Williams Sonoma hosted a cooking class with Banfi Tuscany winery and Brio Tuscan Grille to benefit the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Jacksonville Take Steps walk.
Sixty attendees were treated to Italian wines paired with Italian appetizers created by Brio Sous Chef Nick Sours, a Jacksonville native. There also were silent and live auctions, as well as donations from Williams Sonoma, Brio and Banfi.
The event raised more than $2,000 for Team Beverly, the walk team for Jordan Buss, who suffers from Crohn’s disease. Jordan was diagnosed while he was serving in the United States Army and was forced to retire.
He now works for Northrup Grumman in St. Augustine as an aviation structural mechanic and is walking to help find a cure for Crohn’s disease and colitis.
Paw prints benefit St. Augustine Humane Society
The St. Augustine Humane Society is expanding its capabilities and space for the veterinary clinic and free or low-cost spay, neuter services with plans for more days and hours of operation.
A new clinic sign is being designed and integrated into a tile mural on the front of the building at 1665 Old Moultrie Road in St. Augustine. The mural will include a fundraising opportunity with individual paw print tiles that feature the paw impressions of supporters’ pets as a permanent recognition of the family pet or loved one through a named tile.
The cost per tile is $150 and $75 for duplicates. For more information, email [email protected], call (904) 829-2737 or visit staugustinehumanesociety.org.
Salvation Army to open 'Center of Hope'
The Salvation Army of Northeast Florida will host the grand opening of the Towers Center of Hope with an open house noon-2 p.m Feb. 19.
The center is at The Salvation Army’s 900 W. Adams St. location, which has been renovated to provide interim housing for men seeking a fresh start after homelessness or addiction recovery and for young men aging out of foster care.
The new center also will provide residents access to services to make improvements in their lives and increase their odds of success, such as a chaplain and case managers.
“We saw that there was a niche that we were uniquely suited to fill,” said Maj. Thomas McWilliams, Salvation Army area commander. “We realized that we had an opportunity to provide a quiet, clean and safe environment that could be an enormous help to a lot of people.”
Rare Mercedes parking at Concours d’Elegance
The 20th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will showcase a Mercedes-Benz factory rally car that never competed in the World Championship but was built in 1980 for two-time World Rally champion Walter Rohrl.
Mercedes-Benz’s SLs – for “super light” – were inspired by the 1952 Le Mans 24-hour 300 SL coupes with their signature “gullwing” doors. The philosophy that created world-class racing grand touring cars was a solid foundation for a world championship-class rally car.
The 500 SL Rally is a custom-built prototype intended for the 1981 World Rally Championship. It was never permitted to fulfill its intended mission when Mercedes-Benz ceased its rallying program at the end of the 1980 season.
“It’s an unexpected treat to have this extraordinarily rare Mercedes-Benz on the field. The 500 SL Rally is a radically different take on the entire rally car ethos,” said Mark Becker, vice-chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.
The Mercedes-Benz 500 SL Rally will join a small and exotic fleet of rally championship Lancias and Porsches on Amelia’s 20th anniversary field.
The 2015 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance is March 13-15 on the 10th and 18th fairways of The Golf Club of Amelia Island. The show’s foundation has donated more than $2.5 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida and other local charities since its debut in 1996. In 2013, the event won Octane Magazine’s International Historic Motoring Event of the Year award.
Culhane’s Celtic Open tees off March 16
The Florida Pancreas Cancer Coalition will host its second annual Culhane’s Celtic Open, a golf tournament benefiting pancreas cancer research March 16 at the Atlantic Beach Country Club.
Individual tickets are $100. Registration starts at 11 a.m. Following the tournament there will be a buffet dinner at Culhane’s Irish Pub in Atlantic Beach.
“Our tournament last year raised nearly $30,000 which was then donated to the Mayo Clinic to help with pancreas cancer research. This will be a fun way to spend some time with friends and family on the golf course while raising funds for local research of pancreas cancer,” said Patrick McLaughlin, one of the founders of the coalition.
For more information and to register for the tournament, visit FLPCC.org.
Light The Night Nov. 5 for cancer research
Gil Pomar III, president of the North Florida Region for CenterState Bank of Florida, will chair the North & Central Florida Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s 2015 Light The Night Walk. The event is Nov. 5 at The Jacksonville Landing to raise money for cancer research and patient services.
“The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funded over $1.2 million in 2014 in the North and Central Florida region alone to improve the quality of lives for patients and their families by ensuring they get the treatment, financial aid and support they need,” said Pomar.
“Blood cancer has personally affected CenterState Bank. We lost one of our bank founders, Tom Rocker, to lymphoma and the 6-year-old niece of one of our underwriters is currently fighting leukemia, so we are committed to leading the fight,” Pomar said.
Registration for Light The Night Walk teams is now open and companies may learn more at the corporate recruitment breakfast at 7 a.m. May 7 at The River Club.
Jacksonville is one of about 185 communities across the United States and Canada where the society holds walks each fall. Participants carry illuminated lanterns – white for survivors, red for supporters and gold to remember those who lost their battle – to honor and commemorate lives touched by blood cancer.
The funds raised through corporate and individual contributions help to find cures and better therapies for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma, and to provide information, education and support for patients and their families.
To find out more about supporting a team or participating in the walk, contact the Jacksonville office of the North & Central Florida Chapter at (904) 332-6414, ext. 2464, or visit lightthenight.org.