Our speaker, Diane Wilkinson, is well-known to the club for providing catered lunches when we are meeting at the CSD building and for her generous tribute luncheon in honor of Mike Collom. She described he varied work life as "BBC"-Broker, Builder and Caterer. She comes from a third generation Placerville family and her grandfather purchased land and farmed pears in the Gold Hill area during the Depression. She grew up learning about construction as her father built the first subdivision in Placerville in 1949.
Our speaker, Diane Wilkinson, is well-known to the club for providing catered lunches when we are meeting at the CSD building and for her generous tribute luncheon in honor of Mike Collom. She described he varied work life as "BBC"-Broker, Builder and Caterer. She comes from a third generation Placerville family and her grandfather purchased land and farmed pears in the Gold Hill area during the Depression. She grew up learning about construction as her father built the first subdivision in Placerville in 1949.
Before returning to Placerville to help her father as a developer and contractor, Diane earned her teaching degree at C. S. U. Chico and taught school for 8 years. In addition to the construction of "spec" houses as a licensed contractor, Diane pursued her passion for food by starting a catering business in 1997. She has built that passion into a highly successful business that caters for weddings, charity and corporate events, and film crews from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Sierra Foothills and beyond. She sources her food and materials from local El Dorado County businesses and from her own large organic garden at her home. No longer in the contracting business, Diane intends to continue preparing and serving food that is both healthy and tasty as long as she is still passionate about helping others. The members were treated to many anecdotes about catering in the question and answer session following Diane's presentation.
President Anne acknowledged Diane's generous donation of $1,000 to the Rotary Community Foundation's Rasmussen Endowment fund in honor of Mike Collom at the conclusion of the program.
Dave Sargent also thanked Diane for her generosity and her giving nature and presented a tribute remembering Mike Collom at the end of the meeting.