We hosted a Wine for Change open house on Sunday, August 18, 2024 to benefit Activate America and Vote Pro Choice. Rather than a BYOB format as in past events, we provided all of the food and wine in exchange for guest contributions: either $50 for the donation pool or 500 minutes of volunteer time. Thank you so much to everyone who donated. After receiving the last donations tonight, I am delighted to announce that we raised $2,300, and I just made $1,150 donations to each organization. Thanks so much to everyone who donated - whether or not you could attend the event.

Here’s the rundown for what we ate and drank tonight:

Bubbles: Jean Vesselle Brut Réserve Champagne, Flying Goat Rosé Goat Bubbles, Donkey & Goat Lily’s Pet Nat and Brut Nat Paired with Ohana Bros. Maui Style Chips: Himalayan Pink Salt and Thyme Herb
Rosé: Matthiasson Rosé (2022) and Chateau Trinquevedel Tavel Rosé with Farmers Market Vegetables + vegan Green Goddess dressing
White: Terre Stegate Falanghina + El Enemigo Chardonnay with Lemony White Bean Dip and labne with sizzled scallion + chili oil served with Obour Pita Chips
Red: Rootdown Cole Ranch Pinot Noir + Ryme Cellars Sangiovese-Friulano + Domain DuPueble Beaujolais with Journeyman Sausage, Cheese + Charcuterie Board
Brown Estate Zinfandel magnum (though we didn’t even tap the Brown Estate Chaos Theory 2019 and 2020 vertical or Monroy Cabernet Sauvignon) paired with Smokin’ D’s Brisky Bao - a crazy delicious Chinese milk bun filled with Texas style BBQ Brisket made by my former colleagues who just opened a brick and mortar restaurant in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset. Go support them there or at one of their SF or Oakland farmers markets.
Nonalcoholic “Wines”: Kally Golden Sparkler + Early Cabernet, which were very big hits and were the first to emptied.

Some guests took blank postcards for writing postcards to voters and a parting gift of a Wine for Change Commitment to Action Card. Below are the resources we provided to help connect our guests to volunteer opportunities with causes organizations we support:

Harris for President www.kamalaharris.com
DNC events https://events.democrats.org
Activate America www.activateamerica.vote/
Vote ProChoice https://www.voteprochoice.us/
Fair Fight https://fairfight.com/
When We All Vote www.whenweallvote.org
ACLU
www.aclu.org
All on the Line www.allontheline.org
Human Rights Campaign www.hrc.org
NAACP www.naacp.org
Planned Parenthood www.weareplannedparenthood.org
Supermajority www.supermajority.com
Climate Reality www.climaterealityproject.org
NRDC
https://www.nrdc.org/

If you are interested in being a poll observer, please sign up here: https://forms.monday.com/forms/19c091ab89714b750b6ecd68e92ba533?r=use1.

Finally Text Join To 30330 to the keep up with Harris for President updates and events.

So in these next 80 days, we encourage all of you to:

Donate time or money to organizations like those above
Talk to people you know to be sure they are registered & committed to vote
Vote in every local, state, and national election
Volunteer to Register, Mobilize, or Transport Voters; Phonebank; Text Voters; Campaign; Be a Poll Observer

As the Democratic Convention kicks off in Chicago this week, we feel renewed energy and excitement about electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to be our next President and Vice President. Personally, I am committed to spending an average of at least 2 hours each week in the next 80 days before the November 5 election. Seems like a very doable plan to help save democracy and keep making progress on the Biden administration’s great work, don’t you think? My plan is to text bank, phone bank, and write postcards to voters and volunteer as a poll observer again this year in early voting and on Election Day.

How about you?

Let’s Gooooooooooo!!!