Casa Bella, MOX top earners

Casa Bella restaurant and Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC have received a hearty thank you for raising the most money during 2010 Celebrity Waiter Night benefitting Children's Place.

The owners of Casa Bella and representatives from MOX and Children's Place gathered at the restaurant Wednesday and toasted a glass of champagne to the success of not only the Casa Bella and MOX team, but of the night in general.

"Casa Bella and MOX brought in the most by far of all the restaurants," said Children's Place Community Outreach Coordinator Kelly Findley.

The team was able to raise more than $33,000. The total beat their last year's take of more than $26,000, which beat their record-setting total from the year before.

"It is a fabulous amount of work they put forth for the children we serve," said Children's Place Director Peggy Ford. "Celebrity Waiter Night is a great night, and we appreciate all the community does for us. MOX is clearly one of the outstanding partners for us."

Celebrity Waiter Night is the largest fundraiser of the year for Children's Place, a United Way agency that provides day care for at-risk children from throughout Aiken County.

"The MOX project is behind it (Children's Place) 100 percent. It's helping kids. You can't go wrong with that," said MOX Project Controls Manager Floyd Bartoe.

"We love it (Celebrity Waiter Night). I have to give Floyd a lot of credit. No one can say no to him because he's so nice," said MOX President/COO Kelly Trice.

In addition to meals and a caring environment, the agency also provides speech, occupational, behavioral and play therapy tailored to each child's needs and parental and caregiver training and advice.

Celebrity Waiter Night donations are used to support those therapeutic activities.

The Children's Place staff cares for about 105 children each day, and each year, serves about 35,000 meals, makes about 1,500 home visits and provides more than 1,200 hours of therapy.