Foraged Feast will benefit hospital cancer assistance fund.

Foraged Feast will benefit hospital cancer assistance fund.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief.

SCOTTVILLE — The third annual Foraged Feast, sponsored by the Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital Foundation, will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 17 at Scottville Optimist Center. The fundraising event is a casual affair that celebrates the outdoors that features a wild game menu, craft beer, an auction, raffle, and a good time.

“One of the aspects that sets this event apart from others is the food,” said Kaley Petersen, director of foundation, community services, and volunteers. “Our hospital catering team does an incredible job conceiving, cooking, and serving a wild game menu. There is always some staple comfort food items but also some exotic choices for people to try.

“We start the event with a casual ‘beer hour’, serve appetizers, sell gun raffle tickets and table raffle tickets. Each year Ludington Beverage has stepped up as our title sponsor for the event. They feature a Michigan brewery at the event and the brewery selects the evening beers to pair well with the nights menu. This year our featured brewery is Stormcloud from Frankfort. After dinner we have the live auction and pull tickets for our raffle winners. We strive to offer only high quality and unique raffle and auction items at the event.

“A few examples for this year are a pair of Elton John concert tickets, a stand up paddle board, crossbow, guided fishing trips, and much much more. Our Foundation board and staff put in a lot of effort to bring great items to the event.

“Another main feature of the event is that each year we ask someone from the community to be the event hosts,” Petersen said. “The Foundation board strives to highlight community members that have been strong supporters of our mission and also lovers of the outdoors. This year’s hosts are Todd and Brad Reed, owners of Todd and Brad Reed Photography, and they absolutely fit the bill. Todd and Brad are wonderful representatives pf the community, supporters of the hospital and foundations mission, and avid outdoorsmen themselves. We are thrilled and grateful they stepped up to be our hosts.”

This year’s event will benefit the hospital’s cancer patient assistance fund. The fund was started in May 2017 and since it’s inception has been tapped into weekly to support local community members who are battling cancer and in need a financial support.

“The fund has been used to assist patients with medications, transportation, food, bills and other costs,” Petersen said. “It has been a true asset to our community as the need is immense. Our goal with this fund is to alleviate the financial burden of those battling cancer so that they can focus on health and healing. All proceeds from the Foraged Feast stay local, benefit the cancer patient assistance fund and our community.”

Tickets start at $50 each and can be purchased here.