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GLENDALE’S 15TH ANNUAL CHOCOLATE

AFFAIRE A SWEET SUCCESS

　

GLENDALE, Ariz. 3/5/2010 -  – Nothing was richer than this year’s Glendale Chocolate Affaire for approximately 100,000 chocolate lovers who brought their sweet tooth to downtown Glendale for the 15th annual award-winning event.

Record-breaking attendance is not the only success the city is celebrating. Downtown merchants, event participants and partners are all talking about Glendale’s fabulous festival:

“For fifteen consecutive years the Glendale Chocolate Affaire has been instrumental in bringing in thousands of people to our downtown,” said Joe Cerreta, of Cerreta Candy Company. “This truly is one event that pleases nearly everyone! We thank the city for giving us the opportunity to sponsor this event.” More than 4,000 people rode the shuttle from Murphy Park to Cerreta’s during the festival.

Ray Ralls, owner of downtown business A Mad Hatter, commented: “I wanted to thank the city of Glendale and the Special Events staff for what was the best Chocolate Affaire I can remember.  Our sales numbers were much stronger than previous years, and I heard many times from different customers that this was their first time in downtown Glendale and that they would be coming back.”

The romance component is a big draw for the festival, as well. “For me, it’s an author’s dream event,” said nine-time Chocolate Affaire author Judi McCoy. “The atmosphere in Glendale is warm and welcoming. I travel the country speaking at conferences, giving workshops, and teaching writing, and I  have yet to find a place that’s as much fun as Glendale’s Chocolate Affaire.” More than two dozen authors appeared during the weekend.

Another important component to this year’s event was fundraising. For many years Cerreta Candy Company has donated a 300-pound chocolate heart which is raffled to raise money for the Glendale Mayor’s Youth Advisory Commission. The local high school students raised $2,000 this year. In addition, the Glendale Fire Department sold Cerreta’s chocolate bars to raise money for their union’s newly-created Fire Charities branch; their fundraising efforts totaled more than $5,600 and a portion of those funds went to Haiti relief.

In addition to chocolate, the festival also featured a fine element. The 2010 Glendale Centennial Plein Air Painting Event at the Glendale Chocolate Affaire was a first this year. The Arts Commission-sponsored competition included entries from artists as far away as Sedona, who created artwork with elements of Glendale’s history, in recognition of the city’s centennial. Winning artwork became part of Glendale’s permanent collection upon completion of the event. Out of 26 artists and 72 entries, eight winners were chosen. The winning artwork can be seen on the city’s Web site at www.glendaleaz.com/centennial.

For further information on Glendale’s award-winning festivals, visit www.glendaleaz.com/events.

Breaking Up Not That Hard to Do If…   By Bette Sharpe 

Breaking up a big heart (of white chocolate) can be a lot of fun especially if you bring a friend.  Today, Christianne Bailey, this year's winner of the very, very large white chocolate heart that is estimated to weigh 300 hundred pounds; came with her friend Rylee to break-up the big o’ heart into smaller, more portable chunks so she can take the chocolate home.

Christianne loves chocolate and her mom agrees.  Christianne, Rylee and three members of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Commission (MYAC), Kei Lani Daniels and Lauren Sibeck both from Mountain Ridge High School, and Samantha Cooke from Cactus High School took about five minutes to breakup the two-and-one-half inch thick heart.  At first Anthony (Tony) Cerreta thought a hammer might be needed.  But no hammer was used in this event.  The girls, all rearing protective plastic gloves, went to work and in a short while the big heart was packed into 11  travel boxes for the trip home and then to school tomorrow.

Christianne, is a fifth grader at Highland Lakes Elementary, has a big heart herself and is sharing the chocolate with her classmates and giving the remainder to the school’s PTA.  The proceeds of the raffle support the Mayor’s Student Advisory Commission.  This year the raffled raised about $2000.00!

This is the first time Cerreta’s created a white chocolate heart for Glendale’s Chocolate Affaire.  This year’s Chocolate Affaire was held during the first weekend in February.  The heart was actually decorated by Joe Cetterta on both sides of the heart, because the heart is flipped over when it is removed from the mold (more goodness!).  No word on what year’s chocolate heart. We’ll just have to wait and see.

It is easy to shop locally, for chocolate at Cerreta Candy Company, 5345 West Glendale Avenue, Glendale, Arizona 85301, 623-930-9000.  

For more information on MYAC, please visit the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Commission web page by following this link, http://www.glendaleaz.com/mayor/myac.cfm.

15th Annual Glendale Chocolate Affaire

Chocolate, Chocolate and More Chocolate
Dominated Downtown Glendale February 5-7
By - Ed Sharpe -  Glendale Daily Planet  

This weekend before Valentine’s Day, was a delicious delight for the senses as the 15th Annual Glendale Chocolate Affaire took over downtown Glendale to create a chocolate-lover’s dream!

Chocolate purveyors from Arizona and around the nation gathered in Glendale for this award-winning festival, which celebrates not only chocolate, but romance and the arts as well. Chocolate confections will included everything from chocolate truffles, sweet potato fries with chocolate and brown sugar glaze and tropical hot chocolate, to deep-fried chocolate bars and organic dark chocolate. Who could possible say no to this scrumptious sweet tour-de force?

The Chocolate Affaire is sponsored by Arizona’s famous candy makers, Cerreta’s. The candy factory offered tours all weekend, so visitors got a behind-the-scenes look at how the chocolatiers create everyone’s favorite candy. Shuttles were available to the tours.

In addition, the festival has become the largest gathering of national romance novelists in the Southwest. This symposium of literary romantics offers fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with authors, as well as the chance to attend free writing workshops given by the experts.

From the very first Chocolate Affaire romance authors have been a part of this unique celebration. It was at that first meeting with the  merchants of Catlin Court and the  downtown Glendale, held at Espresso Garden,  that Craig Kimmell of the  Sports Group, and city personnel,  pitched the proposal for this festival that was to be unlike anything else in Arizona. Craig and his Group were rather famous in early years assisting Chandler Arizona Chamber of Commerce put on the Ostrich Festival!

Bette Sharpe, a city librarian and co-owner of the Coury House Shoppes in Catlin Court,   hearing all the elements that the event would encompass, brought up the fact that romance writers would be a perfect fit. Bette's Supervisor at the city of Glendale, Shelley Mosley who was  the branch manager of the Velma Teague Branch Library, and a romance writer herself, put the plan in place. Hours of Shelley's planning, assisted by other staff members and volunteers at the Velma Teague Library  guaranteed the success of  this endeavor.

From the very start Shelley had large groups of writers sharing ideas and giving workshops. Initially Barnes and Nobel was the book vendor, supplemented by  sales of used  romance novels that the library system had received as gifts and were duplicates and not needed for the libraries current holdings at any of the branches. This sale of duplicate material was most helpful to the library for new programs and purchase of holdings they were short on.

How did the Chocolate Affaire Start?  The short version is that Cerreta's Chocolates spent a year and  a half working with the city to formulate the concept.  The city hired the Sports Group to assist in the physical production of the event

After 5 years the City of Glendale, with an increased staff, took on ownership of total production this event and now handles all the  design and scheduling for it.

But this weekend was not just for the grown-ups! Families with children enjoyed myriad activities, including hands-on arts and crafts, face-painting and a rock-climbing wall. Horse-drawn carriage rides were available throughout the weekend to take couples or families on a scenic, charming ride through the historic Catlin Court district.         (Strawberry Photo Courtesy City of Glendale)

(Photo on left  and left most person) Kim Watters is happy to announce her first Steeple Hill book, On Wings of Love, which received four stars from the Romantic Times!  Other titles by the author are Dog Days of Summer. Stake Your Claim and Web of Deceit.   For more information and for more “Stories from the heart”,  please visit the author’s web page at www.kimwatters.com.
  - Photo By Bette Sharpe - Glendale Daily Planet

 A long waiting line for a bus to go on the Ceretta Candy Company  tour 
-  Photo By Bette Sharpe - Glendale Daily Planet

Not an empty chair to be had... Record crowds mobbed the food court section at this year's Chocolate Affaire in Glendale AZ
  - Photo By Bette Sharpe - Glendale Daily Planet

Authors,  speaking schedules and entertainment events that took place... 

• Donna Hatch, best selling author at Wild Rose Press for two consecutive months for her Regency romance, The Stranger She Married, she also was a finalist in the Golden Quill Contest, recognizing outstanding published authors.  Her current novel and upcoming novella, Trouble Hearts have both received four and five star reviews, and will be available at the Chocolate Affaire.
• Multi-published author, Judi McCoy is donating all her book royalties for Hounding the Pavement, the first in this series, to Best Friends, the largest no-kill shelter in the United States located in Kanab, UT.  Because Hounding the Pavement is so popular, she recently landed a three-book contract
• Hounding the Pavement is currently available, and will be on sale during the Chocolate Affair.  This novel is a true testament to McCoy's love of man's four-legged pals.
• This year, multi-published author, Judy Duarte’s Mulberry Park, a women's fiction novel, was a finalist in the RITA, a prestigious award promoting excellence in the romance genre, as well as a Golden Quill finalist, and recently won the Maggie Award.
• Award winning author, Vijaya Schartz’s, A DESPERADO FOR CHRISTMAS received a Preditors and Editors Readers Poll Award 2009 in the Short Romance category.
• ANAZ-VOOHRI received a Cameo Award for the cover in 2007, was a finalist in the Golden Quill 2007, and nominated for the Reviewers' Choice Award by Ecataromance as an eBook in 2006, and for the Best Science-Fiction Fantasy Novel in the 2006 Preditors and Editors Readers Poll.
• RELICS and WHITE TIGER were finalists in the Golden Quill contest
• ASHES FOR THE ELEPHANT GOD won the Independent Publisher Book Award in Visionary Fiction in 2001.
• Multi-published author, Valerie King was the recipient of the 2005 Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Regency Romance.
• Pam Tracy, a multi-published author, received a first place award for Broken Lullaby, a romantic suspense in the American Christian Fiction Writers' Book of the Year contest.
• Debut novelist, Kelly Hanzlik, and author of Nana’s Girl is donating all the proceeds from her book to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation in loving memory of her grandmother, Katherine Mahan.

Author Signing Schedule

Entertainment Line-up

 ARIZONA’S LARGEST CHOCOLATE VALENTINE 
CREATED FOR GLENDALE CHOCOLATE AFFAIRE

By: Ed and Bette Sharpe Glendale Daily Planet 02/04/2010

 Bryn Barasha,  Junior Xavier HS   - Jackie Barela, Junior Ironwood HS - Natalie Morice,  Senior Ironwood HS -  Jerry Cerreta, Cerreta's Candy Co, - Dallas Mogenson, Senior Deer Valley HS - Samatha Cooke, Freshman Cactus HS - All except Jerry are members of the Mayors Youth Advisory Council and were on hand to assist in the pouring of this giant white chocolate heart!) 
- Photo By Ed Sharpe - Glendale Daily Planet

Historic Downtown Glendale, Cerreta’s Candy Company, 5345 W. Glendale Ave.

Arizona’s largest chocolate valentine heart was poured at the candy factory. This monstrous, solid piece of chocolate will weighs nearly 300 pounds and measures four feet tall! The heart will be raffled during the Glendale Chocolate Affaire to support the Glendale Mayor’s Youth Advisory Commission.

   
{L} Wonderful Chocolate Roses   - Photo By Ed Sharpe - Glendale Daily Planet 

Members of the media pile in to get a close look at the chocolate pour.  Present were 
Glendale Daily Planet / KKAT-IPTV, Glendale Star, Glendale  11, ABC 15 and West Valley Independent.
  - Photo By Bette Sharpe - Glendale Daily Planet

Ed Sharpe from Glendale Daily Planet / KKAT-IPTV interviews Jerry Cerreta Of Cerreta's Chocolates
  - Photo By Bette Sharpe - Glendale Daily Planet