On October 2, Amphora Winery’s annual “Only Women Can Touch the Grapes” grape stomp—will once again help raise funds to provide mammograms to Sonoma County women without health insurance.
As always, proceeds from this “Stomp Out Breast Cancer!” fundraiser go to the Breast Care Center at Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa and are earmarked to pay for free mammograms.
“I’m all about raising awareness about breast cancer and encouraging women to get mammograms for early diagnosis,” says winemaker Rick Hutchinson, who has lost two sisters to the disease. “Coming from a poor family myself, I know the challenges poverty-stricken women face when deciding about diagnostic medical care. My mother never would have had a mammogram—she would have spent the money to pay rent or buy food.”
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Amphora’s annual grape stomp has been a tradition since Hutchinson founded the winery back in 1997. Each harvest, hundreds of women make the trek to the winery and make a donation in order to stomp grapes that Hutchinson sometimes crafts into a wine named “Due Sorelle” (Italian for ‘two sisters’, in honor of Hutchinson’s late sisters Janet and Judy). Over the years, more than $20,000 dollars has been raised at the stomps for the Sutter Breast Care Center, and the Bay Area Chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
“Because of my personal loss, this effort is very important to me,” Hutchinson said. “Several years ago we had a woman here from Wisconsin who stomped. Because of what she learned, she decided to get a mammogram when she returned home. We got a call from her a month or so later and she was so grateful—they found a small tumor. Fortunately it was early, and she was able to recover. That really brought it home to me—it’s vital that we get the word out. And I’m delighted to partner with Sutter so we can use the money we raise to help people here in Sonoma County.”
