La Grange’s TEACH Announces 10th Annual Benefit Gala

TEACH, Tutoring English to Advance Change, announces its 10th Annual Benefit Gala Saturday, May 9 at the Prairie Ballroom and Foyer, Hyatt Lodge at McDonald’s Campus, 2815 Jorie Boulevard. The evening of international food, entertainment and awards celebrates and honors community figures who represent the cultural unity that supports the work of TEACH, which reaches 40 communities at 19 sites in Western Cook, DuPage and Will counties. This year TEACH honors Fiona McEntee and Maribel Molina Cortes with the Cultural Unity Award.

The Cultural Unity Award was established to honor immigrants who have succeeded in this country and individuals who have enabled others to share the American dream. Past recipients include the first graduating class of DACA students from Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine, missionary/doctors Celine and Don Woznica, and WGN’s own Lourdes Duarte.

Honoree Fiona McEntee is an award-winning immigration attorney who has been practicing immigration law exclusively for over 12 years. McEntee is a national spokesperson for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She is regularly tapped for her immigration thought-leadership by major media outlets including MSNBC, BBC, CNN.com, New York Times, Politico, Inc. Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Irish Central, Irish Times and RTÉ. McEntee has been nationally recognized for her expertise in immigration law including being selected to the 2020 IL Super Lawyers List for immigration and being inducted into the Irish American
Hall of Fame in 2019.

As an immigrant to the U.S. herself, McEntee is in a unique position to provide sensitive, compassionate and comprehensive advice to all her clients. Originally hailing from Dublin, Ireland, McEntee is the founding and managing attorney of McEntee Law Group. She moved to Chicago in 2002 as an international exchange student at DePaul University's College of
Law. Having fallen in love with Chicago, she returned to study at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she received her Juris Doctor in 2007.

McEntee has recently published her first book, “Our American Dream.” It was released in January 2020 to critical reviews by CNN, Readers' Favorite, Midwest Book Review and it received the Gold rating by Mom's Choice Award. The first in a series of children's books, “Our American Dream” aims to help children understand the importance of a diverse and welcoming America by sharing stories inspired by McEntee's personal experiences and the experiences of those she's encountered on her immigration journey.

Honoree Maribel Molina Cortes is an inspiration to many, she is an immigrant who has become a successful entrepreneur, a restaurant owner and is now a TEACH student studying to become a U.S. citizen.

From the young age of eight years old, Cortes was the queen of her family's kitchen in her native Mexico. Cortes moved to Aurora with her husband but, almost five years later, found herself divorced and struggling to support her daughter. Cortes would scrounge for scraps in the trash of restaurants and bakeries. She even lived in shelters for a time while trying to further educate herself and find better work. She eventually opened her own restaurant in Naperville, Totopos, and is able to look back on those times as learning experiences. Remembering what it is like to be hungry, Cortes, now in her third year as restaurant owner, lets people eat now and pay later if they are short on cash, not wanting to send anyone away.

The gala includes a cocktail hour at 6 p.m. and dinner, entertainment, and awards ceremony and paddle raiser starting at 7 p.m. Individual tickets are $125 or $1,000 for a discounted table of 10 and are currently on sale at TEACHEmpowers.org or 708.609.0945.