Eating with a Purpose

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” – Bill Gates

Zein Bertacchi leads by example in creativity, enthusiasm and hard work. She worked with youth this Saturday to raise $1000 towards a local charity. Her charitable ventures are innovative, charming and engage many youth to follow her creativity or " we try to beat her projects" said 12 year old Prashant Ramachandra a few years ago.

Zein, has been a passionate and dedicated leader for several causes but especially for the non profit called Chess Without Borders in Barrington IL for over 24 years. She has mentored over 100 youth as they volunteered over these years to engage in social entrepreneurship. She has inspired and mentored youth as well as adults to enjoy working as team members as they create unique opportunities for themselves and others in belonging to a connected and global world.. More details available here: https://shulmanchess.com/

Zein has done the hard work through various means but mostly she has demonstrated a passion for food philanthropy involving her team in raising funds through selling homemade food at chess tournaments, dinners and fundraising events.

Her first entrepreneurial experience was when an 8-year-old Rishi Sethi asked her to help raise funds at the first chess event in 1999. He wanted to start a chess program in Barrington but there was no one playing chess so he asked Zein to attract an audience through hosting a dinner where he introduces chess. All proceeds from the meal were donated to charity. A video description. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQe0Y1FT3Co&ab_channel=KiranFrey

· https://www.pointsoflight.org/inspiration-honor-roll/2022-2/?honoree-anchor=zein-bertacchi

Youth volunteers, Srinivas Jagannath, Dimitri Diyadawagamage , Paari and Varun Dhanasekaran and Prerith Srivastava have created their own social entrepreneurial companies to advance humanitarian causes and recently teamed up with Zein to sell her spice creation. Most recently she has created a freshly ground spice mixture for application on any meat, fish, vegetable or salad to bring out special flavors in foods. Each packet costs $3 and a portion of the sales goes towards a local or global charity.

To order email CWB at chesswob@gmail.com or call 847 915-5130