Sunday's Rotary Event is a Wine & Dine For Good Causes

The 20th annual Babylon Rotary Food & Wine Expo will be held Sunday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the Long Island Yacht Club featuring live music, wine and food, and a Chinese auction.

Tickets, which are $50, can be purchased on the Rotary website or by stopping in at Norton & Siegel's office on Main Street or calling Aaron Stein, event co-founder and co-chair this year, at 669-0365. Incoming Rotary President Kathy Moore serves as the other event co-chair.

The event was initially started two decades ago in order to boost fundraising for the many programs and efforts Rotary supports, explained Stein, who was Rotary president at the time and now serves as Zone 24-32 E-Communications Coordinator at Rotary International. Stein is also currently the Babylon Rotary Executive Secretary. 

"At the time there was a 'Taste of Success Restaurant Review' that the local Heart Association was doing, and Stony Brook University held an annual wine and food tasting for several years," he recalled, and that ignited the idea for a wine and food tasting event.

That first effort was chaired by Stein and Dr. Chris Proto, a local dentist and friend, and the duo ran it for several years, holding it at the former La Grange catering hall and restaurant.

The location was moved to its current site at the Long Island Yacht Club after La Grange closed, and has since became an end of summer event.

"We believe that our event has helped the restaurants in the village grow, and I believe you will find that they will tell you the same," said Stein.

The Rotary supports a wide variety of programs and causes, including 12 local food pantries and soup kitchens, as well as Camp Pa Qua Tuck, the Moriches Rotary camp for disabled children.

"We do a Legacy of Literacy project each year at a local elementary school which allows every child to purchase a book at the book fair and promotes good reading habits by having Rotarians visit classrooms as guest readers," said Stein.

The local Rotary also supports the Rotary's Gift of Life program which brings children to the U.S. for heart surgery not available in their home country.

"This year we are hosting and sponsoring an exchange student in Babylon High School. We have also done things over the years like paying for the bathroom at the little league fields and helping the Lions with their project to put lights on the field," said Stein.

One year the Rotary supplied a number of special chairs for Good Samaritan Hospital's dialysis unit and every year gives out 300 turkeys at Thanksgiving time to needy families.

"We have done water projects in Haiti, literacy in Guatemala, and playgrounds in Mexico over the years through Rotary's international Matching Grants program," said Stein.