Logan’s sweet tooth is satisfied at festival
Chocolate lovers around Cache Valley will gather at the 24th annual Valentine Chocolate Festival this Saturday to display their tasty treats. The Festival serves as a fundraiser for Utah Planned Parenthood, which will receive 100 percent of the profits.
“All the prizes and raffle items are donated. All the labor to put this on is donated as well. So all the funds we raise go directly to Planned Parenthood of Utah,” said Colleen O’Neill of the festival committee.
O’Neill said there are 10 core volunteers who organize the event and more than 30 others who volunteer their time to put the event together.
The festival is open to amateur and professional chefs. The chocolatiers enter into categories based on the dessert they bring. It can be cakes, pies, cookies, brownies or chocolates.
Before the event is open to the public, the chefs will be judged in their specific categories. Judges award the best entries in each category, including best amateur and professional chef. Other awards include best teen and best parent/child collaboration. People’s choice awards will be decided by the public who will cast their vote for their favorite treats.
“Anyone can enter their dessert into the festival, even if you have no professional baking experience,” said Nancy Sassano, chair of the local organizing committee.
O’Neill said the chocolatiers are both professional chefs from local restaurants and catering companies and amateurs from the community who love working with chocolate. Two of the professional entries will be by chefs from Crumb Brothers and Hamilton’s.
Besides dessert tasting, there will be a silent auction as well as a live auction. The auction items include some of the desserts samples as well as a gourmet Thai dinner for eight, a night at a Yurt with gourmet backpack dinner, a “Hot Date” including dinner and flower certificates from local restaurants and flower designers, and a Spanish wine tasting and tapas party.
There will also be a raffle with a grand prize of a piece of furniture from Edwards Furniture. The grand prize raffle will be drawn first and participants must be present to receive their prize.
“We are continually impressed by the people of Cache Valley’s energy and creativity. This is always the best and tastiest fundraising event of the year,” said Karrie Galloway, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Utah.
Planned Parenthood provides health care to all members of the community. Whether they are high- or low-income, they can receive health care benefits through Planned Parenthood, Sassano said.
Some services provided by Planned Parenthood are birth control prescriptions and refills, pregnancy tests, STI screening and vaccinations.
“Basically you just pay whatever you can afford,” Sassano said.
The festival was started in 1987 by Mary Leavitt and Mary Piette, according the Valentine Chocolate Festival’s website. Piette brought the idea of a chocolate festival from Hawaii to the Planned Parenthood board, saying no matter how people felt about families, everyone loved chocolate. The first year the board held the chocolate festival they were astounded by the turnout and have kept the festival going ever since.
“It started with a few community members who wanted to hold a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood and since the festival is held near Valentine’s Day, what better way to celebrate than with chocolate desserts,” O’Neill said.
The event will be held at Accolades in Hamilton’s, located at 2427 N. Main Street, Saturday, Feb. 5, starting at 6:30 p.m. The cost will be $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12.
– chelsee.niebergall@aggiemail.usu.edu