Chocolatiers come together for Planned Parenthood
Chocolate fudge, chocolate brownies and chocolate cake; plum truffles, pudding cups and s’more candies; a chocolate cake shaped as a cat? All of these delicacies might be found at the 25th annual Benefit Valentine’s Day Chocolate Festival held on Saturday.
The Logan Chocolate Festival has raised money for the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and the Logan Health Center. After a number of years of being held at the Whittier Center, the festival has moved to Hamilton’s on Main Street in North Logan.
Before the chocolate festival came into existence, the event committee wasn’t sure what it could to do to raise more money and awareness for students and uninsured people who use the Logan Planned Parenthood Clinic and the Health Center, said Nancy Sassono, a festival committee member.
“We just weren’t sure how something like that would go,” Sassono said. “And we still, every time, sit there biting our nails thinking ‘Will people come?’ or ‘Will there be enough food?’ And of course, there always is more than enough.”
There are plenty of regulars who enter the contest, Sassono said.
“It’s great, every year the list grows,” she said. “We have some people who’ve been faithful from the beginning.”
The Festival, which began at 6:30 p.m., consisted of taste testing, silent and live auctions and judging of the chocolate entries. The judges were people who have previously entered the contest, who are renowned chefs in the Valley and who have culinary expertise, Sassano said.
For judging, all entries were split into either the amateur or professional categories, after which the judges voted for the top entries in each one. Public taste testers could sample any of the delicacies available and vote for the people’s choice award.
“If somebody bids on something that ends up winning the people’s choice we have the right to take it and offer it in the live auction,” Sassano said. “When we bring it up to the live auction it’s going to go for a lot more.”
Chocolate desserts and delicacies were not the only things auctioned. Several local businesses donated goods, services and meals for the auctions, too.
“There are a couple different people who offer dinners they make in their own home and groups of eight will bid on them,” Sassono said. “It just shows the generosity of people donating their time and expertise.”
At last year’s festival, three different groups bid on a Spanish tapas and wine tasting package. After some negotiation, the couple offering the prize agreed to do it three separate times if each group paid the final bidding price of $1,300.
Offering a final opportunity for festival-goers to walk away with something good, were grab-and-go bags available for $10 each.
“That’s become a really popular way for some people to take something back from the Chocolate Festival without having to have the stress of bidding, or being able to spend a little less money,” Sassano said.
People who may want to participate in the festival but not enter desserts have the option of volunteering at the event. This year there were more than 30 volunteers, said Keith Grant-Davie, the member of the committee in charge of organizing the volunteers.
“It just shows that there’s lots of support for the cause in the valley,” Grant-Davie said of this year’s 25th anniversary turnout. “It’s great this year.”
“There’s a wide range of applications to chocolate,” Sassano said. “Chocolate things are not strictly the only delicacies served and auctioned. Entries in the past have included chocolate sushi or chili chocolate, and there is sometimes an entire category that is un-chocolate desserts.”
One of the best things about the festival, said volunteer Shelby Frauen, is the strong community feel that is brought by the people at the event. Many of the people who attend are the kind of people she said “you don’t see in main Logan all the time.”
Frauen is a member of VOX, Voices of Planned Parenthood, an organization that works closely with Planned Parenthood to raise funds.
Last year the festival brought in almost $23,000 for Planned Parenthood. The event is the biggest source of income for the non-profit organization, Sassano said.
Many members of the community and students flocked to the Chocolate Festival on Saturday night to enter desserts, volunteer or just to enjoy a little bit of Valentine’s fun in the valley.
“We try to make a little bit of everything for anybody,” Sassano said.
More information about the Festival can be found at www.thechocolatefestival.org.
– mandy.m.morgan@aggiemail.usu.edu