From left, Noreen Connolly, Jeffrey Monacelli and Elizabeth Brewster
The Kiwanis Club of Glen Ridge held its ninth annual fall food tasting fundraiser Monday night, Oct. 21, at the Women’s Club of Glen Ridge, and it was a passing of the guard.
The event is the service organization’s biggest money maker, but this year had a different name and different co-chairs. Before, the event was called the OctoberFeast.
Presently, it is known as the Fall Festival of Flavors. And time was when Jeff Monicelli and Kathy Weissenberger organized the affair. Now Kathy is paired with her husband, Paul, who spoke to this newspaper about some other changes to the Kiwanis night out.
“We have a lot of new things,” he said at the recent fete. “Jeff did an excellent job over the last eight years and was ready to pass the baton. We used what he did as a blueprint. But this year we’re more focused on food and less on raffle baskets.”
Previously, raffle baskets, with assorted gifts, lined the entrance walls of the club. This year, they did not.
“We tried to keep the raffle baskets,” Weissenberger continued. “But we’re now focused on foods: German, Italian, cocktails, game-day baskets and home entertaining. And at the last minute, there was a donation of four grandstand tickets for the Macy’s Day Parade!”
The Kiwanis event, he said, is now attached to a local charity, the Family Connection, whose director of advancement is Laura Collins.
“In the past,” Weissenberger said, “the food tasting event was a fundraiser for the KIwanis Club. But we thought, because the club is focused on children in need, we should do it with a local charity.”
Weissenberger said the Kiwanis Club’s previous world wide scope of commitments would not alter because there are other fundraisers for these charities.
He said the event’s seating arrangement was changed this year. Previously, diners would munch in a small anteroom. This year, that was changed to a quiet space for wine and cheese tastings. Diners now would nibble in the main area, ringed by local restaurant merchants and a jazz band, the New World Quartet, wailing.
Weissenberger said it was good that the diners were relocated to the dining area.
“We’re trying to have people aware of the vendors providing the food,” he said. “The vendors are small businesses giving their time and bringing their employees. We want to make sure we support the local vendors.”
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