During my junior year at one of the south's most conservative colleges I volunteered with a tiny group of students supporting Amnesty International (AI). A close friend and I anointed ourselves as Visual Display Coordinators for AI. In a nutshell the two of us created displays, enclosed within a large glass-enclosed bulletin board, at the college library's entrance vestibule. We relished our role as window dressers for AI, with our piece de resistance consisting of photo copies of torture victims from less fortunate countries, with each photo framed by Elmer's glued-on tiny plastic babies purchased at the local Rose's Dime Store. We were sure that everyone would get our message that the babies represented rebirth and hope for the unfortunate tortured. I saw many a student pause at our display, eyebrows furrowed with an expression of "What in the world, and whatever?" I don't think my brief tenure as AI Visual Display Coordinator directly helped torture victims, earnest as I was.

Fast forward almost two decades later.

On October 20 I was among ten New York City wine professionals, mostly SOMMS, who banded together for the first time to host our inaugural fundraising event. We raised over $200,000 which we specifically have channeled through Oxfam to Darfur in Sudan where money is desperately needed simply to provide safe drinking water to refugees.

All of the SOMMS in the group are part of WineCAP (Wine Community Against Poverty) formed and lead this year by the tireless, generous David Weitzenhoffer, the Wine Director at Felidia restaurant where the iconic Lidia Bastianich presides as chef.

David said of our fundraising dinner, "This evening is one-of-a-kind because the entire night is donated from within the wine industry. Everybody in the industry, large and small is getting involved. From Krug to winemakers like Luca Currado from Vietti or Jean Louis from Chave donating their wines, to Lidia and Claudia Fleming, donating their skills, distributors buying seats, wine stores promoting the evening, sommeliers organizing and consumers participating…all because it needs to get done." Vintrust was also on board, with guest participation at the event and by getting email word out to its NY metro area members about WineCAPS’s mission.

The dinner event itself, held on the 35th floor of the Mutual of America building's grand hospitality facility overlooking Park Avenue, was magical from beginning to end with performances from the Metropolitan Opera stars, Ruth Ann Swenson
and John Relyea and fervent bidding between courses lead by the hugely entertaining auctioneer Jamie Ritchie, Senior Vice President, Sotheby's North American Wine Department. Since this was our first event we had no idea what to expect. David told me in the middle of the bidding that he anticipated our raising maybe $40,000 for the winning auction bids exciting as they were, but when the bidding numbers increased beyond $100,000 halfway through the dinner, you can imagine how charged with excitement we all were. Not bad for first time fundraising event throwers.

At 3AM that big night as I was taking a taxi home after an impromptu post-event celebration and unwinding with some of the other SOMMS over cold beers at a local restaurant, I recalled my college philanthropy days and how then I tried, with questionable yet well intentioned results, to help others. And then I felt a rush of pride, one that still lingers, for finally finding a specific way to change the lives of those in much need.

For more info about WineCAP, please visit www.winecapnyc.org. And stay tuned for more details about our next, second event. No worries, I won't incorporate plastic babies into the theme.