Hundreds of Santa Clarita Valley residents made a stop at Child & Family Center’s 31st annual Taste of the Town fundraiser at Southern California Innovation Park in Santa Clarita on Sunday.
Scattered across the park were 40 vendors, giving away different samples from Stonefire, Wolf Creek Brewery, Oakmont of Santa Clarita, Honu Coffee, J. Lohr and other locations from across Santa Clarita and southern California. Guests could also participate in a raffle and win various prizes, including Princess Cruises tickets and even tickets for Taste of the Town next year.
All proceeds collected at Taste of the Town go toward different services at the Child & Family Center to help children, teens and families facing serious emotional and behavioral issues.
“It’s just a great chance for everyone to come out from the community,” said Melissa Mercer, division director of intensive services at Child & Family Center, “donate for a great cause which is Child and Family Center and really enjoy some of the local tastes and food and wines.”
Among the breweries on display was Angel City Brewery, located in downtown Los Angeles. Sales representative Alec Buehlmaier said this was their first Taste of the Town, a chance to spread awareness and give people a good idea of what their beers taste like and what their brewery has to offer.
“Especially (in) Santa Clarita, there’s a lot of opportunity up here,” he said. “Not too many people know about us up here, but we’re definitely getting the word out for sure now, especially doing something like this.”
Buehlmaier had three samples at his table, with samples of Angel City’s IPA, Pilsner and a Sunbather, a light sour beer with notes of peach and mango.
Across the park, Nancy Olmos, owner of Clarice’s Cake and Candy Supply from Newhall handed out small torts, each filled with either chocolate mousse, raspberry or lemon, as well as chocolate- or white chocolate-dipped strawberries.
“We were here for the first time when it was in Ruth Newhall’s backyard 31 years ago,” Olmos said. “I thought to myself, ‘Why would someone want to go into somebody’s backyard and eat food that you don’t even know?’ But it’s turned into the most awesome event every year. It’s worked for us, but we look forward to it.”
