WEST ENGLEWOOD — A GoFundMe page to help the Earle STEM Academy chess team raise $17,000 has been launched after the school saw its budget cut.
So far $8,948 has been raised.
The West Englewood elementary school is $17,000 short after Chicago Public Schools budget cuts. Once the cuts were announced, the school’s principal moved to reduce the money designated for the chess team. But the team's coach, Joseph Ocol, a math teacher, said he wouldn't walk away from the team's 35 students.
“I couldn’t imagine leaving them,” said Ocol, who lives in Belmont Cragin. He now plans to coach the team without pay.
Reporter Andrea Watson talks more about the funds needed to keep the chess team going:
Ocol said the emails keep pouring in. So many people feel compelled to help the team. He said he was touched by what he called an unexpected wave of support.
"Now the kids can look forward to competing in more tournaments and get a chance to even improve their ratings," he said Thursday night. "I am very happy for them. Whatever help that will be provided will surely go a long way in developing these kids to become better thinkers and build their character."
When Jenny Volvovski read a DNAinfo Chicago story detailing the cuts to the chess team at Earle STEM, 2040 W. 62nd St., she was struck by how Ocol was buying meals for his 35 players and volunteering his time twice a week, and sometimes all day on Saturdays. She wanted to help, so she created the GoFundMe page.
She wasn’t the only person who wanted to assist the team. Readers across Chicago reached out to DNAinfo asking how they could help, or for Ocol's contact information.
Reader Elizabeth Kregor, who lives in Oak Park but works in Hyde Park, is looking to help.
“A hardworking, stretched teacher should not need to sacrifice his own money to carry this forward on his own,” Kregor said, adding that her husband is an avid chess player.
Kregor said she believes that chess can be both a “life-changing and life-saving” experience for the students. Besides teaching kids teamwork and exposing them to new people when they travel, Kregor said chess "encourages analytical thinking, deliberation and planning.”
“It requires players to think about a big picture, and how their actions have consequences, even beyond the moment,” said Kregor.
Sarah Ryan of Logan Square said reading about the cuts made her furious.
“CPS continues to demolish resources and basic needs to the most vulnerable population of this city,” she said, adding that she didn't think this wouldn’t happen to a North Side public school because parent organizations are able to do “significant fundraising.”
“What happens to the schools whose communities don’t have the same connections or resources? They lose teachers, social workers, support staff and more. This one example is a small way to support a teacher and his kids who are being forgotten and ignored by" Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner, Ryan said.
Ryan said chess is a way to help “reinforce” each student’s worth.
Howard Bailey of Dream Cafe & Grill, 748 W. 61st St., has offered to provide a free lunch for Ocol and the team at least once a month. The Englewood businessman said he wanted to lend a hand because “If the community doesn’t do what we can, how else can we expect others to?”
Visit the GoFundMe by clicking here.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
