The local arm of an international organization reached for the stars Saturday in its pursuit of funding worthy causes. During the evening at the Skirball Cultural Center, the Rotary Club of Santa Monica hosted its annual Wine & Food Festival, with the 16th edition titled “A Night Among The Stars.”
The grand celebration brought together members of the celebrated club to feast on fish, beef and vegetarian meals; as well as traverse a vast selection of wine tastings. More importantly, the club held a raffle, live auction and silent auction to help reach a goal of $150,000 to give back to food banks, local schools, community organizations and international causes.
Over the past six years, the Rotary Club has given nearly $139,000 to local schools to aid students through grants, vocational courses and leadership training. This year’s featured charity continues that commitment, with the club’s “fund in need” auction raising funds for the Guardian Scholars Program, providing copious support for foster youth attending Santa Monica College.
The Food & Wine Festival Chair, Andrea Gressinger, stated that having a feature charity is “a chance to educate people about a certain cause and to support one specific cause” which “helps people focus their giving for a bit.” Like organizations before it, the scholars program has been deemed a cause worth supporting due to its wide range of aid for foster youth in need.
“[The program offers] all kinds of support to current and former foster youth … they offer scholarships, mentoring, they’ll pay for books, if they have a car they’ll give gas cards, [and] if they don’t have a car, they’ll get bus vouchers,” Gressinger said. “[Foster youth] get actual job training [as well] … they don’t have family to support them, a foster kid out at 18, [they’re] on [their] own. So it’s a really comprehensive mental health support [of] everything to help get them an education and ultimately help them be successful in the world.”
Along with foundational education efforts, the Santa Monica arm of the club supports child creative and after school endeavors, giving $49,000 since 2018 to community youth efforts like The Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica and The Pico Youth and Family Center. Fine arts have been supported in the past few years through $22,500 given to Elemental Music, The Santa Monica Orchestra Foundation, Westside Ballet and other local organizations.
“I think it’s natural to not only help with the problems of today, but help when people are so young so that they don’t end up having the same problems like homelessness and lack of education,” Gressinger added.
Rotary Club’s reach goes far beyond Santa Monica as well, as the club has been a leader of national and international causes for decades. For more than 35 years, the club has been at the forefront of eradicating polio cases as a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, with members from across the country contributing more than $2.1 billion and many volunteer hours to the cause.
The Santa Monica club has given $133,420 to international causes since 2018, including water and sanitation projects in West Africa and Lebanon, as well as donations to the Red Rhino Orphanage in Kenya which provides a safe home for children. An international flavor will be part of the mix during auction proceedings Saturday, as one of the items to bid on is a catering service from a Club couple from Ukraine, cooking food from their homeland.
Though membership was not required for the Wine & Food Festival, Gressinger recommends membership into Rotary as well as attendance during Friday luncheons at the Hilton Santa Monica, saying the “incredibly fun group of people” always leave visitors “really surprised.” A real estate agent by trade, Gressinger is grateful for her 11 years in Rotary due to partaking in real change regarding social issues.
“It really quickly became like a second family for me,” she said. “The sense of share purpose and the kind of people who show up in the world this way are very special, so I feel like part of a very special group of people who, instead of sitting around complaining about the horrible things in the news and how bad the world is, we have so much joy because we’re also making a difference and we have purpose.”
For more information about the club, visit their website here.