Veiled dancers, a treasure-filled bazaar, a bejeweled sultan: This is the stuff of 1,001 Arabian dreams. And it was also the stuff of a few dreams closer to home in the form of college scholarships for a group of North Chicago students.
Scholarships for Project Succeed, a College of Lake County-sponsored adopt-a-class program, received a flying-carpet sendoff last weekend at Fly Away, CLC’s Arabian-themed foundation dinner-auction. Held at Benefit Trust Life Insurance Co. in Lake Forest, the combination of raffles, live and silent auctions, and large corporate donations raised $70,000 to $80,000.
Co-sponsored by the Grace Bersted Foundation, Project Succeed encourages children at risk to stay in school. Begun three years ago, the program adopted a class of 50 students at the A.J. Katzenmaier Elementary School in North Chicago when the youngsters were in 6th grade. Adoption covers tutoring, field trips and mentorship through high school. This year’s foundation dinner provided scholarship seed money so any of the students who wanted to attend CLC after graduation could go tuition-free.
At 250 people, dinner attendance was down from the 3-year-old fundraiser’s previous 300-figure high. But dollars were up.
Even without final figures, CLC President Daniel La Vista was ecstatic. “We’re confident this will be the best dinner we’ve ever had. Last year we raised about $72,000. We’re at least at that number,” La Vista said.
The CLC president was convinced that ambience loosened the purse strings. The dinner was previously held in the college’s gym.
For the auction, there were the usual big-ticket items such as furs and cars. But what really raised bidding paddles was a 13-by-17 inch graffiti-covered chunk of concrete. “Like (the live-auction catalog) says, it’s a piece of history,” said high bidder Sarah Khalil of Antioch. Khalil and husband David Ingle parted with $1,450 for an oak-mounted piece of the Berlin Wall.
Speaking of the unusual. Crowds of eager spenders, including Victory Memorial Hospital Chairman Jack Clennon and wife Gerrie, gathered around the silent auction’s celebrity rogues gallery.
Among the more than 30 signed and framed photos, self-caricatures and doodles were scrawls from such luminaries as Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, Rob Reiner, Jay Leno and Carol Burnett.
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“And there was no cost to us,” said Dorothy Drake, CLC dean of college advancement (fundraising). Drake, who conceived the innovative moneymaker, said, “I just sent sheets of 6-inch-by-9-inch art paper to 100 celebrities that I liked. Princeton (Frame & Art Gallery) and Hi-Land (Art & Frame) did the beautiful job of matting and framing. Free.”
Speakers also praised big corporate givers such as Benefit Trust Life Insurance Co., which boosted foundation coffers with a $10,000 donation.