Clubhouse

On the menu: pasta—and all that jazz

The James Woods Builders Club in Winchester, Virginia, knows how to jazz up a fundraiser. The club recently combined an Italian dinner with a silent auction and jazz concert that was a groovy gig for hep cats and pasta partisans. More importantly, the club raised some serious scratch for the Winchester Day Nursery, a day-care facility for low-income families that receives little public funding.

The action is crazy, daddy-o, as members of the James Wood Builders Club serve food during a food and jazz fundraiser.

“The Builders had hoped to raise a minimum of US$1,000 (after expenses) for the nursery,” notes Bill Jeunette of the Winchester Kiwanis club, which sponsors the Builders Club. “They weren’t disappointed when the final number came out to nearly $1,600.” Plans already are under way for an encore next spring.

The event began with about a half dozen Winchester Kiwanians working in the kitchen of a restaurant to prepare enough sauces, pasta, and rolls to serve at least 400 people. The food was then transported to the middle school, where Builders Club members served it, along with salads and drinks. Merchants donated a wide variety of items to the Builder Club, which were sold at a silent auction during the meal.

The evening’s crescendo came when jazz bands from the middle school and Shenandoah University performed, sliding into a jam session as a grand finale.

“This was greeted by a standing ovation from the audience,” Bill says, as was the efforts of the Builders Club.