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When Nick Pupillo stands in the middle of the dance floor, he doesn’t just stand there, he grows.

His quiet strength radiates against the roughness of the room, with its exposed brick walls, industrial pipes overhead and a metal door that opens onto a loading dock.

His bare feet are rooted in the black vinyl floor. His sweat pants are rolled up, squeezing the flesh just above his knee. A man with short brown hair, athletic build, crooked smile, and big, friendly eyes, he looks up. He lifts one arm to the sky, letting the other dangle toward the earth.

The line on Milwaukee Avenue reached down the block and snaked around the corner on Thursday. One hundred fifty people stood, sat on the sidewalk, brought their own chairs, drank coffee, ate sandwiches and waited.

While similar scenes unfold outside box offices when major concerts come to town, there was no headline act appearing in Avondale. Residents from all over Chicago and as far away as Indiana waited in line for a different reason: free dental care.

For the third year, Big Smile Dental offered free dental services as part of their Dentists with Heart program. Regardless of socioeconomic status, everyone over the age of 12 was eligible as long as they were willing to brave the cold and spend the day waiting in line. The practice, owned by Dr. Theodore Siegel, also gives free care to children one day during the summer.

"Look around," the 51-year-old dentist said. "Right here in Chicago on Milwaukee Avenue there are people who can't afford dental work."

Seven providers, including an oral surgeon and a periodontist, dental hygienists and support staff worked without pay and spent the day performing extractions, doing routine cleanings and filling teeth.

The first patients were admitted at 9:00 a.m. At that point, some had been waiting outside for five hours. Most were exhibiting enthusiasm not usually seen during a visit to the dentist. "I'm getting a filling, and I'm super-excited!" Janine Nock, 27, said. "Free dental care is really hard to come by. It's a really nice thing to do for the community."

Many of the patients, like Logan Square resident Erwin Pacheco, 53, were there for emergency dental care. Pacheco said that he had been in pain for two weeks, just waiting for February 14.

Others saw Siegel's offer as an opportunity to get a cleaning or a filling that they might not normally be able to afford. Nidhie Singh, 25, a student at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., drove for more than an hour with a friend to arrive at 4:30 a.m. She needed a filling, and said that dental insurance was too expensive for her student budget to handle.

Although free health care is available throughout Chicago, free dental care is much harder to come by. Both the Cook County Department of Public Health and the Chicago Department of Public Health Clinics offer dental services, but have income requirements. Moreover, many clinics require registration, and a call placed to the Comprehensive Clinic in Uptown revealed that registration is currently closed until April.

Although she was grateful for the services rendered, Truman College student Rebecca Grace, 25, was frustrated with the health care system. "I think it's a damn shame that people have to wait in line to have free dental care," she said. "In some countries this would never happen."

Dr. Siegel sees his success as an "opportunity to give back to the people who have made us so successful. It's a privilege for me to be in a position to give back."
By the end of the day, the doctors at Big Smile Dental had seen more than 150 patients, adding to the 875-plus patients the practice has already provided with free dental care.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The play used to raise shockwaves - and now raises money for the annual V-Day campaign to end violence against women and children.

Chicago has lined up a litany of "V-Day" performances to celebrate the 10th anniversary of women's rights activist Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues.

V-Day productions kick off on Valentine's Day at Metropolis Coffee, 1039 W. Granville Ave., Chicago, and include V-Day Chicago 2008 on March 6 and 7 in Wicker Park.

For the "V to the 10th" of what has become a global grassroots movement for women, Ensler included a new play, A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer and the 2004 documentary "Until the Violence Stops."

It's up to local production directors to include the optional additional material.

The V-Day Chicago 2008 performance won't include all those components, but performers are adding another interpretive monologue with music. Many Chicago venues are celebrating V-Day from Valentines Day until the end of March.

"[V-Day] is about celebrating women and what makes us the wonders that we are," said Hollis Rabin, who is directing and organizing V-Day Chicago 2008. "It's about standing up for ourselves and our sisters, and having our voices heard."

Each year, the thousands of V-Day performances in public auditoriums and on college campuses focus on a particular cause, which will benefit the Katrina Warriors Network this year. Ten percent of profits from each performance all over the world go to one spotlight fund.

Katrina Warriors Network is a coalition of organization that helps women in New Orleans and the Gulf. The rest of the profits from V-Day Chicago 2008 will go to the Chicago Abused Women's Coalition.

The spotlight V to the Tenth celebration in the New Orleans Superdome on April 12 will feature V-Day activists from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Celebrity speakers include Chicago's Oprah Winfrey.

V-Day's official holiday is Valentine's Day, a day to express love to a special someone. V-Day reclaimed the holiday because women rarely "make a point" to love themselves, Rabin said.

"[The day is] to love what makes us women and stand up and work to end the violence," she said. "And we won't stop until we have claimed a victory over it."

------------------ RELATED LINKS ------------------ ------ Title: V to the 10th Web site URL: http://v10.vday.org/ ------ ------ Title: V-Day's Web site URL: http://www.vday.org/main.html ------ ------------------ Sidebar(s) ------------------ ------ Headline: V-Day Performances Body:

V-Day Chicago 2008 Performances of The Vagina Monologues:

Thursday, March 6 at 7 p.m., and Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m, at the Pulaski Park District Auditorium, 1419 W. Blackhawk St, Chicago.

Get Tickets: e-mail vdaychicago2008@gmail.com to reserve tickets. Cash only.

Other Chicago Community Performances:

Feb. 14, 6 p.m., Metropolis Coffee, 1039 W. Granville Ave., Chicago,

March 21 and 22, 8 p.m. - LaCosta Theater, 3931 N. Elston Ave. 2nd floor, Chicago

March 26, 7 p.m. - Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted St., Chicago
March 28 and 29, 7:30 p.m. - Hinsdale Community House-Kettering Hall, 415 W. Eighth St., Hinsdale
Scheduled College Performances:

Feb. 15, 7 p.m. and Feb. 16, 1:30 p.m. - McCormick Theological Seminary, Common Room, 5460 S. University Ave., Chicago

Feb. 15 and 16, 7 p.m. - Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Thorne Auditorium, 375 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago

Feb. 16 and 17, 8 p.m. - DePaul University, Student Center, 2250 N Sheffield Ave., MPR Room 120, Chicago