Naples Winter Wine Festival Generates $8.1 Million For Underprivileged And At-Risk Children

Raising 60 percent more than last year, this year’s 10-year anniversary of the Naples Winter Wine Festival raised more than $8.1 million benefiting underprivileged and at-risk children through the Naples Children and Education Foundation.

According to the festival’s Web site, the event is ranked among the top 10 arts and entertainment events for wealthy Americans. The event brought together many of the world’s finest vintners, chefs, wine collectors, and philanthropists for a three-day gala. Wine Spectator has ranked the festival the most successful charity wine auction in the nation for the past six years.

The event, which was held January 29-31 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples included a live auction of 60-one of a kind-lots totaling $7.1 million and a raffle of a Lexus IS C. According to press materials, Lot 50, a fund-a-need lot in which patrons dropped on-the-spot cash donations into buckets for a new children’s behavioral health initiative, raised the most of any single auction lot: $647,850.

The event was co-chaired by The Honorable Francis Rooney and his wife, Kathleen. Both are trustees of the Naples Children & Education Foundation

For more information on the festival, visit http://www.napleswinefestival.com/.