( WineSpectator) - With more than 780 auction lots, the 29th annual event reached new heights 

Some of the world’s greatest performers have graced the sets at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif. But for the 1,400 attendees at the 29th annual Culinary Evening with the California Winemasters, held May 19, the true heroes were people like Grace Rose Bauer, the event’s honorary ambassador and a 15-year-old cystic fibrosis patient and success story, thanks in part to the $32 million that the event has raised for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation since its inception. 

The 2018 auction generated $1.74 million for the foundation, including $475,000 in live-auction bids, $300,000 in silent auctions and $500,000 from its special “Bid for a Cure” Fund-a-Need lot.

“Our audience has watched our Winemasters Ambassador Grace Rose grow up before their eyes,” Barbara Balik, director of special giving for the CF Foundation, told Wine Spectator. “Many in the audience are very attached to Grace Rose, who emphasizes [that] their generosity is what gives her hope.” CF is a genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections and limits the ability to breathe over time.