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Arts
February 7 - February 20, 2015
www.SanTanSun.com
Eat Your Art Out for the CCA BY TRACY HOUSE
Chandler foodies are in for a culinary treat as the Chandler Center for the Arts sponsors the fourth annual Eat Your Art Out Chandler Tuesday, Feb. 24. The community event brings together the best of Chandler’s food establishments, art patrons and corporate sponsors to show their support for the arts in the city. Local participating restaurants will donate a minimum of 25 percent of their proceeds on that day, with all the funds supporting the various programs the CCA sponsors throughout the year. That includes the Connecting Kidz program, the Free Summer Concert Series and the center’s headlining acts. Last year the event raised $12,500. “Each year it’s had little different spin, we try a new idea, but it’s been successful due to the generosity of these restaurants who are the locations making the donations,” explains Michelle Mac Lennan, general manager of CCA. Mayor Jay Tibshraeny lauded the event. “Eat Your Art Out is a great event that connects our community by bringing together great food, great people and a great cause,” Tibshraeny says in a statement. “The arts have a strong impact on the quality of life in our community—but also on our economy and I encourage everyone to dine out on Feb. 24.” CCA ambassadors will be on-hand at each of the participating eateries to host and discuss the performing arts center’s various programs. This year, patrons can
enter a free raffle that include tickets to upcoming CCA events, art from the Vision Gallery and a stay at the Hyatt Place. “People can support us without writing a check,” Mac Lennan says. “You just go out to eat. It’s pretty simple.” Mac Lennan, who will greet guests at one of the locations, is committed to filling the restaurants and sharing information about the center. “We’ve made a lot of new connections in the community and met a lot of great people who are interested in what the center is doing for our youth programs, performances and everything else.” Two eateries that have committed to the event are Floridino’s and Serrano’s, each in its fourth year of support. Floridino’s will offer a lunch and weekly night specials, says the restaurant’s catering and banquet manager, Sarah Converse. The whole menu will be available. Converse says Floridino’s likes to participate in anything it can help with in the community. “We feel like we’re the center point of the fund raising community. We’re so close to downtown Chandler...We love the center for the arts.” The mom- and pop-style restaurant, and its sister restaurant Dilly’s Deli, will be serving lunch and dinner on the event night. “It’s always fun on nights like this when people say, ‘We came to support the Eat Your Art Out, but we’ve never eaten here,’ and that’s like our favorite thing, to see customers come in that have never eaten here before and they get to help a great
EAT YOUR ART OUT CHANDLER: Jeanne Forbis welcomes diners to Floridino’s. Submitted photo
cause and try new food.” Ernie Serrano, owner of Serrano’s, served on the CCA board for seven years and chaired it for three. He says the arts are very important to the Serrano family. “It’s a win-win,” he says of the event. “If we can get more customers to come out that just means that we can donate more to the center.” He adds he’d like to see more people coming out for the event, versus just to dine
and not knowing anything about it. Floridino’s and Serrano’s diners are not required to mention the event for proceeds to be donated. Mac Lennan encourages the community to schedule the night out with friends and family to be part of the event. “It’s an awesome way to raise so much money for our youth program and all that stuff, just by doing what you would normally SEE CCA PAGE 58