KENNEBUNKPORT — There were trolley rides. Heirloom tomato salad. And movie star Patrick Dempsey.
As prizes go, not half bad.
“I think it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” diner Darryl Prue said. “The whole night, it was perfect. It was perfect. I just feel like I was lucky to be chosen. We had a blast.”
Prue was among the five lucky Dempsey Challenge fundraisers randomly chosen to have dinner with the actor Thursday night at his Kennebunkport home. Each winner brought one guest.
The Dempsey Centers congratulated the winners — Prue, Ashley Stevens, Christopher Lento, Lisa Fiorelli and Laura Lee — on social media this week. On Thursday evening, the Dempsey Centers posted a photo of the winners and their guests, as well as a photo of the menu for the evening.
“And, yes, Patrick is there!” the post said.
Prue, a longtime volunteer and Challenge fundraiser, was among those delighted to have won a seat at the dinner. Earlier this week she told the Sun Journal, “You might say (I am) his biggest fan.”
The evening, she said, began with a trolley ride around Kennebunkport, sparkling wine beside a lake, and photos. It continued to dinner with Dempsey at the cottage on his property.
“He was so great,” she said. “He sat at one end of the table in the beginning of the meal and then he moved to the other end of the table at another portion, then he came back to the middle of the table. He did a really great job of chatting with everyone and visiting.”
Dempsey has spoken often about his hope of expanding the centers’ reach. That was also part of the discussion at the dinner.
“That was kind of cool, to hear him talk about how much and the scope of what he’d like to do and how he wants to help our state, the people of our state,” she said.
The evening, Prue said, made her even more of a Dempsey fan.
“It makes me think, ‘Oh, maybe I can raise $3,000 next year.’ It makes me want to. I mean, I’ve always wanted to, I’ve always been a huge fan, but listening to him talk about it just reinforces what I already knew: It’s an amazing place.”
Five winners and their guests pose for a photo Thursday evening before dinner with actor Patrick Dempsey at his property in Kennebunkport. (Dempsey Centers photo)
The menu for a special dinner with actor Patrick Dempsey at his property in Kennebunkport on Thursday evening. (Dempsey Centers photo)
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