February 1, 2007

By Lauren Heaton

As an antidote to the doldrums of an icy and endless February, try mixing two parts friends to one part excellent food and half a part mystery, then drink up at the annual Friends Care Community Progressive Dinner. That is the suggestion of Deirdre Owen, who is coordinating the 16th year for the dinner this year on Saturday, Feb. 17. With a Valentine’s theme, one is sure to find lots of friendly cheer and perhaps even a diapered cherub shooting an arrow with abandon, she said.

The progressive dinner is a sort of treasure hunt for friends, according to some past participants. Guests start the evening sipping on wine and crunching on canapés at Friends Care while they peruse the map that will lead them to their surprise dinner host for the evening. While they wonder which old friends they might run into and which new friends they might meet, their hosts are home preparing the dinner and wondering the same thing of the six to 12 mystery guests coming to dine with them.

“I love the surprise of not knowing who will show up at your doorstep,” said Owen, who is hosting one of the dinners this year with her husband, Erik. “It’s a good way to socialize with people in town you might not ever get to meet otherwise.”

Friends Care board member Donna Cottrell, who used to organize the progressive dinner and this year is hosting a dinner for the first time with another couple, is looking forward to seeing friends she doesn’t get to see very often.

There are 13 dinner hosts this year, including several hosts who have prepared long-standing favorite Indonesian and Japanese dinners and a Moroccan wedding feast every year since the progressives began, Owen said. And there are three new host families as well to surprise guests with their culinary novelties or old time favorites.

Typically the three-part evening includes around 75 to 90 guests who arrive at Friends Care at 6 p.m. for appetizers and a look at their map. They head to their individual host homes at 7 for dinner, and then return to Friends around 9 p.m. for dessert, coffee and a little entertainment.

The progressive dinner, Friends’ largest independent fundraiser, typically raises around $4,500 through the dinner cost of $50 per person, Owen said. The hosts provide dinners at their own expense, and all of the appetizers and desserts are donated by about 20 individual residents, Tom’s Market and Current Cuisine. The Emporium and the Wind’s Wine Cellar donate wine for the evening so that all the profits can benefit Friends Care.

According to Cottrell, the progressive dinner has always been primarily a fun way to promote Friends Care by reminding the community of this important center that cares for the aging population.

“It’s a wonderful public relations event and it gets a lot of people involved,” she said. “It gets people to keep Friends in their minds, to remind them what a valuable asset it is to our community.”

Owen, who is organizing the progressive for the second year with Pegeen Laughlin, would like the dinners to continue into the future. And she hopes this year that a younger generation of supporters will participate in the event and continue the support Friends Care continues to need from the community.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com