York Township Democratic Organization

The York Township Democratic Organization will hold its 57th annual St. Patrick's Day fundraising dinner on Sunday, March 17. Our keynote speaker will be Chicago Alderman Amewa Pawar.

Ameya Pawar is the forty-seventh ward Alderman for the City of Chicago. Ameya is also the first Asian-American elected to the Chicago City Council. Ameya ran a grass-roots campaign that focused on going door-to-door and ideas. He proved that elections can be about ideas, shoe leather, and mobilizing the community. Prior to becoming alderman, Ameya was on staff at Northwestern University in the Office of Emergency Management. Ameya has masters' degrees from the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 2009, Ameya was a US State Department Scholar and has presented his work in emergency management to FEMA and other national academic conferences. In 2011, Ameya was named to Crain's Chicago Business 40 under 40 list.

Since being elected to office, Ameya has sponsored legislation creating a framework for urban agriculture, defending workers' rights by taking action against wage theft, licensing debt collectors, and amending the human rights ordinance which bars employers from discriminating against job applicant's credit history. Last December, Ameya introduced an ordinance to create an Office of Independent Budget Analysis which would provide objective analysis for the annual budget and any proposed privatization effort. Recently, he authored an op-ed in the Tribune calling for mandatory liability insurance for gun owners. In the ward, Ameya has allocated million in tax-increment finance money for parks, schools, and other infrastructure projects. Under Ameya's leadership, the 47th Ward is seeing over 400 million dollars in improvements. Some of these projects include: the construction of a boathouse, Kerry Wood Cubs Field (the first IHSA regulation baseball field on the north side), two major school expansions, and many other projects. Ameya was instrumental in Mayor Emanuel's effort to implement Open 311. In fact, Ameya is the only alderman to develop a smartphone application which allows residents to report service requests directly to 311 from their phone. The app Chicago Works is available today for free in the iTunes and Droid stores. Additionally, he has been appointed to the Illinois Innovation Council by Governor Quinn, and has served on the board of directors of 47th Ward's Common Pantry (food pantry).

The event takes place at Drury Lane Conference Center at 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. Reception at 5:00 PM, program to begin at 6:00. Ticket prices are listed below. This year there are several levels of support. below. Those contributing at the higher levels will be recognized at the event, and in the program book if payment is received by print time. Also, we are pleased to offer three choices of entree. These are herb-crusted chicken breast, roasted vegetable napoleon, and sicilian ravioli.

Advertising space in the dinner program book is available here.

View photos from recent past dinners here.