Quail Valley Charities outdid themselves yet again, increasing the size and scope of activities to enable even more people in the community to participate in support of local charities. This year’s 13th annual Quail Valley Charity Cup Week raised funds to benefit 33 nonprofit programs with a focus on children and education.
The event kicked off Jan. 10 with a charged-up 1-Mile Kids’ Fun Run & 5K Walk/Run – Making Strides for Children.
Those in the know quickly snapped up seats for last Monday’s Gourmet Wine and Guest Chef Dinner – a perennial favorite of Quail Valley Executive Chef Joe Faria.
“Tonight’s theme is ‘Where are they now?’ These are all former sous-chefs of mine,” said Chef Faria, adding with a laugh, “They get to come back and I get to beat them up a little bit.”
Fine wines from Chateau Montelena Winery would complement the five-course meal featuring culinary masterpieces prepared by his five talented protégés.
Clearly bursting with pride, Chef Faria happily gave over his kitchen to the gifted young chefs.
Brian Jones worked with Faria at Windsor and is now sous-chef at Quail Valley and Erik Poffinbarger worked his way up the ladder at Quail to become banquet sous-chef. The others untied the Quail apron strings – Patrick Hughes is chef de cuisine at Osceola Bistro, Nick Bradbury is executive chef at The Club at Longview and Adam Young is executive pastry chef at Ocean House.
“It should be a good week,” said Kevin Given, Quail Valley co-owner with Steve Mulvey. “We’ve got a big wine tasting dinner Wednesday, with four wine makers coming in from around the country. And four member couples have agreed to host the wine makers Thursday for private dinners their homes.”
Citing an example of the event’s community support, he said those dinners were catered by the chefs of Osceola Bistro, Citrus Grillhouse, Costa d’Este and Monarch Country Club in Palm City.
“I’m astounded; there’s no other word,” said Mulvey. “We’ve gone from a one-day golf tournament to a whole week of philanthropic activities. We will have raised a record number of dollars this year.”
“If we raise what Steve expects, it will put us over the $4 million mark in contributions to charities,” agreed Given.
Other activities included a duplicate bridge game, four-day tennis tournament, and two golf tournaments. Off campus, beachside shops donated a portion of sales at Tuesday’s Shop Chic for Children, and Emily Tremml’s Palm House Gallery hosted a week-long Heart to Art Show.
“We had 22 award-winning artists participate,” said Tremml. “We sold more than $40,000 in just one week – isn’t that awesome? As soon as a painting sold we would have them bring in another, so people kept coming back to see what else had come in.”
The week closed out Saturday evening with 522 guests enjoying a gorgeous night, bounteous buffet stations with a mouthwatering assortment of wonderful food, live musical entertainment, plenty of must-have live and silent auction items and the knowledge that they were helping to better the lives of children in the community.
To quote the favored maxim of Martha Redner, Quail Valley Charities executive director, Wanda Lincoln, Charity Cup chairperson and Trudie Rainone, vice chairperson, “It’s all good.”
