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The Carousel of Possible Dreams
The Festival of Children Foundation and Sanfilippo Foundation
Host
a Benefit for Five Barrington Charities
Five years ago, through mutual business connections and donors, the Festival of Children Foundation (FOCF), which is based in California, learned about the Sanfilippo Foundation’s Carousel and came out to Barrington for a visit. According to the Sanfilippo Foundation’s Executive Director Gregory Leifel, during the visit Sandy Segerstrom-Daniels, founder and executive director of FOCF, explained their prior Carousel of Possible Dreams (COPD) events, and the idea seemed a natural fit for the Sanfilippo Foundation to utilize the Eden Palais Carousel to help raise money for local children’s charities.
“A beautiful, cohesive partnership was born, and in five years the COPD event has raised, in total, over one million dollars, all going directly to children’s charities,” Leifel said. The idea behind the COPD fundraiser is that five local children’s charities band together for one night. “Everyone is encouraged to participate in this fun, easy challenge and give their favorite charity the opportunity to win,” says Segerstrom-Daniels. The FOCF has worked for the past eight years by spreading awareness of children’s issues throughout the country through its network of 450 member organizations. Segerstrom-Daniels has been instrumental in getting the U.S. Congress to designate September as National Child Awareness Month, helping to focus the attention of our nation on the most critical issues facing children today.
The heart-warming evening at the Sanfilippo Estate was the 15th Carousel of Possible Dreams event to be held since 2009, with other COPD venues including Central Park in New York City, South Coast Plaza in Orange County, and Griffith Park in Los Angeles. The nonprofit organization is able to put the event proceeds to work, as 100 percent of administrative costs are covered by designated funding.
“The event is structured to be fun and exciting,” said Leifel. “Guests tour the Sanfilippo Collection of Automatic Music Instruments, have dinner, hear the personal stories from representatives of each charity, and then donate and ride the carousel. To watch the children and families representing each charity ride the carousel just inspires you to dial for more dollars, knowing these kids just want to have a fun life, too.”