Twin Peaks Rotary Club is using sales from roasted chilies, custard-filled empanadas and tamales to give back to the Longmont community.
The Roasted Chilies and More Sale, sponsored by the club and Left Hand Brewing Co., will hold its pickup between 1 and 4 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Longmont brewery. The fundraiser will benefit the Twin Peaks Rotary Charity Fund, which contributes to various scholarships, programs and organizations.
Customers are asked to preorder online by Thursday and select a time slot for pickup. The club also will sell the day of, but with limited availability. Every purchase comes with a free beer coupon redeemable anytime at Left Hand.
The club is a part of Rotary International, an organization with businesses and professional leaders collaborating on humanitarian services. Twin Peaks is one of two Longmont-based clubs.
Every club builds its own personality and goals, said Kirsten Pellicer, Twin Peaks Rotary president. She describes Twin Peaks as “the fun club,” because it hosts charity events in the form of parties, balls and other celebratory gatherings.
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the club had to cancel events that support the Twin Peaks Rotary Charity Fund, including its annual Holiday Ball in November. The club came up with the Roasted Chilies and More sale as a way to raise funds while remaining socially distant.
Preorders can be picked up in Left Hand Brewery’s overflow parking lot. In its main lot, chilies and food can be bought the day of the sale. Curbside pickup will be available for those not wanting to leave their cars.
“It's a fantastic group of people doing great things and I think that I'm really proud of the way everybody has come together to sort of change things up and do this fundraiser this year,” Pellicer said.
She added that Twin Peaks shares the same values as all of Rotary International and concerns itself with global causes. But, the pandemic has shifted most of Twin Peaks’ focus to local issues.
The Twin Peaks Charity Fund goes toward wherever the need is at the moment. It has contributed to college scholarships, student leadership programs and local organizations.
The club works with the OUR Center to help with lunch services and collecting items for its food bank. Twin Peaks also donates to Longmont nonprofit A Woman’s Work, which provides financial support for women. The club has monthly cleanups at Dickens Farm Nature Area and volunteers at the Longmont Humane Society, Pellicer said.
“Right now we are really focusing on local projects. We feel like given the circumstances, that's probably a really good use of funds right now because we know that some other funds probably won't be available,” she said.
Pellicer said that as a local Rotary Club, Twin Peaks can identify its community’s needs through its members. Club members are often professionals who are active in the Longmont community.
Pellicer has spent most of her life in Longmont working off and on at her family-owned Ace Hardware Longmont. She later purchased the retail store from her parents.
Kirsten Pellicer, president of the Twin Peaks Rotary Club, plans the Roasted Chilies and More Sale at a meeting at Left Hand Brewery on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. (Photo by Ali C. M. Watkins)Though the Roasted Chilies and More Sale was created because of other fundraisers being cancelled, Pellicer wants it to continue in the coming years. She hopes the sale will generate at least a few thousand dollars for the fund.
Chilies range from $7 for a pound to $50 for a bushel. They are procured and roasted by local cooks Kory Hanson and Rick Samson. Frozen pork tamales are sold by the dozen for $36 and four custard-filled empanadas are $8.
Longmont needed an equivalent of Loveland’s Corn Roast Festival and Mead’s Sugar Beet festival, said Steven Benscheidt, Twin Peaks charity fundraising director. Roasted chilies were a no-brainer to him.
Though it’s first year will be following COVID-19 restrictions, he hopes it will grow into a celebration with music, food and drinks whenever large gatherings are again possible.
