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Downey and Fizer Team Up for Library Fundraiser

 

NEWS RELEASE
May 15, 2003

For further information contact:
Judy Hoffman, 847/353-7137

Chicago Tribune sports columnist Mike Downey and Chicago Bulls forward Marcus Fizer invite you to suit up with them for a special competition on May 29. This is the night they sit down with a good book for the third annual Reading's a Ball. At this event everyone will be a winner, especially children participating in summer reading programs at area libraries. Downey and Fizer are serving as honorary Chairmen, along with Secretary of State Jesse White, for the Library Community Foundation fund raising extravaganza.

Reading's a Ball invites guests to stay home and read a book. Gym shoes are optional. Outside of a paper cut there is little chance of injury.

This dress-down event will raise funds through the online sale of "admission" tickets and an online auction of donated items from area sports teams, specialty shops and from the private collections of library supporters.

"My favorite subjects of literature have always been murders and monsters," says Mike Downey. "As a kid I enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes detective stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the lurid murder mysteries of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, and supernatural tales like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Later on, I got into Elmore Leonard's crime novels and Stephen King's creature features. Try reading a little of everything. It doesn't need to be a monster. Something will grab you."

Event tickets for this evening of reading are $25 ("I'm playing singles"), or read with the whole family for only $40 ("We've got a team"). The online auction will run from May 15-30, and new items will be added on a daily basis. Items ready to go on the block include a team autographed Chicago Bulls pennant, signed John Updike books, vintage jewelry, first edition signed children's books and a ride on the Zamboni at a Blackhawks game.

To purchase tickets and to place your auction bids, visit www.readingsaball.org . Want to show your support, but don't have Internet access? Contact Anne Johnson at (847) 353-7143.

Headquartered in Wheeling, the Library Community Foundation is a community foundation established specifically to benefit and assist libraries throughout Illinois. For information on the Foundation, visit www.librarycommunityfoundation.org .