As the Evening of Wine and Cheese grew closer, the founder and director of Old Glory Legacy Foundation, Rachel Medley, was hard at work finalizing the details of the event. Rachel envisioned an evening outdoors with white lights, lots of candles, tables made of pallets, hay-bale seating and her barn as a back drop. However, the weather trend for the week was rain, rain, and more rain so with that Rachel decided the event would be indoors. Working from dawn to dusk, Rachel and a few friends (Lisa, Sherri Jo, Wendy, Buddy, and Kayla) gutted the barn, scrubbed it clean, hung lighting, laid clean wood shavings, stacked hay, and burned their fingers with hot glue guns making the embellishments. As you can see from the photos, this decision was worth gold. It didn’t rain, and people had the option to mingle outdoors or indoors.

Outside, there was an antique tractor on display, serving as the perfect country backdrop. The horses ran around in the field as some guests played a few games of corn hole while others sat quietly basking in the ambiance of the evening.

Inside, the party was lively. There was something very magical about sitting on a hay bale drinking French wine from a mason jar with the live Bluegrass band, “Cousin Amy”, playing quietly in the background.

Midway through the event, the attention was directed to special guest Howie Sanborn. Howie, a U.S. Army Ranger and Golden Knight, was paralyzed a little over a year ago. He was on his road bike, training for a triathlon when he was hit by an unattentive driver. Weeks after being told he would never walk again, Howie was already training for his first wheelchair-bound race. Six months to the day after his injury, Howie completed his first para-triathlon and has was recently chosen to represent the United States in the Paralympic Games. Howie spoke of this in a great story of perseverance and explained to the guests how the Old Glory Legacy Foundation would be able to help soldiers like him by providing an outlet where they could come and enjoy some time “away from it all”.

Bert from the Triangle Wine Company volunteered his services for the evening and was such a gentleman as he served a variety of delicious French Wines. Cheese purchased from the Southern Whey of downtown Southern Pines paired perfectly with the wines.

Beth Carmickle, a Fayetteville-based event planner, helped add the perfect finishing touches with her attention to detail and fine catering.

The delightful cupcakes were provided by Jennifer Rodriguez, of Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Also a big hit at this event were hand crafted horse hair pottery pieces by local potter, David Moulton. These pieces were auctioned off in a silent auction and winners were announced at the end of the night.

Overall, this event was a perfect one hosted in an unexpected, but magical venue with delightful guests, good wine, delicious food, and great music!

To schedule use of the OGL Foundation Farm for your party or event, call or email Rachel (Founder and Executive Director) at 210-253-0730 or rachel@oglfoundation.org

For top notch party planning, email Beth Carmickle at bethcarmickle@yahoo.com

Fantastic cupcakes, call Jennifer Rodriguez 910-476-6159

And of course, for the photography, contact me Jacqueline Hurd at jacqueline.hurd@me.com.

To view the rest of the photos from this event visit: http://jmhurd.shootproof.com/OGLFwine