I’ve been involved with the Redmond Kiwanis Vintner’s dinner for most of the years since its inception in 2004.

The 17th iteration of the event on May 19 was the most successful, drawing 174 patrons to the service club’s largest fundraising project for its youth projects.

But it was not without its glitches, as the committee dealt with issues with the venue, the caterer, the beneficiary and the winery.

The Vintner’s Dinner is a celebration of good food and good wine and raising money for youth projects.

The dinner had been feted for several years at Redmond Community Church, but after installing new carpet in the fellowship hall the leadership at the church got nervous about potential wine spills and said they could no longer rent the space to us. We understood.

We went shopping for a new location. The St. Thomas Catholic Church has a large gymnasium used to accommodate up to 200 people and a very sophisticated kitchen used regularly for church events and their St. Thomas Academy. Father Todd and his staff welcomed us; we provided proof of insurance, and we felt there was nothing but smooth sailing ahead.

Problem number two: Redmond caterer Tate and Tate’s owner for the past three years sold the business to Oliver Lemon’s, which purchased the business for the equipment, and chose not to assume the catering contracts. By the end of February, after putting out a request for proposals on the internet, John Duff brought us Charlie Douma of Core Catering in Bend.

Number three, the beneficiary. Each year at the wine dinner we have a “raise the paddle” event for a specific charitable organization or project chosen by our president. Chris Richie tried to put something together to benefit the music program in Redmond’s schools, but there were more challenges than solutions. Then Chris heard that the city of Redmond was planning to revitalize Kiwanis Park in the Spud Bowl, but then the city postponed that project.

Finally we partnered with the Redmond Area Parks and Recreation District to provide ancillary facilities at the new pool and recreation center that voters approved in November. Bingo! That will perpetuate our legacy of providing facilities for kids in Redmond, such as the Cascade Swim Center and the Hope Playground at Sam Johnson Park.

When it finally seemed that everything was falling into place, Melrose Winery of the Umpqua Valley informed us it was still having staffing issues, and the winemaker would be unable to attend our event to describe the wines and sell them after the meal. We misunderstood, thought it would not be providing the wines, but were relieved when they set us straight. Janel Maurer of Eqwine Wine Bar in Redmond stepped in and capably addressed the wines.

The committee of more than a dozen members persevered, and the event was an amazing success. A core of volunteers from our club, our Key Clubs and others stepped in to make the evening flow smoothly. And on the day of the event when we heard that the representative from Waterbrook Winery in Walla Walla — next year’s presenting winery — was unable to attend this year because he had gone to Redmond, Wash., we hardly blinked an eye.

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Why are Americans and our media so ga ga about the British Royal Family? Didn’t we have a revolution 250 years ago to get away from them? King Charles is not our king!

Why are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle so obsessed with living a royal life while removing themselves from the heart of the situation in England? They recently made a big to-do about the paparazzi chasing them after they’d attended a hotsy rotsy celebrity event on the East Coast. Why didn’t they just stay home in California and take care of their children?

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Ford Motor Company has made a big deal about continuing to install AM radios in its vehicles. That probably means AM/FM radios. In the past 40 years, FM radio may have become the standard for most of us, but we deserve to have a choice. In my youth FM radio was the home of classical music because of the sound fidelity. Now it’s mainstream.

For years AM was the standard for most vehicles. In the early l980s one Central Oregon FM radio station was offering easily installed converters to bring its signal to more drivers. We may not have had a factory-installed FM radio in one of our vehicles until about 1987.