Diners enjoy the 2024 Taste of Fall at the Briggs Woods Conference Center.

For the past six years, the Taste of Fall, presented by LIFT Webster City — Local Initiative for Transforming Webster City — has been a premier food and wine tasting event in Webster City.

This year the group will be taking a break.

LIFT organizers have sent out an explanation saying that their small board needed time to complete work on The Elks, the historic downtown Webster City building that was the original focus of LIFT.

“We have had a lot of questions about Taste of Fall and wanted to share an update,” the explanation reads. “While this event has been one of our favorite fundraisers, we will not be holding it this year.”

Taste of Fall was first held in October 2019.

“Twenty nineteen was the first year LIFT owned The Elks,” Darcy Swon, president of LIFT, said.

Originally staged on the street in the 700 block of Webster City in front of The Elks, Taste of Fall was eventually moved to the Briggs Woods Conference Center.

In 2020, the event was derailed, as were most events, due to COVID.

In 2021, the event again was planned for September and successfully held in front of The Elks. It was also on the street in 2022.

But in 2023 and 2024 it took place at the Briggs Woods Conference Center. Each successive event became more elaborate with wine tastings and pairings. In 2024, the event included a silent auction.

This year, though, the LIFT board is taking a breather.

“We didn’t want to not do it, but we just couldn’t do it,” Swon said. “We’ll do it next year in the ballroom, and it will be worth the wait.”

Planning events like the Taste of Fall takes a lot of time and energy, she said, and right now the board is faced with work on the building that has to be completed.

There are only six board members on the board of LIFT: Swon, Lindsay Henderson, Shannon Swon, John Hawkins, Jake Pulis and Zach Chizek.

Swon further explained, “We have a lot of great things going on in the building. A lot of the bone work is done; the rest of the work is a lot of the finishing. But everything takes time and money and it always takes longer than we anticipated.”

Lynn Chalfant, Director for the Briggs Woods Conference Center, has coordinated all the food for the event each year, both downtown and AT the Conference Center. The work involved either on-site or off-site takes a tremendous effort for both the staff of the Conference Center and the volunteers with LIFT to make it a special event, she said.

“Holding an event like this is like planning a wedding,” Chalfant said.

“We all have different areas of expertise,” Swon said. “And we are focused on getting financing and getting the building done so we can do that event next year.

The LIFT board is promising a return once the ballroom in The Elks is completed.

But she hesitates to say exactly when.

“We are hopeful for the second quarter of 2026,” she said.

With the decision to skip this year, the board hopes that those who planned to attend the Taste of Fall this year will consider making a charitable gift instead. Every donation is tax deductible and not only helps open The Elks, but also ensures that LIFT WC can continue its mission of community betterment.

Charitable gifts can be made by sending a check payable to LIFT WC to the Enhance Hamilton County Foundation, 501 Bank Street, Webster City, IA 50595 or contact Darcy Swon at dswon@enhancehamiltoncounty.org or 515-835-0437.