Nonprofit organizations throughout San Luis Obispo County now have a state-of-the-art resource offered free of charge at Idler’s Appliances in Paso Robles.
The 50-year-old company owned by Don Idler is inviting nonprofits to utilize its kitchen for fundraising purposes.
“The Idler family built this business with a deep commitment to county residents,” said Wil Anderson, Idler’s merchandising manager. “Our kitchen program is just another way we continue to show people the level of service and caring we bring to our stores.”
The 13,000 square-foot store, located at 2361 Theatre Drive, offers the kitchen at no charge to local nonprofit organizations for use in fundraising and informational sessions. While the resource comes at no cost, all the store asks is that the kitchen be cleaned following use.
The North County Women’s Shelter has utilized the kitchen to host its popular “Four Seasons,” fundraiser, a wine tasting and food demonstration event reigning in local caterers and restaurateurs. The fundraiser, new this year due to a cooperation with Midland Pacific Foundation to sponsor a matching funds program of up to $15,000, was made possible by the Idler’s’ generosity, said Loretta Hartwell, an executive assistant for the shelter.
“We rely on the generosity of local individuals and community members and businesses,” she said. “It really helps if we can offset our fundraising costs by having a venue donated and having the support of local people helps us as well. It’s a huge asset of course; a wonderful addition to the community.”
The shelter solicited the culinary expertise of chefs spanning across North County. Chefs André Averseng of Dining with André, Tony Farao of Village Café in Atascadero, Brandon McPartlan of Cass Winery and Vineyards and Jill Orgosolka of Trumpet Vine Caterers have all stepped into the Idler’s kitchen to cook seasonally appropriate meals for the shelter’s fundraisers.
“We arranged this event specifically for the Idler’s showroom,” Hartwell said.
Idler’s has also been active in helping the nonprofit’s shelter program, donating and helping move appliances. Upon renovation of the Paso Robles shelter in 2002, Idler’s supplied all of the appliances. The shelter also nominated Idler’s for a compassion award in honor of Victim’s Rights Week put on by the SLO County District Attorney’s office in April.
The Paso Robles Relay for Life, benefiting cancer awareness, recently used the kitchen for its kick off event that attracted several hundred attendees and ended up raising over $1,600. One of the relay teams, the Hot Tamales, used the kitchen to prepare more than 200 tamales Saturday as part of a fundraiser.
The kitchen amenities include two commercial style ranges, two double convection steam injected ovens, dishwashers, refrigeration, two 52-inch plasma televisions with media hookups and cameras and a four-foot wide dacor range with double ovens and oversized burners.
It boasts an expansive granite top bar, energy efficient appliances, elegant lighting and “all of the appointments that make today’s kitchen the center of family life,” according to a media release.
For events like Four Seasons where a large crowd gathers, cameras can be helpful to record the event, broadcast it to those in the audience who aren’t up close to the action — such as in a cooking demonstration — or use the video as promotional material to fundraise for the nonprofit, Anderson said.
“So if you’re sitting back down and back from the audience you can actually see what’s going on — it’s pretty neat,” he said.
The community-based kitchen is all part of the vision of founder Don Idler during the design of the Paso Robles location, Anderson said.
“As part of Mr. Idler’s vision when he helped design this store, when he had the store built, was to have a large kitchen venue where we could do community events, fundraisers and then offer it to nonprofits and those types of groups to help any way we can,” he said. “We’re into it to help. The payback we get is very gracious and appreciated, but the idea is the community has been very good to us, so we want to do what we can to help out with that.”
Idler’s has three locations in the county — one in Paso Robles Idler’s in the Target Center; an appliance center in San Luis Obispo and discount outlet in Atascadero.
Its SLO location will soon offer a community-based kitchen in 2009, Anderson said.
“As we change venues in San Luis Obispo, we’re going to be redoing our kitchen section, and in 2009 you’ll see a big change, and they’ll have a community-based kitchen there as well,” he said.
Information about the kitchen program is available by contacting Anderson at 238-6020 or via e-mail at the company Web site, www.idlers.homeappliances.com.