Carol Stream ‘bags’ competition aims to reach a big donation number

A fundraising idea whose impact has grown by the year, the 10th Bags-For-Life tournament kicks off Tuesday, Feb. 3, in Carol Stream.

Bags-For-Life is held over 14 days in February and March at Chrissy’s Gaming Bar & Grill, 552 N. Gary Ave., Carol Stream.

Some tournament dates are full, including one for a match between Carol Stream and Bloomingdale park district employees that starts the tournament.

Separate finals for inexperienced and competitive players, with cash prizes for the top three teams in each group, will be held on March 11 and March 12.

A new event for 2026 is a “Family Day” for teams with one player over 18 and one younger than 18.

Slots remain for that event and several others. Space permitting, they may be filled up to the event.

Information is available at bagsforlife.org and the Facebook page for the Bags For Life Foundation.

“I never thought it would go past a couple of years,” said Carol Stream Trustee McCarthy, who, with his wife, Linda, daughter, Shannon, and her husband, Tim Foley, started the bags tournament (also known as “cornhole”) as an idea to raise donations for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life.

In 2016, the inaugural edition raised $10,500 to support the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life.

The next eight tournaments — they sat out 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — each set records for donations, which the Bags-For-Life organizing committee also used to benefit food pantries, social organizations, park district foundations and the Dominic Saverino Charitable Organization, which distributes need-based scholarships to high school seniors from Carol Stream.

Last year, about 500 players helped Bags-For-Life raise $95,250 to lift its nine-year total to $373,250.

“The biggest thing,” McCarthy said, “we’d like this year to be, in its 10th year, the first year to break $100,000 raising money.”

Along with the double-elimination tournament’s $40 entry fee for a two-player team, money is raised by selling raffle tickets for nightly prizes and, for items worth more than $200, tournament-long drawings.