The sixth annual Harvest and Crush Event, hosted by Malibu Family Wines, will benefit the nonprofit group, City Hearts, for the second year in a row.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
Malibu Family Wines is hosting its 6th Annual Harvest and Crush Event on Sunday, but it’s not just a wine festival- proceeds will benefit the arts education group, City Hearts. This is the second harvest party to act as a fundraiser for City Hearts at the Saddlerock Ranch, and the winery expects to attract 600 revelers.
Tami Semler is one of nine Semler children who have been working the ranch since the family started farming there in 1980.
“We started out with 15,000 avocado trees back then and produced up to a million pounds of avocados a year,” she said. “But a freeze in ’91 and the loss of half our trees made us look for crop alternatives.”
The switch to oenology now yields eight different grape varietals that brought home gold and silver medals for their 2002 vintages at the Riverside International Wine Competition and an annual harvest party that is festive, while channeling funds to charitable causes. At the crush event, guests may engage in the centuries-old tradition of crushing vats of freshly picked grapes in barefoot abandon. But Semler dismissed any uneasiness about the purity of any juice that this event might yield, “Nothing to worry about. Fermentation will kill just about anything.”
The beneficiary of Sunday’s harvest, City Hearts, is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to empower at-risk youth in Los Angeles County through participation in the arts. Founded more than 20 years ago by local criminal defense attorneys Sherry and Bob Jason, City Hearts has provides classes in theater, dance, music and visual arts for children whose lives have been broken by poverty, abuse, homelessness and gang violence.
After years in the L.A. County Public Defender’s office, working with often- disenfranchised youth, Sherry Jason left her practice to focus on a program of prevention, in the hopes that fewer young people would end up passing through her door.
“If you look at the funding pyramid from the government when it comes to crime, the baseline expenditures are all on punishment,” Jason explained, “And the itty-bitty part at the top of the pyramid is allocated to prevention. If we reversed that priority, we might see more thoughtful, productive, creative, law-abiding citizens. Through expression in art, they find their hearts.”
Actress and Malibu resident Jane Seymour, the City Hearts national chairperson, confirmed the efficacy of this approach to rehabilitation of youth born into a gang and drug culture. Seymour has been involved with City Hearts as a spokeswoman and a teacher for more than 18 years, and has seen first-hand the result of early intervention.
“One of our students who passed through the City Hearts program back in 1995 is now a law student in Texas,” Seymour said. “And she is also teaching ballet classes in her own community, passing along the lessons she learned with us.”
Disheartened by the sheer volume of youths facing wasted lives in juvenile hall or deeply embedded in the probation system, the Jasons decided to “put their money where their mouths were” back in 1984 and bought a facility to teach dance classes, gradually expanding to include drama, photography and even circus arts.
City Hearts now serves more than 500 at-risk youths a week in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Seymour elaborated on the effect such muses have on children who have known only violence in their young lives: “We empower them to communicate what is happening in their lives and it might not be pretty. But they find that, not only are they being heard, perhaps for the first time, they also find they are uniquely good at something.”
City Hearts is funded purely by private donations and both Seymour and the Jasons hope to see chapters in urban centers across the country. Seymour recently met a chief United States prosecutor and, after hearing her enthusiastic report on the successes of the City Hearts program, he is planning to help.
“I don’t want to reveal his name or further information about him,” Seymour said, “but he is going to help spread the word about the City Hearts program throughout the federal legal system.”
Such positive notoriety should help find further funding for the organization in cities across America.
Sherry Jason emphasized, “We do want to continue to offer support that is critical to kids who have passed through the probation system, once they are on the outside.”
The harvest festival, which takes place Sunday from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., will feature wine tasting of the Malibu Family Wines, as well as signature dishes donated by local restaurants. Children will be offered face painting, a moon bounce and be able to wander through Saddlerock Ranch’s exotic animal collection, including zebras, camels and llamas. Guests will also find a silent auction featuring luxurious vacations and gift items. Bids will be taken for cases of the Malibu Family Wine award winners.
Tickets for the 6th Annual Harvest & Crush Event can be purchased online at www.malibufamilywines.com or www.cityhearts.org.