Poker Night Charity Event:

$1 Million Donation by Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone Wednesday Sets New Record for Donations Raised at Charity Poker Tournament

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Proceeds From the Sweet Tooth Fairy Celebrity Poker Tournament to Benefit Child Rescue of North America to Help Support Front Line Organizations Combating Child Trafficking

The Sweet Tooth Fairy Celebrity Poker Tournament at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, CA, Wednesday, November 3, helped raise much needed funds and critical awareness of the sexual exploitation and human trafficking of American children. Media mogul and Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone stunned the crowd with the surprise record setting $1 million donation during his kick off speech to open the tournament. He received a standing ovation from the audience, volunteers, celebrities and casino staff. Lindsay Hadley, Executive Director of Child Rescue of North America was visibly shaken by the donation.

"Mr. Redstone's generosity went beyond my wildest dreams," elated Hadley. "Before announcing his incredible donation I felt the sincerity of his words and they moved me to tears. This will help us with our fight against human trafficking of American children."

The most common practice of trafficking is forced prostitution or child sexual slavery with over 200,000 American children trafficked into the commercial sex industry.

"The ability we have to reach our goal of ending this despicable practice is ten fold because of this donation," said Nick Larson, co-founder of Child Rescue. "We will have an immense impact of helping so many of the helpless victims, whether directly or indirectly, through raising awareness and helping to fund organizations fighting this injustice."

The event was co-hosted by siblings Annie Duke and Howard Lederer, with Master of Ceremonies Mrs. Dianna Donofrio-Trigatzi, and included a silent auction and special performance by Cameron Rafati. The first place prize was $10,000 and included a custom designed bronze angel for the 1st place winner from master sculptor Steve Parks.

Among the guests were Dr. Jerry Buss and Frank Mariani of the Los Angeles Lakers, Simpson's creator Sam Simon, producers Gina Hecht and Brian Herskowitz. Poker players included Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Ali Nejard, Alan Cunningham, Chad Brown, Yosh Nakano, Marsha Wagoner, Melissa Hayden and special VIP guest, Jacob Zalewski of the One Step Closer Foundation.

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If you wish to hold an event, please email us at danielle@childrescue.org

Past Events:

Candlelight Serenade Acoustic Festival

Candlelight Serenade Acoustic Festival presented by The Sweet Tooth Fairy

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Thanks to all the participants in the 2010 first annual, Candlelight Serenade Acoustic Festival.

Because of our generous volunteers, supporters, and sponsors we were able to raise funds for local victim services and our other Utah non-profit partners. The most impressive success of Candlelight Serenade was the overall awareness that was generated for this cause. Through our efforts in promoting the concert hundreds of thousands heard about Child Rescue and our efforts.

At Child Rescue we believe that you can accomplish anything if you do not care who gets the credit. Consequently, we invited other non profit partners to our "Charity Circle/Exhibit" at the event which featured our collaborative efforts to protect children and hopefully educated our participants as well as promote all the successful efforts other groups are doing about this issue. We had remarkable speakers ranging from The documentary Playground's director Libby Spears, our law enforcement specialist Marc Evans LAPD, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, to an actual child trafficking survivor Amanda Bonella. Beautiful unique acoustic music, an educational program, over 90 vendors and activities of all kinds were just a few of the reasons people called Candlelight Serenade, "Epic" and "Moving"! The highlight of the evening was when each participant received a candle, donated by Candle Impressions, and sang along to our Child Rescue theme song, "Light in the Dark" written by John Allred. Each candle represented a victim of child trafficking and how all of us can act as a light in the dark for those who need us.

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