CNSC holds wine tasting and fashion show

When you think of a model, you probably don’t picture a friend or neighbor from Sanders County fighting for a cause you believe in, but that’s exactly what happen last Thursday, and to the tune of 5,500 dollars.

That’s how much the Cancer Network of Sanders County’s (CNSC) ninth annual Wine Tasting and Fashion Show raised for local cancer patients.

Over the past eight years more than 50,000 dollars has been raised by this event alone.

Most people in attendance “Were really quite surprised about what goes on in our county, and how many people it affects” Laura Rehbein said of people’s reactions as they watched the educational fashion show in which models carried signs with statistics about CNSC and cancer in Sanders County.

The CNSC has come a long way in the last ten years when its members consisted of a quilting group who decided to raffle off one of their projects to raise money for a member that had fallen victim to breast cancer.

Initially an applicant could receive a one-time gift of 75 dollars. Now, any Sanders County resident who is currently undergoing treatment is eligible for an annual gift of 500 dollars.

“We started off in the basement of first security bank,” Erika Lawyer said. “It was little and it was cozy, and it was fun, but since then we just started drawing more numbers and more silent auction items.”

Since the initial wine tasting in 2001, the CNSC has given 381 gifts totaling 93,050 dollars to local cancer patients.

“People like that the money they raise stays locally in Sanders County,” said CNSC president Kathy Miller said.

“Just about our only costs are stamps and envelopes,” Miller said of the organization, which depends on volunteers and boasts overhead costs as low as to two three percent. “There are no salaries.”

Although the cause remains the same, some changes were made to events schedule to put the focus back on raising awareness for what CNSC is doing in the community.

“In the past models have gone up and we’ve gone on about fabric and color and washability and you can tell everybody is just bored,” Erika Lawyer said. “Typically Kathy Miller would get up and kind of regurgitate all these stats in verbal form, and it doesn’t take long to figure out that no one is listening. So what we decided to do was roll Kathy’s informational part into the style show.”

“When you’re visiting and talking you don’t really hear, and it can’t sink in,” added Rehbein. “But when you see those figures right in front of you, I think people paid more attention.”

“I hate to use the term, but this is the one fundraiser we can ‘bank on’ every year,” said Miller who stressed the importance of the event to CNSC’s cause.

According to Miller SNSC is also open to new ideas about fundrasing, “ if anyone comes up with ideas that will help us raise money we’ll do it.”

“As long as we have money to give, we’ll keep giving it away,” she added.

Dave Forester of Summit Beverage emcee’d the wine tasting, which offered white and red wines from Calif., Wash., Chile, and Germany.

In addition to the wine and hors d’oeuvres there was a live auction, raffle table and silent auction to raise money for cancer patients.

Although initially skeptical about the changes, after the event Lawyer was satisfied that they were for the better.

“Everybody understood why they were there,” she said. “There are so many people that were there that are survivors that have been helped by that group, that always come and give back.”

The members of CNSC would like to thank the following sponsors for their support: McGowan Grocery, Clark Fork Valley Hospital and Family Medicine Networks, Community Medical Center, NW Radiology and Oncology @ KRMC, St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences, CADAA, Mosher Transportation, Dave Forster and Summit Beverage, Mountain West Clothing, The Ledger, The Clark Fork Valley Press, Quality Landscaping, Calamity, Annie and Belle, Karen Schuster and Silpada, Derek VonHeeder, Shirley Stout, WBC, Johnson Hardware, Blackjack Enterprises Clark Fork Quilters, Plains Physical Therapy, The Brookers, Clark Fork Quilters, and Belknap Store.