#shiftease event series at Lost Lake | 2016-2022

In 2016, I co-founded the fundraising event series #shiftease. The series began as a pop-up party: While Lost Lake was temporarily closed by a kitchen fire early in 2016, the Chicago bar community hosted us for a series of pop-ups that kept tips in our pockets. ‘Shifties’ were the drinks we make ourselves after a long shift, and #shiftease was a way to ease the financial pain of lost shifts by sharing that breaking-down-the-bar experience with you. I co-founded this party platform in that same spirit of mutual aid that had assisted my team after the fire — only this time, all the money raised was in support of organizations working for progressive racial, economic, and gender justice in Chicago. Over the course of the event series, #shiftease raised over $50k for grassroots organizations.

I managed the event series calendar, researched and communicated with beneficiary organizations, secured partnerships with spirit brand, lead marketing for each edition, and mentored staff as they realized their own #shiftease concepts like AFC, Chick-Feel-Gay, and the Outpost.