By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Looking to raise the stakes and go all in on their services, HomeCare Matters Home Health and Hospice held its 18th annual Celebrity Waiter Dinner and Auction. The event took place at the Youth Building at the Crawford County Fairgrounds Tuesday evening.
Using a casino theme for the evening, the annual event was held to help funding for those who use HomeCare Matters’ services.
HomeCare Matters Chaplain Brandon Quail explained what services the fundraiser provides.
“This provides for patients who have lack of insurance or no insurance because we never turn anyone away. So it covers oxygen, medicines, and equipment,” Quail said. “Anything their insurance would lack. In this community the need is getting greater and greater. So it is taking more and more to meet the needs of our elderly who are on hospice with the raising costs of healthcare.”
Quail thanked the community for their support of HomeCare Matters.
“The community comes together every year for this and we are so blessed by our community and this event. It is our biggest fundraiser for the year. It’s exciting; there is a good buzz about this.”
For the first time in the Celebrity Waiter Dinner and Auction’s history, alcohol was being served with the help of Chris Stone and the Eighteen-O-Three Tap Room. Stone explained how the partnership came about.
“I am incredibly grateful that HomeCare Matters Home Health and Hospice asked us to be a part of this this year,” Stone said. “It has been a phenomenal partnership. They have been great to work with. They said what they wanted and let me take the ball from there. We built a custom system that allows us to pour the beer on site. It is just great, this our first charity event that we have done and we are hoping to do more of them, and we are just excited to be a part of the community.”
The event began at 6:30 p.m. with dinner catered by Port-a-Cook Catering out of Lucas. After dinner was served, Mike Zahn stepped to the stage and began the auction portion of the evening.
WBCO/WQEL’s Josh Stallings and Claudia Spiegel served as the ringmen of the auction, showing what was being sold as it was being auctioned off.
Also helping raise money for the evening was a silent auction, tip jars, and a 50/50 raffle. Proceeds from the 50/50 raffle went to the Bucyrus Outreach and Restoration Network.