No Ordinary Evening

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Thank you to all who were able to join for #virtualNOE!

We weren’t able to celebrate in the same room, but your spirit and energy were felt as we scrolled through the screen and saw dozens and dozens of familiar names. If you were unable to join us, see below for a recording of the night!

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About Declan’s Class

Declan’s Class is a group of Horizons for Youth students, now 100 strong, whose tuition and programming are supported exclusively from funds raised at No Ordinary Evening. The number of students in Declan’s Class grows every year, a testament to the commitment of the Drumm-Sullivan family, and the entire Horizons for Youth community, to the education and future of our students.

Event Origins

No Ordinary Evening was founded to remember and celebrate the life of Declan Drumm Sullivan, who was tragically killed in an accident at the University of Notre Dame on October 27, 2010. His family created the Declan Drumm Sullivan Memorial Fund to memorialize Declan’s life. The Declan Drumm Sullivan Memorial Fund supports organizations that demonstrate substantial local impact in the areas of education and community service.

Sponsor No Ordinary Evening

Generous sponsors have more than covered the costs of No Ordinary Evening every year to date, allowing all of the funds raised, the evening of the event, to go to supporting the students of Horizons for Youth, especially Declan’s Class. To join this special group of benefactors, download the 2020 No Ordinary Evening sponsor packet for a list of sponsor levels and the sponsorship form.

A special thank you to our current sponsors for their commitment and dedication to the 2020 No Ordinary Evening

(Updates as of February 18, 2020)

Last Year’s Highlights

Along with 650 of our closest friends, the 8th annual No Ordinary Evening raised a record-breaking $850,000 in support of students at Horizons for Youth. With No Ordinary Evening in the Emerald City as the theme for last year’s event, we celebrated the life of Declan Drumm Sullivan. Our MC for the evening was Reggie Brooks, who led the celebrations for Declan’s Class, then 96 students strong, and its first high school class graduates, Dejah and Sophia.

Dejah and Sophia were accepted to 26 colleges and universities and earned $1,160,388 in scholarships, collectively. The highlights of the night were the unveiling of the video and the girls’ announcements of where they would be attending school in the fall. Dejah is now a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Sophia is also a freshman at John Carroll University.

A very special thank you goes out to the Drumm Sullivan family who, for eight years now, have made supporting Chicago students their highest priority. We cannot thank them enough.

Benefiting Horizons for Youth
The primary beneficiary of the event is Horizons for Youth, Chicago’s only kindergarten through college nonprofit organization committed to helping children from low-resource neighborhoods recognize and achieve their full potential. Over 27 years, Horizons for Youth has partnered with Chicago’s public, charter, private, and faith-based schools, along with dedicated families, to provide tuition scholarships, one-on-one mentoring, individualized tutoring, a summer academic program, family support programs, monthly enrichment opportunities, high school and college preparation, and college persistence support.

Horizons for Youth currently serves 253 students. To date, 84% of Horizons for Youth high school program alumni have either graduated from college or are still on track to graduate. They are persisting at a rate nearly ten times greater than their socioeconomic peers, demonstrating the effectiveness and life-changing impact of Horizons for Youth programming.