17th Annual Chocolate Festival

Tahoe Women's Services would like to thank everyone who helped make the 17th Annual Chocolate Festival a huge success! The festival, held on November 5th at the Chateau, Incline Village raised over $40,000 for domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse survivors.

Our sponsors for this year's event included: Byron Wallpe at Tahoe Lending Group, Cebridge Connections, Charter Media, Clear Capital, Dr. Barry Triestman, First American Title Company, Heather Tone, Nevada Security Bank, Nevada State Bank, North Shore Realty, OMG* O'Dette Mortagage Group, Rogers, Shadek & Wolf, Scott Properties/Incline Creek, Southwest Gas, Tahoe Truckee Lumber Company, Truckee River Associates, Wells Fargo and Whittier Trust Company of Nevada, Inc.

We are especially grateful to the chocolatiers for donating their time and culinary talents. Congratulations for those chefs who won awards: Fredericks Ð Most Decadent, Mr. Z's Ð People's Choice, Jake's Ð Best Tabletop and PlumpJacks Ð Most Original. The Chocolate Fountain, Moody's Bistro & Lounge; and Wild Goose also created delicious and wonderfully decadent chocolate deserts for all to sample. Our wonderful judges were Martha Grosvenor, Donna Buchholz, Sharron Malone Esler, Jim Linardos and Marina Marenco.

The wineries participating in this year's event included Beaucanon, Boa Vista Orchards, Nevada City, Rodney Strong, Tahoe Ridge, and Whispering Vine Wine Company which is a wine store in Reno. Thank you for bringing your wonderful wines to share with our guests.

We would also like to thank the Chateau, an IVGID facility for their outstanding service and their delicious hors d'oeuvres. Their generosity helped our event be a tremendous success! Thanks to our emcee Ed Miller who kept us on track during the evening's festivities. We also appreciated the lively music by The Jeff Jones Band and the talented Mountain Belles.

The following businesses donated items that assisted with the night's event: Albertson's of Tahoe City, Elizabeth's Creations Floral Studio, Martha Bernyke Floral Design, Office Depot, Raley's of Incline Village, Safeway of Kings Beach, Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce, Wanda's Flower Shop and Withrow Oxygen Services.

Many thanks to the many dedicated and caring volunteers who helped make this event possible. Their timeless hours of energy helped make this event a reality. We could not have put on this event without your help.

A special thanks to the overwhelming response from the local business community who donated many wonderful items to our silent auction, chocolate bar sale and the balloon grab.

As the new Executive Director of Tahoe Women's Services I am very proud to see the tremendous support the North Shore communities provided to Tahoe Women's Services. Thank you to all who attended this wonderful event. Our board of directors, staff, and volunteers thank you for caring and wanting to make a difference in your community.

Your generosity and support will make a difference in the lives of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse survivors. We do live in a wonderful community.

Karen Edwards

Executive Director

Tahoe Women's Services

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.