By Joann Prinzivalli

CDI members at the IFGE Convention netted over a thousand dollars for charity by running a carnival after the Friday evening convention dinner at the Philadelphia Airport Hilton on March 21, 2003.
Led by CDI president Wendi Darling and VP Rochelle Nicole, the CDI contingent sold popcorn and cotton candy, and ran various games of chance for prizes of stuffed dolls and costume jewelry. Wendi ran the food concession. Michelle Garrett handled a game that involved getting one dart into a cherry, or three darts in an apple for a prize. This writer spun the wheel of chance, with potential winners placing their tickets on one or more of 30 numbers. Tomi Sawyer worked the English Pool table, where the object was to knock a silver dollar off the top of a billiard ball outside a circle (this is very hard to do!). Rochelle worked one of the other games on the far side of the room, as did Christine Hochberg.

This writer couldn't see quite far enough to tell exactly which game was run by the people on the far side, because I wasn't wearing my glasses at the time.

We had some help from the popular and well known conventioneer Christine Hochberg of Los Angeles, and the idea for the carnival was originated by convention organizer and CDI founder Kristine James. Wendi supplied all the necessary hardware, including the games and the popcorn and cotton candy machines, which made it possible for the amount raised to involve less in the way of overhead.

The crowd was playing with tickets sold for a dollar apiece, six for five dollars, and for the two hours the carnival was running it was quite busy, though the last ten minutes or so did get a little slow. By that time, this writer was finally getting the "step right up and take a chance on the wheel" patter down. And 'round and 'round it goes . . .

In addition to the money raised for charity, CDI made an additional donation to IFGE to foster its good work in educating people within the community and providing information and assistance to the general public.