Wine Tasting And Buffet To Benefit Edmond Town Hall

By Kendra Bobowick

Filling the rooms with music and food, wine, scotch, and laughter, Sandy Motyka hopes that as many as 100 people will turn out to sample the buffet at next weekend’s fundraiser at Edmond Town Hall.

Tickets are $35 for the Mary Hawley Society’s Wine and Scotch Malt Tasting event on Saturday, February 20, from 6 to 8:30 pm, in The Alexandria Room.

“Here is an opportunity to come out in support,” said Ms Motyka, who is both a Board of Managers member and Mary Hawley Society member. The society is a nonprofit group designed to benefit the Edmond Town Hall and support the managers’ efforts to promote the building.

“It’s a good cause,” agreed Mary Hawley Society Vice Chairman Marg Studley.

The weekend’s guests will first receive a welcome from society members before entering the decorated banquet hall. With a complementary wineglass in hand with the Mary Hawley Society’s logo etched on its side, guests can sample wines and scotch provided by Sandy Hook Wine & Liquor, foods from a center buffet decorated with Town & Country Garden Club arrangements, listen to jazz musician Jeff McGill, who will perform with duo partner Lou Papas, and share in a silent auction. Items include paintings by Newtown artists Ruth Newquist and Richard McEvoy, a one-year pass to the Newtown Youth Academy’s indoor track, season tickets to Friends of Music, a round of golf at Newtown Country Club, certificates to Mona Lisa and Sal e Pepe restaurants, copies of vintage postcards, and movie theater and coffee baskets.

Mary Hawley Society members are trying to do two things: raise funds for the building and showcase the Alexandria Room.

“There are many things to do up there,” Ms Motyka said: refinish the window treatments, refurbish the coat room and bathrooms, and possibly purchase a new curtain for the stage where a piano now sits. The society also hopes to garner funds for shades to darken the room for various events.

The room offers refinished floors, formal chandeliers, and chairs around round tables, a stage and backstage suite, a butler’s pantry and serviceway between the kitchen and dining hall. The kitchen and pantry are new, and equipped for catering.

Ms Studley and Ms Motyka also want to promote awareness. Their main concern, said Ms Studley, is to bring new interest to the town hall.

“With refinished floors and curtains, it really looks nice. It’s a beautiful old building and we’re giving it an uplift,” she said.

Mr McGill, with his recent recording Then & Now, is also eager to perform in the town hall. Director at Danbury’s Music Learning Center, Mr McGill said he is “excited to help the town.” He looks forward to supporting the event. He plans on performing standard swing tunes, jazz, and some arrangements from his recent album.

For tickets, contact Marg Studley at Wes91@aol.com.