Dinner dance and auction raises money for northern Sonoma County firefighters

Around 500 people gathered at Trentadue Winery in Geyserville on July 16 for Wine Country to the Rescue, an annual dinner dance and auction to benefit the fire departments of Geyserville, Cloverdale, Healdsburg and Knights Valley.

The fundraiser included both live and silent auctions, a barbecue dinner catered by Camacho’s Southern Style BBQ and a wine tasting featuring almost 30 wineries.

Attendees, some dressed formally and others sporting Wine Country casual in flip-flops and shorts, danced the night away to music by Los Angeles-based band American Mile.

A professional fireworks display topped off the evening.

"It was a happy-go-lucky crowd that wanted to support firefighters,” Geyserville Fire Department Captain Joe Stewart said.

Auction items up for grabs included a dinner cooked by firefighters at the Geyserville fire station, large-format wine bottles and a tour of northern Sonoma County with the fire chief.

The auction raised $380,000, which will go toward volunteer training, pre-fire mitigation, a scholarship fund for high school students who want to study fire service, EMS or forestry and the purchase of a new portable water tank for firefighting helicopters, Stewart said.

The money is critical in supporting wildfire prevention, education and response for northern Sonoma County, Diana Borges, the event’s marketing manager, said.

Wine Country to the Rescue has a long and humble history, according to its website. In the early 1960s, Geyserville volunteer firefighters invited people to dinner at the fire station to raise money just to keep the lights on.

Decades later, “it’s a serious auction, but also a big party,” Stewart said.

For more information about Wine Country to the Rescue, go to www.winecountrytotherescue.com.