Here are a few photos of the Port Oneida Historic Dinner. It was the first time Cherry Republic has ever dressed up our little cafe and winery and did a fundraiser like this. The dinner sold out and it was a nice balance of locals and long time customers and visitors. We raised about $2,000 for the Port Oneida Community Alliance, but more importantly, we celebrated and thanked Jim Kelderhouse and the members of POCA for their hard work this summer. It was fantastic to see crops growing on soil that hasn’t been turned in a half century.
The Port Oneida dinner became a reunion of sorts for many of the people who grew up along that road before the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was formed. Here are the Barratt’s, Dechow’s, Kelderhouse’s and several more longtime locals that have ties to Port Oneida.
Chef Tony Finnestad spend a fun afternoon turning the first harvest on Port Oneida in 50 years into a delicious dinner.
Guests enjoyed some social time in the winery. Here Mary Kay reveals the secret recipe to the special drink we served.
Some guests hadn’t seen each other in 45 years.
I spoke for all of the Cherry Republic staff in saying how proud we were to host this event.
We toasted our good fortune. We laughed at a few challenging times POCA had getting things moving over the last few years. We even shed some tears of gratitude for this special moment eating great food in good company, health and spirits. A big thanks go out to all who attended what may be the first of many Port Oneida Historic Dinners.