Carol Stream parks reject casino night plans

The parent backers of a competitive poms squad at Glenbard North High School will have to find another way to raise money for the team.

The Carol Stream Park District board has rejected a request by the group to host an after-hours casino night fundraiser this spring at Simkus Recreation Center.

Park board President Dan Bird said the district's attorney urged commissioners to reject the request because of concerns over who ultimately would be held liable should any incidents occur during the event.

The casino night fundraiser would have been the first time both gambling equipment and alcohol would have been allowed at the recreation center, located at Lies and County Farm roads.

"At this time we weren't set up to allow it to happen," Bird said. "We don't have enough information in front of us."

Ginny Gillespie, a former park district commissioner whose daughter competes on the Glenbard North poms squad, approached the park district about the fundraiser earlier this year.

The booster group supporting the squad hosts several events throughout the year to raise the roughly $6,000 necessary to pay for uniforms and fees to enter in competitive dance events, she said.

"Poms squads don't get any financial support from their schools," she said Tuesday. "So the parents end up having to raise the money themselves."

When the squad qualified for nationals in February, Gillespie said the parent boosters had to raise about $17,000 to get the team of 20 girls to the competition in Orlando.

Among the events the parents hosted were a candlelight bowl at a bowling alley and a casino night at an area bar similar to the one proposed at Simkus.

"I'm not sure what we'll end up doing now," Gillespie said. "When we went through (the planning) last year it was tough because of all the licensing issues involved with the gambling equipment. … But we can do something else."