Teakwood horse helps to rein in $53,000 to benefit Brothers, Sisters
Posted on Sunday, October 5, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE — Bob Nickle stood surveying the party from one end of Mary Beth and Tim Brooks’ well-lit cement pond. To one side, a young couple studied a life-size teakwood horse that was up for auction. Everywhere, people were sampling mashed potatoes served with “the works” in martini glasses.
The occasion was the annual Taste of the Ozarks fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Arkansas. As the party bustled around him, Nickle, a big supporter and former board member, recalled a day seven years ago when the fate of the first Taste of the Ozarks event was in jeopardy. It had been set for Sept. 11, 2001.
“We didn’t have a clue what we would do,” Nickle said.
Organizers pulled the party together two weeks later at a Pinnacle area home then owned by Ginger and Daryl Hickman.
“They were ready for something other than doom and gloom,” Nickle said of the crowd attending that first affair.
Fantastic food and an assembly of magnificent wines hand-picked by Liquor World’s Kim Crawford have been key to the event’s success.
“It’s all about the food and wine,” Nickle said.
This year’s affair pulled in $ 53, 000, including $ 11, 000 from diverse, yet not overly expensive silent and live auction items. The teakwood horse, donated by Lighting Emporium’s Glenda and Ron Milam, went for $ 2, 500 to Pat and Pete Allen.
“It was one of those things that was just cool,” new Big Brothers Big Sisters Executive Director Erin Rongers said of the horse. Its neck was encircled with a leafy wreath. Offerings also included a couch from La-Z-Boy (an industry neighbor in the Allens’ Siloam Springs ), salon and spa packages, an outdoor living table and a bottle of 1997 Opus One valued at around $ 500, donated by banker Drew Davidson and bought by Dr. Hershey Garner.
In addition to the mashed potato bar, The Event Group provided bacon-wrapped sea scallops, shrimp shots, Italian sausage-stuffed mushrooms, puff pastries filled with crab and herbs, assorted miniature cheesecakes and monogrammed petit fours.
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