Camp Good Days and Special Time's Dinner and Live Auction

Saturday night was an evening to remember! Jim and I volunteered to help Camp Good Days and Special Times at their Wine Dinner and Live Auction last Saturday night. This is a cause we feel strongly about and it was made even more poignant with the sudden passing of my friend and coworker, Steve, 2 weeks ago from cancer. Jim and I both lost our fathers to cancer and my uncle is currently in hospice. Yes, Gary, we too would like to see a cure for cancer in our lifetimes.

Last Thursday we began by attending the training on what we would need to do as wine ambassadors. We learned we would each be responsible for a table of guests; bringing them wines and helping them with their bids! We were nervous and a bit apprehensive of the unknown.

Saturday dragged until we left the house at 3:00 to head to the Rochester Plaza Hotel downtown. As soon as we arrived, signed in and received our aprons and boas, we were whisked away on a tour by Chris Van Zile (that's what she does!) and we learned our positions for the evening.

Job #1 was to man pouring station #5. We were located in the main dining room (see the beautiful photo of the classy set-up) We had a lot of fun pouring wine for silent auction bidders, especially because the wines at our station were of the raspberry, honey/mead, hard cider varieties. (Tough sell, but had fun doing it). Then we grabbed our bottle of the Best of the Show Chardonnay - Prejean's 2007 Reserve Chardonnay and a red (we both took great Cab Sauv's) and lined up for the grand entrance of the wine ambassadors (I SHOULD have taken a picture of Jim dancing with his boa wrapped around his neck!). Campers from Camp Good Days formed a drum line signaling the opening of the dinner event and our entrance. We danced to our tables and got ready for...

Job#2 and the main job for the rest of the evening! To make sure our table was happy and enjoying themselves and bidding on the fabulous items for the live auction. How about a 2 week stay at your own private villa in Argentina? Or an Executive MBA Program Scholarship at RIT? Not academic? What about touring the Finger Lakes in your own private turbine jet helicopter? Or joining the pit crew at Watkins Glen Race track? If you were merely thirsty you had many opportunities to bid on cases of award winning wines, library wines, wine and food pairings and dinners and many, many more fabulous items. As the evening wound down (around midnight), the wine ambassadors and other volunteers were all treated to pizza and gold medal wines, a band playing, and a chance to connect with others and re-live the evening!

We met so many new friends, and felt so privileged to be a part of contributing to such a worthy cause. We soon discovered our fears and anxieties were for naught as we were among a great group of individuals. It was truly an honor to be a part of this wonderful evening.

We got home late, but Maggie waited up for us - sort of!

PS I understand we broke all records! Bidders were so generous that there will be many more children forgetting their illness' for a while and enjoying Camp Good Days and Special Times this summer.

The Competition Continues aka: Wine, Wine and More Wine

Jim set off early this gorgeous spring morning for Fox Run Vineyards. Apparently there were several bottles of wine that didn't make it to the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition a few weeks back due to shipping/receiving/customs problems. So 8 judges gathered at Fox Run and Jim volunteered to help pour and serve the wines to the judges. While I know he deeply regretted not sitting in his windowless cubical punching numbers all day for the fine folks on probation, he just had to make due with the stunning lake view, blue sky and glasses filled with delicious wines. Tough, I know! He dutifully reported back that about 100 bottles were judged. And he didn't spill a drop carrying the trays of filled glasses down into the barrel room. So rest assured that ALL wines submitted have now been judged. Don't forget the 10th annual Wine Auction and Dinner to benefit Camp Good days and Special Times on May 1 - there are still tickets available (visit www.campgooddays.org). At the dinner, you will be able to sample many of the award winning wines along with a delectable dinner!

Also coming up this weekend are the following events:

Damiani Wine Cellars are having a Pinot Noir Release Party in their tasting room Friday April 16th from 5:30 - 8:30. Additionally, enjoy the artwork of Pamela Drix on exhibit. Sounds like a great way to enjoy the sunset!

Winestock NY 2010 is going to be celebrated at 3 Brothers Winery on Saturday April 17th from noon to 6:00 pm. With Live music all day and food pairings, it sounds like fun. There is a $20/person cover charge.

So drink up, drink responsibly and enjoy!

Finger Lakes International Wine Competition Chpt. 3

The FLIWC finished up yesterday. Jim and I had a great time pouring and serving our table of judges. We came home with some great wines and VERY sore legs. This was the tenth year of the competition, so things were extremely well organized and orchestrated. Here is a sampling of what we had to do at our pouring station... First the "corkers" uncorked and brought us the wines in our flight. We had usually 5 judges (the 5th being a "visiting" judge) with flights of 7-8 wines per flight. Therefore we had 40 Riedel wine glasses to stage. First we had to dry and inspect them for water spots or chips. Next, because this is a blind tasting and the judges only know the type of wine not the winery, we had to place a sticker on each wine glass denoting the number of the wine. We then poured the wines into their designated glasses, checked and double checked our accuracy and waited to be called. When the boss man (Tom King) said "lets roll", all the wine stations (there were 15 of us) VERY CAREFULLY rolled our wine carts with our 40 filled glasses out of our room, down a hallway to the judging room. In the judge's room we collected the old scoring sheets and cleaned the previous flight's glasses from the tables, then arranged the next flight before each judge in left to right sequence matching their scoring sheets. But our work was not done. Now we had to take the used glasses to the glass washers, a wonderful group of very dedicated volunteers who washed thousands of very expensive Riedel glasses all day long. We took our cart back to our station and started over again. There was a total of 27 flights of wine over the 2 days!

We were just a tiny part of this wonderful day. The judges volunteer their time and come from Canada, Europe and across the United States because they believe in Camp Good Days and Special Times. We spoke with several who judge year after year and consider it the highlight of their year. Then there are the hours and hours that go into gathering the 3010 wines, numbering them, separating them for the competition and the dinner (May 1st), hauling them into the Rochester Plaza, coordinating the volunteers, the food, the judge's dinner, the rooms for staging, judging and processing the scores, the set-up and dismantling...the list goes on and on and is mind boggling. This is truly a labor of love for the coordinators and planners: Peter Parts, Scott Osborne, Ed Schramm, Tom King and others such as Joelle Cain. I know I have left out tons of important people involved and I apologize for not knowing who you all are. Suffice it to say, I felt a part of something so inspirational that I know I want to return and keep paying forward all the good that this competition and dinner represent for the children who attend Camp Good Days and Special Times.

The afternoon highlight was when Gary Mervis, the camp's founder spoke softly and eloquently to the judges and volunteers about his daughter, Teddi. Teddi was his reason for founding the camp as a place where children dealing with cancer can go - free of charge- and have fun. Having those "good days" at camp and keeping the memories of those "special times" at camp to help them through other, not so pleasant days, is what the camp is all about. Gary went on to explain his vision of cancer research and hopes for the future. I was humbled to be a part of something so important.

So here is a photo of our awesome "K" team - Tony, Denise, Jim and I, as well as some of the staging and work areas at the competition.

Thank-you Peter Bell for your recommendation and Peter Parts for allowing us to be a part of this important occasion.

Finger Lakes International Wine Competition

Next weekend the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition comes to Rochester. This year there are somewhere around 2800 wine entries from around the world as well as our own back yard. Jim and I are really excited about working at it this year and at the dinner and silent auction on May 1st. ALL proceeds for both events go to benefit Camp Good Days and Special Times. I will keep you posted about these events through the blog, but if you want more information go to these websites:

Finger Lakes International Wine Competition: http://www.fliwc.com/

Camp Good Days and Special Times: http://www.campgooddays.org/