Nov 29th brought over 300 people to Grove Street Plaza & the Big Tree at the Darien Sport Shop to enjoy music by EJ Couloucondis, the DSH Tudor Singers, cocoa & munchies from Darien Doughnut and distributed by Kiwanis, the DCC sold Darien holiday ornaments (still on sale at the chamber) and Nobuko Miki sold 2010 Darien Calendars & mugs. Santa arrived in a Fire Truck, pulled the winning ticket for the ABC Raffle, then walked with his 5 elves over to the Big Tree, lit the tree, and visited with all of the good girls & boys.

What a fun evening—–sampling fine wine and good food for a great cause, and seeing friends from around town! Through the partnership of the Darien Chamber of Commerce, a Better Chance~Darien and YWCA Darien/Norwalk, The 5tj Annual Wine/Food Tasting & Auction was held on Thursday October 8th 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at Nielsen’s Green house, 1405 Post Rd. Guests enjoyed wines sponsored by WinePort~Darien, and fine cuisine from local restaurants and caterers, and had the opportunity to participate in a silent and live auction. Thousands of dollars were made and proceeds from the event will benefit Better Chance~Darien, YWCA Darien/Norwalk and DCC Scholarship Fund. The sponsors included Atria~Darien, Palmer’s Market, JORDAN’S Caterers~Design~Event Planning, Michael Joseph’s Catering, Patricia Blake Catering, Rory’s and Ten Twenty Post~Oyster Bar & Bistro. The Wine Sponsor is WinePort~Darien, BMW of Darien, Rucci, Burnham, Carta and Carello, LLP, Peoples’ United Bank, Wyman Murray Group of Darien Merrill Lynch, SBD Kitchens, LLC, Fairbanks Photo and Vernal’s Service Center. Our in-kind sponsors are The Darien Times, AllAboutDarien.Com, and PCI Group, LLC. Our Elite sponsor is Darien Rowayton Bank. Wine Port, as the Wine Sponsor, coordinated the tasting from various wine providers, and generously donated 20% of all wine order proceeds to the cause.