But first: chocolate

Robbinsville – Picture this: you stroll into the Robbinsville High School Commons Area.

Vendors warmly greet you, with arts, crafts and candy for sale as far as the eye can see. The Easter Bunny sits to your left, waving and waiting for the pre-requisite photo op.

Your eyes begin to shift back to the vendors, then suddenly they stop – chocolate.

Until Saturday, there had not been a chocolate-tasting event at Robbinsville High since February 2020. You grumble and sarcastically thank the pandemic for depriving you of the joy you last experienced Feb. 9, 2020, when the school hosted the first-ever Chocolate Festival, which raised $3,500 for both Graham County Schools’ Exceptional Children program and Special Olympics.

You are unsure of how you remember that precise information, but you remind yourself you are a keen reader of The Graham Star, so you press on, undaunted.

Tables allow you to sit and fellowship with members of the community who have purchased tickets to help this year’s beneficiary: the Noble Knights, a group of students that advocate for the acceptance of mental-health symptoms for children and teenagers.

Then, here it comes: the chocolate.

All told, 15 different samples pass from the serving tray to your line of vision and – in the blink of an eye – to your mouth, as your taste buds sing your praises for the treats.

All told, the Noble Knights received around $2,000 from Saturday’s event, dubbed “SpringFest.” The proceeds will help the group with future expenditures – including a planned trip to Raleigh this summer to attend the SHINE convention. SHINE is the student division for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s Center for Safer Schools initiative.

Oh, there is one small matter to wrap up: who was the People’s Choice for Best Chocolatier?

When the votes were tabulated at the end of both tasting sessions, it was unanimous: strawberry mousse delight won not once, but twice.

The person behind the delicious concoction?

Superintendent Angie Knight.