As participants filtered into the guitar room during the No-Coffee Coffeehouse event on May 24, a warm environment was created when different acts were introduced in the mic. Claps and cheers welcomed the performers as they entered and left the stage.    

The No-Coffee Coffeehouse is a relatively new event started by the Lane Tech Organization of Women (LTOW) in the spring of 2017. The idea for the No-Coffee Coffeehouse was to give recognition to the club as well as gather donations for Planned Parenthood.

Taylor Goins, the vice president of LTOW, said that Planned Parenthood helps supply health care to low-income women through access to safe abortions, mammograms and breast cancer screenings. Planned Parenthood also provides contraceptives of all kinds, general health care,   patient education, pregnancy testing/services, STD – which is now referred to as STI – testing/treatment/vaccines, and services to males, females, and those who identify as LGBT.

“Because we are an organization of women, we care about women’s rights,” Goins, Div. 868, said.

Jordan Hunt, the co-president of LTOW, said that the biggest reason for this event taking place was to donate to an organization that gives so many opportunities for those women that need it.

“They provide contraceptives, they give you pregnancy care and they help you if you need help with prenatal medicine,” Hunt, Div. 868, said. “Literally, they do everything that you could possibly dream of and they make it so accessible to women who don’t have as much or don’t have the access to higher health care.”

Hunt said that last year the club raised about $250 for Planned Parenthood.

“I think getting to a goal of $300 would be amazing,” Hunt said. “You could help so many people with just 300 bucks.”

Later, she said that they only were able to raise $64 from the event this year, but added that a teacher may match that amount with a donation of about $64 herself. If that happens, the total would be $128.

The event was an open mic, which allows any form of performance to take place. Goins said that the Coffeehouse has featured comedic skits, singing and slam poetry the previous year.

Performers had to sign in to keep the event organized since the event is shorter this year with only being about an hour and a half, according to Hunt.

Goins said that this year, the officers had difficulty renewing their donation permit, which allowed them to collect money for donations to Planned Parenthood.

“As of right now, we are trying to renew our permit,” Goins said. “We actually got it approved and we had to switch the date.”

Hunt noted that it is the school, not CPS, that helped with LTOW getting the permit to collect money. She added that it was specifically to collect profit for the items that would be sold there, with all profits going to Planned Parenthood.

Ericka Corral, Div. 877, sang at both No-Coffee Coffeehouse events in 2017 and 2018.

Corral described that the previous year had a much larger crowd, with some students even sitting on the floor.

“I think the tryouts for I-Days had a lot to do with it,” Corral said.

Hunt felt that the reason for the smaller crowd was this year’s event took place much later in the year than it did last time and was not well prepared, as much as last year. She suggests that next year, everything should start sooner and there should be more communication, especially Ms. Feuer, who sponsors the group.

“It’s just open,” Goins said. “You can come and do whatever you feel like doing and just enjoy yourself.”