Cellarbration
Courtesy photo Don and Cynthia Calbick bidding on silent auction items at the 2016 Cellarbration. The Calbicks have established two of their own scholarship funds with the BBCC Foundation.
Courtesy photo Chuck Yarbro Jr. works the crowd for the live auction at the 2016 Cellarbration. This year’s event is Saturday.
MOSES LAKE — The Big Bend Community College Foundation will sponsor its annual fundraising dinner, live auction and silent auction Saturday. The reception and silent auction preview for Cellarbration begin at 5:30 p.m., with dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the ATEC building in the BBCC campus. The live auction will follow the dinner.
Along with Cellarbration, the foundation has been conducting a raffle for a 2013 Harley-Davidson Softail Blackline motorcycle. The winner will be drawn Saturday evening.
Cellarbration is the foundation’s main fundraiser each year, a semi-formal dinner that’s based around the menu and its pairings with Washington wines. The evening also includes the auctions, and a cake auction was added last year, said Dawn Geiger, the foundation’s office manager.
Timothy Grayson, executive chef at Whitworth University, prepares the menu. A panel of volunteers picks the wines that accompany the meal. The opening reception also includes beer; for 2017, the beer is brewed by Ten Pin Brewery, Moses Lake.
The dinner menu includes a spring greens and kale salad with heirloom tomatoes and a huckleberry vinaigrette dressing, served with a 2016 rose from Millbrandt Vineyards, Prosser. The main course is filet mignon with a demi-glace sauce, served with potato dauphinoise gratin; diners have their choice of a 2014 pinot noir from Ginko Forest Winery, Vantage, and a 2014 Rock Island Red from Ryan Patrick Wines, Leavenworth. Dessert is a strawberry champagne tort with a chocolate-dipped strawberry, served with a 2015 Late Harvest Riesling from Millbrandt.
Items in the live auction include tickets to a Seattle Mariners game and weekend accommodations at the Washington Athletic Club. There’s also a one-night stay at the Northern Quest Casino and a gift certificate to the casino’s La Rive spa. There’s a Coeur d’Alene golf package, with one-night accommodations at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. There’s a steelhead fishing trip for two on the Grande Ronde River.
The live auction also includes a four-year wine package from Leonetti Cellars in Walla Walla. There’s also a snowshoe trip and accommodations in the Leavenworth area. There’s an “escape package” from Cave B Winery, Quincy. There’s a dinner for 10 at Michael’s in Moses Lake.
Following tradition, “pack your pantry” will be the last item in the live auction. “Pack your pantry” is a ton of donated vegetables, potatoes and onions being examples, that are purchased during the auction and donated to a food bank of the buyer’s choice.
Cellarbration has been raising money for the foundation since 2002. Cellarbration and other fundraisers like the bike raffle allow the college to provide scholarships for graduating high school seniors, professional/technical scholarships and for returning students, people who have been out of college for a while but want to come back.
Cellarbration also raises money for a special emergency fund, for qualifying BBCC students dealing with financial emergencies.