SWEET SUCCESS
16th Annual Chocolate Festival ‘great success,’ organizers say
Thirteen chocolatiers volunteered their time, talent and “chocolate creations” at the Cooperative Christian Ministries and Clinic 16th Annual Chocolate Festival Sunday in an effort to raise funds for the ministry, Sallie Culbreth, CCMC community relations director, said Monday.
The winners of this year’s festival were National Park College’s
Hospitality and Tourism Program for “Best in Taste,” and Evil-O for “Best in Presentation” and “People’s Choice.”
Culbreth said the festival was a “great success” and more organized compared to previous years.
“People were able to move about a little bit easier than in years past,” she said. “We changed up the way we did our general admission tickets; we had two different admission times, so that helped diffuse the crowd a little bit. … We (also) emphasized presale tickets this year so our chocolatiers would have a better idea of how much to prepare.”
Culbreth said another thing done differently this year was reconfiguring the “chocolate room” with pipe and drape.
“We put up pipe and drape this year so they had one way in and one way out, so everybody had a chance to interact with the vendors,” she said. “It went much more smoothly in how people
got their treats, and oh, my goodness, the treats were so decadent.”
Around 600 people attended the event, which was less than last year, Culbreth said.
“Last year was a very challenging year, we just had so many people show up that it became difficult for us to manage,” she said. “We actually had quite a few frustrated people by the end of it, but I think we’re very happy with the attendance.”
Culbreth said Embassy Suites by Hilton Hot Springs Hotel & Spa donated its venue for the event, and all participating chocolatiers were volunteers who donated their products for the festival.
“All of (it) goes to support the mission of CCMC to reduce poverty and offer charitable health care services and provide case management for people who are in crisis and need an advocate,” she said. “The event was a great success on every possible level to provide resources to help our organization continue on this year.”
CCMC is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization, Culbreth said.
“All of our doctors and nurses and dentists and dental hygienists and pharmacists, they’re all volunteers,” she said. “They volunteer their professional services to clients who are patients who don’t have insurance or who are underinsured.”
The ministry’s primary focus and the foundation upon which everything it does is poverty reduction, she said.
“We spend a great deal of our organization’s time and energy raising awareness about the issues of poverty through our bridges out of poverty workshops,” Culbreth said.
The ministry has a yearround program called “Getting Ahead” that entails 14-week classes for people who are ready to move from poverty to a stable life, she said.
“People attend and in those classes nobody gives them anything, they learn how to examine the resources in their lives currently and how to better manage those resources in order to move from poverty or a low-income struggle to a more stable future, learn to save, learn to look around to see where they can connect with others who can help them get where they need to go,” Culbreth said. “… All of that is what the Chocolate Festival raised funds to support.”