It all
started with Catherine Deam remodeling her kitchen. For
five months while they knocked out the back wall of her
home on East Avenue friends and neighbors heard all
about her hands-on work with the house, her involvement
with the contractors, how she and her husband and kids
were eating out of a microwave and electric skillet.
They joked, "So when are we going to have a tour of this
new kitchen?"
Meanwhile, Catherine's
close friend and neighbor, Pat Staszak, was on the first
Parenthesis Board of Directors. Pat had been chair of
the League of Women Voters Child Welfare Committee,
whose recommendation to create a parent-child center in
Oak Park coincided with Parenthesis' founding in 1980.
She and Catherine - who had children the same age -
often got together over a cup of tea, to talk. Pat was
looking for a way to raise money for Parenthesis. As
they were considering possible ways to do this Catherine
remembered designer Laura Trujillo mentioning that in
some other state a group raised money by giving a tour
of neighbors' kitchens.
Both Catherine and Pat,
active in the League and the community, happened to know
a lot of people who had just remodeled their kitchens:
"People in Oak Park and River Forest", as Catherine
said, "fall in one of two camps: they've just renovated
or they're getting ready to renovate!" The idea of
holding a kitchen tour clicked. Although housewalks, at
that time, were not a staple of nonprofit fundraising
diets (besides Wright Plus and Infant Welfare there were
no other walks in the area), they pursued the idea.
Together they conceived
the Parenthesis Kitchen Walk. So that first Walk, in
1985, was a tour of their friends' new kitchens.
These friends knew Parenthesis was a fledgling
parent-child center and that the walk benefited a good
cause. That first year there was no kitchen selection,
as there was to be on later Walks, only a phone
invitation from either Catherine or Pat.
Once conceived, many
community people offered their help for the first
Kitchen Walk: Helen Balch, a graphic designer, donated
ticket design: yellow, with a teapot. From that design
Pat and Catherine made posters, and hung them around
town. A kitchen store on Lake Street, owned by Jean &
Paul Quinn, was willing to sell tickets. Pat and
Catherine called friends to volunteer on the day of the
Walk. The Oak Leaves and Wednesday Journal
publicized it. And to that first Kitchen Walk, a real
walking tour of houses around Euclid and Linden (with a
couple of houses off the path), they sold 400 tickets.
The rest, as they say,
is history. Today, over 1000 people tour 10 houses on
the Kitchen Walk each year. Our surveys show that nearly
50% of people on the Walk are planning or in the process
of renovating their kitchens. Over half the people who
do the Kitchen Walk now do it year after year, to
support Parenthesis: It is our single largest fundraiser
and raises over $50,000 a year for Parenthesis’
programs.
Parenthesis has a
history of loyal friends and sponsors in the community
whose support pays for most of the expenses of printing
and advertising the Walk. Community businesses advertise
in our guidebook, and volunteers donate their homes,
their time, graphic design, hosting/hostessing, flowers,
booties, photography, ticket outlets and mailing
services. It is not the Kitchen Walk it was 23 years
ago, but then neither are we the same organization - we
have both grown. What remains constant, is that we are
still privileged to have the support of the Oak
Park-River Forest community, and still indebted to two
smart and enterprising women who put their heads
together and came up with that first Kitchen Walk.
Catherine and Pat thought it was an idea that would
last, because people are so naturally curious about
seeing homes. We think they are incredible women, and
count ourselves lucky to build on their work.
Return to Kitchen Walk home
page
