Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Ricardo Luna, of Burgers Bar and Grill, serves Dee-Dee Lorenson a sample, Monday night at Taste of the Gogebic Range competition and fundraiser.
By JUSTIN LIBERTOSKI
Ironwood - A crowd of 200 people gathered at the Gogebic Community College's seventh annual Taste of the Gogebic Range fundraiser to sample the the finest food 13 area restaurants had to offer at the Lindquist Center Monday evening.
The annual event raises money for the foundations various projects, said GCC President Jim Lorenson, including scholarships, student activites and student lounges.
Each restaurants offered small portions of one of their menu specialties. Tickets were sold and each ticket allowed people to go around to each of the 13 tables and sample the food. All 200 tickets were sold for the event. "This year we are in fact sold out which is wonderful community support for the foundation," said Lorenson.
There were a couple new additions to the event including a few new businesses that haven't participated in the past, there was also a raffle, said foundation director Kelly Marczak. In addition to Gogebic County, there were restaurants from the Manitowish and Mercer area as well. "There's a good variety," said Marczak.
According to Marczak, the raffle gave the restaurants that weren't able to attend the event the ability to show their support for the foundation and the students.
When asked about the size of the event and possible expansion based on the sold-out crowd, Marczak said: "We like the size of the event, we also don't want to put too much on our local restaurants and caterers that provide food for the evening. This way if we have a certain number of tickets, it helps them in preparation and it also helps us."
Lorenson thanked the Lindquist Center staff, as well as the foundation's special events committee including Linda Gustafson and Marczak. "They put in a lot of work," he said.
Marczak offered her praise to the restaurants saying, "We do truly appreciated the businesses and caterers that support the foundation and students through being at this event."
Organizers planned for Tasters Choice and Best of Show awards.
For the Tasters Choice competition, everyone who purchased a ticket got to vote for their favorite vendor. Iron Nugget and Lazy Aces Saloon won.
Best of Show awards were determined by a panel of judges. The top Best of Show award went to Don and GGs, while Outstanding in Show was awarded to Iron Nugget.
