United Way Cocktail Competition Raises Spirits, and Funds
- Philip Thibodeau
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
An essential part of the Cocktail Competition the Southington United Way held last Tuesday were the recipes - like the one that prescribed how much basil, ginger, orange, lime, and agave to mix with vodka in an Electric Bloom, the cocktail that won Spelunker’s bar the first-place overall award. Part of the fun of the evening was to skim the lists of ingredients in each competitor’s drink and try to decide whether it might be a winner:
The official aim of the contest was to determine, through the votes of the ticket-holders sipping samples in the Aqua Turf hall, which cocktail had the most creative combination of ingredients, the best taste, the best presentation, or scored the best in all three categories. At the end of the evening, the following winners in these four categories were announced:
But there were more winners last Tuesday than just the mixologists. The Cocktail Contest is a major fundraiser for the Southington United Way; between the tickets, which cost $50 a piece, sponsorships, a silent auction of athletic memorabilia, and a raffle, the proceeds are substantial. “This is one of our two largest events,” said Britt Lynch, the nonprofit’s Executive Director. “We do get a lot of our revenue from it. It’s very important because the more we raise, the more we can help.”
In a sense, then, the most important winners of the competition are the people who benefit from the organizations the United Way awards grants to. Two years ago these organizations included
Southington Bread For Life
The Giving Back Food Pantry
Friends of Southington Community Services
The Prudence Crandall Center, a safe house for victims of domestic violence
The Margaret Griffin Child Development Center
Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut
Southington Community YMCA
Senior Transportation Services, Inc., which provides rides for seniors
Donations to the United Way thus end up going towards basic human needs: food, shelter, education, health, transportation.
The beneficiaries of the United Way’s fundraising are always local. “We make sure our funds go specifically to Southington residents,” Lynch said. This localism is a point of pride: “In Connecticut, most United Ways are consolidating and becoming regional. There are only three United Ways left that serve just one town, and we are one. We’re proud to be hyperlocal.”
As for the original idea for the competition, that was the brainstorm of Taylor Deegan, president of the United Way’s Board of Directors: “This was all Taylor’s idea,” said Lynch. “He is the manager of Worldwide Liquors and the president of our Board. They have competitions like this in the liquor industry, but they are not generally open to the public. He manages that side of it, and I take care of the public-facing side.”
Other fundraisers will supplement the proceeds from the Cocktail Competition. This year the Southington United Way branch is observing its one-hundredth anniversary, which it will celebrate at another fundraiser this fall. “It’s our centennial, and we’re going to have a gala,” Lynch said. “It will be 1920’s-themed because 100 years ago was 1926. It’s going to be a big party, dinner and dancing and a really good time. It’s at the Aqua Turf on Friday, October 16.”
And for those looking for a more off-the-wall kind of event, that’s in the works too. This year the United Way is going to hold an adult tricycle race on the first Saturday of the Apple Harvest Festival, October 3. Teams of four will race up and down Main Street starting at 11am that day. Each team must raise $500 to participate, and in turn will get to keep the trike, as well as being eligible for various prizes. For more details, see the website.
