide version to a wall in the entryway. Katie's group is working on creating posters to advertise a Benton House Game Night coming up next week.

With a little luck, everything will come together without a hitch today.

With a little luck…

Let's Get Down to Business

Today, the real work began at the Benton House. Lindsey's group spent the majority of the day prepping their work area for a fresh coat of paint a few other, special touches. Katie's group worked tirelessly emptying the building of years of built-up clutter, reorganizing rooms and opening up spaces to work. Jordan's group worked closely with Mark to come up with a direction for graphics, including a logo and its application to a wall in the building's entryway.

Tomorrow, we will continue work in the Benton House. Primer will be applied to the entryway, a final logo will be chosen and our volunteers will have the opportunity to interact with area senior citizens. After work, we are planning to visit the Lincoln Park Zoo!

Photos courtesy of Lindsey Ellibee

A Slew of Photos

Outside the Water Tower Gallery

Pretty, Pretty Princesses

Jumping for Joy

Working at The Benton House

Group in front of the Bean

Mark from the Benton House

Dinofaces at the Field Museum

Inside the Benton House

Apple Heaven

Dan and Ryan

On the Red Line

Group T-Shirts

Shawn and the Train

Charee and Lindsey on the Bus

Evolution

Broken Umbrella

Entering the Benton House

Shawn on the Bus

Waiting for the Orange

Still Waiting…

Beneath the Bean

Working at the Benton House

Group Shot

All Smiles

Select photos courtesy of Lindsey Ellibee

Day Two

Today was a free day for our volunteers. We spread out across the city, taking in the sights and shopping and window-shopping.

In the evening, the Team leaders went grocery shopping for the night's dinner, a taco buffet.

The group really came through in the end when we tackled a massive pile of dirty dishes.

After all of our hard work, we rewarded ourselves with dessert, homemade ice cream sandwiches!

Today we will be visiting Millennium Park and heading to our volunteer site to begin work!

More pictures from Sunday will be posted soon.