Please Join Us!

Next week is the Danville Signature Chef's Auction to benefit the March of Dimes. Here is an article from the Commercial News about the Auction (with a few quotes from me, of course!). It will be an awesome event, and just by purchasing a ticket or bidding on an item, you will be helping to save babies!

Cooking for a cause
Area chefs gather for March of Dimes eventBY BARBARA GREENBERG

DANVILLE — The youngest and tiniest of people have been able to count on the March of Dimes for 70 years, and so have their parents.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, stricken with polio himself, helped establish the organization to prevent the disease from afflicting others. With the support of the March of Dimes, Dr. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine that prevents the disease.

According to Kristina Oncken-Cortez, community director for the organization in the Champaign area, the March of Dimes next focused its attention on birth defects, including encouraging increased consumption of folic acid as a preventative measure.

The group also raised awareness about the dangers to the embryo of pregnant mothers smoking and drinking. Today, the emphasis is on decreasing premature births.

Twelve local chefs from some of Danville’s best known restaurants will join with the March of Dimes to continue raising funds for this cause.They will offer samples for the dinner portion of the fourth annual March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction as well as items for the live auction.

David Quick, one of those chefs, will provide hundreds of slices of his restaurant Charlotte’s chocolate Bavarian torte cake prior to the auction.“It’s one of our customers’ favorite desserts,” Quick said. “I challenge people to guess the secret ingredient in the chocolate.”Quick’s restaurant also will donate a prize package of one whole cake or pie a month.

Shirley Sloop and Lisa Burke, Signature Chefs Auction co-chairs, have amassed a long list of local chefs and auction items. Those participating include: Applewood Foods Catering, California Catering, Country Time Catering, County Market, Crave Espresso Bar, Fat Boys Subs, Green Jade, La Potosina, Mustard’s Last Stand, Provena United Samaritans Medical Center and Turtle Run Banquet Center. The event will be at Turtle Run.

Good food may call for champagne during the evening. Downtown Diamond and Pawn will sponsor a champagne diamond raffle, which includes a raffle ticket with the purchase of a glass of champagne. The winning ticket brings with it a 40 point brilliant cut diamond valued at $1,500.

Packages available in the auction portion of the evening include weekend getaways, season tickets to local arts groups’ performances, sports-themed items and even a beach party.

One family each year serves as the March of Dimes Ambassadors in the area. The Pettigrews of Danville will fill that role. They are eternally grateful for the group’s help for their daughter Sarah, who was born eight weeks premature.

“Her birth was my introduction to everything,” Alicia Pettigrew said. “Not just being a mom, but the whole experience of a premature birth.”

Pettigrew explained that she and her husband planned to deliver their first child at Provena Covenant in Champaign to be safe.“There’s no high level NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) in Danville,” she said.

“We didn’t even know she’d be premature. When she was, we didn’t know that we would be allowed to stay in the hospital as long as she stayed. We were in the room right there for 11 days,” she said.“Sarah was just fine by then, and we were all able to go home. She’s been fine ever since,” Pettigrew added.

Sloop, a veteran Provena United Samaritans Medical Center nurse, said, “When I first started working (in this field), a baby born at seven months would have survived, but he or she would have been handicapped.”

Having experiences like that, or just hearing about them, make people grateful for the gains made thanks to the support of the March of Dimes.

Oncken-Cortez said, “Sixty percent of the money raised stays in Vermilion County. The other 40 percent goes to research, so essentially, it’s coming back here, too.”

IF YOU GO

The March of Dimes will present its Signature Chefs Auction at 6 p.m. Sept. 25 at Turtle Run Golf & Banquet Center. For sponsorships and ticket information, call 359-3730.