I am so pleased to be partnering with Blaine Millet, who is also President and Chief Advocate at WOM10, to do one of the things that I like best . . . connecting people with each another to benefit themselves and their community. With Virtual Vino LIVE, we have the opportunities to connect winemakers with new customers who will enjoy their wines, to educate people about various wines and a number of deserving charities, and to make our world a better place by supporting these same charities. Of course, I will get to do all these things while swirling and sipping some fine Washington wines with friends. As my husband, Ken Hatch, always says, “It is nice to have fun while doing good.”
In my day job, I am the Founder and CEO of ZINO Society. We connect people there too . . . accredited investors with entrepreneurs seeking start-up and expansion capital while facilitating educational, social and business networking events for our members and guests featuring food and fine wine. One of the side benefits of ZINO Society is that many of our members are wine enthusiasts who enjoy connecting with the winemakers and winery owners that we feature at our varied events. Because of this, I know many winemakers in our state that I hope will participate in Virtual Vino LIVE.
Over the years, I have been a passionate advocate of voluntarism and philanthropy and have had the opportunity to work with a diverse and fascinating group of people, including many of the notable community and business leaders in the greater Seattle area. Being able to work with these fellow volunteers in a variety of settings and organizations, such as capital campaigns for performance institutions Benaroya Hall and Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, board oversight and annual fundraising campaigns for United Way of King County, Junior League of Seattle, Pacific Northwest Ballet, YMCA of Greater Seattle, ARCS, Seniors Making Art, Tateuchi Center, Treehouse, Seattle Symhony Orchestra, Seattle Opera and many others has allowed me to make strong relationships with people that have passion for supporting non-profits as well. It is to these people that I will turn to ask for their participation in Virtual Vino LIVE since I know they each have charities that they wish to support.
So, please come and check out our new website that includes virtual wine tastings with some of these passionate people “tasting” for specific charities and our unscripted, honest responses. We hope you will buy some of the wines we taste (at a discount of course) which will support these charities. The barking dog you will sometimes hear in the background is our little sweet but noisy, Yorkshire Terrier, ZiZi Zinfandel Z-Dog. We call her “ZiZi” for short.
Cheers!
Cathi