About
Photo by Alvin McGovern
The Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park (FRUSOP) Meetup was offically created on October 8, 2013, and had its first meetup on October 10, 2013, at the Eastgate Café (EastgateCafe.net), where owners Patrick and Olya Dailey have been generously lending their restaurant dining room to ukulele players on Thursday nights almost since the day they opened the doors for business in June 2008.
FRUSOP came into existence when the ukulele group that previously used the Eastgate Café moved to another venue, and we knew that people would be showing up on Thursdays notwithstanding. However an informal weekly gathering would eventually dissipate, and the opportunity to make a difference in people's lives would be lost. So a number of us pooled our resources and created this Meetup group.There's something special about people getting together for an evening of playing ukulele and singing, or simply singing. Indeed, if you were to ask our participants what that means to them, you'd easily find someone ready to testify that it's the high-point of their week, or gotten them through a rough patch in their lives.
“Something special?” Well, come find out for yourself. We meet every Thursday at 7 p.m. unless it's a holiday or the Eastgate Café is having a special event. The requirements are minimal. Of course we welcome accomplished ukulele players, however we're also beginner-player-friendly; in fact we've had participants that never even held a ukulele until the first time they attended. Heck, if you only like to sing and have fun, you don't even have to have a ukulele.
We request a suggested donation of $5.00, and that, as a courtesy to the Eastgate Café for lending us their dining room free of charge, you buy something to eat and/or drink. Even better, plan on arriving early and having dinner—their food is excellent.
Look us up at Meetup.com/Free-Range-Ukulele-Society-of-Oak-Park/
