All for the love of chocolate
It’s like peanut butter and jelly, bread and butter, peaches and cream, milk and cookies and Monday night and football.
Valentine’s Day and chocolate just seem to go together.
This Saturday, Planned Parenthood will be sponsoring the 19th-annual Valentine Pro/Am Chocolate Festival which brings together a number of chocolate makers from around the valley.
“It’s a pretty well-tuned recipe at this point,” Nancy Sassano, chair of the chocolate festival committee said. “The first half’s very social. There’s lots of good chocolate to taste [with lots of] people milling around. Then we move all the tables and the live auction begins.”
The live auction begins by announcing the winners of the closed-door judging held before the event begins as well as the People’s Choice entries. Items up for bid include many non-chocolate items from local merchants such as spa packages and special dinners from Thai and Indian restaurants. The event also features an annual raffle.
“Ed’s Furniture donates a piece of furniture every year and raffle tickets are sold for $1, so that’s pretty fun, too.”
Booklets containing nine coupons each can be bought at the door for $5. Each coupon can be exchanged for a taste of any dessert at the festival.
“The professional desserts go pretty fast,” Sessano said. “People usually head straight for that area. The amateur desserts are great, too.”
The Valentine Pro/Am Chocolate Festival began in 1987 through the inspiration of Mary Leavitt and Mary Piette. Designed as a way to help pay for health check-ups and educational programs for expecting mothers, all proceeds of the event benefit Planned Parenthood.
“[The festival] usually brings in about $12,000 – 13,000,” Sassano said.
The chocolate committee is run by community volunteers who are not a part of Planned Parenthood.
“We all just support Planned Parenthood and wanted to help out,” Sessano said.
Sessano has been involved for the past six years but started taking on responsibility and leadership positions about two or three years ago.
The festival will take place in the Carousel Room in the Bullen Center, located at 43 S Main in Logan.
“It’s a fun place to go with someone during an evening out, or a couple couples,” Sessano said. “It’s a really festive, fun atmosphere.
The event caters to roughly 500 attendees annually.
“It’s not geared towards anyone [in particular] – all ages come. There are families with children, middle school and high schoolers with their parents and lots of college kids and young adults,” Sessano said. “There’s a lot of good fundraisers in Cache Valley and worthwhile causes, so the trick is to make your cause a little different. People keep coming back because they want to see what’s being made, what the professionals make, what the amateurs make, what fun names people have come up with and there’s always new creativity to look for.”
Just like the day it celebrates, the heart of the festival is all about chocolate.
“If you’re at all into good food or decadent desserts, this is the place for you,” Sessano said. “I hope people want to come out and see what it’s like. It’s supporting a great cause.”
-limarc@cc.usu.edu