Chairmen of Southern Silks pony up time to help center

Matt and Casey Finch play the ponies for Saturday’s post-Kentucky Derby soiree Southern Silks, a benefit for Methodist Family Health.
Matt and Casey Finch play the ponies for Saturday’s post-Kentucky Derby soiree Southern Silks, a benefit for Methodist Family Health.

Casey and Matt Finch met at the racetrack. So it's only fitting that they co-chair Southern Silks, a benefit for Methodist Family Health that follows the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby and features faux horse races where attendees can be the jockeys.

Post time for the Derby Day soiree is 6 p.m. Saturday at Metroplex, 10800 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock.

The event will be Derby-themed "right as you walk in the door," says Matt Finch, president of Gill Ragon Owen, the Little Rock law firm that has been presenting sponsor of the benefit since its inception five years ago.

Casey Finch, owner/operator since 2013 of The Full Moon Gift Boutique, on Kavanaugh Boulevard near the northern edge of Hillcrest, says they're encouraging guests to come dressed as though they were attending the Derby.

"Ladies come in hats," she says, and the festivities will include men's and women's hat competitions and a best-dressed-couple contest. "It's fun to see what everyone wears," she adds.

"Casey would have won the past couple of years, but I held her back," Matt Finch quips.

Guests can mount hobby horses for the "races" that are part of the event; folks bet on jockeys to win, place and/or show for the opportunity to win prizes valued at $500-$1,000 for first place, $259-$499 for second and $100-$249 for third. Prizes include vacation weekends and dining-out packages. And Finch, the lawyer, says it's all legal and above-board.

What they actually win, Finch says, is the opportunity to be part of a drawing from among the successful bettors. The prizes are piled on tables so wagerers can see what they're competing for. Everything is supposedly worth winning -- no booby prizes. "If you go home from this empty-handed, you just plain didn't try," he declares.

The event will also include a cork pull and live and silent auctions; among the live auction items, Casey Finch says, is a chandelier that glass artist James Hayes, who sells his wares at Finch's shop, will design and build to the winning bidder's specifications and which he will install at a party with the winner's friends.

And of course there will be Derby Day libations, including mint juleps prepared from a special secret Southern Silks recipe that we're told on the QT involves mint-infused bourbon.

And Matt Finch says one of the things he and his wife pushed this year was to give the menu more of a Derby theme as well, so the buffet will feature Hot Browns -- baked, open-faced turkey-and-bacon sandwiches topped with Mornay sauce that originated at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Ky., home of the Derby. Other menu items include shrimp and grits and pecan pies.

Among the goals of this year's festival is to raise the $45,000 it will take to renovate the kitchen at Methodist Family Health's Fillmore campus, 2002 S. Fillmore St. in Little Rock's Oak Forest neighborhood. It's a residential treatment facility for Arkansas CARES (Center for Additions Research and Educational Services), a 120-day program for pregnant women or mothers with children under 12 and a combination of addiction and mental health issues that also teaches parenting skills and, along with their loved ones, how to cope as a family.

The cottages on the campus were built before World War II, the kitchen is vintage 1948, and despite various cosmetic fixes -- "We've given it eight coats of paint," says Kelli Reep, Methodist Family Health's communications director -- it's in dire need.

Matt Finch, a Little Rock native, earned degrees at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. He has served on several boards and committees of local nonprofits, including Second Genesis Transitional Housing; he twice co-chaired 3 Miles of Men in support of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure; and has served on the committee for CARTI's Ragin' Cajun event.

Casey Finch, also raised in Little Rock, attended Little Rock Central High and Westminster College, working after graduation in retail management with Neiman Marcus and Harold's. Soiree magazine named her one of its Women to Watch in 2015.

Alhough they attended the same college, they actually did meet at Oaklawn. "I was there with my family, and she was there with a group of her friends, and fortunately, I knew one of her friends," he says.

"I go annually, but not often," he adds. "I enjoy watching the horses run but I don't have much of an idea as to which ones are going to win."

That's a skill or insight that somehow got passed along to his 5-year-old daughter, who, on her first visit to the track picked the winners of the first two races, "right off the bat."

Southern Silks tickets are $50 general admission, $75 with assigned seating. Call (501) 906-4201, email chenry@methodistfamily.org or visit the website, methodistfamily.org.

photo

Casey Finch saddles up opposite husband Matt as co-chairmen of Southern Silks.

High Profile on 04/29/2018

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