Community Events

Hamilton Food Share's 3rd annual Open House for Hunger Event:
"The Greater Gatsby"

June 13, 2009

What a fabulous Night! Upon arrival at this 45-million-dollar estate, guests were greeted by students of The Burlington Student Theatre dressed in the Gatsby era entire. Many guests, as you can see from the pictures, also got into the bygone era and dressed for the occasion. From a live demonstration of sushi-making and the fine art of oyster shucking to the 17 piece big band ensemble playing on the patio, to offering up 5 types of exquisite caviar on ice, sipping on various flavor infused vodka shots, an antipasto bar and waitstaff with platters of h'ors d'oeuvres weaving through the crowd...all of this greeted our guests within the first few minutes of making their way into the grand mansion called Edgemere. There was music in every corner of the house, and a grand back property that boasted a landscaped staircase leading to an expansive manicured lawn edging the lake shore. Along with this magnificent view there were trees and gardens throughout the property creating a secluded and opulent ambience perfect for the Greater Gatsby experience. The food catered by the Old Mill Restaurant was fabulous and plentiful, and as the sun went down brandy and cigars were served by the pool. The evening band came out on the terrace, and we revved up the party and danced under stars in this magical place until 1:00am.

Open House for Hunger was a tremendous success, and we are very blessed to have the organizing talents of our Special Events Committee and the generous support of our event sponsors, silent and live auction donors and buyers. We are also grateful to the many ticket purchasers whose support helped us raise $105,000.00 for our food recovery program. Tracey Dunn and Mark Hewitt are the Edgemere Estate owners and gracious hosts for this fabulous event; we thank them so much for sharing the timeless elegance of Edgemere with us to produce enormous support in the fight against hunger in Hamilton. OK & D Marketing Group took our idea of a Gatsby theme and produced all of the creative materials for this event. Special thanks to Kate Albanese and her staff at OK&D. Awesome Job! Our printing costs were minimal to none, as most of the event materials were graciously printed by The Hamilton Police Graphic Branch. Many thanks to Mike Shea and the department staff for a job well done.

Greetings at the front door

Bernie McCarter , Charles and Margaret Juravinski

Teresa Cascioli, Joanne Santucci, Jacqueline Roth, Kevin Smith,
Maria Campagnolo

The Honourable Lincoln Alexander and Joanna Adams McGowan-Special
Event Chair

Linc and the Group

Back Row: Emily Collins, Anna Hewitt, Marc
Hewitt, Jan and Jan Nichols

Front Row: Herta Denninger-Murray, The
Honourable Lincoln Alexander, Ines Freitag Baroness

Jane and Michael Schwenger (event sponsors)

The Greater Gatsby Special Event Committee:

Left to right back row : Linda Fraser, Mary Lou Ciancone, Bernie McCarter,
Ike Ahmed, Suzanne Pellegrino, Cindy Speziale, Mike Shea, Jayne Simpson,
Allen Fraser, Joanne Santucci, Shendal Yalchin, Rick Court

Left to right Front Row: Edgmere Host and Owner Tracey Dunn, Joanna Adams
McGowan, Jane Schwenger

Missing from Photo: The Honourable Lincoln Alexander, Shelly
Losani, Alex Moroz, Nick Pellegrino, Fadia Ros