“From everything I read about him, he was a visionary,” Ellen Goodstein, executive director of the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, said about founder Dr. William David Sansum. This photo was taken in 2019, which marked the institute’s 75th anniversary. The recent 14th annual Taste of the Vine raised $206,625 for the institute.
The recent 14th annual Taste of the Vine raised $206,625 for the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute.
Because of the pandemic, the Santa Barbara institute organized a hybrid event that gave sponsors options of either virtual or small in-person gatherings, catered meals and fresh produce boxes. Ticket purchasers had wine delivered to their door, and an online auction ran on Aug. 21-23.
The auction featured everything from a private winemaker dinner to group tours of various local vineyards, a yacht cruise, a condo stay at Mammoth, and lots of popular wine.
The diabetes institute credited the event’s success to the 133 Taste of the Vine sponsors, donors, wine ticket purchasers, in-kind donors and dozens of bidders in the online auction.
“I am deeply grateful for the generosity from our community in support of the work done at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute through the Taste of the Vine event this year,” said Joan Arnold, institute board member and a Taste of the Vine Committee member, in a news release. “It is incredible to see that despite a global pandemic, diabetes research is still on the top of the list for so many. The work SDRI does, both locally and globally, is life changing for so many, and to be able to continue this work is so important.”
For more about the institute, go to sansum.org.
— Dave Mason
