Skokie Village officials and First Bank & Trust CEO Robert Yohanan celebrate the grand opening of the 4007 Dempster branch.

First Bank & Trust officers and staff hosted a ribbon-cutting and grand opening reception for over 200 business leaders and bank customers on Dec. 6th at the bank’s newest branch office at 4007 Dempster Street in Skokie. The 3,600 square foot branch was designed to meet the requirements of a LEED® gold-certification as established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). Amidst an economic environment that has seen an increase in banks closed by regulators, and a decrease in new bank openings in the Chicago area, First Bank & Trust has opened eight branch locations in 16 years.

Designed by Behles+Behles architects of Evanston, the building which includes geothermal heating, a live roof and 100% LED lighting, is believed to be the first bank in the region designed and built to achieve LEED® gold-certification.

Read press coverage highlights on the new branch:

Evanston Review

Opening Day: Money isn’t all that’s green

Skokie bank office on the cutting edge of green

New bank in Skokie keeps environment a priority

TribLocal

The green branch of First Bank & Trust to open soon

First Bank & Trust celebrates grand opening of eco-friendly branch

Grand Opening photo gallery

Skokie welcomes green bank

Evanston RoundTable

In Green Building, What’s Old is What’s New

First Bank & Trust Goes Green in Skokie

Evanston Now

First Bank opens green office in Skokie

First Bank & Trust building branch in Skokie

Jewish Business News

Skokie bank breaks ground on green branch

India Post

First green facility by First Bank & Trust

India Tribune

First Bank & Trust celebrates grand opening of eco-friendly Skokie branch

Daily Northwestern

Green bank nears completion

Evanston architect breaks ground on Skokie bank; aims for LEED gold-certification

Piccolo Theatre and MIC present Evanston150's Final 10 Ideas. Photo by Karen Kring

Kick Start Marketing Chicago provided marketing planning, project management and media relations services for Evanston150, a community-wide grassroots initiative to identify and create 10 visionary projects to celebrate Evanston’s 150th anniversary in 2013. The final 10 ideas, from a total 2,201 submitted by community members, were unveiled November 10, 2011 at the Black Tie & Blue Jean Party held at the Levy Center. Over 300 residents joined Northwestern University theater professor Rives Collins, the Natural Trumpet Ensemble of the Music Institute of Chicago, Piccolo Theatre actors and community leader presenters to celebrate the unveiling and get to work on implementing the ideas.

Read media coverage of the Nov. 10 celebration:

The Evanston Review / Chicago Sun-Times

Evanston150 makes no small plans

Citizens Get to Work on 10 Ambitious Ideas

TribLocal / Chicago Tribune

Time for Work: Evanston150 unveils final 10 ideas

Evanston Now

Party lets big idea fans get to work

Evanston150 unveils top 10 ideas

The Daily Northwestern

Evanston150 unveils top 10 ideas for city’s future

Evanston150 reveals selection jury members

Timothy Douglas photo by Kimberly Aileen Scott

Timothy Douglas officially took the reigns July 1, 2011 as Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s new artistic director. Mr. Douglas, age 49, has built a career as a stage director, actor and educator, proving his versatility as both an acclaimed interpreter of the classics and contemporary drama. Mr. Douglas counts among his credits the world premiere of August Wilson’s Radio Golf for Yale Rep, his critically acclaimed Caribbean-inspired Much Ado About Nothing for the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, and the premiere of a new translation/adaptation of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm off-Broadway. He worked in the Chicago area from 1989 – 1991, before going on to serve as a resident director at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles from 1994 – 1997, and associate artistic director at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville from 2001 – 2004. He has been a company member with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass. since 1986.  With this appointment Douglas becomes first African American Artistic Director in Chicago to helm an Equity theater dedicated to modern classics.

His first creative project with the company was a July 3rd concert reading of the Declaration of Independence in collaboration with the Grant Park Music Festival.  See event photos on the Remy Bumppo website. Over 100 Chicago theater and cultural leaders participated in the reading including Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell me,” Golden Globe-winning Actress Regina Taylor, Goodman Theatre Associate Artistic Director Henry Godinez, Court Theatre Associate Artistic Director Ron OJ Parsons, Lookingglass Theatre Artistic Director Andrew White, Chicago Public Radio’s “848” Dueling Critic Kelly Kleiman, Victory Gardens Theater Executive Director Jan Kallish, and Christopher Piatt host of “The Paper Machete Show.”

Read Timothy’s appointment announcement in the Chicago Tribune,  Chicago Sun-Times and in PerformInk.  Hear a podcast interview with Timothy Theater in Chicago.

First Bank & Trust Director Jay Lytle addresses groundbreaking crowd

First Bank & Trust broke ground May 9, 2011 for the construction of a 3,600 square-foot LEED® certified branch office at 4007 Dempster in Skokie. LEED is an acronym for Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design. Designed by Evanston architectural firm Behles+Behles, the cutting-edge facility will be among the first financial institutions in the Midwest designed to achieve the rigorous requirements of a LEED® gold-certification as established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).

For media coverage on the event see the links below:

TribLocal

Sun-Times

Jewish Business News Chicago

Evanston Roundtable

Evanston Now

Daily Northwestern

The Chicago Reporter is an award-winning investigative news magazine that covers issues of race, poverty and immigration in Illinois.  The not-for-profit news source is part of the larger 501(c)3 entity The Community Renewal Society.  The staff’s expertise hunting down and analyzing data which can then be used by lawmakers, educators, non-profit leaders and the media, has brought to light systemic problems and led to major reforms in city, state and national legislation.

Here is the video brochure Kick Start Marketing Chicago and Stagechannel created for The Chicago Reporter – which was a component in a larger subscription marketing plan, to inform the public of its mission and impact.

Evanston150 is a community-wide initiative that engages all of us in imagining our future, resulting in 10 visionary ideas to celebrate Evanston's 150th anniversary in 2013.

Approximately 700 Evanston community members and leaders attended the March 26 Evanston150 Community Kick Off Rally at the Levy Center, and another 130 community leaders and members of the media attended the Kick Off breakfast briefing on March 22 at the Hilton Garden Inn.  Kick Start Marketing Chicago provided project direction for marketing and media relations for this unique grassroots community-wide initiative.  You can visit the evanston150.org for more info, or read highlighted media coverage below.

Read the Chicago Tribune March 25 Evanston150 Kick Off story.

Read the March 26 Chicago Sun-Times / Evanston Review Kick Off feature.

Read the Daily Northwestern Evanston150 Preview feature.

Read the March 29 Evanston Now Community Rally feature.

Read the Evanston RoundTable March 28 Community Rally feature.

Read the Evanston Patch March 27 Community  Rally feature.

Read the March 22 Evanston Now Kick Off Breakfast feature.

Brown Baby Reads Executive Director Dawn Eddy with her own young readers

The data is startling: according the the results of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card, over one-half (54%) of black 4th graders scored below the basic achievement level in reading on the NAEP in 2007.

2010 Illinois Stanford Achievement Test (ISAT-10) scores showed reading scores improving over previous years with 77% of black students meeting or exceeding standards, but still markedly lower to the 97% of white students meeting or exceeding standards.

But why are the test results of black and white students in the same school system, so different?

Dawn Eddy, executive director of Brown Baby Reads, a new non-profit organization with a mission to celebrate and encourage literacy in African American children has some theories.  And she offers the powerful and joyful solution of exposing our children early (even before entering Kindergarten) to high quality, high interest books featuring African American characters.

Read Dawn’s interview with the Encyclopedia Brittanica blog here: Promoting African American Literacy.  For over 900 book recommendations for your family, and the young people in your life, and to learn how you can support this positive and vital non-profit, visit the Brown Baby Reads website.

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company's Night and Day illustration by Robert Petrick

For the past several weeks, Kick Start Marketing has had the pleasure of coordinating a free public event for Remy Bumppo Theatre Company.  Inspired by the company’s current, critically-acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard’s satire of British news media Night and Day, Kick Start secured sponsors and panelists for a journalist panel entitled “Is the Truth Front Page News?”

Lending their expertise to the discussion are journalists Ramsin Canon, political editor and co-founder of Gaper’s Block, Alden K. Loury, publisher of The Chicago Reporter, Mary Mitchell, columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times and Timothy J. McNulty co-director of Medill School of Journalism‘s National Security Initiative. The panel discussion will be moderated by Richard Steele, host of WBEZ‘s “Eight Forty-Eight.”

Launching the panel discussion will be short excerpts from Night and Day about the risks and responsibilities of foreign correspondents.  The evening’s topics might include: sound bites v.s. investigative reporting, bloggers v.s. media giants, and what consumers should consider when choosing a news source.  Expect some frank, possibly heated, potentially funny, and ultimately enthralling conversation about the real world journalists inhabit.  For anyone who works or aspires to work in the media, collaborates with the media — or is a regular news consumer — this is a don’t miss event.

“Is the Truth Front Page News?” takes place Monday, Oct. 11 at 7:00 p.m. (doors open for general seating at 6:30 pm) at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.  Seating is limited to 200 – and reservations are recommended.  Reserve your spot on Remy Bumppo’s online events calendar, or call 773.244.8119.

If you can’t secure a spot or just can’t make the date – don’t fret, you can find it on WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified archives soon.

Playwright Annie Baker photo credit: The Boston Globe.com

Posted yesterday in the Boston Globe was an article on 3 Boston theaters collaborating to present 3 plays by a same playwright. Here’s a short excerpt with link to the article: