Noteworthy

Chapel Hill man honored by N.C. Children's Hospital

Todd Wielar, owner of Chapel Hill Wine Company, has been awarded the North Carolina Children's Hospital's 2011 Curtis Media Group Service to Children Award.

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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Todd Wielar, owner of Chapel Hill Wine Company, has been awarded the North Carolina Children’s Hospital's 2011 Curtis Media Group Service to Children Award.

The annual award, established to recognize companies for extraordinary commitment to the state’s children through their support of N.C. Children’s Hospital, was named in honor of Curtis Media Group, which founded the N.C. Children’s Promise Radio/Telethon in 2002.

 

Wielar’s philanthropy started with simply collecting wine corks from his patrons when they shopped at Chapel Hill Wine Company or his sister store Hillsborough Wine Company in Downtown Hillsborough. For each cork received, Chapel Hill Wine Company would donate five cents to the N.C. Children’s Hospital.

 

Later, in 2006, Wielar wanted to do more for the hospital that had saved his wife and first child, Lily’s, life, so he conceptualized and organized the first annual Corks for Kids event. Corks for Kids, a two-day fine dining and wine tasting event featuring Australian winemakers and silent and live auctions, also helped raise money for the Children’s Hospital.

The inaugural event netted more than $30,000 and in the years since has collectively raised more than $350,000 for N.C. Children’s Hospital.

 

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