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Adventure Dinner and Atria Collective, formerly known as WomenSafe, hosted their annual Galentine’s Day Celebration as the culmination of a long-standing partnership to raise funds for Atria Collective. On February 17th from 5pm to 8pm, 16 women-owned businesses set up shop at Vergennes Opéra. All genders were welcome to the celebration.
Attendees will shop at a variety of vendors, eat homemade food made with love by Luisa Sienko, drinks made by Adventure Dinner staff, and learn more about our mission to end gender-based violence in Addison County. They also purchased raffle tickets that provided funds to the Atria Collective, which they support.
The raffle grand prize included a stay for two at Hotel Vermont in Burlington, a $200 Adventure Dinner gift card, and a $100 Haymaker gift card.
This Galentine’s event first started in 2021 and has been held every year since. Atria Collective’s collaboration with Adventure Dinner founder Sas Stewart goes back several years.
Before founding Adventure Dinner in 2020, Stewart co-founded Vermont spirits company Stonecutter Spirits in 2014. After working at Stonecutter for several years, Stewart came up with the idea of hosting an event that celebrated friendship, especially female and non-binary friendships.
“There’s something beautiful about celebrating the love and support we can have for each other in a world where we’re often at odds with each other. That’s when we came up with the idea. [for the original event] We wanted it to be something that comes from and would benefit our community,” Stewart said.
Partnering with Atria Collective was a natural next step towards this goal. Stewart sought a partnership that aligned with the principles of supporting women and the most vulnerable in our communities, and wanted to draw more attention and support to Atria Collective across Vermont.
This collaboration lasted a long time and eventually led to Galentine’s Celebration.
“With these types of events, we really play the role of host and organizer,” Stewart said. “We’re very selective about who’s going to be at the event, we’re trying to reach different types of small business owners, and we’re actually hiring people to handle the food portion.”
He added that Adventure Dinner’s biggest contribution to the event came in the form of helping with planning and public relations. “Our network is very different from Atria’s, so our focus on leveraging the communities we are a part of to draw attention to Atria’s work makes us stronger,” Stewart said. he said.
Elissa Boisel, executive director of Atria Collective, echoed that sentiment.
“Adventure Dinner does most of its work by hosting events and we at Atria Collective are very grateful to be a beneficiary. This is a great fundraiser for us and Atria Collective This is a great way to support and share all the important work that is being done,” Boisel wrote in an email to The Campus.
Atria Collective has set a fundraising goal of $4,000 for their Galentine’s celebration. More than 140 people attended and companies included Burlington-based herbal tonic and elixir company Arkame, Burlington-based Craven Jewelry and Pantone-based Wiggly Goat Farm.
All tickets purchased for the event will enter the purchaser into a drawing. Those who were unable to attend but would like to participate can also purchase raffle tickets online.
Caroline Corrente, owner of Haymaker Bun Company, is a current member of the Atria Collective board of directors and has previously participated in other events with the collective.
Corrente explained that Stewart is a friend of hers and brought her into this collaboration several years ago. She joined the board in the summer of 2022, shortly after the loss of Roe v. Wade, and took a larger role in Atria Her Collective.
“That made me feel a lot of anger and frustration,” Corrente told The Campus. “When you have those feelings, I think it’s best to do something about it. I wanted to be involved in a community organization that serves and supports women.”
The board meets monthly and has responsibilities such as a finance committee, planning annual events such as Galentine’s, and soliciting donations around the holidays.
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Corrente said she loves seeing 150 to 200 women come together to celebrate love, friendship and entrepreneurship.
“My favorite thing is seeing how many amazing, unique and innovative women are selling there,” she said. “It’s great to see so many diverse women-owned businesses here in Addison County.”
For Stewart, the event has a special energy. “There is unparalleled joy, celebration and relaxation,” she said.
Boansel echoed Stewart’s sentiments about the ethos of femme-dominated spaces. “I’m so happy that this event supports femme-aware and femme-loving women-owned businesses. It’s a great atmosphere that celebrates friendship and love between all people,” she said.
Julia Pepper ’24 (she/her) is a senior local editor.
She previously served as local editor. She is majoring in Psychology and minoring in French. This spring, she studied abroad in Paris. She spent her summer interning at her home in New York City, putting her cold-calling skills as a journalist to use in her internship and doing advocacy work for the elderly. In her free time, she enjoys reading and petting cats.
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