| Tom Camacho |
Tom Camacho is a Grant Writer and a Strategic Planning, Education Outreach and Curriculum
Development Consultant for numerous non-profit arts and social service organizations in Chicago
and nationally. He has also aided 11 non-profit organizations in acquiring their IRS 501(c) 3 Non-
Profit Status and continually contributes pro-bono advice to numerous organizations that are in
their start-up years. His core efforts have been acting as an advocate for integrating arts-based
curriculum in Chicago Public Schools for over ten years and his many efforts have included the
development of many curriculum-based arts programs that are presently in service in Chicago
Public Schools.
Tom is primarily dedicated to creating possibilities for youth particularly in providing arts and arts
based education to at-risk communities. He believes that every child has the right to the best
chance to achieve their potential; regardless of their socioeconomic condition, ethnicity, race, or
what occurs in their homes. He also believes that every time a student slips through the cracks
that it is not possible to calculate or fathom what potential is forever lost; what that child may
have been capable of, what that child may have contributed to the better good for humanity. He
began this work by founding and developing The Serendipity Youth Theatre, a non-profit
organization which in 2002-03 produced five productions in Chicago area schools including a
collaborative Nutcracker that involved eight community organizations and had 120 youth
performing on stage. At the same time, he developed a program, instituted in Nicholas Senn High
School that led to the creation of a theater club which the students ran as if it were a small
theater company. Not only was this a partial answer to diminishing arts programming in the
school, but it was entrepreneurial in that the students learned core aspects of how to run their
own small business. A major result of this program was that four of the students who were not
considering college went on to enroll and attend universities; one for journalism at Brown
University.
In his past he has been a dancer, an actor, a horse-drawn Carriage Driver, an A&P Aircraft
Mechanic, a Soldier, a Mortgage Consultant, had breezed (exercised) race horses and competed
as a Hunter/ Jumper (horses) on the NIHJA B-Circuit Level. He is currently training for his eighth
marathon, raising money for Chicago Run after having knee surgery in January 2011. His mantra
is “Tell me how it can’t be done and I will show you how it can be”.
Development Consultant for numerous non-profit arts and social service organizations in Chicago
and nationally. He has also aided 11 non-profit organizations in acquiring their IRS 501(c) 3 Non-
Profit Status and continually contributes pro-bono advice to numerous organizations that are in
their start-up years. His core efforts have been acting as an advocate for integrating arts-based
curriculum in Chicago Public Schools for over ten years and his many efforts have included the
development of many curriculum-based arts programs that are presently in service in Chicago
Public Schools.
Tom is primarily dedicated to creating possibilities for youth particularly in providing arts and arts
based education to at-risk communities. He believes that every child has the right to the best
chance to achieve their potential; regardless of their socioeconomic condition, ethnicity, race, or
what occurs in their homes. He also believes that every time a student slips through the cracks
that it is not possible to calculate or fathom what potential is forever lost; what that child may
have been capable of, what that child may have contributed to the better good for humanity. He
began this work by founding and developing The Serendipity Youth Theatre, a non-profit
organization which in 2002-03 produced five productions in Chicago area schools including a
collaborative Nutcracker that involved eight community organizations and had 120 youth
performing on stage. At the same time, he developed a program, instituted in Nicholas Senn High
School that led to the creation of a theater club which the students ran as if it were a small
theater company. Not only was this a partial answer to diminishing arts programming in the
school, but it was entrepreneurial in that the students learned core aspects of how to run their
own small business. A major result of this program was that four of the students who were not
considering college went on to enroll and attend universities; one for journalism at Brown
University.
In his past he has been a dancer, an actor, a horse-drawn Carriage Driver, an A&P Aircraft
Mechanic, a Soldier, a Mortgage Consultant, had breezed (exercised) race horses and competed
as a Hunter/ Jumper (horses) on the NIHJA B-Circuit Level. He is currently training for his eighth
marathon, raising money for Chicago Run after having knee surgery in January 2011. His mantra
is “Tell me how it can’t be done and I will show you how it can be”.
