Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "terri shettle"

Wine, dine and bid at SCNA's 21st annual silent auction

2011-09-30T02:25:31Z

Local eats such as Mighty Kong Café’s pork sliders, Dad’s Kitchen’s specialty macaroni and cheese, Scott’s Seafood Grill and Bar’s oyster dish and Freeport Bakery’s cakes and cookies will fill plates while local wines and beers flow into glasses during three hours of sampling and socializing at Saturday’s Wine Tasting & Silent Auction.

The Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association is hosting its 21st annual Wine Tasting & Silent Auction Saturday from 4 - 7 p.m. at the Sierra 2 Center at 2791 24th St. This year’s event will feature the addition of local microbrews and dishes from first-time participators Lucca Restaurant and Bar, The Supper Club, Enotria Restaurant and Wine Bar and Matteo’s Pizza & Bistro. Proceeds will go toward SCNA, Sacramento Children’s Home and Bret Harte Elementary School.

“The event has a significant community focus with respect to the food available, the wine available and the items being donated,” said SCNA board president Patrick Soluri. “There’s a big focus on local items.”

Unlimited taster plates of dishes from 25 local restaurants – many with direct connections to Curtis Park – will provide a taste of what the city has to offer, said Terri Shettle, executive director of SCNA and co-chair of the event.

“Many of the restaurant owners, managers or chefs live in Curtis Park,” Shettle said.

Some participating restaurants include: Aioli Bodega Española, Chops Steakhouse, Crepeville, Espresso Metro, Gunther’s Quality Ice Cream, Hot Italian, Sushi Café, Tapa The World and Tower Cafe.

The wine tasting will offer a selection of wines personally selected by Richard Ebert, the wine expert and buyer for Taylor’s Market.

Mike Miller, co-chair of the event and secretary of SCNA, said 26 distributors will be pouring various wines from around the world. The selection will include local and California wines as well as many Spanish, French, Argentinian, Italian, Chilean, South African and Australian wines.

The Belgian beer garden – which was introduced at last year’s event – will also return with brews chosen by Rob Archie, owner of Pangaea Two Brews Cafe & Bottle Shop. This year microbrews such as Chimay, Lagunitas, Ommegang, Dogfish Head, local craft brew Odonata Beer and locally made cider from Two Rivers will also be available for unlimited tastings.

“You can’t beat the line up of food, wine and beer,” Shettle said, “There’s just nowhere in one place that you can have all of this – you couldn’t just go out to dinner and have this selection.”

The evening’s silent auction will offer a variety of “experience packages,” Shettle said. These packages will provide the winners with the opportunity to engage in local activities, watch shows and experience the many foods and restaurants around the city.

The main item is a package for “date night for 10 months,” which provides over $500 worth of restaurant gift certificates, show and movie tickets, bottles of wine, gift certificates for flowers and other date night goods.

Other auction items include: Italian language lessons packaged with Italian wines and other items, a vacation package to Squaw Valley and the opportunity to personally work with ice cream specialists at Gunther’s Quality Ice Cream to choose and create the flavor of the month, Shettle said. Last year’s winner created a Nutella and strawberry ice cream for the month of February.

“They’re not just items you’re picking up,” Shettle said, “it’s actually pulling a whole scene together.”

Thirty raffle prizes will be given away throughout the evening. Prizes will include restaurant gift cards, bottles of wine, tickets to the B Street Theatre and movie tickets.

“Everyone has a bigger chance,” Shettle said. “And it’s more exciting to have a lot of individual items that more people will have a chance to win.”

Raffle tickets will be on sale at the event for $5 each or $20 for five.

Fifty percent of raffle ticket sales will go directly to the Sacramento Children’s Home, Shettle said.

The event – which is expected to draw 500 to 600 attendees – is organized, planned and executed by about 50 volunteers.

“Without the community volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to put on something like this,” Soluri said.

Last year, the Wine Tasting and Silent Auction raised $20,000 to help fund various neighborhood activities: its Music in the Park series, children’s activities, a spring egg hunt and the monthly First Friday Neighborhood dinner. Proceeds also went toward the operations of the Sierra 2 Center to cover costs for the facility and senior center there.

“It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year,” Miller said. “And it’s the highest attended event for the neighborhood.”

This year, about $3,500 to $4,000 of the proceeds, depending on the event’s total profits, will go toward Bret Harte Elementary School to fund the sixth graders’ three to four day nature and science camp at Slide Park and to the Sacramento Children’s Home.

“We want to support and develop the organizations in our neighborhood,” Shettle said. “And these are both organizations that give back to the community.”

Tickets are $45 each and are available at the Sierra 2 Center office or by phone. This is a 21-and-over event. For more information or to buy tickets, call 452-3005.

Happy hour with a heart

2010-12-02T01:29:20Z

As the 2010 holiday season goes into full swing, the Sierra 2 Center offers the Curtis Park and Sacramento community at large a truly unique way to combine its indulgence in merriment with its interest in sharing with those in need.

On Friday, December 3rd, the Sierra 2 Center for the Arts & Community presents Best Friend Friday, an ongoing social gathering at which attendees get to meet new people, enjoy terrific food and drinks, and learn something they didn’t know about their own community. This Friday attendees will get the chance to meet Harvest Sacramento, an amalgamation of area residents, non-profits, community groups and businesses who work together to gather uneaten fruit and vegetables from backyards and small orchards and donate them to people in need.

Best Friend Friday is the brainchild of Terri Shettle, Executive Director of the Sierra 2 Center and Neighborhood Association. The Sierra Center for the Arts & Community was formed in the 1970’s when hundreds of Curtis Park neighbors came together to rescue the old Sierra School from demolition. Since then, the restored Sierra 2 Center has served as a focal point for artists, teachers, students, parents, children, and seniors, who gather frequently in its dance studios, gardens, performance spaces, meeting halls and classrooms. Except on Friday nights.

“I noticed not long ago that our Center had a lot of availability on Friday nights,” said Shettle. “During the rest of the week, we’re hopping. Our Center is filled with classes, business seminars, community meetings, and lots of other activities. But on Friday nights, most of our tenants aren’t around. Especially in the Garden Room. And I thought, ‘What a shame!’ The Garden Room is such a lovely, sunny space, with views of the trees on the property and a charming courtyard attached to it. It’s a perfect place to have people get together in, when they’re done with their busy day and week!”

But rather than just do a potluck or a wine bar, Shettle decided to think just a little bit bigger. “Like attracts like,” she explains. “The Sierra 2 is a nonprofit, and being in the field, I know there are a lot of other nonprofits who would welcome a place to come and share ideas on what the community needs, and on how their organization is addressing it.”

And Shettle knows her own community. “People in Curtis Park and Sacramento in general are very giving, very concerned. They like to hear about novel ideas to make a difference in the world. And they’re very social. So why not provide them with the story, give them the opportunity to hear about these great ideas and to mingle with like-minded people? Rather than pop in a documentary or read a brochure, they can drive over to an easily accessible Center, come in and have a glass of wine and some good food, and learn about ways that others are working to improve an aspect of their own community. It’s a perfect blend of the social and altruistic.”

It’s also more than reasonably priced. For $5, attendees get a glass of wine and a hot plate of food catered by catered by Sierra 2 Center tenant, La Famiglia Catering. Raffle tickets are sold separately, and games are played during which attendees, Sierra 2 staff and nonprofit regulars get to learn about the organization in a fun way, interact with each other, and win interesting prizes. Sierra 2 Center picks up the tab for the food and drinks, and the guest non-profit takes home the raffle ticket money. And everyone eats, drinks, and talks. It’s fun, relaxing,inspiring networking.

“It’s like the definition of synergy,” quips Shettle. “The nonprofit we host at Best Friend Friday has a built-in group of friends and supporters. They come and mingle with others who are interested in knowing what’s going on and in having a good time. They make new best friends. The two groups overlap, they network, they combine, and they become stronger after the interaction.”

On December 3rd Best Friend Friday will host Harvest America, a local nonprofit that provides a unique opportunity for people to engage in direct and tangible service to their community.

Harvest Sacramento germinated from a seed planted by two area residents, Mary McGrath and Robin Aurelius, who were pained by the sight of rotting oranges piled in the streets of East Sacramento every spring. A grassroots campaign in 2009 to harvest oranges in the McKinley Park area engaged over thirty volunteers and donated about 3000 pounds of fresh citrus to the Sacramento Food Bank.

From this success it was apparent that with more organization and effective outreach, substantial contributions of fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the entire year could greatly enhance the offerings of local food assistance agencies.

Harvest Sacramento is a project of Soil Born Farms, who operates two urban farms on over forty acres in Sacramento and Rancho Cordova. Soil Born Farms is a nationally recognized center for the promotion of urban agriculture, sustainable food systems and healthy food education. Along with the continued support of its original and new volunteers, Soil Born Farms has taken a lead role in tending Harvest Sacramento, as it lays all of the administrative groundwork necessary to make a difference in the lives of needy Sacramentans.

When Harvest America joins with the Sierra 2 Center for this installment of Best Friend Friday, they will be bringing their own holiday cheer and a special guest along with them. This Friday, Harvest Sacramento will be providing hors d'oeuvres made from produce donated by Soil Born Farms and persimmons gleaned from a local orchard. And all of it will be expertly prepared by Eileen Murray.

Well-known local vegetarian chef and instructor, Murray presents monthly dinners at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op under the title “Eileen’s Kitchen.” As a nationally-recognized camp cook, baker, entrepreneur and instructor, Murray has been cultivating the art of cooking organic whole food for over thirty years. She is an accomplished macrobiotic cook who trained at the Kushi Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Vega Center in Oroville, California.

Suzanne Flint of Curtis Park is excited that Eileen will be on hand, and that Best Friend Friday is hosting Harvest Sacramento. She’s one of the volunteers for the organization, and she’s been inviting everyone she knows to come to the Sierra 2 Center on December 3rd. “Harvest Sacramento” she says, “is a simple and lovely way to give back to our community.”

Begun in September, Best Friend Friday so far has hosted the Sacramento Tree Foundation and KCRA’s “Coats For Kids.” Harvest Sacramento is next, and Shettle has been in conversation with many other nonprofits. “Best Friend Friday is a social networking model,” she says. “But instead of Facebook and Twitter, where my two fiends meet your two friends via the Internet, we do it in person.”

For more information on Best Friend Friday, contact the Sierra 2 Center at (916)452-3005, www.Sierra2.org, or Facebook/sierra2center.