By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
This is the first of what's planned to be a monthly roundup of nonprofit fundraisers, designed to make it easier for interested readers to make reservations in time for the event. Mark your calendars for these events in January.
The Big Cheese Macaroni & Cheese Smackdown
Imagine that: An event featuring mac & cheese from nearly 30 restaurants and vendors selling out?
It's true: This yummy fundraiser for Hope & Healing Place has sold out in each of its first two years, so hungry folks should buy tickets early, according to Emily Ellis, Hope & Healing Place's community relations director.
This year's event runs from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 27 in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex North Exhibit Hall, 401 S. Buchanan St. Tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for children ages 5 to 10. (Note: A previous version of this story had the wrong ticket price listed for adults.)
Ellis said in a news release that the pairing of food and cause is a natural: "Mac and cheese is one of the world's most beloved comfort foods, and since The Hope & Healing Place is in the business of providing comfort to the people we serve, a comfort food cook-off seemed like the perfect fit."
Attendees, including children, can vote for their favorite mac & cheese, and the event will feature raffles, a photo booth and more.
Participating restaurants include Public House, Macaroni Joe's, Pescarez, PanHandler's Café, Cowboy Gelatos, Outback Steakhouse, Fab Foods, United Supermarkets, Fire Slice Pizzeria, She Lee's BBQ & Soul Food, Joe's Catering, Zinnia, Golden Light Café, LongHorn Steakhouse, 575 Pizzeria, B L Bistro, Imperial Taproom, Garisol Cafe & Baker, Copper Fire Grill, Hoffbrau Steaks, Mo Dogs, Delvin's Soul Food, Pork-N-Things, Coyote Bluff, 1000 Degree Pizza, Chicken Express, Nineteen49 Catering, Fuddruckers and Grills Gone Wild.
Call 806-371-8998, ext. 5.
Rabbie Burns Supper
Wildcat Bluff will celebrate Scots with its Rabbie Burns Supper on Jan. 27.
The dinner, inspired by poet Robert Burns, will be held at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church parish hall, 1601 S. Georgia St.
The event will feature a Scottish dinner of haggis, bashed neeps, champit tatties, cock-a-leekie soup, shortbread and more, plus beer, wine and Scottish whisky. It also will feature bagpipes, poetry, music by Mike Fuller, a raffle and more.
Tickets are $50 or $400 for a table of eight.
Call 806-352-6007 or email info@wildcatbluff.org.
Achievement in Art Gala
A gala dinner and gala will commemorate the art collecting prowess of a Texas Panhandle pioneer.
Amarillo Museum of Art's 2017 Achievement in Art Gala will honor the collection of Montgomery H.W. Ritchie with cocktails and gallery viewing at 6:30 p.m. and a dinner at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at the museum, 2200 S. Van Buren St.
Tickets are $200, and only a limited amount remain.
The exhibition, featuring works by Monet, Degas, Renoir, Sisley, Matisse, Cézanne, and others, will be on view from Jan. 29 to March 26.
Ritchie was born in England in 1910 and came to the Texas Panhandle in 1931 to work on the J.A. Ranch, co-founded by Charles Goodnight and John George Adair, Ritchie's step-grandfather, in 1879. Ritchie took over management of the ranch in 1935 and remained there until his death in 1999.
Ritchie began collecting art in the 1940s and assembled a world-class collection of French Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings and sculpture, according to the museum.
Call 806-371-5050.
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/chipchandlerwriter on Facebook. A roundup of February fundraiser will run Jan. 25; submissions for consideration are due by Jan. 23.
