Starved Rock Country Community Foundation to host Mardi Gras Carnivale on March 1

Tickets are available but selling fast for the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation’s first Mardi Gras Carnivale on Saturday, March 1, at Senica’s Oak Ridge Golf Club.

The 5:30 to 10 p.m. event will feature guests adorned in Venetian masks, white ties and tails, feather boas and purple, green and gold beads.

The evening also will include a stilt-walker/magician, face painter, New Orleans-style food, music by BOOMINDJ Services and a contest where participants roll giant dice for prizes.

The banquet hall will be transformed with glitz and glitter into a French Quarter-like setting by Thee Ultimate Party’s Tony Einhaus.

The live auction by Marty McConville of McConville Auctioneering includes a night in Ottawa’s historic Gen. Wallace home, a weekend at Pear Tree Lane Farmhouse in Princeton, a holiday weekend in New York City, a barbecue for 50 by Tony’s Butt Shack, a vacation on the Caribbean Island of St. Maarten, a Tuscany villa for six, among other items.

Food stations include Tony’s Butt Shack, Lou’s LaGrotto, Senica’s Oak Ridge, Thee Ultimate Party, a Jeremiah Joe coffee bar and desserts donated by the SRCCF board.

The 2015 SRCCF founding Board of Directors is the $10,000 presenting sponsor and Ethel McConnell’s Donor Advised Fund is a $5,000 sponsor. Hometown National Bank of La Salle and Advantech of Ottawa are each $3,000 dining sponsors.

Other sponsors include: Financial Plus Credit Union; Wheatland Title Company; Shaw Media; Starved Rock Media; NRG Media; Shaw Local Radio; Erin Stuedemann, realtor, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group; attorney David Kaleel of Mendota; First State Bank of Mendota; and Eureka Savings Bank. Major donations were received from SRCCF founders Pamela and Chuck Beckett and Matt and Kristi Carroll of Mendota.

For information, visit srccf.org or contact SRCCF Director of Operations Janice Corrigan at 815-252-2906, ext. 2 or janice@srccf.org.