Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park

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Activities

The members and friends of the Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park (FRUSOP) do not limit themselves to attending meetups. Occasionally they get together at other times and places. Here is a history of some of those activities. There are also some meetup dates that were significant.

Meetups that were held only on Zoom are identified with .

October 10, 2013
The Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park (FRUSOP) Meetup was offically created on October 8, 2013, and had its first meetup today at the Eastgate Café 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.
June 14, 2014
FRUSOP played for the Grand Opening of the newly renovated Park Districct of Oak Park Ridgeland Common Recreation Complex See the pictures.
June 22, 2014
FRUSOP played for the Oak Park Pleasant Home Ice Cream Social. See the pictures.
October 19, 2014
FRUSOP played for one of the watering stations at the Oak Park Frank Lloyd Wright Races. A song-sheet packet, Frank Lloyd Wright Races, was created for this occasion. See the pictures.
December 14, 2014
FRUSOP played in Cheney Mansion for the Park District of Oak Park annual Santa Trolley Event. A song-sheet packet was created for this occasion. See the pictures, and read the thank you note that the Park District of Oak Park sent.
September 24, 2015
FRUSOP had its 100th meetup.
August 26, 2016
The Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital asked FRUSOP to provide entertainment for a veteran's function, and many members and friends donated their time to do this. See the pictures, and read the thank you note that Hines Hospital sent.
June 3, 2017
Member and librarian Jennifer Byron asked FRUSOP to entertainment at the Oak Park Public Library, and many members and friends donated their time to do this. She curated the song-sheet packet created especially for the occasion.
September 14, 2017
FRUSOP had its 200th meetup.
February 22, 2018
On 2/22/2018 FRUSOP had its 222nd meetup—an amazing coincidence. It couldn't have been planned.
April 21, 2018
Member Jennifer Byron's husband, Joe, invited FRUSOP to play at her surprise birthday party. A special song-sheet packet, Jennifer Squee Packet, was created by going through her comments to past meetups and finding the songs she identified as her favorites. See the pictures.
April 26, 2018
FRUSOP bids adieu to longtime member BJ Anderson with a proclamation, and a song-sheet packet, BJ's Faves, that was curated by her.
October 11, 2018
FRUSOP celebrates with its 5th Anniversary Meetup. Of course there was a proclamation, and songs were sung and played from Pluck & Cluck (The Poultry Packet), and the Is Everybody Happy? packets.
December 18, 2018
Trapeze, the newspaper of Oak Park & River Forest High School, published “Community members strum some fun”, an article by contributor Daniel Weiss about FRUSOP. Thank you, Daniel, for the kind words. Daniel used pictures from one of our Halloween meetups.
May 20, 2019
Member Jennifer Byron made arrangements for FRUSOP members and friends to entertain at the Oak Park Arms. Because it was scheduled for a Monday beginning at 7:00 p.m., not many performers were expected, but surprisingly 20 showed up. When the program was finished, many of the audience members showered the group with compliments.
September 5, 2019
FRUSOP had its 300th meetup.
December 23, 2019
Member Jennifer Byron made arrangements for FRUSOP members and friends to entertain at the Oak Park Arms. Some audience members come up to the group afterwards to extend their appreciation and compliments.
January 23, 2020
January 25th, 2020, was the beginning of the lunar new year with the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Zodiacal Rat. So at this meetup we sang songs from the song-sheet packets Moon Tunes and The Rat Packet.
February 19, 2020
Member Rudy Host made arrangements for FRUSOP members and friends to entertain at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital. There were about 16 performers. The patients had a good time, even singing along. At the end, one of the vets said the performers had no idea what they did for the audience! And he said, “From the bottom of my heart, we thank you guys for taking time out from your precious lives to share your time with us. When are you coming back?”
April 9, 2020
Our first meetup over Zoom. In fact, the first FRUSOP meetup since Illinois Governor JB Pritzker's shelter in place order of March 9th.
October 22, 2020
Member Lisa Golladay organized the first All Request Night which involved creating a new Song-Sheet Packet made up of songs submitted by members and friends from other packets or brand new songs. All participants had a good time.
June 17, 2021
The first FRUSOP in-person meetup since April 9th, 2020, held in the Eastgate Café outside patio. This included an on-line link using Zoom for members to participate that way made possible by the generous efforts of Mike, member Lisa Golladay's husband. Thank you, Mike.
July 15, 2021
Nobody knew it at the time, but this was the last meetup FRUSOP had inside the Eastgate Café. Here are some pictures. We sang songs from the Three Chords or Less!, Volume 3, Rev 3 song-sheet packet, and it was a wonderful evening, even if some of us were nervous about being inside. However, the COVID-19 transmissions were declining, and the Delta variant was just starting to be dominant in the United States (we didn't know the implications of that then), so when we arrived at Eastgate, and the weather forced us to choose between canceling and going inside, going inside appeared to be a tolerable risk.

This meetup included an on-line link using Zoom for members to participate that way made possible by the generous efforts of Mike, member Lisa Golladay's husband. Thank you, Mike.

September 2, 2021
FRUSOP had its 400th meetup. This included the 63 meetups that were held on-line.
October 21, 2021
Nobody knew it at the time, but this was the last meetup FRUSOP had at the Eastgate Café.
October 28, 2021
Cold weather, and the continued threat of COVID-19 forces FRUSOP back to meetups on Zoom.
November 11, 2021
Member Betty Jane Lau told us the story of the time she put her hand in a hamster cage, and the hamster reached up, bit her on the finger, and held on. She shook it off, and it fell to the bottom of the cage and laid down. She reached down to pick it up and found the hamster was dead. The way she told it it was hilarious, and when she finished Chris said, “Don't bite Betty!”
December 9, 2021
Member “Canada James” Venuti gave us access to the Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall, 446 Hannah Avenue, Forest Park, Illinois, for FRUSOP in-person meetups. This is a larger space that allows for better social distancing. Like many other venues, Proof of Vaccination was required. It was such a treat to be back inside. Thank you, Canada James. (Is that applause I hear?) Again this included an on-line link using Zoom for members to participate that way made possible by the generous efforts of Mike, member Lisa Golladay's husband. Thank you, Mike.
December 23, 2021
The threat of the higher transmissibility of the COVID-19 Omicron variant forces FRUSOP back to meetups on Zoom.
March 27, 2022
After being in business for almost 14 years, the Eastgate Café closed its doors today for the last time. Having had 343 meetups there, the Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park has a tsunami of associated memories to be grateful for.

We wish owners Patrick and Olya Dailey nothing but the best.

April 21, 2022
One Thursday evening a few weeks prior, Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park (FRUSOP) Meetup member John Martz went to the Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall not realizing that that evening FRUSOP was having a Zoom only meetup, and he met Eagles member Jack Eilrich. John explained why he was there, and Jack offered that in the future he would open the doors to the Eagles Hall whenever the Free Range Ukulele Society wanted to have a meetup there, and all we had to do was call him in advance. Today Jack gave FRUSOP our own key to the building. We still call Jack to let him know whether or not we're coming, and to make sure the Hall is available.
December 26, 2022
Long-time Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park Meetup member David Culp, otherwise known as “Banjolele Dave,” passed away. May his memory be for a blessing.

If you want to add something to our memorial page for him, contact Alvin.

August 17, 2023
FRUSOP had its 500th meetup. 33 in-person, and 9 online participants were there. See the Meetup page for pictures and comments.
October 12, 2023
FRUSOP had its 10th Anniversary meetup at the Eagles #1344 Hall. We sang songs from the first two song-sheet packets, Is Everybody Happy?, and Terry's Record Party, which we sang from at our first meetup. There were 30 participants; 21 in-person, and 9 online. See the Meetup page for pictures and comments.

If you're a member who was there, and you haven't added a comment, please do that now.

May 9, 2024
FRUSOP bids adieu to David Causton, one of our founding members, with a proclamation, and a song-sheet packet, David's Favids: The Chosen Packet, that was curated by him. See the Meetup event page for pictures and comments.
May 25, 2024
The Sam Ash Music store in Lombard, Illinois, closed its doors for the last time today. For many, many years it was the venue where Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park members and friends gathered on Tuesday evenings to play from the song-sheet packet that was being used on Thursday. The COVID-19 pandemic ended that in 2020, and when the Sam Ash group started gathering again it used an outdoor location. The store leaves behind many good memories.
July 1, 2024
FRUSOP member BJ Anderson belongs to the East Dallas Uke-A-Ladies, and they had a nice article written about them in the Lakewood/East Dallas edition of Advocate Magazine.