Last year, Deanna Jones used her networking skills to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Arkansas. Indeed, she topped all the other young professionals involved in the effort and won the Todd Miles Award, given out at the annual Taste of the Finest fundraiser.
"It was an undertaking, but I enjoyed it," says Jones, a municipal trading assistant at Crews & Associates. "It was very motivating to know that money goes directly toward funding for these kids and young adults who count on the foundation."
This year, Jones is in charge of recruiting restaurants and microbreweries to participate in Taste of the Finest 2016. And she jokes that she's excelling in that role, too.
"Oh yeah, I like to eat good food, and that definitely came into the planning," she says. "We are lucky in that some of our participating restaurants have been with us from the beginning. But we also wanted to reach out to some new ones. It was a lot of fun to make those site visits."
Taste of the Finest takes place Friday in the Wally Allen Ballroom of the Statehouse Convention Center. Attendees can sample offerings from 29 restaurants and three microbreweries while helping raise money for the CF foundation's research and other efforts.
Twenty-eight young professionals will be honored for the fundraising they've been engaged in over the past several months. Meanwhile, past honorees such as Jones and Taste of the Finest co-chairman Bryan Spriggs help produce the event. The other chairman is Brittany Marsh, a pharmacist at Cornerstone Pharmacy and the 2014 Todd Miles Award winner.
Spriggs, a 2014 honoree and financial adviser at Centennial Bank, says it was an easy decision to remain involved after being exposed to the foundation's work.
"I knew nothing about it," Spriggs says. Then, at a kickoff for the 2014 campaign, he listened to a speech by a 9-year-old girl who has cystic fibrosis describing what it's like to live with the disease. "At the time, she was 7 years old," he says. "She got up on stage in front of roughly 50 people. She's saying 'Raise money because this is my life, this is how I live.' I got passionate about it right then and there."
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that mainly affects the lungs and other organs, making it difficult to breathe and causing infections, among other symptoms. It's rare, affecting only about 33,000 people in the United States. For that reason, Spriggs says, CF research qualifies for little government funding, so private fundraising is essential.
Like most honorees, Spriggs was nominated to participate by a co-worker.
"It pretty much starts in April and goes into August," he says. "You raise money for five months." Honorees often find local businesses to help out by donating a portion of their proceeds for a day.
As a co-chairman, Spriggs has been involved in soliciting sponsorships, helping honorees with their fundraising plans and making several changes in this year's event. The biggest is the event location, which is moving from The Metroplex in southwest Little Rock to downtown. "We think that's really going to help bring in ticket sales," he says. "We're really excited about this energetic new group" of honorees.
There's also a new band -- First Impressions.
Also for the first time, there's a bit of competition being injected into the food and fun: Golden Fork and Golden Brew awards will be handed out to one restaurant and one microbrewery, with attendees voting on the winners.
"It's been fun to offer some friendly competition between the restaurants and microbreweries," Jones says, "but more [than that], I'm just excited at having the celebration and culmination of what all this hard work is going toward, which is more funding."
Amanda Hodge, development manager for the CF foundation's Arkansas chapter, said the treatment of cystic fibrosis has changed dramatically due to availability of more effective drugs and other measures. When the foundation was started in the 1950s, children with cystic fibrosis rarely lived long enough to start school.
"Today we have people living into their 30s, 40s and 50s and beyond," she says. "I know of a lady in Arkansas who is in her 60s, which is exciting."
Hodge notes that Taste of the Finest honorees get to know about CF first-hand due to dinners they have with one of three individuals who has the disease: Aven, who's 10, Crosby, who's 3, and Mitch, who's an adult.
"We call them breaking bread sessions. They learn about what the day-to-day is like. Of course, with Crosby they have dinner with him and his parents," Hodges adds.
Taste of the Finest was started as a wine tasting in 2009 by employees at Merrill Lynch to honor Todd Miles, who worked there before his death. Most of the money raised through Taste of the Finest goes toward research funded by the national Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Hodge says, but a percentage goes to services such as helping those with CF with insurance and mediation and advocating on behalf of federal funding for research.
A highlight of the evening is the presentation of the award named for Miles.
"His parents come to the event and present it," Hodge says. "It's really sweet."
High Profile on 08/14/2016