Our recent Chocolate Festival to benefit the mission of Cooperative Christian Ministries and Clinic was a sweet success thanks to the incredible efforts of our volunteer chocolatiers who donated their time, talents, and chocolate creations -- 850 pieces of their treats, to be exact!
With grace, poise, and enthusiasm, our amazing volunteers made the event run as smooth as melted chocolate. Our sponsors, Robert and Vikki Tankersley, Keith Smith Company, Levi Hospital, Red Oak Ridge, and a host of others provided the resources we needed to put on the festival. Our guests not only enjoyed delicious chocolates, but their ticket purchases helped to support our mission of poverty reduction, charitable healthcare, and case management.
Our generous chocolatiers included Angels in the Park, Arkansas Health and Wellness, Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa, Bleu Monkey Grill, Brickhouse Grill, CHI St Vincent Hot Springs, Embassy Suites, EvilO, Fat Bottom Girls Cupcakes, Hotel Hot Springs, Kilwins, Malvern National Bank, and National Park College Hospitality and Tourism Program. We can't say enough good things about these incredibly generous chocolatiers. They invested an enormous amount of time and resources to support the mission of CCMC. Our distinguished panel of Chocolate Judges consisted of head judge Brad Hudgens, Paul Swepston, Amy Hale, Ellen McCabe, and Dr. Randy Hill. The competition was fierce, but NPC was awarded Best in Taste and EvilO was awarded Best in Presentation and People's Choice!
The munificence of Embassy Suites cannot be overstated. They donated venue, support staff, and an expertise in hospitality that created a successful event. A special thanks goes to Embassy Suites' Marina Mueller and Mikki Sierra, who went above and beyond with grace, energy, and the most positive attitude possible. Fun City Chorus, Treble in the Village, and Justin Time juggling and balloon artist kept us all entertained and the phenomenal help of Adult and Teen Challenge of Arkansas made an overwhelming task do-able. Thanks also to our hard-working planning committee led by Dr. Stuart Fleischner! He, Marina Mueller, Eve Victory, Kyle Keeney, and Marla Hunter provided invaluable input, leadership, and a lot of time to make it all happen.
All of this time, energy, and effort was spent with one thing in mind: to support the mission of CCMC. Every single day, people in desperate situations with overwhelming needs come to us for help. Some come to us sick or in pain. Some come to us with a crisis they need to navigate with a case manager-advocate. Some come to us to learn how to move from poverty to sustainability. Nonprofits in our community are asked to do more and more with less and less, but events like our Sweet 16th Chocolate Festival let us continue offering our vital services to those who need our help.
Next year's 17th annual Chocolate Festival will be on Feb. 7, 2021, but between this past festival and the next, there will be close to 200 people who will graduate from our Getting Ahead classes, we'll have over 2,500 visits by patients in our charitable clinics, over 500 people in crisis will receive advocacy from our case management services, and over 170 volunteer health care and administrative professionals will donate over 4,100 hours to care for the under-served and under-resourced in our community.
We are so grateful for all who helped to make this year's Sweet 16th Chocolate Festival a great success! We are blessed to live in such a generous and compassionate community. Thank you!
Kim Carter is the executive director of the Cooperative Christian Ministries and Clinic.
Editorial on 02/17/2020