MEMBERconnection
Party hosts Trece and Art
Kinberg (fourth and fifth from
left) stand front and center
with guests—as did the
Kirkland Signature wines.
WHEN CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA, Costco member Trece Kinberg planned a
party for friends, featuring a blind wine-tasting, the former wine shop owner
knew she had to include Kirkland Signature™ wines as part of the lineup.
“The week before the tasting my daughter was over for dinner and we
were talking about wines, the Kirkland wines, their taste and price point,”
Kinberg recalls. “She said, ‘If you think they are so good maybe you should
put them in your blind wine-tasting,’ not knowing we already planned to and
the list was already made up. Neither my husband nor I said a word.”
After each course, and after all their guests had expressed their opinions
of the various wines, the Kinbergs unveiled the bottles to show the results of
the voting. How did Kirkland Signature fare?
According to Kinberg, “In Sauvignon Blanc, it won first…. Chardonnay,
second, ... Pinot, first.”
And how did her daughter, who was one of the guests and is, as Kinberg
puts it, a “real wine snob and aficionado,” rate them? “She was totally blown
away by the taste and price,” Kinberg reports. “Bang for the buck, you might say.”
—Steve Fisher
Donner’s desire
MORE THAN 160 years ago the Donner Party traveled west
across the Oregon Trail, struggling through winter in the Sierra
Nevada, where they had to resort to horrific measures to survive, before settling in California.
Costco member Gabrielle Burton (
www.gabrielleburton.
com) weaves fiction and nonfiction to tell the story of Tamsen
Donner, the wife of George Donner, the group’s leader.
Burton’s book, Impatient with Desire (Voice, 2010), imagines Tamsen’s lost journal and is one of the rare books about
the Donner Party told from a woman’s point of view.
Like Tamsen, Burton is the mother of five daughters, and
she has encouraged them to follow their passions and dreams.
“[My family] was my inspiration,” Burton says. “When the
book was published, I felt it was not only a personal triumph
but also a family triumph.”
“My deepest hope is that the book [which is not available
at Costco] will make the Donners more human and not just
dwell on the cannibalism—that they will become real to people
and capture their spirit,” Burton, 71, says. “They walked 2,000
miles across the country; they paid the price for that progress,
for us to be out here in California today.”—Shana McNally
Gabrielle Burton
FIVE SISTERS PRODUCTIONS
74 ;e Costco Connection SEPTEMBER 2010
Sweet sock-cess
AS THE MOTHERS of nine children among them, three Grimsby, Ontario,
women know a lot about stinky socks.
In fact, wondering how to preserve their kids’ sportswear is what
inspired their home-based business, which refashions hockey socks and
jerseys into fun and functional accessories.
“We’re giving new life to these socks,” says Laura Kae, who, along
with Linda Dunda and Esther Brooks, runs Sock-cessories (
www.sock-
cessories.com).
Their creations are handmade from new and reclaimed
socks and jerseys, many of
them donated by associations
and people wanting to purge
equipment rooms, garages
and basements. The clothing
is redesigned, cut and sewn
into new creations, such as
mittens, hockey bags, scarves
and purses.
In addition to helping the
environment, these three busy
Costco members donate 10
percent of retail sales to
hockey associations and nonprofit organizations.
KELLY PUT TER
Linda Dunda, Laura Kae and Esther
Brooks make money from discarded
hockey socks and jerseys.
Marketed to students, players and fans, as well as fans of one-of-a-kind accessories, the designs can
be customized with personal jersey numbers. Sock-cessories has filled
orders from across Canada, the U.S. and even Holland.—Kelly Putter
We want to hear from you!
IF YOU HAVE a note, photo or story to share about Costco or Costco
members, e-mail it to
connection@costco.com with “The Member
Connection” in the subject line or send it to “The Member
Connection,” The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA
98124-1088. Submissions cannot be acknowledged or returned.
