Fiesta Española!

Motivated by an aspiration to support grassroots community development, IWDA supporters Sarah Lucy and Karen Heatherbell held a Fiesta Española fundraising event in the beautiful location of McLaren Vale in South Australia last November.

Rolling up their sleeves and catering for the event themselves, Sarah and Karen brought together 60 wonderful women for a festive night of Spanish food, drinks and entertainment, with the generous support and contributions from the local community.

On the warm summer evening of Saturday 7^th November 2009, spilling out from Alpha Box & Dice cellar door in McLaren Vale, South Australia, was a truly sumptuous feast of good company, Spanish food, wine, sangria and flamenco for a Fiesta Española fundraiser dinner.

Over 60 like minded women from McLaren Vale, Willunga, the Adelaide Hills and Adelaide, had gathered together to have fun and raise funds for IWDA’s ongoing projects.

The evening flowed with welcoming Sangria, moscato and tapas, and a talk on IWDA and some of the selected projects it has been involved in.

Everyone then sat down for a flamenco set with a classic spanish dinner of gypsy stew, salads and wine. After another flamenco set as people nibbled on their spicy fig and honey balls & espresso truffles, the night started to heat up with an auction, lucky dip, and selling of fine local wines. The money flowed!

Throughout the evening the stunning flamenco dancing sets and accompanying guitar performed by Kristy & Aloysius from Casa de Flamenco, completed the genre and feeling of the night. Everyone felt as if they had been transported to Sevilla on a balmy evening.

A fabulous night was had by all and the generosity of everyone was overwhelming and phenomenal. On the night $6,400 was raised towards ongoing IWDA projects!

Sarah Lucy from Aldgate and Karen Heatherbell from McLaren Vale, the coordinators of the event, wish to give a heart felt thank you to all those wonderful women who made the evening so special & to Emma & Justin Lane for their involvement and the use of their fabulous cellar door. A thank you must also be given to the small group of male and female friends who were “slaves” on the night with the food preparation, serving of drinks and endless dishes!

Lastly, it must be stated how incredible the support was from local female winemakers, the McLaren Vale & Willunga business community & from some Adelaide Hills businesses for their backing through generous donations towards the auction & the lucky dip.

We both feel a great deal of respect for the manner in which IWDA selects and supports projects and feel it is an organisation with a high level of integrity. It was a pleasure and a wonderful experience to organise such a fundraising event, as a way of promoting & supporting the work that IWDA and its team contributes to the enablement & improved quality of life for girls & women throughout Asia & the Pacific.

If you have a fundraising idea, or would like to learn more about how you can contribute to IWDA, please click here.

IWDA would like to take this opportunity to send Sarah and Karen, and all who contributed to this festive evening, a sincere thank you for their time, energy and commitment in helping to create positive change for women and their communities.

Tags: Events/Campaigns/Press Releases

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 under Community, Recent.