Wine and Roses gala exceeds expectations

FORT SMITH — Spirits were high at the Donald W. Reynolds Cancer Support House last weekend. Some were whispering, others were boasting outright about the success of this year’s Wine and Roses gala.

As of noon Monday, it appeared proceeds would top the $125,000 goal. Sponsorships alone brought in $78,500.

“I think [the 2012 gala] was our best-attended with record breaking sponsorships,” said Lady Jane Cohen, now in her 10th year on the Wine and Roses gala committee. “It is a six month, 20-plus-person group effort.”

Leading the charge for the second year in a row were Rosalba and Tony de Mondesert, Brooke and Steven Spradlin and Sondi and George Catsavis. The couples, along with major sponsors, were the subject of a pre-party champagne toast on the spacious back patio of the cancer support house.

Executive director Martha Pendleton tastefully reminded the crowd that their party had a purpose.

“We have people walk through our doors in a very different mood than you did tonight,” Pendleton said. The organization provides cost-free, non-medical support programs and services to cancer patients and their family members.

Again this year, the Hadley family, including board member Michael Hadley, went the extra mile with donations of time and money. For the third year running, Michael and father Jim Hadley led the ever-popular and exclusive wine auction, which raised $45,500. The younger Hadley, as an owner of In Good Spirits, donated all the wine served at the gala. An extensive hors d’oeuvres buffet, by Kevin Dorey of 21 West End in Fort Smith, helped soak up all those the spirits and increased partygoers’ staying power.

This year’s art auction, headed up by Lynn Curry Weidman and Elizabeth Paris, included American impressionist painter Barry Thomas, whose works can be seen in private collections and public galleries from coast to coast. A piece created by Thomas just for the gala was paired with a bottle of wine and sold during the aforementioned wine auction.

Others whose works were on display included Kat Hardin, Cindy Beller, Sean Shrum, Tracee Gentry, Jason Sacran, Aux Arc Fur Traders, Ed Pennebaker and Mark Rademacher.