Terry Ventura Draws Crowd to Wishes & More Fundraiser

Terry Ventura, the former first lady of Minnesota, stood by the chocolate fountain in the banquet room of Tuesday night and presided over a wine and cigar tasting fundraiser for Wishes & More, a Fridley nonprofit that serves children with life-threatening or terminal illnesses.

Ventura sipped Conquista, an Argentinian red that she said “even smells good,” and talked about how she finds it difficult to meet the child patrons of Wishes & More.

“I’m not good at the meetings,” she said. “I cry too much.”

At 7 p.m. Ventura had bid in the silent auction $100 for a Coach tote bag (market value: $298) and $40 for a giant Wells Fargo stuffed pony (market value: $125)

The proceeds from the $50-a-plate fundraiser—about 80 were sold—would go to fund the purchase of a 2000 Ford Focus for Sarah, a Shorewood, MN, teenager who was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer related to the skeletal system, shortly before her high school graduation.

Wishes & More hosts seven to eight fundraisers a year, which play a large role in financing the organization’s $650,000 annual budget, event coordinator Joelle Nelson said. Ventura also hosted a July 2010 fundraiser for Wishes & More.

Since her husband, the professional wrestler and Brooklyn Park mayor, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, left office in 2003, Ventura says she has been “relaxing and taking a deep breath.”

The couple bought a home in White Bear Lake and have made yearly trips to Mexico’s Baja peninsula. Gov. Ventura has hosted a television show, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.

Gov. Ventura cast a large shadow over the room. A fundraiser attendee who smelled strongly of cigar smoke approached Terry Ventura, shook her hand and declared, “I want him to run for president.”  

Ventura laughed and rejoined, “No, you don’t. Don’t say the P-word.”

Ventura said she’s “not a big cigar smoker” and claimed credit for “getting the governor to quit”—a remarkable accomplishment considering her husband’s well-publicized taste for cigars.

(While Governor, Ventura penned a column for Cigar Aficionado magazine proposing the lift of the Cuban trade embargo “partly because I'd love to have easy access to Cuban cigars.”)

The evening’s rain discouraged most attendees from cigar-tasting, but Jim and Linda Price of Pine Springs stationed themselves at the table closest to the smoking patio. They said they did not come to meet the former first lady.

“I’m interested in cigars,” Jim Price said.