AMCAL offering a tasty treat

AMCAL Family Services hopes its newest fundraising initiative will be a sensational treat, both financially and on the taste buds.

Taste of AMCAL will feature about a dozen local restaurants which will provide samples from their respective kitchens during an evening smorgasbord hosted by the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club in Dorval on March 24. The evening will also have a silent auction of donated goods. Tickets for the event are $100 each and are on sale already.

All the food, alcohol and even the use of the yacht club, including their stemware, table linen and kitchen facilities, will be donated to help AMCAL launch what the organization hopes will become an annual event. “Since it’s all donations, it’s full tax receipts (for tickets),” said AMCAL’s associate executive director Heather Holmes, adding their goal is to raise about $10,000.

The idea for the event came up during an AMCAL brainstorming session, Holmes said. “We felt it would be a great way for people to find out more about AMCAL and also to socialize,” she said. “We will also have speakers, both parents and youth, who went through AMCAL who will tell us how they reconnected with their families.”

Participating in Taste of AMCAL is California-based Barefoot wines, which was introduced to the Quebec market last summer. Barefoot markets itself by offering wine samplings for charity events, community group functions and even art vernissages, said their Quebec spokesperson Jennifer Jones, a Ste. Anne de Bellevue resident. “Barefoot promotes itself with non-traditional marketing, through donations,” she said, adding the unpretentious winery sold some six million cases in the United States last year. She said two varieties are sold by the SAQ, a red and a white, and retail for about $10 a bottle. “It’s a fruity wine but it’s not too sweet,” she said. “It’s a great day-to-day table wine. It’s a quality wine for the price.”

For more information on Barefoot wines, call 514-573-6577.

For more information on sponsoring or buying tickets for Taste of AMCAL, call 514-694-3161 ext. 301.