From one year ago (April 2005):

** 10 Events in 26 Days!! **
http://students.uis.edu/araut01s/cr/10Events.pdf

UIS College Republicans participate in the Twilight Parade, at the opening of the Illinois State Fair.

UIS College Republicans attend a reception at Vic's Pizza, sponsored by gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis. Major Republican leaders, such as Rep. Raymond Poe, are in attendance; Representative Poe is invited to address the CRs at UIS (which he later does - see below).

UIS College Republicans participate in the "Republican Day" events at the State Fair.

For perhaps the first time in history, a College Republicans organization (the UIS CRs) is invited to host a table in the well-known Republican Party Tent, at the Illinois State Fair (which was begun in 1853).

September 5th
UIS College Republicans Honor Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (1924-2005)
[HTML] - [PDF] - [WORD]

September 11th
1st Flyer Project of the year: September 11th Anniversary flyer [PDF]

The "11 Day Project" - Because no Candlelight Vigil was taking place on campus this year, in remembrance of the September 11th Anniversary, the UIS College Republicans launched an "11 Day Project" where, for the eleven days after September 11, 2005, students would wear lapel stickers commemorating the anniversary.

September 21st
Conference Call with White House advisors Karl Rove and Barry Jackson on Social Security Reform - UIS College Republicans participated!

Amy Hodges (UIS CR alum who graduated last semester) is hired as the Capital Region Coordinator for the Illinois Republican Party.

Mentoring Project initiated, to help start a "Teenage Republicans" chapter in Sangamon County, with the assistance of and guidance from the UIS College Republicans.

Continuing our re-established relationship with the local headquarters of the Illinois Republican Party, the student internship program is re-started, and our CR members begin working at the State Party Headquarters.

UIS CR member David Clary recruits participants for the "Run/Walk for Hurricane Katrina" Relief. In addition, College Republicans members volunteer for the Illinois Capital Area Chapter of the Red Cross, by collecting Hurricane Relief donations for a program with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.
[Click Here for more info...]

October 12th
Despite finding out only the same day that he is attending, the UIS College Republicans host State Representative Raymond Poe, one of the most prominent elected officials in this area, and then a candidate for Lt. Governor, at their meeting. A total of 38 people show up, to see Rep. Poe.

October 17th
A "Pizza Party," featuring leading gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis, is hosted by the College Republicans. Though it takes place during the middle of the day, at the start of mid-terms week, approximately 75 students and guests are in attendance. The WICS TV 20 News is there, and a press conference is held, at the start of the event, which is featured on the nightly television news. Other media also covers the event, including several from UIS - Professor Wheeler's "Public Affairs Reporting" students, and the UIS Journal (Journal reporter Jason Satek was given a personal interview with Mr. Oberweis).

October 21st
Springfield Right to Life - Annual Dinner
This year, we were given half-priced tickets to this event, which ended up being sold out - due to the fact that the featured speaker was Phyllis Schlafly, the "First Lady of American Conservatism." The master of ceremonies at this event noted us as one of the groups that was in attendance, and we were recognized in front of the audience of 275 people.

October 21st and 22nd ("A Trip to Elgin on Saturday!")
The United Republican Fund held three Training Schools this month (the training seminars are provided by the Leadership Institute, another organization with which the UIS CRs has worked before). Despite their Elgin School being the furthest away, we chose to attend this one, because the program for this Training School was specifically geared towards college students. Following this event, all College Republicans were invited to the home of Senator Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin), for a "barbeque" during the first World Series game. During these Elgin events, we were glad to have the opportunity to see our Chairman Emeritus, Kurt Kojzarek, who recently had become an elected official in his home city. [See here.]

November 8th is Election Day, not in Illinois, but in several other locations throughout the country. Because there were no elections in our state, our College Republicans members went out of state, to assist Republican candidates in other races:

In the Missouri special election, for House of Representatives, two current CR members, and two former members, assist with the campaign of Moira Byrd:
Suraj Prashad, Aakash Raut, Adam Kopp, Jeremy Loscheider

In the Governor's race in Virginia, two current CR members, and two former members, assisted with the campaign of Jerry Kilgore:
Adam Beaty, Jeffrey Isbell, Daniel Miller, Amy Hodges

November 11th
2nd Flyer Project of the Year: Veterans Day [Flyer 1] [Flyer 2]

November 15th
Our "Freedom Week" Meeting - For the second year in a row, we held this special meeting, with a focus on World Freedom Week ("Celebrating Victory over Communism") and honoring our veterans and current servicemembers. Here is the agenda for that meeting, and some background material we used, from Young America's Foundation.

November 16th
Operation Christmas Child - Each year, Jen Davis (a leader in Christian Student Fellowship at UIS), and Brad Ward (a member of our College Republicans organization) encourage UIS students to donate items for the "Operation Christmas Child" project, an annual project of the Samaritan's Purse ministry [encyclopedia article] [website]. Out of approximately ten shoeboxes that were turned in this year, two of them came from the UIS CRs.

November 19th
For the first time since 2001, the College Republicans conducted a Thanksgiving Food Drive. Even though Thanksgiving Break had begun, we had plenty of volunteers, to distribute bags [with instruction sheets] in a Springfield neighborhood. One week later, towards the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, we picked up a large supply of food that had been donated; it was taken the following week to the Ronald McDonald House.

The Illinois Republican Party urgently contacts us, right after Thanksgiving Break, to let us know that a full slate of candidates has just been formed, in time for the primary elections, for all of the statewide elected offices in Illinois. The new candidates for Attorney General, Comptroller, and Treasurer are Stu Umholtz, Sen. Carole Pankau, and Sen. Christine Radogno, respectively. Our help is needed to obtain ballot access for these candidates, in their primaries, before the upcoming deadline.

A 'task force' is immediately set up, and we worked all the way through till the filing deadline (which is right before Finals Week), and succeed in helping all three of the candidates get on the ballot.

December 19th
Despite being held this year on the weekend right before Finals Week, our annual UIS College Republicans Christmas Party has record attendance, with around 30 people attending this event, at Bellacino's restaurant. The Inter-Club Council Board grants funding for this event, and those attending included several local community members, and both members and non-members of our organization.