Centreville Winery to Host Charity Event for ALS Foundation

will host a fundraising event in conjunction with the Shanton ALS Foundation Saturday.

The event will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and tickets are $45 per person. Each ticket allows for tastings of eight different wines, two glasses of a wine of choice and hors d’oeuvres. The normal hours of operation for the winery are until 7 p.m. but it will remain open for the event.

Steve Shanton, co-founder of the Shanton ALS Foundation, has known the Winery at Bull Run owner Jon Hickox since they both attended the same high school.

“We’re pretty much lifelong friends,” Shanton said. “He has been there from the beginning to watch my dad’s fight (with Lou Gehrig’s disease). He also watched when I co-founded the foundation. He’s seen how passionate I am.”

Shanton co-founded the Shanton ALS Foundation with Felix Yesquen in 2011 after Shanton’s father, Marty, was diagnosed with ALS. The foundation raises money to assist with ALS research and care for patients. This event serves as a kick-off for the charity now helping to raise money for military veterans.

Shanton ALS Foundation wants to begin contributing to veterans because there is a tie between ALS diagnosis and wounded veterans. Although there is no known cause or cure for ALS, veterans are 50 percent more likely to be diagnosed with it than non-veterans.

“Marty Shanton was a veteran, as was my father,” Hickox said. “I have a massive amount of respect for those who choose to fight for our country and so the connection between ALS and the veterans’ charities seemed like a perfectly good fit for a charity that I wanted to have the winery associated with.”

This event is the first of multiple in the coming year. Later this year the foundation will host the second annual Marty Shanton Golf Classic; the event raised over $40,000 last year. Eventually the foundation will hold a large event at the winery next spring, with the hopes of collecting a large amount of donations.

“Even though Marty is no longer with us he continues to give me strength by remembering his great courage and clearly Steve shares that same passion and his foundation is his way of continuing his father’s fight,” Hickox said.

Registration for the event at the Winery at Bull Run is available online. Tickets can also be purchased the day of the event at the winery. The winery is located at 15950 Lee Hwy. in Centreville.