Hi,

We (Bonnie Graves and Tim Smith) are sending this to you as we are raising funds for our sommelier brother Ben Edwards. Ben was in the sweet spot of a very successful somm and wine career that included stints at Marinus at Bernardus in Carmel Valley, The Nomad (with Dustin Wilson MS) and Jean Georges in New York and had moved out to Little Rock, Arkansas to work for the Capital Grill folks as Hotel Beverage Manager and Restaurant Manager. He also spent time working in wine production most notably with Ian Brand at Le P'tit Paysan, We both met Ben working Pebble Beach Food and Wine and LA Food and Wine and he is a stellar, fun and easygoing guy. He was also a regular at Masters of Food and Wine and La Paulee New York. A few years ago Ben was paralyzed in an accident severely limiting his mobility and ability to live independently. He has just recently suffered a fire in his home that had just been made livable after a long spell being vacant. The house was saved but has been completely inundated with water and smoke damage. Furthermore he had to be hospitalized with a large abscess last week and is in great pain daily and currently still hospitalized. Our wine brother needs some assistance wine friends. We hope you can consider contributing anything you can spare to help this great dude and gentleman of the greater somm community. We are hoping to raise the sum of $25,000 to aid Ben and his family through this very difficult time. Besides the house fire there are major hospital bills current and future as well as long term rehab and life long care needs. Please give what you can however small and send Ben a note of encouragement from the somm community.