St. Charles annual tea celebrates St. Valentine's Day

Credit: Tracy Farnham | The News Herald

Anne Bourg, left, Marcia Hill and Terri Martino, in the back, prepare for St. Charles’ annual Valentine’s Day Tea in Bourg’s kitchen.

By: Tracy Farnham | Morganton News Herald
Published: February 10, 2010

MORGANTON --

Gearing up for Sunday's annual St. Charles Tea, Anne Bourg's kitchen is abuzz with the creation of chocolate confections.
Bourg and other ladies in the church are working on five scrumptious confections to serve at the tea, set for 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Bourg is bringing back her most recent creation, the delectable nutty chocolate fingers.
"This was new last year and everybody loved that," Bourg said.
Bourg's most famous brownie, donning a chocolate rosette christened with a white chocolate heart, will be surrounded by a chocolate cup filled with German chocolate frosting, a double chocolate cherry scone and chocolate kissed strawberries to complete the tasting treat.
Tickets are $12.50 and include a sampling of each of the five homemade chocolates. Beverages include champagne, hot chocolate, hot tea and coffee. Only 250 tickets are available for the Valentine's Day chocolate tasting event.
Since 1995, the tea has been held annually on Sunday with the exception of a small reprieve, and this is their 11th year.
Noting this as possibly the first year the annual tea has coincided with the actual day for which the celebration honors, Bourg said it is a special time.
"A lot of people bring their families and make this a family time, too," said Terri Martino, who is helping with decorations for the tea and will transform Murray Hall into an elegant spot for the afternoon tea.
Each year the tea gets bigger. Bourg said 131 tickets were sold the first year and 250 are available this year. Proceeds from the event are shared among the church and the Adam Benson Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Benson always volunteered with the event and was looking forward to college when an accident claimed his life in 2004.
Like Benson, several youth of the church volunteer each year.
"The loyalty of the kids is unbelievable," Bourg said, "The same youth ask to come every year.
"This is such a fun afternoon. We spend the whole morning — the kids, ladies and even a few men — getting ready."
"It's fun to work with everybody," Marcia Hill said. She was helping at Bourg's home and also will be in the kitchen on Sunday.
Martino agrees and likes seeing the whole church get involved.
"This gives the young kids a chance to work on a project with the senior citizens and it's great to see the teens giving up their Sunday afternoon to wait on people," she said.
Bourg continued, "This brings our church community together. When the event is over you feel that a beautiful thing has just happened."
Proceeds from last year's tea were used to purchase 216 place settings of flatware for the parish hall and a $1,000-scholarship was awarded to Gloria Schoeberle who is attending UNC Chapel Hill.
Tickets are available by contacting the church office and remaining tickets will be sold at the door. Drawings will be held throughout the event and boxes of the chocolates are available for purchase. Takeouts are available.
St. Charles is located at 728 W. Union St. Reserve tickets by calling the church office at 437-3108 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Friday. Reserved tickets may be purchased at the door the day of the event.

St. Charles annual tea celebrates St. Valentine's Day

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