by Fred Heinecke
This is my final President’s Message. Thanks to all the members of the Orange County Wine Society for making it a memorable and successful year. This has been a great time and it has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your president. There are more thank yous to go out.
The overwhelming number of members who volunteer their time continues to astonish me. At the Annual Business Meeting, there were 150 volunteer awards handed out. All in all, 344 members volunteered 26,618 hours over the last year to make the OCWS the outstanding organization it is. All the individual and combined efforts allow us to succeed.
I want to thank some of the individuals whose extra efforts made the year fun for everyone. The fall 2025 Chili Cookoff Showdown, coordinated by Co-Chairs Alice Polser and Betty Jo Newell, was very successful. The tropically delightful, and equally successful, 2026 Spring Social Tiki Party at Baja Blues Co-Chairs were JoBeth Skaggs and Tricia Shelton. Both of these events were catered by the Cook’s Caucus and the theme dinners were fantastic.
Looking forward this month is the 2026 Fall Social Disco Party. The Cook’s Cacus will be there, so get out your bell bottoms, tune up the Bee Gees and don’t miss it.
Our organization functions smoothly, in a large part, due to the work of Business Administrator Rochelle Randel, Office Administrator Lynda Edwards, Accountant Charles English and Website Administrator Wendy Taylor. My thanks to all of them.
A special thanks goes out to Cellar Master Kevin Coy and his assistants, George Cravens and John Lane. They are the ones who make sure wine is available at all our events and they even keep the cellar cool.
The four biggest events of the year are the Commercial Wine Competition, the Home Wine Competition, The Courtyard and the Wine Auctions. Each one requires many, many volunteers and countless hours. A tip of the hat to all four of those committees whose many members (too many to mention them all here) make sure everything runs smoothly.
This year’s President’s Award deservingly goes to George Cravens. George spent seven years as an OCWS director. You can find his impact on the OCWS at virtually every event. George is a member of the Cook’s Caucus and a tireless volunteer for the Commercial Competition, The Courtyard, and wine cellar. Congratulations George.
The year has been a blast!