Bethany Blues Lewes honors Dave Hill with a dine and donate
Cape Region restaurant fans were on pins and needles earlier this year as popular local wine expert/Bethany Blues Lewes host Dave Hill battled health problems.
Not only did he recover but Hill is better than ever. Bethany Blues Lewes honored him with a dine and donate event May 14.
Hill chose the RehobothFoodie.com/Touch of Italy Culinary Scholarship Fund as the beneficiary, and the restaurant generously donated a substantial portion of each check - including delivery and carryout - to the charity. Customers and fans streamed into the popular barbecue restaurant to welcome Hill, enjoy dinner and perhaps buy a ticket for the fund’s 4th Annual Trip to Italy Raffle.
It’s not unusual to see Cape Region food industry professionals teaming up to help local kids, and this year’s event at Bethany Blues was no different. The RehobothFoodie.com/ Touch of Italy Culinary Scholarship Fund provides tuition assistance to qualifying Delmarva high school graduates. Students eligible for the scholarships include successful graduates from the Delaware Restaurant Association’s ProStart Program and similar local programs. The funds help them continue their education at full-time professional culinary schools.
The fund has already sent deserving Delaware high school graduates to New York’s Culinary Institute of America, Wor-Wic Community College, Delaware Technical Community College’s respected culinary program in Dover, Johnson & Wales University, the International Culinary Center (formerly the French Culinary Institute - alma mater of Food Network’s Bobby Flay), and the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia, the training grounds for such Cape Region luminaries as Kevin Reading and Hari Cameron.
The RehobothFoodie.com/Touch of Italy Scholarship Foundation organizers thank Dave Hill, Bethany Blues General Manager Dave Grove, Manager Judi Ciemania and the generous ownership and staff who spread the word about Hill’s recovery and his generous inclusion of the scholarship fund into the festivities. Many of the diners that night purchased tickets for the Trip to Italy raffle. The winner was selected live on the Sip & Bite radio show June 1.
Though none of the tickets purchased that night were selected in the random drawing, the real winners are the Delmarva teens who dream of a professional career in the kitchen crafts or hospitality management. Thanks to this event and similar local fundraisers, they are that much closer to their dream.
