Courtesy Photo The Chocolate Extravaganza returns on Saturday, Feb. 22 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Alpena. The event will feature many decadant treats, with proceeds to the church’s scholarship program.

ALPENA — You may want to fast for 24 hours prior to Saturday, Feb. 22, so you can indulge at the Chocolate Extravaganza.

The annual event runs from 2 to 4 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 124 E. Washington Ave. in downtown Alpena.

Event organizer Ellen Eagan started the Chocolate Extravaganza 25 years ago as a fun and delicious way to support the church’s scholarship fund for local students.

“I dreamed it up,” Eagan said with a laugh.

She added that this will be the 23rd Chocolate Extravaganza.

“It’s annual, except that we had to take two years off because of COVID,” she explained. “If we hadn’t, it would have been the 25th.”

The event features a wide variety of decadent chocolate treats, all made by church members and volunteers.

“We’ll have Carole Cadarette playing live music,” Eagan said. “We’ll have drawings for chocolate-themed door prizes.”

The cost is $20 per person, and $10 per child, ages 10 and younger.

“We just put out an array of different chocolate goodies,” Eagan said. “For example, you might find a chocolate torte, chocolate trifle, chocolate pie, a chocolate cheese ball that could be spread on vanilla wafers, or graham crackers, chocolate-covered strawberries. Sometimes, we’ve dipped spoons in chocolate so that, as people stir coffee, the chocolate flavor comes through.”

She added there will also be chocolate cookies, and more.

“Practically anything that the mind can conceive,” Eagan said.

She explained why she “dreamed up” the Chocolate Extravaganza.

“All of my quote, unquote good works seem to involve food,” Eagan said. “But, most people like chocolate.”

She recalled her experience at the first Chocolate Extravaganza.

“I can tell you, after the first Chocolate Extravaganza, I didn’t eat a piece of chocolate for a whole two days,” Eagan said. “This is the sort of event where you might want to pace yourself.”

She said her inspiration for the first event came from a former Trinity Episcopal Church member who has since moved to Florida.

“She had gone to this sort of event downstate, and thought that would be a wonderful fundraiser,” Eagan said.

Eagan noted the other circumstances surrounding the inception of the event.

“We had a couple in our church, from Nigeria, who had come to the states temporarily so that their college-aged children could get a better education here,” she said. “It became clear, as the first child was approaching college age, that they would need some funds. So I thought about what I could do, and remembered hearing about this chocolate event, and thought that we could probably pull that off, so we did, and gave him a scholarship. And we kept doing it.”

She said the number and amount of each scholarship varies, based on the funds raised that year.

“It’s always a generous enough amount that it could at least purchase several books,” Eagan said. “And for people who haven’t been to college recently, some of these basic textbooks are $150 to $200 apiece.”

Eagan encourages men, women, families, and people of all ages to attend the event.

“It’s fun,” she said, adding that some of the door prizes would appeal to children.

Reach Darby Hinkley at dhinkley@thealpenanews.com, or call 989-358-5691.