Niwot Rotary holds spring fundraiser

The Rotary Club of Niwot is involved in many local and international projects and education services. Niwot’s club holds two fundraisers each year, Oktoberfest in the fall and Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate in the spring, to help raise money for various humanitarian projects.

On Saturday, May 14, the Niwot Rotary will be holding its sixth Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate tasting fundraiser for the community.

Kamla Chopra, rotary member and local real estate agent, said the event has grown every year and has become something people look forward to now.

“It gets bigger and bigger every year, and we’re hoping this year it’s going to be more successful than it was in the past,” Chopra said. “People call us ahead of time and want to know when we’re going to have it, so they can get their tickets and come to the event.”

Chopra described the event as classy and fun, and explained that the purpose of the event is to raise money for various projects the rotary is working on.

“The proceeds from all these fundraisers we use for international projects, like building schools and supplying water to countries that don’t have water supply,” Chopra said. “Also local community projects, we do a lot of projects with the [local] schools.”

This year though, there is one local project in particular that the Niwot Rotary will be focusing its funds on. “Since the Children’s Park is so close to the heart for many residents of Niwot, we feel we would like to do something to help the Children’s Park that’s coming up in Niwot,” Chopra explained. “We’re hoping that some of the proceeds from this year’s Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate fundraiser will go towards that.”

The rotary raises its money by selling tickets for its events, and for this event in particular, by selling live and silent auction items. Attendees can expect to enjoy all the wine, cheese and chocolate they could want, and even purchase the wines they like.

“Every year we have wine from different regions,” Chopra said. “It’s really good quality wine people can get. Tickets are $40 each and [people] can get six tastings of wine. At the end of the evening, if they like the wine they can even purchase it.”

“We have all you can eat chocolate, and the chocolate is donated to us by Chocolove, the chocolate company here in Boulder,” she continued. “And we have all you can eat cheese, which is being supplied to us by Lucky’s Market in Longmont.”

In addition to all the delicious foods people can enjoy, they can also bid on exciting auction items from cruises to Colorado sports games, which will be ongoing throughout the night.

“During the course of the evening we will have an ongoing live auction, and silent auction items as well,” Chopra explained. “We’re hoping to raise some money from the auction items. We have some neat items like Caribbean cruises, Rockies tickets, people have offered condos in the mountain for the auction.”

This year’s event will be held at Haystack Golf Course in Niwot, which Chopra described as being a “garden party theme.” She said she’s keeping her fingers crossed for good weather because you never know what you’re going to get in May in Colorado.

“It’s going to be outdoors and under a tent obviously,” Chopra said about the event. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed for good weather. We’ve been very lucky so far, we’ve always had really good weather.”

Chopra wants the Niwot community and surrounding communities to know that the event is really for a good cause, and she knows they won’t be disappointed if they decide to attend.

“If people have not heard about [the event] and attended any of the Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate fundraisers in the past, I think they should make an effort,” she said. “It’s going to be a fun event and we’d like everyone to come and enjoy themselves, and spend some money for a good cause for the Rotary Club.”

People can buy tickets for the Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate event at Niwotrotary.org, or on the day of the event. The event will take place on Saturday, May 14 from 5:30-9 p.m. at Haystack Golf Course in Niwot.