Beloved retired editorial cartoonist Charlie Daniel, left, with Ken Knight, the longtime general manager of the Crowne Plaza. Ken is a member of the VMC board of directors and the hotel was a sponsor of the event.
If you ever are looking for an excuse to drink moonshine, I can give you a good one!
Wine & Shine is the name of the fun annual fundraising dinner for Volunteer Ministry Center, one of the primary organizations dedicated to ending and preventing homelessness in our community. The dinner, held this past weekend at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Summit Hill Drive, featured a wine tasting curated by the folks at Water into Wine restaurant in Farragut and moonshine guided by Rod Parton of Drop Zone Distilling. It was fun! (Glad we were walking the few blocks back home to our downtown condo!)
According to the Knox Community Dashboard on Homelessness, in the fourth quarter of last year, 1,757 people were homeless in our county. Whereas it primarily is concentrated near the center city, folks report homeless camps in many other locations in Knox County, including Bearden and deep west Knoxville.
Let’s look at the fun party that raised money to help VMC do its important work. I’ll tell you a little more about that work after that.
Tracey Williams, CEO of Volunteer Ministry Center, with Alan Carmichael.
Mark and Laura Walker. He’s treasurer of the VMC board of directors.
Kathy and John Buckingham.
From left, Roger Nooe, Matthew and Penny Harrell, and David Arning, chair of the VMC board.
Brittany Bailey, left, of WBIR-TV, is a VMC board member. She also was the emcee for the evening. She’s with Shalee Allen, VMC’s director of development and marketing.
It was a big mingling crowd!
My favorite silent auction item! Ha.
Some other silent auction offerings. Clockwise, from top left: Lady Vols swag, photo of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, WDVX swag, and Knoxville Smokies swag. There were scores of other fun things, too!
VMC board member Eboni Winford, left, and Milena Keys. They were enjoying the evening’s signature cocktail: orange moonshine margaritas!
Alan and Rebecca Williams.
Brooks and Karen Clark.
Here’s Alan with Leslie Ressler. She’s the daughter of our late friends Bill and Judy Vaughan.
Sisters! From left, Carrie Stradley, Joanne Hibbs, and Kathy Buckingham.
While we were mingling, bidding and drinkng, we also were listening to this fantastic bluegrass music. Led by Matt Leadbetter, left. Other musicians were Roscoe Morgan, Stuart Wyrick, Bryan Turner, and Jimbo Whaley.
Helen Harb, left, and Keely Ritchie.
Carrie Fox King and Chris King.
Bill and Susan Morris.
Amanda Thompson, left, and her mother, Karen Sproles, representing the Sproles family. The late Don Sproles, was a former VMC chair and the evening was dedicated to him. He and his family and employees often served meals at VMC and they employed many VMC clients at their eatery, The Lunchbox.
Linda and Jeff Welch.
From left, Kelly Drummond, Keith Richardson, and Tracey Williams.
Charlie Daniel, right, posing with his son, Charles Daniel, IV, at left, and auctioneer Bear Stephenson.
It wasn’t long before emcee Brittany Bailey called us in to dinner!
Happy crowd.
And we saw this thing of beauty on our table.
It was our wine pairings! From left: jumbo lump blue crab cake with apple fennel slaw and lemon aioli paired with a Jolee semi-sparkling Pinot Gris; butter-poached lobster, sweet corn puree, apricot beurre blanc, and basil oil paired with a Juggernaut North Coast Chardonnay; herb-roasted beef tenderloin with whipped goat cheese, crostini, and Cabernet shallot jam paired with a Stollman La Cuadrilla red blend; and seared duck breast with black cherry gastrique and crispy duck skin paired with a Klinkerbrick old vine Zinfandel. (Loved everything but the duck — I don’t eat duck. Gave mine away.)
Candace Viox of the Farragut restaurant Water into Wine led us in the wine tastings. Knoxville Beverage Company provided the wines.
After those tasting bites, I almost wasn’t hungry. But apparently everyone else was because when they opened the buffet, it was swamped!
Executive Chef Robert Rosson before the onslaught.
Here are some of the things to choose from. Definitely something for everyone.
Tammy and Ken Knight. He’s been general manager of the Crowne Plaza for 33 years! And she’s been the hotel’s director of sales that long!
It was fun seeing Buddy and Shayna Heins.
Our table host Charlie Daniel with LaVerda Sandlin.
Jim and Madeline Greer were at our table, too.
Chris Wohlwend, a retired newspaper guy who is friends with both Alan and Charlie, joined us.
He pasted a sticker of a caricature that Charlie had drawn of him on his name tag! Clever!
After dinner, it was time to taste the moonshine! From right: candy apple cherry cider, blue raspberry, peach moonshine, and grandmother’s apple pie recipe, which I thought was the best!
We paired them with moonshine cookies, of all things!
Rod Parton of Drop Zone Distilling led us in the tasting. He said he was a “fourth generation moonshiner!”
And then it was time to raise a little money! Auctioneer Bear Stephenson led the charge and sold eight items and raised $11,000 quite quickly!
While the event is great fun with all the wine and food and music and bidding, we all knew we were there for an important cause: helping our unhoused neighbors.Â
Here’s a five-minute video about a success story that was shown during the program about a client named David and his dog, Marshmallow:
As we were leaving, we ran into our longtime friend, Mary Martin.
And I always try to talk Alan into posing with those awesome lions at the entrance to the Crowne Plaza. Most of the time, he humors me!
UPDATE: The folks at Volunteer Ministry Center report that the event raised $60,000 for them. Great job, everybody!
Thank you, as always, Cynthia, for amazing coverage of so many non-profits and their programs. We are so grateful for you and how you lift our work up! 🙂 – VMC Friends
Tracey: You all do a wonderful job with this event. It’s really unique among all the non-profit fundraisers going on. Thank you.
An event cannot get much better than this — an opportunity to mingle with nice people, eat good food, sample wine and moonshine, all while helping a very worthy cause.
Bill: I couldn’t agree more! And it’s a unique event.
Cynthia, super job on your photos and content! What a fun table we had! Great to see y’all. No photos of you! I should’ve taken a few of you. Charlie looked so relaxed and happy! What a nice vibe the whole evening was. Thank you!
Madeline: Fun being with you all. Glad to have fun while supporting such an important cause.
The evening was relaxed and fun (and I did not partake of the shine). We sat at one of the Buckingham’s tables and I enjoyed the wonderful event. I love my beautiful earrings from the silent auction. No other Knoxville hotel could pull off the excellent service and special treats for 250 people with such precision and flair!
Suzan: Agree about the evening. It was fun and relaxed. Possibly enhanced by the fact that I DID partake of the moonshine! Ha. And, most importantly, the result was great for a valuable non-profit organization.
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