The Big Bend Community College Foundation will sponsor its annual fundraising dinner, live auction and silent auction Saturday. The reception and silent auction preview for Cellarbration begin at 5:30 p.m., with dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the ATEC building in the BBCC campus. The live auction will follow the dinner.
Along with Cellarbration, the foundation has been conducting a raffle for a 2013 Harley-Davidson Softail Blackline motorcycle. The winner will be drawn Saturday evening.
Cellarbration is the foundation’s main fundraiser each year, a semi-formal dinner that’s based around the menu and its pairings with Washington wines. The evening also includes the auctions, and a cake auction was added last year, said Dawn Geiger, the foundation’s office manager.
Timothy Grayson, executive chef at Whitworth University, prepares the menu. A panel of volunteers picks the wines that accompany the meal. The opening reception also includes beer; for 2017, the beer is brewed by Ten Pin Brewery, Moses Lake.
The dinner menu includes a spring greens and kale salad with heirloom tomatoes and a huckleberry vinaigrette dressing, served with a 2016 rose from Millbrandt Vineyards, Prosser. The main course is filet mignon with a demi-glace sauce, served with potato dauphinoise gratin; diners have their choice of a 2014 pinot noir from Ginko Forest Winery, Vantage, and a 2014 Rock Island Red from Ryan Patrick Wines, Leavenworth. Dessert is a strawberry champagne tort with a chocolate-dipped strawberry, served with a 2015 Late Harvest Riesling from Millbrandt.
Items in the live auction include tickets to a Seattle Mariners game and weekend accommodations at the Washington Athletic Club. There’s also a one-night stay at the Northern Quest Casino and a gift certificate to the casino’s La Rive spa. There’s a Coeur d’Alene golf package, with one-night accommodations at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. There’s a steelhead fishing trip for two on the Grande Ronde River.