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Fraser Valley Wine Festival raises fundraising bar

Oenophiles filled the Willowbrook Shopping Centre Saturday for 28th annual fundraiser
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A good time was had by all at this year’s Fraser Valley Wine Festival. The 28th annual fundraiser, presented by the Rotary Club of Langley Central, was held Nov. 4 at the Willowbrook Shopping Centre. Mike Brown photo

Generosity poured freely at this year’s Fraser Valley Wine Festival.

The 28th annual fundraiser held Nov. 4 at the Willowbrook Shopping Centre raised in excess of $75,000 which would make it a record, noted David Taft, who co-chaired this year’s festival along with John Morgan.

“At this stage it’s the best year we’ve ever had,” Taft said. “We have a younger demographic which is encouraging. We sold a lot of tickets online and promoted the wine festival through Facebook, so I guess that’s the way things are moving.”

More than 1,000 people attended the evening festival.

The event included 24 corporate sponsors and 13 restaurants — and as always, a huge draw was the more than 200 wines from around the world — some of them not easily attainable here. A total of 33 wine merchants were listed as participating in the festival this year.

All net proceeds go to Langley community projects and charities. With the help of sponsors like BDO Dunwoody, which has contributed $135,000 over the years, the annual festival has put more than a million dollars into Langley Central Rotary Club’s community funding program.

This year, the focus will be on supporting the Encompass Support Services youth homeless shelter as well as youth and senior related endeavours.

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A good time was had by all at this year’s Fraser Valley Wine Festival. The 28th annual fundraiser, presented by the Rotary Club of Langley Central, was held Nov. 4 at the Willowbrook Shopping Centre. Mike Brown photo