MANY THANK YOUS TO MANY OF YOU
Our First Annual Mother Earth Banquet and Fundraiser on October 1st at Park House in Minneapolis was a marvelous success. We wish to sincerely thank all of you who joined us for the evening. This sort of endeavor does not come together without the contributions of many and we were blessed by an outpouring of generosity from our community.
First and foremost, our goal to serve a local organically grown beautifully delivered feast could not have come together as elegantly as it did without the oversight and creative wizardry of Chef Nick Schneider of Café Brenda. Nick was made possible by a generous donation from Brenda Langton, owner of Café Brenda, who also provided consultation, inspiration, her restaurant kitchen and, at the last minute, her hands on deck at the event.
Nick created the menu, worked with WEI farm interns to grow vegetables, contacted several other organic local farmers seeking donations, organized volunteers from our Organic Farm School (in which he was a summer participant) and his coworkers from Café Brenda. He also donated vegetables from his own personal organic garden and raided his own pantry for items such as sauerkraut, sweet corn, cranberries, dill pickles and various oils and spices.
Nick brought Deanna Doran, Joe Westenhagen, Ranelle Kirchner and Lucia from Café Brenda to assist in the kitchen and with serving. In addition, he rallied the following Organic Farm School attendees from our 2008 Season: Aaron Reser, Carri Lee, Courtney Bettendorf, Nancy Hoyt Taff, Emily Barker (who got the donation of Peace Coffee for us), and Tishwan Penny. Aaron provided the beautiful design and arrangement of the flowers, help in the kitchen and transportation. She donated countless hours to this endeavor.
We would like to thank Karen Joy Clark for her tireless dedication to and planning of this event. She holds us together and keeps us moving. A special thanks to our EMCEE, Ann Bancroft, and Honorees and Speakers, Dr. Devra Davis, Winona LaDuke, and Annie Young; and musicians, Prudence Johnson, Eliza Blue, Roberto, Sharon Day and Tara Chadwick, Little Earth of United Tribes Drum Group
In addition, we wish to thank garden designer Patsy Noble who worked with Aaron Reser on the flower arrangement and design, donating flowers from her own organic urban “farm” as well as those she purchased at a local farmer’s market, and who lent us many lovely items to be used in service of the banquet. She helped transport and obtain silent auction items, volunteered her time and energy setting the event and worked late into the evening on the clean-up detail.
We wish to acknowledge the Organic Farmers, those individuals fighting the good fight by providing organic produce and value added products for folks in our region.
*Prairie Star Trout Farm-70 rainbow trout
*Native harvest wild rice from Winona LaDuke of White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) and Lee Antell at Am. Indian OIC
*Hierloom Indigenous hand-harvested beans donated from Paula Foreman of Encore Farm, a participant of the MISA farmer training program
*Pastureland Grass-fed butter
*Donnay Organic Dairy fresh goat cheese
*Maple syrup donated by Emily Moore and purchased from a local co-op
*Nick Schneider's organic garden
*Produce and Apples: salad greens, radishes, winter squas., cabbage, sage, apples, apples. . . apples ~ from WEI Farmers: Erik Vangsnes, Nora Bacher, Hilary Sandall, Jacquelyn Zita, Mary O'Reilley
*Coffee - Peace Coffee
*Flowers and ornamentals: Nick from the Soo-line community garden, Patsy Noble from her personal urban farm and additional ones purchased from a local area farmer’s market, Bennett Farms, a community garden in North Minneapolis at the intersection of Gramercy and Glenwood, Loon Organics and Shining Hills Farm
*Flower Vases (giant ones) Lent from Bennett Farms (on blood contract)
*Smaller Vases were lent by friends and the remaining were saved from the trash at the Republican National Convention and were reused at our event. These were added to our cache of catering items we are collecting in order that we may continue to provide low-impact events by reusing, reducing and recycling
*Catering & Event Items: WEI is making every effort to build our stock of these items so that we can continue to provide low waste events
WINE cathy@thewinecompany.net; NAPKINS hand-made from fabric, ones that we will reuse for all future events, sewn by Kay Kessel and Emily Moore; PLATES from Barbra Wiener; GRAPHICS by Paul Andre and Jim Behn
STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS
Susie Tatone (flyer stuffing, and an extremely long day, sticking it out to the bitter end), Rachel Dykoski (set up), Angelina Mattias, Carol Pass (jumping in at the last minute to help where needed), Shelia Bland (greeting people at the door and closing silent auction), Julia Eagles, Janine Stiles, Heidi Adelman, Paul Thompson (set up and tear down), Ted Paulsen (silent auction and tear down), Jacquelyn Zita, Maria Regan-Gonzales (power point for WEI), Aisha, Laurie Allmann, Eleonore Wesserle, Lauren Brady, Emily Moore, KJ Starr and WEI Board Members: Collie Graddick (sticking it out to end), Becky Lourey (and friends), Sharon Day and Tara (performance), Robert Lilligren (signing people in), Hattie Bonds.
Our sincerest gratitude also to: University of Minnesota, Center for Spirituality, Dr. Helen Healy of Wellspring Clinic, St. Catherine’s School of Holistic Health Graduate Program, Nancy Jacobs, Jacquelyn Zita, CLEARCorps, IATP, County Commissioners Office, Lois Quam and Matt Entenza, Waterbury Group at Morgan Stanley, Darcee Weber, Hilary Sandall, Barbra Wiener and Anonymous for their “Adopt A Table” sponsorship for our Mother Earth Banquet.
We also want to thank the multiple SILENT AUCTION DONORS who have so importantly helped with the additional fundraising at the Mother Earth Banquet.
If we’ve forgotten anybody, please let us know.