Editor's note: The event raised $20,000 for Cooper Roberts and his family.
(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A Glenview bar held an annual fundraiser on Sunday, which this year will benefit Highland Park parade shooting victim Cooper Roberts.
Whiskey River Owner Kathy Karowski said she decided to make the event in honor of 8-year-old Cooper, who reminds her of her grandson.
“And never, in a million years, would I anticipate all the kindness and good in the world, and all of these people that love Cooper,” Karowski said.
Kids around Cooper’s age had their faces painted, watched a magician perform and decorated pumpkins while parents bought raffle tickets and other items to benefit the boy who recently returned to school for the first time.
“Cooper strong,” chanted some of the kids.
Jennifer Blumberg, a Highland Park resident selling necklaces and bracelets to benefit Cooper Roberts all month, said she’s been making beaded jewelry to benefit parade victims since July 5.
“For at least six weeks after the shooting, we had people at our house from 10 a.m., sometimes until 2 in the morning beading,” Blumberg said. “I had kids who were at the parade that wanted to make their own bracelets, and it helped them heal. It’s just a very therapeutic thing, and it was quite incredible, just this beading circle of people that I had.”
None of the donors who spoke to WBBM have met the partially paralyzed boy or his family. They felt sympathetic to their situation, though.
“We don’t know them, no,” one attendee said. “We’ve only seen them on the news and heard of them through everything that’s happened.”
Another donor called it a tragedy that could “happen to anybody.”
“We’re glad to come out, and support the cause and the family,” he said.
In a statement Cooper’s family says they’re grateful beyond measure for the love that they have been shown in their darkest days.
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