The Cigar Lounge: Wine and Cigar fest great success for Crisis Centre

By Marge Kullerstrand. NorthWest Indiana News

The elegant Sand Creek Country Club in Chesterton was filled to the max for the 11th annual wine tasting and silent and live auction for the benefit of Crisis Center Inc.

The Crisis Center serves as an outreach center for youths at risk and for their families throughout Northwest Indiana.

The Crisis Center's Wine Fest and Auction has become the premier event in the region for a nonprofit organization, with hundreds of businesses and individuals donating items for the silent and live auction.

Where else could a person bid on a David Hugg Landscape painting - donated by the artist and Lake Street Gallery - or a handmade miniature Serbian music box and a book on Serbian music culture - donated by the author and instrument maker himself, Milan Opacich? And where else could you bid on a dinner for eight with Bishop Dale Melczek at Miller Bakery Cafe, donated by Tom and Sylvia Collins?

Returning for the second year on the outdoor patio were the apple martini bar and hand-rolled cigars by Chris Kelley from Strictly Men Shop in Calumet City.

Marge Kullerstrand | The Times Standing in front of the David Hugg landscape painting from the silent auction at the Crisis Center's Wine Fest are 2006 Co-Chairmen Mark Maassel, left, and Vic DeMeyer with Shirley Caylor, the center's executive director.

...big cigars are required for the big donations...