UBAM's 25th Annual Something for Seniors event culminated on Dec. 18 with UBAM board members and Fair Share staff gathering at the store to fill and deliver boxes of food donated to 52 seniors in need on the Southwest Side. --Supplied photo

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Partners with Fair Share to feed those in need

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By Dermot Connolly

The United Business Association of Midway recently marked the 25th anniversary of its Something for Seniors initiative by providing 52 boxes of food to Southwest Side seniors in need.

UBAM’s tradition of holiday giving actually goes back to 1985, when the business organization was founded.

“Originally, we had a partnership with Misericordia,’ explained Executive Director Anita Cummings, a founding member of the organization. “We would meet and pick names of children living at Misericordia off a giving tree and provide gifts to them.”

UBAM’s 25th Annual Something for Seniors event culminated on Dec. 18 with UBAM board members and Fair Share staff gathering at the store to fill and deliver boxes of food donated to 52 seniors in need on the Southwest Side. –Supplied photo

“But in 1999, we looked around and noticed that while charitable organizations usually provided gifts to children in need around the holidays, nobody was paying attention to senior citizens in need,” Cummings added.

“That was the year we first partnered with Fair Share grocery store, at 6422 W. 63rd St., and the Chicago Lawn (8th) District to identify seniors in need and provide them with baskets of food and other necessities around the holidays,” she said.

Cummings explained that community relations officers in the 8th District provide the group with a list of seniors in need.

“Twenty five years goes by so quickly,” she said. “While boxes are filled now, at first, we filled actual baskets of food and delivered them ourselves,” said Cummings. “We have done as many as 75 baskets. This year, we did 52 boxes.

This year, Cummings and several other UBAM board members, including Tom Boudos and Patricia O’Brien, gathered with Fair Share owner Vito Salamone, manager Donna Brown and longtime delivery driver Wally Czajowski at the store on Dec. 18 to finish loading the van with the boxes of food going to the seniors in need.

Each box included a ham, frozen pizzas, roast beef, bread, canned fruit and toilet paper, among other things.

“Fair Share has been very generous with donations of food too,” said Cummings. “It is a lot better having Wally doing the deliveries than us.”

UBAM’s 25th annual Something for Seniors program concluded on Dec. 18 with Anita Cummings, executive director of UBAM, and Fair Share driver Wally Czajowski supervising the loading of donated boxes of food that he delivered to 52 local seniors in need. –Supplied photo

Prior to the pandemic, UBAM would hold an annual holiday party to raise money for the effort, with raffles and a silent auction. But for the last few years, member businesses have been covering most of the costs.

“Our members are always extremely generous,” she said. “The minimum donation is $50, but many give a lot more than that.”

“We are so glad we found this niche, helping seniors at the holidays. They are always so thankful.”

“One of the things about UBAM is, we are interested in contributing to the success and economic development of this whole community, not just individual businesses,” said Cummings.