BSSEF to host wine and cheese fundraiser at Moonlight Lodge

By Mario Carr EBS CONTRIBUTOR

On Wednesday, Feb. 28, the Big Sky Ski Education Foundation will invite community members to the Moonlight Lodge for a wine and cheese tour of the Mediterranean. Lauren Hafer, a wine specialist with the Hungry Moose Market and Deli will be pairing cheeses with red, white and sparkling wines from Spain, Italy and Greece. 

Event organizer Josie Johnson, a BSSEF board member, said it will be more educational than a typical wine tasting, and hopes that people can leave the event with knowledge of a new wine that they can add to their personal collections. Open to the first 70 registrants, tickets are $70 and the event will include a wine raffle to help raise funds for BSSEF.

“It’s a nice way to meet new people, mix and mingle and it’s not exclusively team parents attending,” Johnson told EBS. She explained that the main goal of this event is to get more members of the community involved in supporting BSSEF.

“It’s a ski town, our ski teams should be front and center,” Johnson said.

Money raised will go to athlete scholarships, which help offset the costs of competition, equipment and travel for kids involved with BSSEF.

This is the fourth year that BSSEF has hosted a wine and cheese night fundraiser, and the concept was born when the fundraiser was broadcast digitally due to COVID in 2021. Last year was the first in-person wine and cheese night, and Johnson says that they hope to continue this as their mid-season fundraising event moving forward.

“There have been popular wines that people never knew about before, that now they go to all the time,” Johnson said.

Although she said last year’s event started small, BSSEF received “great feedback” and saw room for the event to grow into a popular tradition. Johnson emphasized the importance of this event, due to the fact that BSSEF no longer sets up a fireworks stand as a fundraiser. 

Johnson is thankful for The Hungry Moose, George’s Distributing and the Moonlight Lodge making this event possible. Unlike the annual BSSEF Ski Ball in November,  this event is smaller with fewer corporate donors. 

There are 210 kids enrolled in BSSEF and 50 coaches.

“Having the support of the community means so much to the athletes, and for them to be able to see people from the community come out and support them—that makes us excited,” Johnson said.