Come Friday, people will be able to sample from over 60 wines while helping Crossroads Community Hospice.

Tuesday, November 06, 2001

Come Friday, people will be able to sample from over 60 wines while helping Crossroads Community Hospice.

Fountain Warehouse Liquor is sponsoring a charity wine-tasting event to benefit the hospice program from 6-9 p.m. at the GuestHouse Inn, 2306 E. Main St.

This is the fifth year the event has been organized by Brian and Sharon Parrish. &uot;We wanted a way to get people aware of some of the wines out there while at the same time raising money for charity,&uot; Brian Parrish said.

&uot;Crossroads Community Hospice is a great organization to work with,&uot; he said. &uot;About the same time we started this program, my grandmother went into a hospice program. It’s a great service to the community during a tough time in a person’s life.&uot;

Crossroads Community Hospice is a program of care for people who face a terminal illness. It is based on a philosophy of health care that focuses on quality of life, when a cure is no longer possible. Hospice addresses the total physical, emotional and spiritual needs of individuals, while assisting their loved ones to provide care and support in comfortable, familiar surroundings.

For $10, people will receive a list of wines, then can request tastes from those arranged at tables. The GuestHouse Inn is assisting Fountain Warehouse Liquor in preparing food, including meats donated from Interstate Meats Service and salads from Mrs. Gerry’s Kitchen. There will also be a silent auction and people can bid on donated items.

&uot;The community really gets together to support this,&uot; Parrish said.

In addition, representatives from the wineries will be on hand to answer people’s questions. One year, the son of old-time television actor Fess Parker, who owns a winery, attended.

&uot;It’s fun to try different wines,&uot; Parrish said. &uot;Many times when people come in for a bottle of wine, they’ll always go back to the same one if they haven’t had a chance to try something new.&uot;

This is the last time the Parrishes will be attending the event as organizers; last week, they sold the store to Ron and Dawn Freeman.

&uot;We wanted someone local who showed a lot of interest in the store,&uot; Parrish said. &uot;We felt very comfortable with them taking over.&uot;

The Parrishes, meanwhile, plan to concentrate their efforts on their Papa Murphy’s franchises in the Twin Cities and Northfield.

Ron Freeman said the chance to own the liquor store was the right opportunity at the right time. He said he’s looking forward to continuing many of the traditions – like the charity wine tasting – that the Parrishes began.

&uot;Wine-tastings are great vehicles for people to taste new things, especially during the Thanksgiving season,&uot; Freeman said.

Tickets are available at Fountain Warehouse Liquor or from Crossroads Community Hospice staff or volunteers.