The Daughters of Penelope held a Wine Tasting & Dinner fundraiser at The Brick House with almost 150 in attendance. The organization was founded in 1929, just seven years after the first meeting of American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association which is its corresponding fraternal order. While the AHEPA mission has always been to support charities and promote the image of Greek Americans, its was originally founded in Atlanta, Georgia due to the Klu Klux Klan whose attacks often included Catholic victims.

The Daughters of Penelope provides support to a variety of issues such as housing and domestic violence; with a their mission to offer support to two youth organizations, The Sons of Pericles and the Maids of Athena. The Daughters have chapters all over the world and promote civic, communal involvement of its members wherever they may live. From their instrumental efforts in the sale of over 500 million dollars in war bonds during WWII, to the pressing issue of Juvenile Diabetes and SIDS, The Daughters of Penelope have worked to provide for their community on a local, national and global level.

The Wine Tasting and Fine Dining event held many of the markings of the organization in that it was communal, charitable, and educational. Maria Scillieri the Wine Director of The Brick House provided a selection of wines and led the educational component. Each glass was served with an offering of four S’s involved in wine tasting: seeing, swirling, sniffing and sipping. The event had a leisurely feel as the extended socializing led into a formal dinner with several courses paired with proper wines.

The featured wine was from the Fox Brook Winery in California and featured cabernet, merlot, white zinfandel and chardonnay. The reasonably priced bottles of wine were also available for sale by the bottle with a portion of the proceeds donated by The Brick House to the charity. This particular event was raising funds for scholarships and over twenty recipients have already been identified. The Daughters of Penelope are committed not only to assisting students financially, but to help them “appreciate American ideals, achieve their educational goals, and take pride in their Hellenic heritage.”