By Jason Emerson

editor

Nearly 300 people turned out last week to eat, drink, mingle and — most importantly — help raise funds for the Cazenovia Children’s House during the organization’s annual Taste of Cazenovia fundraising event, held this year at the Empire Farmstead Brewery on Rippleton Road.

The annual event is an evening of food and drink samplings from local farms, restaurants and businesses, accompanied by live music and fundraising auctions. The Taste of Cazenovia is the biggest fundraiser of the year for CCH, a not-for-profit childcare and pre-school educational facility that uses the proceeds to support programming and tuition assistance for qualifying families with financial need.

This year’s Taste raised around $20,000 from sponsors, raffles and auctions, although the final figures have not yet been tabulated, said CCH Director Torrey Lansing.

“This is an amazing community coming together tonight, the venue is amazing and the weather is perfect — I couldn’t be happier,” Lansing said.

Katie Reed, events director for Empire Brewing Company, said Empire was thrilled by the event as well. “We love getting to do events like this,” Reed said. “David [Katleski, Empire owner] really believes in giving back to the community, so for him it was a no-brainer.”

While there were more attendees this year than last year, the number of local vendors was down from 2016, Lansing said.

“I would love to see more local vendors because it is such a community event,” She said. “This is not just about CCH but about all of us coming together to share all we have — it’s really about building community tonight.”

The funds raised from this year’s taste of Cazenovia will go towards teacher education and staff development at CCH, Lansing said.

The goal of the 40-year-old Taste of Cazenovia is to change the venue every year in order to showcase various locations around Cazenovia. Next year’s event will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 4, at Madison County Distillery on Route 20.

This year’s Taste of Cazenovia offered a long list of local food, farm and drink sponsors for the event, including: Empire Brewing Company, Cazenovia Farmers Market, Lincklaen House, Drover Hill Farm, Cazenovia College, BG Buda’s Cucina Italiana, Loka Leaf Tea Lounge, MacKinnon Liquors, Life of Reilley Distilling Company, Empire Brewing Company, Owera Vineyards, Critz Farms Harvest Moon Cidery and Henneberg Brewing Co.

More information on the Taste of Cazenovia and a full list of this year’s sponsors can be found online at tasteofcazenovia.com.