A recent fundraising event in Illinois organized by the Festival of Children Foundation raised a little more than $150,000 for two charitable groups, according to a news release.
The effort by the Costa Mesa-based nonprofit benefited Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
More than 180 people attended the Aug. 3 event, including Daniella Guzman and Stefan Holt, news anchors for NBC Chicago.
Many rode the Eden Palais, an 1890 European salon carousel housed at the private Sanfilippo estate in Barrington Hills, a Chicago-area village. As they rode the carousel round and round, they "dialed for dollars" using their cell phones until they reached their fundraising goals.
