VERSAILLES — The Winery at Versailles was the recent scene of a special Hope Whispers Last Sip event in recognition of the facility and its customers for helping local cancer patients.
The Hope Whispers Campaign, which has now come to a close, provided much needed assistance to local cancer patients for the past nine years, donating $2 from every bottle of Hope Whispers to the Wayne HealthCare Cancer Program. Throughout the campaign, approximately $36,000 has been donated for patient care.
In 2012, Winery co-owner Carol Williams contacted Jill Brown, RN, who helped start the cancer center at Wayne HealthCare, regarding a new wine that would be coming out.
“Carol, her family and her business were so generous to donate the $2 of every bottle of this wine sold over the last seven years,” Brown said. “Mike (Carol’s husband) and Carol gave back to their community in a big way. Over the years, this donation for the Wayne Cancer Fund has not only raised awareness about breast cancer but has provided camisoles for every post-surgical breast cancer patient, as well as prosthetics, gas cards, education financial asistance and lymphedema services to our patients We are so grateful for their support. We have been able thelp hundreds of patients with this fund.”
Events Coordinator Carlena Sneed noted that their distributor, Heidelberg, donated a case of Hope Whispers back to the Winery to sell to customers, and Wayne HealthCare CEO Wayne Deschambeau said the hospital would buy that case.
Mike welcomed everybody to the recent gathering.
“We do a bit of charity work here and some causes are needed. We elevated a little bit and this is it,” he said.
Deschambeau thanked The Winery for all of the years of contributions they made toward cancer.
This gathering brought an end to Hope Whispers however, they re-introduced a new wine, Lucia, which originally began 10 years ago and named after their granddaughter.
The label for the new bottle was created out of Troy.
“It has the same taste and same wine with a brighter look,” Sneed said. “It’s made with a late harvest style Riesling (grape).”
