Spring break 2006 to benefit student-run community clinics

Spring Break 2006, an event featuring food and wine from the Sacramento area’s premier restaurants and vintners, with proceeds benefiting clinics that provide health care to the underserved, will be held on Saturday, April 1, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Special Events Pavilion at UC Davis Medical Center.

The four community clinics operated by the students and faculty of the UC Davis School of Medicine that serve underserved populations in the Sacramento area are among those that share in the proceeds.

In addition to food and wine, the event will feature a fashion show, jazz music, exhibits by the recipient clinics, silent and live auctions, and a talk by Ann Noble, professor emeritus of the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology.

The event is sponsored by Serotonin Surge Charities, an all-volunteer, non-profit organization started in 1999 to raise money for health-care related charities. The organization’s founder and CEO is John Chuck, a family physician with the Permanente Medical Group and clinical professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

The planning team and corporate sponsors include representatives from Kaiser Permanente, the UC Davis Health System, Mercy/Catholic Healthcare West, Kaneski Associates, Wells Fargo and other companies that want to collaborate to address the region's most pressing problems — the medically underinsured and uninsured. Last year, the inaugural event raised more than $100,000.

To register for the event or for more information, call Angie Burek at (530) 757-4121 or go to the Web at www.serotoninsurge.org and click on the events icon.