The women are throwing a party.
The inaugural Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association (CMSA) Women's Social Party is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 22, at Joe's Bar on Weed Street, 940 W. Weed, starting at 7 p.m., and running until 2 a.m.
The event is geared towards CMSA's female members, although all are welcome, since there is no longer a "women's bar" to raise awareness about the Lesbian Community Care Project (LCCP), a program at the Howard Brown Health Center (HBHC), said event organizer Sam Hamilton.
The party will feature many local musicians and more.
"CMSA and Howard Brown have teamed together several times," Hamilton said. "Several years ago, Howard Brown was a league sponsor of our women's volleyball league and, at the end of the 2010 flag football season, players from the men's and women's leagues brought gently used items to fill the box truck at Warren Park," bound for Howard Brown.
"CMSA is more than [just] a sports organization. We have held various fundraisers in the past and at previous parties we have donated money or canned goods to various charities. It just happened that the timing was right to have a women's social party and to work with LCCP/HBHC. This party is a way of getting our community involved off the playing field. CMSA has members who have had to give up playing a sport to support their partner/family [and] to help those going through health issues."
Also at the event, the limited-edition 2011 LCCP/Howard Brown women's athletic calendar, featuring local athletes, will be sold.
"We did some research and put in as much of the information about CMSA's women's athletic dates, as well as community events and local professional events," in the calendar, said Hamilton, who voluntarily snapped all the photos for the calendar and performed some designing service. "We are already planning the next calendar project, [which will be titled,] 'Professional Career Women's Calendar'"
So who's in the 2011 calendar?
CMSA members, along with women from LCCP/HBHC who volunteered as models.
The LCCP provides primary medical care, behavioral health services, programming, health education and other support services for many in the LGBT community.
"Sports and health go together," said Hamilton, 38, who lives in Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood. "By improving your health, you can make your sports team, or your family, healthier."
And, yes, the Women's Social Party will be an annual January event, Hamilton said.
Current CMSA members get in free, while friends/non-CMSA members will have to pay the $10 cover charge, and 100 percent of the cover-charge for the first three hours will go to LCCP/HBHC.
There will be appetizers until 9 p.m., but the focus of the party will be the entertainment.
"The women's social should be a big event for many years to come," Hamilton said. "Special thanks goes to Denise Montiel and the anonymous donation, which made the calendar possible. Thanks also go to Christiana Santiago, Lisa Katona, Jacki DiMaggio and Marcia Hill for the research on important dates and other support.
"I believe [the event] already has been a success since there are so many sponsors and volunteers. When word got out that CMSA was planning a women's social, in addition to our regular membership party, several CMSA members who are musicians were asked to perform at the party," and they agreed.
