Wine and laughter filled the night at Sunset Sip 2016, and what a successful event it was! We can’t begin to express how grateful we are for the outpouring of support we received from the community at our 70th anniversary celebration.
More than 250 people attended to support our mission, raising more than $100,000. This annual fundraising event, hosted by Los Angeles Kings Alumnus and TV Color Analyst, Jim Fox, is very important to our agency as funds raised allow us to provide much-needed mental health services to the community.
In the midst of friendly competitions over the wine tasting contest and generously donated auction items, we caught up with long-time friends and met new ones, founds ourselves star-struck over LA Kings alumni – Bob Miller, Luc Robitaille and Derek Armstrong, to name a few – and honored by the city officials who came out to support us.
What strong support we have from Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna, Seventh District Councilmember Roberto Uranga, Former Councilmember Tonia Reyes-Uranga, Artesia Mayor Victor Manalo and Connie Sziebl representing Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe!
Mayor Garcia challenges Long Beach to eliminate stigma surrounding mental illness.
We’d like to extend a special thank you to Mayor Garcia for standing up as a mental health advocate during our program and encouraging the Long Beach community to eliminate the stigma of mental illness together. His congratulatory words on our 70th anniversary also touched our hearts.
Amber, a past client of The Guidance Center, shares her story of hope.
We were beaming with pride when Amber, a former client, shared her story with guests. Her family has faced great challenges, but through support from The Guidance Center, Precious Lamb Preschool and other amazing community organizations, they’ve been able to build a bright future for themselves. We’re cheering for you, Amber!
For the first time ever, we also added a new contest to the night – a Facebook Photo Contest! It was so fun to see such creative photos of guests enjoying the night’s festivities on our Facebook newsfeed.
Event Host Jim Fox announcing wine tasting contest winners.
As always, guests enjoyed six different types of wine – three white and three red – throughout the night as a part of the blind wine tasting contest. Ten guests submitted perfect scorecards, forcing a drawing to select three contest winners. We closed the night by announcing the winners on stage and awarding them with their very own taste vins –a small cup specially made for wine tasting – at the end of the night.
Head over to our Facebook page to see the full album of photos from the night.
Thank you all for making Sunset Sip 2016 a night to remember.
Cheers to many more!