Forties swing music and a night of delicious, fresh food and fun will set the tone for an evening to benefit children in the community. The Counseling Center’s Second Annual Celebrity Dinner and Auction: “Cooking for Our Kids” will be from 6 until 9 p.m. March 16 at the SOMC Friends Community Center in Portsmouth. Proceeds will support the agency’s Outreach and Prevention Programming for the community’s at-risk youth.

Local “celebrity chefs” have teamed up with The Counseling Center to help raise funds to support the Summer Day Camp experience, offered by the Center at no charge to kids. The youth are instructed on the potential effects and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse. The camp reinforces good behavior, communication skills, manners, and teamwork. Arts and crafts, field trips and sports are enjoyed by the children, too.

The Center has enlisted the culinary expertise of Bill Dodson, executive chef-faculty from the MCTC Cooking and Culinary Institute in Huntington, W.Va. Dodson, an Ohio native, was awarded “ACF West Virginia Chef of the Year” in 2005 and has been featured in such prestigious publications as Southern Living, Gourmet Magazine and Bon Appetite.

“I’m very excited and feel grateful to be part of such a special event! I enjoy getting to cook or demonstrate different foods for people and love sharing my passion for food with others,” Dodson said. “I’m a firm believer in giving back to one’s community and try to show appreciation for how much the community has supported our venue and its mission to educate the public. In addition, to support a cause that helps others in the area who have addictions or problems overcome their obstacles in life is a wonderful feeling. When I was approached to do this, my first thought was ‘well it’s certainly for a good cause,’ and on the other side of the coin, I truly just enjoy getting to interact with people from all walks of life in a subject that I’m so passionate about- food!”

Dodson went on to speak about the importance of the community coming together to support an event like “Cooking for Our Kids.”

“People should support events like this to help contribute to building a better community and learn how many others around them feel the same way they do about it,” Dodson said. “It’s a chance to learn how everyone can make a difference and share in that experience ways to improve your community. I will be discussing food cooking techniques that focus mainly on sauce making and cooking with fresh ingredients, local whenever possible. The event itself should showcase the area’s culinary talent, while the public at large strives to accomplish their goal for the evening in supporting such a great cause.”

The massive cooking fundraiser will be a delicious and fun experience for guests. The evening will include dinner created in part by local “celebrity chefs,” a Cooking Show provided by Chef Dodson and a live auction with guest auctioneer. The meal will include roasted pork loin, new potatoes, a vegetable medley, and dessert. Salads, hors d’ oeuvres and other culinary accompaniments will compliment the meal.

“People had a lot of fun last year, so I thought it would be a good idea to repeat it in some fashion,” Susan McComas, Resource Development coordinator of The Counseling Center said. “Everybody likes to cook and everybody likes to eat and I think that’s part of the fun in it — that people can get together and eat. This is for at-risk youth in the community and will give them the opportunity to attend our summer outreach camp. That’s what this is for because funding has decreased drastically for prevention. We will have a live auction and Dr. Michael Raise will be the auctioneer.

We’ll have a silent auction and a lucky ticket auction. In those auctions, there will be items like sports memorabilia, shopping sprees, gift baskets, overnight weekend getaways, floral arrangements, jewelry, household appliances and more. There will be a lot of variety, choices and chances for everyone.”

MAJAL PERRY can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 234 or via email at mperry@heartlandpublications.com