RIVER NORTH — Think of it as cocktailing for a cause.
Four neighborhood eateries will donate $1 from every signature cocktail bought this month to the Young Women's Leadership Charter School of Chicago, the city's only all-girls public school, as part of a partnership between the school and the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group.
HUB 51, Bub City, RPM Italian, and Paris Club Bistro & Bar are all participating in the fundraiser, donating proceeds from their signature cocktails to the school at 2641 S. Calumet Ave.
Participating cocktails include the pomegranate mojito at Hub 51, Paris Club Bistro and Bar's champagne cocktail, RPM Italian's Glider, made with Evan Williams White Label, Aperol and lemon and the gin-and-rhubarb Ponderosa Pine at Bub City.
Last year, the school launched a new program called "Social Graces" to complement the thesis-like "promotion presentations" that all eighth-, 10th- and 12th-grade students must complete to advance to the next grade level at the 14-year-old public school.
Offered to students in seventh, ninth and 11th grades at the charter school, Social Graces emphasizes professionalism, public speaking and conversation skills, and culminates with a luncheon where the girls rub elbows with business and community leaders.
"Social graces" joins other year-round initiatives that span all grades, like the school's "code-switching" challenge, which emphasized the distinction between "home language" and "professional business language."
These supplements help set the school and its students apart from other Chicago Public Schools programs, Principal Deniece Fields said.
"When someone meets them, we want people to know that they've been to Young Women's Leadership Charter School, [to say] 'You must be a Y-dub student,' based on how they carry themselves," Fields said.
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