CASA Lake County announces hosts for 20th Anniversary Gala

Veteran broadcast duo and WGN AM 720’s afternoon hosts Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano, will headline CASA Lake County’s CASABLANCA 2014.

This annual gala marks the non-profit organization’s 20th anniversary. The popular broadcasters, who are married and parents of four children, formerly hosted the popular Fox Thing in the Morning from 1993 to 1999. From 2002 to 2005, while Sirott hosted WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, Murciano often joined him for interview segments with well-known Chicagoans in a unique setting –the home of the celebrity.

Sirott returned to Fox to anchor the evening newscast alongside Robin Robinson, where he stayed from 2010 to 2013. Today the couple co-host “Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano” weekdays from noon to 3:00 p.m. on WGN AM 720.

The gala event will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 10 in Ravinia, located at 418 Sheridan Road in Highland Park. More than 350 guests are expected to attend for an elegant evening of cocktails, a silent and live auction, dinner and dancing.

This will be a very special evening for Steve Pemberton who will receive the 2014 Terri Zenner Award for extraordinary service to children in the community.

He is a division vice president and chief diversity officer at Walgreens. Fortune magazine named him as one of the top chief diversity officers and Savoy Magazine named him as one of the most influential African Americans in corporate America.

Pemberton spent much of his difficult youth in foster homes as an abused child and ward of the state. He wrote a popular book entitled “A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home.”

All proceeds will support the CASA Lake County child advocacy program. The non-profit organization is committed to recruiting, training and supervising volunteer advocates to fight for the best interests of abused or neglected children in the juvenile court and foster care system.

CASA has nearly 300 volunteer advocates who serve 600 abused or neglected children in Lake County. CASA advocates, who are appointed by the judge and assigned one case, visit foster homes, schools, agency offices, daycare and preschool facilities to ensure that these children get the medical, psychological and educational services they need to heal and thrive.

Gala sponsors include Abbvie, AON, ITW, Lundbeck, Melinta Therapeutics, Ogilvy & Mather, Trustmark Companies, UL and Walgreens.  Media sponsors are make it better and SPLASH, a Sun-Times publication. Additional sponsorships are available.

To make reservations call Lake County CASA at 847/383-6260

extension 217 or visit at their web site, www.casalakecounty.com.

If you are interested in becoming a CASA volunteer to turn around the life of an abused child as an advocate for them or in donating to CASA Lake County and the nearly 600 children we serve, simply go to www.casalakecounty.com or call 847-383-6260 Ext. 217.

Background: CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) Lake County, Vernon Hills, is a non-profit organization committed to acquiring, training and supervising volunteer advocates to represent the best interests of abused and neglected children in the juvenile justice system. Research shows that a child with a CASA volunteer advocate is less likely to experience further abuse; moves more rapidly through the court system; stays an average of 10 months less in foster care; and is more likely to be adopted into a safe and permanent home.