There weren’t any pillow fights, but there was plenty of giggling and joke-sharing at an Oak Brook slumber party held last weekend.
Oh, and it was a little bigger than the average five or six kids one is used to finding at these parties: The guest list included more than 700 people.
Held at the Oak Brook Marriott, the seventh annual Jammin’ in Your Jammies slumber party drew families from throughout the Chicago area who wanted to have some family fun and support Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago through the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon.
Dressed in flannel pajamas, little kids and big kids, moms and dads danced, ate pizza, danced some more and visited with friends.
Mike Locascio of Roselle, with his daughter Diana, 12, has been attending for the past five or six years as the fundraiser has been held at various suburban hotels. This year was especially fun as the two, along with friends Maria Gagliano and her daughter, Tina, 11, of Hoffman Estates, took second place in the party’s bed-making contest. “We are just always living in the fast lane,” said Maria Gagliano. “Everything has to be done fast.”
The four will try to improve their times during the next year in case they get to try again in 1995 against champions Phyllis Rogers Faulkner and her children, Brittney, 8, and Cassie, 11, from Park Forest.
Mary Heagley of Chicago, the telethon coordinator, said response to the party this year was tremendous: “We sold out two weeks before Christmas.”
Organizers say they don’t know how much money was raised Saturday night (the hotel donates a portion of its proceeds); the amount, once it is calculated, will be added to the proceeds from the downtown version of the party held the previous night at the Chicago Marriott Downtown, which drew 850 people. She said, however, that over the past six years, the event has raised a total of $125,000 at both the city and suburban sites.
