Death by Chocolate 2011
Oak Manor Senior Living Community attends Largo’s “Death by Chocolate”
Oak Manor Senior Living Community had the wonderful opportunity to attend Largo Rotary’s “Death by Chocolate” event on December 5th, 2011. We have been a part of this Rotary Club fundraiser for a few years and the staff of Oak Manor’s food services department outdid themselves once again!
Debbie Burger, Assistant Dietary Director, came up with the theme this year, with the help of her team. The Toy Box theme was born out of the Largo Rotary Club’s dedication to local youth charities. The toy box included edible toys like a gum paste doll, baseball glove and ball, baseball bat, spinning pinwheels, toy truck, jack-in-the-box, Gumby, jacks, drums and a horse!The Pinwheels and a few other toys actually turned and moved, wowing the participants at the event.
The crew along with Cynthia's grandkids wearing the t-shirts she designed in honor of death by chocolate
The staff responsible for this event are: Debbie Berger – Assistant Director of Dietary and Food Services, Sal Bass – Chef, Lisa Dessaure – Dietary Supervisor, Crystal McClair – Baker, Cynthia Miller – Dietary Clerk, and last but not least, Thad Pollard – Oak Manor Resident and Engineer (designing the box and all the moving parts!)! We are so proud of team! They put hours and hours of work into this benefit, making thousands of pieces of chocolate to give away at this event. Although there’s a lot of work to this event, Sal says he “loves the opportunity to be creative, making the chocolate display, the chocolate give-aways and of course, seeing the participants come back for more!”
Delicious chocolates made by the Oak Manor team
Wildly popular, we brought back our chocolate covered bacon. I heard over and over again that the price of admission was paid solely on the fact that folks were hoping Oak Manor brought the chocolate covered bacon back this year. Last years’ participants remembered that we only brought a sampling of the bacon (about 200 pieces!) and it was eaten up before many of the attendees knew what they were missing! We also had chocolate ganache cups, peanut butter cups, dark chocolate cups filled with a coffee liqueur, chocolate covered marshmallows and pretzels, chocolate covered cherries with a cherry liqueur, waffle cones filled with the cherry liqueur and a white chocolate covered cherry, chocolate lollipops and of course, that BACON! All in all, we had about 4,000 pieces of chocolate at this year’s event.
Nicky Russell - ALF Administrator, Denise Nagel - Director of Resident Services, Brad Graham - Executive Director of Oak Manor, Diego Rivera - Director of Environmental Services, Debbie Burger - Asst Director of Dietary Service
From Largo Rotary Club’s Website: “The 16th Annual Death by Chocolate fundraiser is put on by the Rotary Club of Largo to support local youth and empowerment initiatives. Patrons enjoy dessert samples from local restaurants and businesses in the beautiful setting of Largo’s Central Park with an annual holiday light display. The event also includes live entertainment, a silent auction and door prizes. Annually, the event raises more than $20,000 and over the last 15 years a total of over $275,000 for local youth programs.”
Programs that benefited from Death by Chocolate include:
Largo Library •Largo Day of Good Deeds • Largo Smuppets • Community Tampa Bay • Explorer Post #941 • Largo H.S- Interact • Ponce De Leon Elementary School • Largo Middle School • Operation PAR • Partners N Progress • Largo Summer Camps • Krug Center • Largo Outreach • Largo Little League • GRADYI • Ian Tillman Foundation • Nina Harris School • Pinellas Education Foundation • Family Resources Youth Arts Corps
Sal Bass - Oak Manor chef, Nicky Russell - Oak Manor Assisted Living Administrator, Thad Pollard - Oak Manor resident & Debbie's engineer!
We were thrilled to be a part of the 2011 Death by Chocolate event. We’re already planning for 2012!