Don’t miss this great wild game dinner for great causes

wild game dinner logoFinally, I am able to attend Unity College’s very popular wild game dinner on April 8. I always seemed to have a conflict in my schedule, but I’ll be there this year, and you should join me. This is their 12th wild game dinner and it is now well known for fabulous food and fun. The event always sells out so you’ll want to order your tickets today.

GameDinner1-JCR-600x398The meal is prepared by the Unity staff and students, with the help of a celebrity chef, celebrates Maine’s hunting and fishing heritage, and raises money for worthy causes. This year the proceeds will benefit Operation Game Thief, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and the Unity College Sporting Station (the skinning and dressing shack for wild game).

Yes, they have a skinning shed, just one more reason to love this Maine college!

I’m particularly excited to be attending because the celebrity chef working on this dinner is Jamie Moffatt, head chef at 3Crow in Rockland, a favorite restaurant of my wife Linda and me. Last year we wrote one of our weekly travel columns about 3Crow.

Here’s everything you need to know, sent to me by Bob Mentzinger, Associate Director of Media Relations for the college.

Wild Game Dinner

Students will get experience in event management, fund and friend-raising, and the culinary arts when Unity College hosts its 12th annual Sportsmen’s Conference and Wild Game Dinner at the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts, Friday, April 8.

wild-game-dinners-Unity-College-2013Prepared by Unity College students and staff, the main dinner is a five-course meal featuring fresh, wild game served with salad, bread, and dessert. Appetizers will be served in the Leonard R. Craig Gallery inside the UCCPA and will include beaver, moose heart, wild turkey, pheasant, smoked trout, and more.

Ticket prices are $32 for regular seating and $50 for VIP tickets that include access to preferred seating, additional appetizers, and two bottles of wine per table. Artwork by local painter Barbara Peabody will be on display in the gallery during the event.

All proceeds benefit Operation Game Thief Maine, The Military Order of the Purple Heart and the Unity College Sporting Station. Proceeds this year go to benefit a veterans’ organization that takes disabled veterans moose hunting, Operation Game Thief, and the Unity College Sporting Station (skinning and dressing shack for game).

“Our students are stewarding resources, managing budgets, synthesizing information, and giving back to the community,” Unity College President Dr. Melik Peter Khoury said. “Through the years of the Wild Game Dinner, students have gotten real-world experience as they have worked with staff to build this project into a Maine tradition.”

The event has been featured in Portland Magazine and other publications, and was listed among Maine’s Top 20 “must do” events by the Bangor Daily News. (And of course, it has also been featured in George’s Outdoor News!)

“The game dinner is a regional tradition attended by a broad spectrum of individuals, including hunters and the non-hunting public,” said Unity College Director of Admissions Joe Saltalamachia ’95, an organizer of the event. “The majority of individuals who attend are non-hunters who see this as their annual opportunity to experience the unique taste of fresh wild game.”

The cook for this year’s event is Jamie Moffatt, head chef at 3Crow in Rockland. This will be Moffatt’s debut cooking for the event. Saltalamachia, perennial chef for the event, said Moffatt is very familiar with wild game cooking and will offer a great teammate in the kitchen.

Moffatt enjoys cooking seasonal and regional cuisine and specializes in cooking what is available when it’s prime time in New England, Saltalamachia said. Moffatt began cooking at the age of 15 in Bangor and spent five years at Sparrow Arc Farm, where he worked with the owner to market fresh produce to fine restaurants in southern Maine and Boston. This work inspired Moffatt to move back to the kitchen in a determined way. “He’s very passionate about serving people good food,” Saltalamachia said.

“The quality of our appetizers and entrées is superb, comparable the level one would expect to enjoy at some of Maine’s finest restaurants,” Saltalamachia said. “It’s a culinary delight not to be missed.”

The event begins with appetizers at 4:15 p.m. Dinner is served at 5:00 p.m.

For tickets, contact Joe Saltalamachia at 207-509-7205 or e-mail jsalty@unity.edu. The Unity College Center for Performing Arts is located at 42 Depot Street in Unity.

About Unity College

The first institution of higher education in the nation to divest from fossil fuel investments, Unity College is committed to educating the next generation of environmental professionals. Sustainability science lies at the heart of its educational mission, with 16 environmentally focused undergraduate majors. For more information, visit unity.edu.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.