8thannual celebrity chef events scheduled for February 9 and 10, 2023
Wilmington, NC – August 9, 2022 – Beacon Education, the nonprofit foundation committed to equitable access to high quality education, has announced plans for its 8th Annual Celebrity Chef Events on February 9 and 10, 2023. Emeril Lagasse and Rachael Ray will be the featured celebrity chefs for the foundation’s full schedule of events, including an intimate, limited-seating dinner on February 9, a gourmet breakfast and a four-course luncheon on February 10. The dinner will be hosted at a private residence with the breakfast and luncheon held at Landfall Country Club. Beacon Education, formerly GLOW NC and supporting the Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington, has broadened its mission to provide earlier and more equitable access to high quality education. The foundation is working to open Spark Academy, the first of several co-ed and mixed-income early childhood education centers, in Summer 2023. The celebrity chef events will support both GLOW Academy and Spark Academy.
This will be Emeril Lagasse’s fourth visit to Wilmington and the first for Rachael Ray. Chef Lagasse, a longtime friend of GLOW Academy Founder Judy Girard, was the first celebrity chef to headline the culinary events for GLOW in 2015, prior to the school’s opening in 2016. Chef Lagasse inspired GLOW Academy’s robust culinary curriculum and the Emeril Lagasse Foundation recently contributed to an expansion of that program, provisioning a middle school classroom for teaching foundational kitchen prep, safety and cooking skills. Rachael Ray, a winner of three Daytime Emmy Awards, hosts the syndicated daily talk and lifestyle show Rachael Ray, and the Food Network series 30 Minute Meals. In 2007, she launched Yum-o!®, a nonprofit organization that empowers kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.
In the years since Chef Lagasse’s first GLOW appearance, Giada DeLaurentiis, Guy Fieri, Tyler Florence, Robert Irvine and Ashley Christensen have led the culinary line up. For more information about sponsorships, contact Beacon Education Development Director Andrea Carter at acarter@beaconeducation.org.
ABOUT GLOW ACADEMY:
The Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington is North Carolina's only single gender public charter school. The school opened in August, 2016, with its inaugural sixth grade class, adding a new sixth grade each successive academic year. With a focus on providing a single-sex educational choice for students from predominately underserved communities who are often the first in their families to attend college, the 6th thru 12th grade school is part of a nationwide network of 19 groundbreaking and successful single-gender schools. This Young Women’s Leadership Network is guided by a proven educational model
focused on academic rigor, personal responsibility, leadership and college preparedness. At GLOW Academy, she will: graduate, go to college and succeed in life. For more information about GLOW Academy, visit www.glowacademy.net or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GlowAcademy1/
ABOUT SPARK ACADEMY Spark Academy, opening in July, 2023, will be the first of several early childhood education schools providing high quality programming for children six weeks through pre-kindergarten. The co-ed, mixed income program will offer sliding scale scholarships for families in need and provide proven, high-quality educational programming to draw families with financial means. Each center will accommodate approximately 150 students and have a community healthcare clinic onsite. For more information visit https://sparkacademync.com/