Dale-Manning Chesson won the Best Derby Hat contest, and Kristi Thornhill was runner-up.
To see them in action and enjoy other events of the day, check out the Pastor’s Pantry 2nd Annual Kentucky Derby Party Video:
Riding a stick horse and carrying a glass of cranberry juice on a tray, Zack Sink beat 15 challengers in a local version of the Derby Festival’s Run for the Rose’ in Kentucky.
Tim Dezego won $279 in the half-and-half drawing, but immediately returned his winnings to Pastor’s Pantry.
An estimated 115 guests watched Animal Kingdom win the 137th Kentucky Derby on a big-screen television in the barn at March Motorcars between Lexington and Welcome. They chowed down on Kentucky ham biscuits, bourbon balls, Derby pie and other delectables from On Time Catering. They drank mint juleps made by Rita Walker and Florence Jones. And they made auction bids for beach and mountain vacations, special dinners and parties, art and yoga classes, sports and recreational outings, and home entertainment and building supplies.
There was a lot of fun to be had at the second annual “Day at the Derby” fundraiser for Pastor’s Pantry, the nonprofit food pantry for hungry senior adults and other needy residents of Davidson County.
The Pantry supplies monthly groceries for more than 540 people in more than 370 senior adult households across the county, plus short-term packs of food for younger residents with emergency needs. Day at the Derby is the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year.
Guests this year, including some new faces who did not come in 2010, helped the Pantry raise nearly $19,000 – $3,000 of which is being set aside and added to for the purpose of installing a walk-in cooler/freezer in the Pantry’s food warehouse in Lexington.
“We really appreciate all these folks coming out and helping us,” said Bill Keesler, Pastor’s Pantry’s executive director. “In addition to supporting a great cause, everybody seemed to have a great time. I know I did.”
Keesler extended special thanks to guests who recruited large groups of friends to sit together at the event.
He thanked Jeff and Joan March, owners of March Motorcars, for making their facilities and beautiful grounds available for the event for a second consecutive year.
He thanked the event’s sponsors – Wake Forest Baptist Health Lexington Medical Center, Unilin Flooring, Thomasville Medical Center, Sarah E. Frye DDS PA, Buttke Dairy Enterprises, Cardinal Container Services Inc., Bill and Sara DeLapp, PPG, Lexington Barbecue, Brenda Houser/Edward Jones Investments, Mountcastle Insurance, Dwight and Kathy Hedrick, Richard Perryman, Sandy and Terry Reynolds, Charlotte Roberts, Cheryl and John Wicker, Evelyn and Don Kepley, Cindy and Harold McNeill, and Robert Yelton.
And he thanked members of the Pantry’s Fundraising Committee — Sharon Mickey, Norma Buttke, Sotia Neouv, Amy Leonard, Jeff Garrett and Chad Kirkendall — who organized the event, as well as the other 11 members of the Pantry’s Board of Directors. All assisted.
The 138th running of the Kentucky Derby is anticipated on Saturday, May 5, 2012. Pastor’s Pantry plans to hold its third annual “Day at the Derby” that same day. Please plan to join us.
