Carousel Fund gearing up for a Carnival

The Carousel Fund hosts a family friendly carnival on Sept. 19.|

Change is hard, but it can also be a good thing. That’s what Arnie Cohen of the Carousel Fund said was at the heart of a decision to host a family friendly Carnival fundraiser on Sept. 19 instead of the organization’s annual Casino Night extravaganza in October.

“It’s different, but we’re very excited about it,” said Cohen. “For a variety of reasons, one of which is just to change things up, we decided to not do a Casino Night this year. It just was so much to do and costly. We want to make sure that we raise the most amount of money possible for families struggling to keep their children alive. That’s the most important thing. We don’t want to lose sight of that and be clouded with worrying about paying for staff and rentals of a building.”

For the past 30 years, Carousel Fund, an all-volunteer, nonprofit, has provided financial assistance to parents of critically ill children in Petaluma in order to help them keep a roof over the heads and the bills paid. To date, Carousel Fund has raised $5 million for Petaluma families.

“All the money that’s raised goes to the families,” said Cohen. “That’s our focus and that’s what we will continue to do.”

The Carousel Fund Carnival will be held at the Petaluma Valley Athletic Club and will feature a variety of carnival games, tennis, pickle ball, bocce ball, raquetball, basketball and other activities.

“We’re going to have clowns, face painting, a silent auction, prizes, special guests and great food, including snow cones, cotton candy, hamburgers and hot dogs,” said Cohen.

Tickets to the Carnival are $25 per family in advance or $10 per person until Sept. 17. Prices at the door are $30 per family or $15 per person.

“We wanted to keep it affordable, as well as reasonable and fun,” said Cohen. “We’re excited. We’re trying some new stuff that we haven’t done before.”

In addition to the Carnival, the Carousel Fund is also hosting a morning Yogathon and Spinathon on Oct. 3 at Active Sports Club. The event is open to members and non-members. The cost is $20 per person. The event will be followed by a Carousel Fund reception from 4 to 7 p.m. featuring live music by the Dorian Mode Quartet, along with wine, beer and appetizers. Special desserts for the evening will be created by Fernanda Hurst, previous French Laundry pastry chef and current private chef of Francis Ford Coppola.

Ticket to the reception are $40 per person and are available at the Active Sports Club front desk and online at carouselfund.org.

Another fundraiser in the works for the Carousel Fund is a benefit concert to be held at the Wells Fargo Center in Santa Rosa.

“We have a few music artists interested in doing a benefit concert for the Carousel Fund in the early part of 2016,” said Cohen. “We’re hoping to do the concert along with a live auction. We don’t have a date yet, but we’ll be getting that soon.”

Volunteers are needed for the Carnival and Carousel Fund reception. To volunteer, call 762-9136. For tickets to the events, go online to carouselfund.org.

(Contact Yovanna Bieberich at yovanna.bie berich@arguscourier.com)

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