Local Wine Events

Event ID #387576

Event Details

Tags:   Auction   Entertainment   Wine   Food  

Come and join what has been called "The Party of the Year!" at Naples Zoo.  Voted Best New Wild Time by Florida Weekly Magazine.

Grapes & Apes is the annual signature fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Naples.  Held at award winning Naples Zoo our patrons enjoy fantastic foods, amazing wines and beers, outrageous entertainers and, of course, wild animals!  We also offer a special early admission opportunity to our ticket holders to arrive at 5PM for Boost Your Wine IQ, a fantastic education series for wine lovers of every level led by noted experts.  This is the wine event for the community of Naples.

The Rotary Club of Naples was chartered in 1951 and serves many needs in and around Collier County as well as around the world.  For 60 years we have undertaken a wide variety of community projects as shown below.

• American Cancer Society, Relay for Life
• Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Collier County
• Cancer Alliance of Naples
• Child's Gift of Giving, club program for foster children to purchase gifts at Christmas
• Collier Harvest
• Country of Haiti, money, medical mission and food shipments after earthquake
• Country of El Salvador, heart surgeries and medical aid
• Dictionary Day (Collier County)
• ECHO (Education Concerns for Hunger Organization)
• EDEN Foundation
• Edison State College Scholarships
• Freedom Water Foundation
• Gift of Life, program for heart surgeries for children in third world countries
• Grace Place
• Guadalupe Center for Women
• Habitat for Humanity of Collier County
• Harry Chapin Food Bank
• Immokalee Children’s Center
• Laces of Love
• Lorenzo Walker Technical Institute
• Maidstone, Jamaica, water project
• Manta, Ecuador, water project
• Mandeville, Jamaica work trips
• Meals of Hope (formerly Kids Against Hunger)
  
• Moates Kicks for Kids
• Naples High School Annual College Scholarships
• Old Bight Mission Home, Cat Island, Bahamas, water system
• PACE Center for Girls
• PolioPlus, Rotary International effort to eradicate polio worldwide
• Project Backpack at YMCA of the Palms
• Project Graduation at YMCA of the Palms
• Salvation Army
• Seminar for Tomorrow’s Leaders, annual student sponsor
• Ranferly House, Bahamas
• Rotary Camp Florida
• Rotary International Permanent Fund
• Seminar for Tomorrow’s Leaders, annual student sponsor
• Shelterbox USA, Rotary program to provide first response humanitarian aid
• St. Matthew's House
• Turnopil, Ukraine, provided medical equipment to free clinic

Most exciting to us are those projects close to our hearts.  In 2011, proceeds from Grapes & Apes supported Naples High School and Lorenzo Walker TechnicalInstitute college scholarships and our local YMCA of the Palms' Project Graduation.  We also contributed toward Rotary International's PolioPlus Initiative to eradicate polio from the face of the earth by 2015.  Gift of Life was also a beneficiary of our efforts as our club has directly saved the lives of 9 children in the last three years by bringing them from third world countries to our homes and arranging for life saving heart surgeries at both Joe Dimaggio Hospital in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa Children's Hospital.  We have indirectly saved over 50 others by paying for various procedures.

Tickets to Grapes & Apes are limited in number and are sold in advance of the event which sells out every year.  Please go to our website at grapesandapes.com to learn more.