By Micki Carter
Ah, church fundraisers! Now there’s a topic that can keep church leadership gnawing on ideas (good, bad and awful) for eons!
In 1983, a group of 10 from the Congregational Church of Belmont met on the deck of my house in San Mateo to come up with a fundraiser with overlapping goals. It needed to:
- Raise money — but not from members who already gave a lot.
- Grab the interest of the community.
- Benefit community organizations like food banks and shelters.
- Be classy!
Beer festivals kept coming up but somehow that didn’t sound all that appropriate for a church, and then someone landed on chocolate! And Chocolate Fest was born — or at least conceived.
This of course was long before the chocolate salons and all variety of chocolate shows were on everyone’s radar. This was indeed a new idea, and no one knew whether we could pull it off.
The plan was to ask bakeries, candymakers, ice cream and gelato shops to offer their chocolate wares for sampling — out of the goodness of their hearts and for the good community vibes that we promised. We made a list and started asking.
Most people were kind in their rejections, but we weren’t making much traction until the oldest candy store on the Peninsula, Preston’s in Burlingame, said yes! Then we could go back to the others and tell them that Preston’s was in — and so were they!
This year, when we open the doors to the 41st edition of Chocolate Fest on Oct. 19 at what is now the Congregational Church of the Peninsula, Preston’s will be there again as one of 22 vendors of specialty chocolate — two owners later, but still Preston’s!
We have evolved, morphed, shifted and nearly died over the years, but we found new life two years ago from a new member who came to us via Chocolate Fest. When we were writing the obituary for Chocolate Fest for all the usual reasons — not enough volunteers and volunteer energy anymore — Jill Visor said, “I’ll do it.” And so she has!
This year, Chocolate Fest is changing again — a one-day session in which tickets buyers choose their two-hour tasting slot between the hours of 1 and 9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, but with all the classy attributes that has given us long-life — live jazz, champagne and coffee and tables on the veranda to watch the Harvest Moon rise.
We throw in lots of door prizes (drawings every hour), childcare, a Silent Auction with great offers and the chance to make a difference with a five-figure check to a great local charity. This year it’s LifeMoves, the organization that houses the unhoused on the Peninsula.
By the way, it’s the partnership that Jill developed with LifeMoves that makes up for our dwindling source of volunteers. LM volunteers are filling the void. (That, and the Scouts from Troop 27 who save our backs with their unlimited energy to transform this 99-year-old building in October.)
But the bottom line is that abundant chocolate tasting was — and IS — a great idea that still pulls the community into Belmont’s Chocolate Church one day every fall!
Order your tickets here and see how it works.
