Local residents to appear on ‘Family Feud’

MORRIS – Wilmington resident Angela Baumeister can’t say much about her appearance on “Family Feud,” but she can say this: It was incredible.

“Steve Harvey is hilarious,” she said.

Baumeister, her dad Richard Caauwe of Seneca, sisters Brenda Bowden of Channahon and Dawn Taylor of Plainfield, and brother Rich Caauwe of Joliet competed on the television show last spring and are sworn to secrecy until the show finishes airing.

The episodes are airing through Wednesday, when the family is hosting a fundraiser and viewing party at Ebbey George’s Bar & Grill in Morris. She and her family will be the “celebrity bartenders” for the event, and will show the live taping of their final episode, as well as the other four episodes they appear in.

All proceeds will benefit the United Way of Grundy County and a local prostate cancer support group out of Advanced Urology Associates, a group dear to the family’s heart as Richard Caauwe was diagnosed with the disease more than a year ago.

“We thought, what a cool way to turn this into a fundraiser and be able to give back to the community,” Baumeister said.

For Baumeister, being on the show fulfilled a childhood dream. When an opportunity to audition came to Chicago, she gathered her family and made the trek to the city.

That was several years ago, and after an entire year without a reply from the show, Baumeister assumed her family did not make the cut.

An email sent almost a year and half after the audition proved her wrong. The show wanted her family to come back for further tryouts, and after they passed those, the family was flown to Atlanta for even more tryouts.

“Everyone there was so nice and polite to us. The people who worked for the show were really great,” Richard Caauwe said.

Although the family can’t say much about their appearance, they can say they filmed five episodes, which is the maximum amount of times a family can appear on the show.

Two of the episodes had already aired by Saturday. Their final episode will be shown Wednesday.

Baumeister encouraged everyone to come down and watch, enjoy the drink specials and help raise money for local causes.

“It should be a lot of fun,” she said.