Dinner Will Nourish Children’s Care

Maybe you don’t have the time necessary to volunteer right now, but you do have time to enjoy an evening out or go skiing for a day.

Here’s your chance to spend time with friends over a delicious dinner and - at the same time - help raise money for six area hospitals and medical facilities.

The Chef’s Culinary Classic, an annual benefit dinner sponsored by the Children’s Miracle Network, will be Feb. 15 at the Manito Golf and Country Club.

Fifteen chefs will cook up a seven-course, sit-down dinner, with a different Washington wine poured during each course.

Children’s Miracle Network is a national program that benefits pediatric services. All proceeds from the culinary classic remain in Spokane to benefit Deaconess Medical Center, Holy Family Hospital, the Regional Center for Child Abuse and Neglect, St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute, Sacred Heart Medical Center, and Valley Hospital and Medical Center.

A silent auction to the music of The Spokane Falls Trio launches the 6 p.m. event.

For more information, contact Marti Kransberger at 458-7228.

If skiing at Schweitzer in the company of a former U.S. Ski Team member while raising money to aid multiple sclerosis research sounds interesting, here’s your opportunity.

Jimmie Heuga’s Ski Express will be at Schweitzer Mountain on Saturday. Those schussing down Idaho’s mountain will be among some 1,200 skiers coast to coast participating in more than 30 events this season.

Maria Maricich, downhill World Cup champion, will at Schweitzer to ski and cheer participants on during the daylong challenge.

Also present will be Jeanne Schillinger, a graduate of a Jimmie Heuga Center medical program. Schillinger will tell about the program and how it has helped her learn to live with MS.

Teams of three skiers will compete in a four-hour marathon and giant slalom. Winners are determined by total vertical feet skied, performance in the giant slalom, and funds generated for the event. Each team is required to raise a minimum of $1,000 in sponsorships.

Since its inception, more than 8,000 skiers have participated in the Ski Express, which has raised more than $7 million. The events now raise close to $1 million annually; 25 percent of the net proceeds fund local scholarships.

For more information, contact Ski Express administrator Gary James at (714) 249-1985.

Parishioners of St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church have formed a committee to provide improvement grants for betterment of the East Central Spokane neighborhood.

Nonprofit organizations that provide a service or project to assist in the reclamation of East Spokane may apply for grant money up to $1,000. Funds will be distributed at Easter and Christmas.

Grant funds were raised by the sale of “jubilate indulgences,” a confection produced by Spokandy.

For more information about the St. Ann’s Grant Group, contact the Rev. Jim Dallen at 328-4220.

This week’s Wednesday Night Program Series of the Cheney Cowles Museum will feature two private art collectors.

Jim Kolva, a collector of ceramic art, and Chris Peck, who collects American Indian materials, will describe how they began collecting, how they choose objects to add to their collections and how they care for their collections at home.

This program complements the museum’s exhibit, “Recent Acquisitions,” showing through Feb. 11, featuring artifacts acquired within the past five years.

The free Wednesday night series is at 7:30 each week in the museum auditorium. Donations are welcome.

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