Bidding on Baskets with Panache! at the Canada Agriculture Museum

Bidding on Baskets with Panache!
at the Canada Agriculture Museum
June 17, 2009

OTTAWA, June 8, 2009
For immediate release

The Canada Agriculture Museum hosts the third annual Baskets with Panache! fundraising event on June 17, 2009 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Baskets with Panache! takes place in a country fair setting in a heritage barn at the Canada Agriculture Museum. Featured are gourmet foods by Thyme & Again Creative Catering, award-winning wines from Prince Edward County, celebrity auctioneer Stuntman Stu from the Team 1200 Sports Radio, and emcee Jean Bruyère from 94,9 RockDétente radio station. Offered at auction will be many one-of-a kind themed gift baskets created by community leading individuals and organizations. Funds raised from the live and silent auctions will send more than 2000 deserving children from our community to the school programs and summer day camps at the Canada Agriculture Museum where they will have an unforgettable hands-on farm experience.

Themed gift baskets, to be auctioned live by Stuntman Stu or offered by silent auction, have been donated by community leaders including Jacquelin Holzman, Gay Cook, and artist Ben Babelowsky, and by community leading companies and organizations such as the Ottawa Citizen, CTV Ottawa, Davidson’s Jewellers, the Ottawa Senators, the Sheraton Ottawa Hotel, and many, many others.

Baskets with Panache! runs from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. in Building 95 at the Canada Agriculture Museum, with free parking. Tickets are $60 per person and include all food, beverages and entertainment. Tickets must be purchased in advance by calling 613-993-7457, or by going to Baskets with Panache! on the Internet.

In addition to Thyme & Again Creative Catering, the wineries of Prince Edward County, and The Saints ‘n’ Sinners live Dixieland music, Baskets with Panache! is proud to be supported by TD Canada Trust, Weston Bakeries, Proulx Brothers, the Ottawa Citizen, Majic 100 – Ottawa’s Soft Rock, and 94,9 RockDétente, Ottawa Federation of Agriculture, Telus, MacEwen Petroleum Inc, Bell, Advantage Audio Visual Rentals Ltd., and Adware Promotions Inc.

Wally Parsons, chair of the event’s planning committee, says, “The Canada Agriculture Museum on the Central Experimental Farm is a very special place in Ottawa. Far too often children in our community through no fault of their own do not have the financial resources to attend the Museum’s educational school programs or day camps. Baskets with Panache! will enable children from all walks of life to take part in these programs and to see for themselves where our food comes from and why agriculture is so important in our daily lives.”

The Canada Agriculture Museum’s Director General, Kerry-Leigh Burchill, describes the inspiration for Baskets with Panache! “The basket idea is derived from a rural tradition where single women created attractive picnic baskets for auction at country fairs hoping that eligible bachelors of their fancy would place the highest bid on their basket, thus getting to have lunch with them.” Ms. Burchill also says that: "The Canada Agriculture Museum is very grateful to the many leading individuals, businesses and community organizations in the Ottawa region that have contributed extremely creative baskets, items and event expertise to make Baskets with Panache! the huge success that it continues to be.”

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MEDIA CONTACTS:

David Sutin
Manager, Communications and Marketing
CANADA AGRICULTURE MUSEUM
Tel. 613 996-7812;
E-mail : dsutin@technomuses.ca

or

Lucie Robillard
Communications and Marketing Clerk
Tel. 613 943-1164;
E-mail : lrobillard@technomuses.ca

Web Sites: www.agriculture.technomuses.ca
www.foodforhealth.ca