Posts Tagged ‘Charities’

Two cities, $67,000!

Thursday, December 5th, 2013

 

OMG! What an amazing effort this year to be able to raise $67,000 through two fantastic events.

Firstly, we want to say a big thank you to all of our beautiful diners who came out and supported the events in both cities. And a huge thank you to all of our corporate sponsors, restaurants and major sponsors who truly made these events incredible for everyone involved.

Click here to see the corporate sponsors who generously supported our 2013 event.

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If you didn’t already know, we launched our first Dine for Life dinner in Melbourne! Yes, the culinary capital dined for life in seven of its top restaurants to much applause from all the diners. Natasha and myself dined at the new Calombaris venture Press Club – Projects and were treated to not only some incredible flavours but an impromptu fire alarm subsequently followed by the arrival of Victorian fire fighters clearly enjoying their moment in the limelight. There was such a great energy there and later at the after party we got to hear other guests sharing their fantastic experiences. For our first event in a pretty tough city, we certainly made a mark and 2014 is seeing a return.

Click here for the Melbourne restaurants and sponsors involved.

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Perth saw it’s fifth and biggest event yet with 20 of our most delicious restaurants putting on a fantastic fare for diners. The Trustee was the scene of the buzzing after party where almost every diner came and partied on until the bar tenders yelled ‘last rounds’.

Click here to see the restaurants and sponsors of the Perth event.

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We are truly lucky to be able to hold events that unite communities over what we all enjoy so much – great food and wine in a shared table setting and help raise much needed funding and awareness for people so much less fortunate than ourselves.

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This year we joined forces with Sydney based not for profit Project Futures who also raise funding and awareness for human trafficking and support the charity we selected as our own benefactor for our dining event, the Somaly Mam Foundation.

Somaly Mam sent a message of gratitude to all the diners and sponsors who have contributed to the success of the event, the funds raised and the compassion that has been shown in supporting such an important cause.

 

The funds raised with this event will be reported on in the 2014 Project Futures annual report and we will come back to you with how your contribution has helped the girls in the Somaly Mam and AFESIP centres.

See all the photos from both cities on our Facebook page.

Sincere thank you once again for your time, compassion and support. See you all in 2014!

Andjelka & Natasha
xox

 

We have selected our 2013 charity!

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013

 

It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. —Charles Darwin

 

What a week…or two, it’s been.

So, after the flurry of changes, meetings, research, conference calls and a few sleepless nights, we have selected a charity doing incredible work for women and children who have been subjected to the harrowing experiences of sex trafficking.

Every time we select a charity we extensively research around the cause and researching this particular topic is hard on the soul. Even just the thought of a child or young girl or woman being subjected to that reality is horrifying at best.

The bright side to this is that we get to see many wonderful organisations that are working incredibly hard to liberate, empower and educate the victims as well as educate us: the rest of the world, about this growing human rights issue.

So without further ado, the charity we have selected is the Somaly Mam Foundation. The Foundation works alongside AFESIP Cambodia to rescue, rehabilitate, reintegrate and educate women and children that have been sold into the sex trade in Cambodia. The Foundation works to eradicate sex slavery, liberate its victims and empower survivors to create and sustain lives of dignity.

 

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We’ve added a twist to this year’s approach. Dine for Life has joined forces with Sydney-based not for profit Project Futures, who are representatives of the Somaly Mam Foundation in Australia. The story of how Project Futures started is not unlike that of Dine for Life’s, so when we found the Somaly Mam Foundation and saw that this Aussie posse over in Sydney were also champions of the cause, we gave Stephanie; the founder, a call and proposed a collaboration that would strengthen our ability to raise awareness and deliver the funds raised at Dine for Life’s dinner to the right place.

Cheers to strength in numbers!

 

 

 

A Fashionable Donation by Aurelio Costarella

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

Tonight’s Summer Dinner is gearing up to be an incredible event. We exceeded our goal of securing 10 restaurants and now have 13 of Perth’s best dining establishments on board, surpassing our goal of raising $15,000 for the Samaritans Crisis Line. Our soon-to-be-disclosed after party will be attended by 100+ diners, celebrities and media figures, all of whom will be enjoying dessert and cocktails concocted especially for the night by the mixologists at Cocktail Gastronomy.

If the Summer Dinner is anything like last May’s Autumn Dinner, the event offers the perfect opportunity to celebrate the featured charity and donations raised for it.

This spirit of giving has prompted the involvement of award-winning fashion designer Aurelio Costarella. The WA-based designer has dressed the likes of Rihanna, Sharon Stone and Eva Mendes, and is fast becoming an internationally recognised luxury brand.

The fashion house has generously donated the exquisite Cunnard Cape (pictured above) to be won by one lucky female diner. The Cunnard Cape is one of only five created by the designer. Made from silk and hand beaded, its retail value is $1600.

Aurelio Costarella has also donated hand-made silk flowers that will be worn by the Dine for Life Ambassadors – the representatives who will be welcoming the diners at each of the restaurants and attending the after party.

We are extremely grateful to Aurelio Costarella for their generosity and look forward to discovering which lucky diner will be taking the gorgeous Cunnard Cape home with them.

Dine for Life Has Hit the Airwaves

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

With just two weeks remaining until the big event, the buzz surrounding the Summer Dinner is growing and growing. Word has spread through tweets, blog posts, Facebook updates, emails and texts.

And now? Airwaves! Dine for Life was the topic of discussion last Friday on AM station 6PR between presenter Tony Mac and Perth restauranteur Steve Scaffidi. The latter, owner of Summer Dinner restaurant Bar One, lauded Dine for Life on the work it’s doing to raise money for the Samaritans Crisis Line as well as reinvigorate the mid-week dining scene in Perth.

Take a listen:

We Have Chosen a Charity!

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

Over the past few weeks the Dine for Life team was faced with the extremely difficult decision of choosing a charity that the upcoming Summer Dinner would donate its proceeds to. Since each dinner raises money for just one charity, the decision required serious deliberation. And the choice was made all the more difficult by the fact that all ten of the charities we were considering presented worthy causes.

James Young, Dine for Life’s Charity Manager and Event Ambassador, acted as the liaison between Dine for Life and the charity organisations. He asked all interested charities to draw up an application which explained how they would use the money raised by the Summer Dinner, were they to be this dinner’s featured charity.

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