UPDATE: Thank you all for your stories and entries! We randomly selected 5 winners using Random.org. The winners are Roberta Anderson, Chris Warren, Matthew, Marla Kerwin, and Nancy N.
Yesterday we told you about the massively chocolicious Chocolate, Dessert, & Wine Lover’s Evening that’s going down on February 6 from 6-9 at the Stamford Marriott. Over 70 vendors, restaurants, vineyards, sweets shops, chocolatiers, coffee shops, cheese mongers, distilleries, and cupcakeries will be there for your sampling pleasure! Plus, you also might just win one of many door prizes. Yeah, it’s going to be quite the decadent night…and we want to help to get you there!
So, we’ll be giving away 3 pairs of tickets to help make sure that you get there. All you need to do is reply to this post and share something that you do/have done to help your local community. The contest begins now and goes until 1/29 at 11:59. We’ll pick 5 3 random winners and will contact them by e-mail and also post the results on our Facebook page. Then, on the night of the party, just give your name at the entrance.
And, even if you don’t win, please come along! Tickets are $50 before February 3 and go directly to The Shelter for the Homeless!
Just check out this list of vendors (still growing, too):
- Bad Louie’s Fudge
- Barron’s Winery
- Burgers, Shakes, & Fries
- Baldanza
- Barcelona
- Bar Q
- Bar Sugo
- bartaco
- Cabot Creamery
- Candy Scoop
- Casa Villa
- Cathy’s Biscotti
- Chocolate Lab
- Chocolate Rain Shop
- Crazy Grapes
- Darien Cheese Shop
- DiGrazia Vineyards
- Forever Sweet Bakery
- Gingerbitz
- Greenwich Staffing LLC
- Izzi B’s Allergen Free Bakery
- Kona Grill
- Le Rouge – Handmade Chocolates
- Lola’s Cottage Cookies
- Longford’s Own-made Ice Cream
- Lorca
- Max Restaurant Group
- Melting Pot
- Olio
- Onyx Spirits
- Pink Cupcake Shack
- Pink’s Babycakes
- Robeks Juice
- Shearwater Organic Coffee Roasters
- Some Things Fishy Catering
- Spiked Seltzer
- Suckerborne
- Suzi’s Home Made
- Tastefully Simple
- TS Chocolates
- Unbakeables
- Westford Hill Distillery
- Xocai Healthy Chocolate
Chocolate, Dessert, and Wine Lovers Evening
Date: 2/6/14 Time: 6-9 PM Cost: $50 before 2/3, $60 thereafter Place: Stamford Marriott Address: 243 Tresser Blvd. Stamford, CT
Dan and Kristien Del Ferraro
OmNomCT 
i am of course, late and actually would not be able to go, but in the spirit of letting you know a bit about me, i will share what i have done for the Stamford community:
Shortly after moving to Stamford, myself and 6 others began the community of St Lukes, which served the impoverished in the South end and Southfield village. This became know as St Luke’s Community services and now Experican. While we were there we had an emergency shelter for people who had been displaced for various reasons, an emergency Red Cross shelter for larger events, a food- coop, a “clothing exchange”, a summer camp, a tutor program for the neighborhood children, counseling for adults and a feeding program for those with out. We also opened 2 homes for the chronically mentally ill. This was all volunteer, since i had a regular job.
We were there seven years before moving on. i then continued to serve the chronically mentally ill as a second job (i was also working at the Health Department, which served the community in its own way). Volunteered for Family and Children’s services, helping with donations and being a financial conservator for those unable to manage their own finances and My household and i “hosted” a number of chronically mentally ill persons in our home. At least until my crazy operation, which has restricted me significantly. I continued to the best of my ability, to assist persons in my neighborhood on the West side, primarily sharing the food i cooked.
I home everything you have is a success!
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Hi Dan & Kristien!
I think my biggest contribution to the local community is eating at Coalhouse a lot, and as often as possible. I also enjoy drinking Half Full and shopping locally, of course.
When I’m not noming Lucilles and spicy manchego wings, I do some volunteer work with The East Side Partnership to support community redevelopment efforts of the East Side of Stamford- planting planters along the road, cleanups, etc.
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Em, you are too freaking hilarious. In all truth, though, you are helping out the brewers, the owners, the suppliers, and the restaurant by going to Coalhouse! Also,helping to beautify the neighborhood goes a really long way. We would do that when we lived in the Springdale area,too. Thanks for being a great reader and an awesome person all around. See you around and good luck.
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I co-started a community outreach program at my workplace. This Christmas, we sponsored two local families and donated gifts and provided complete Christmas dinners. We also collected coats for the local shelter and volunteered at the soup kitchen. We look forward keep doing more for the community!
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Hey Nancy. What an excellent story to share! Your hard work and dedication gives people hope and lots of reasons to be hopeful. Keep up the great work and good luck.
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Something that I have done in the community was to help in running a half marathon in Vegas called Team Challenge to help support and raise money for Crohns Disease.
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Good for you! It definitely isn’t easy to run a half marathon! Rock it and good luck.
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At my school in NJ I’ve tried to do a lot of things to help the local community because I really believe in helping others. One thing I noticed in my university’s community for example was that people were bored and a lot of people went home on weekends. So a friend and I started a DVD rental kiosk on campus one of the 1st student run businesses. We even had hopes out of the business to not only give the community a nice way of entertainment, but any profit would be donated to the club we started on campus which was an entrepreneurship club that could then help support and enable the community to start their own projects and businesses and follow their own dreams and passions. My school obviously has a business program, but definitely students and alumni and so on could definitely have better resources, so we wanted to try to make that happen. We noticed a lot of people had good ideas on campus, but really didn’t know how to make them happen, get them funded, get them started, etc.
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Matthew,really great idea that led to even better things. It’s funny how things can work out so nicely. Good luck.
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I moved to Stamford about six months ago and while commuting daily into NYC has made it challenging to volunteer locally, I donated to the Ferguson Library, one of my favorite places in my new neighborhood. I think libraries are so undervalued and I’m glad to be a Friend of the Ferguson!
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Hey Chelle! So, look…literacy and reading are essential for a good, we’ll rounded, and successful life. We live Ferguson Library too! Good luck!
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Hello,
I have recently helped buy TNR. Trap, neuter and release of a mama cat and three kittens. Mama was released and is living comfortably on the neighbors property and the 3 kittens adopted, one by me!
Thanks Elyssa Cunningham
Sent from my iPad
>
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Hey Elyssa. Very good! One of our cats, Marley, is black and white. Actually, when we adopted her, she had just given birth to babies in the wild and was about a year old. Her name was Mama! She’s a very coy cat, but we love her. So great of you to sponsor this. Good luck!
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Reblogged this on MaurPowerFoodie and commented:
I want to be selfish, so I can win, but that would defeat the purpose. Enter to win some fantastic tickets!
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I have donated my time and efforts to my community throughout my life. I serve on the Commission for the Aging, for which I am about to hold an event for Senior Citizens in town to help them make sure they have all their affairs in order. I also donate to our food bank, help to plan charity events, and volunteer my time at many of the events held for charity at our local catering hall. Perhaps my favorite charitable action each year though is raising money and walking in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer… In It To End It!
Hope to see you guys there!
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Hey Jason, how ya doing buddy? :) Nice to hear about all you do. It was great watching your journey on Facebook over such a long hike at the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. Keep up the good work Jason! :) We hope to see you there, too. Oh, we’ve upped the ante of the contest because there have been so many responses and so many great stories. Now there are FIVE sets of tickets!
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All is great here. Hope the same goes for you. Hopefully we can get together soon.
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I provide housing assistance to stamford seniors. As well for those in need and help them with affordable housing needs through state and federal funding.
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Hey Chris, thanks for commenting. It’s very important to remember those who helped to make what we have now. Seniors are so often overlooked, so it’s great that you’re helping out! Lots of luck.
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Recently working in the Stamford area, I have worked within my company to coordinate donation efforts with the Person to Person for a winter coat drive going on, I have also assisted in lower fairfield county food drive donation efforts for the thanksgiving time and a tooy drive for the holiday time. I hope to bring many more charities to my professional community to help aide this town and I will soon even become a CT resident myself! I love helping others, it is a great passion and I wish everyone luck!
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I cook lunch each month at the New Covenant House Soup kitchen. We make pulled pork with black beans and guasacaca sauce (think Valencia!) or thai chicken with rice and green beans.
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This might be considered cheating but as a social worker at Person to Person I get to help our community everyday by proving much needed food, clothing and emergency assistance to those in need. We also work with other agencies and provide referrals for all around services that might be needed. My other passion is animals so I love to keep up with organizations that rescue and protect animal rights, and also our very own animal shelter here in Stamford as well as their fundraising arm OPINs events.
Thanks,
Katherine
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Hey Katherine, that’s not cheating at all…you’ve made a living doing good and helping out! :) Person to Person is such an important organization, so glad that you’re a part of it. Also, we love our furry friends and have an adopted shelter dog and two adopted cats, too! Lots of luck with the contest!
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A new walking path and handicap access entry to my local neighborhood park will be worked on this spring. All began with an idea i had and pursued, with the help of grant funding from former CT Gov. Jodi Rell and a few concerned neighbors, PLTI, and city workers. Anything can happen if you put the effort. Belltown Park; come check it out! Great blog post.
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My profession allows me to help local communities struggling with hunger on a daily basis. As a staff member of Food Bank for Westchester I spend time working with community organizations. Some of the work I am most proud of is the time I spend out of work engaging local youth in social justice and service work. For example on MLK Day I chaperoned a group of teens to a Soup Kitchen to provide meals to the hungry.
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Erica, that is so awesome. You’re doing do many great things with your job and during your free time. Keep up the awesomeness and good luck. :)
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