Now in its 35th year, our Great Stone Hill Beast Feast Wild Game Dinner & Fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society turned out to be a huge success. Held on Friday, December 8th, the charity dinner raised $34,193.83. We as a family and as a company are incredibly humbled year after year by the generosity of our guests and our staff at this event. 100% of the proceeds from the event, including ticket sales, are donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
The Great Stone Hill Beast Feast began as a tribute to Jon Held’s son, James Richard Held, who passed away in 1988 at the age of five after a heroic battle with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). When James was diagnosed, the five-year survival rate was only 25% and the Held family became committed to helping LLS find a cure for this disease. When Jon’s father Jim, the founder of Stone Hill Winery, was diagnosed with CMML, a rare, chronic leukemia that strikes older adults, the commitment only deepened.
“I wish to thank all the Vintage and Stone Hill employees for the many hours they spent working on the preparations for this great event. Also, thanks to everyone who donated wild game, fish, and fowl for the meal and who donated items for the auction and to those who generously bid on the auction items. This is a very personal, emotional, and rewarding event for me and my family, and I am incredibly touched by the generosity on display every year,” said Jon Held, President and Owner of Stone Hill Winery.
The event features gourmet appetizers and a wild game dinner prepared by Vintage 1847 Restaurant Chef Lance Logan. This year’s entrees consisted of South of the Border Raccoon Birria, Classic Beaver Pot Roast, Turducken, Roasted Half Quail with Apple & Butter Cream Sauce, Squirrel and Andouille Gumbo, Confit Paddlefish with Tomato Relish, Smoked & Pulled Wild Hog, and Wild Seasoned Venison Steak along with farm style sides and a rustic winter salad. The wild game comes from generous local hunters and farmers making for an incredibly unique and delicious meal each year.
Fundraising for LLS at the Beast Feast comes from ticket sales as well as through silent auction, raffles, and live auctions. Items auctioned off this year included custom hand-built wine barrel stave Adirondack chairs, St. Louis Blues hockey tickets, all expenses paid weekend getaway to Hermann, a handmade wildlife themed quilt, a pheasant taxidermy mount, pheasant hunt at the Wild Boar Creek Farm, a full Christmas turducken meal with silver serving platters, as well as many other items including award-winning wines and spirits.
Special thanks are deserved for Brittany Eyestone, events coordinator for Stone Hill Winery. She is the main force behind organizing this event and puts incredible energy into making it a huge success. Without her efforts, we could not have had such an great Beast Feast this year.
Thank you again to all of our sponsors, staff, and the generous attendees!