Southampton - Once again art, commerce and charity blend in the mosaic that is pure Hamptons altruism. The art of flower photographer Patti Courville and the epicurean delights of the Village Gourmet Cheese Shoppe merged to support the grassroots charity that is the Have A Heart Community Trust.

The Village Gourmet Cheese Shoppe, Main Street, Southampton.

In their 2010 appeal the charity notes, "Since its founding in 1991, the Have A Heart Community Trust (HAHCT) has raised funds to support local, community based initiatives and become a symbol of caring on the East End of Long Island." Beyond that their ability to respond on the grassroots level to local individual and family crisis needs is unparallel. As HAHCT trustees Heather Fyfe explained, "We support many local East End organizations that we partner with, but we also work with individuals who are in immediate need. For example, we just had a single mother with two children who lost her job and had no heat and we gave her the money to pay her heating bill."

Among the many organizations that HAHCT partners with are food pantries from Montauk to Westhampton, East End community councils and day care centers, IGHL, Padoquohan Medicine Lodge and Little Flower Children's Services, to name but a few. The need is both local and real, HAHCT works tirelessly to answer the call.

The event was generously hosted by John and Danni Gercu, the new proprietors of the enormously popular Village Gourmet Cheese Shoppe on Main Street in Southampton Village. The evening featured artisan Italian cheese selected and donated by these community minded entrepreneurs, along with an Italian wine selection donated by Lamplighter Liquors. John explained their commitment to HAHCT, "They depend on events throughout the year and we wanted to help them. It is a time of the year when people are tired of winter, so let's bring a smile to their faces for a good cause."

Have A Heart volunteer Linda Miller-Zellner with President Bill Wright and trustee Heather Fyfe.

As helpful as local events like these are to the work of the organization, HAHCT's big annual event is coming up on March 20, its annual Monte Carlo Night in association with the Paul Koster Memorial Fund. As HAHCT President Bill Wright explained, "Monte Carlo Night and our summer volleyball tournaments are our major fund raising events. They really drive the bulk of our revenue." Wright also commented on the fact that the volleyball has really brought younger volunteers into the organization, which is particularly gratifying.

Bret Pahwul, the organization's vice president, spoke of the need for support during the challenges of the present economy, "Charities are being challenged and donations are down, so it is having a double effect. There is less money being donated, but the people need the donations more. Every dollar is very important."

On a very cold evening, dodging a very scary weather forecast that crippled the nation's capital, Hamptonites once again gathered at a local business, surrounded by local art in support of a local charity. A local charity with feet on the ground in the community, day-by-day and need-by-need, supported by volunteers of means in East End zip codes that know there is a very real, too often invisible, need even in the privileged paradise we call the Hamptons.

For more information go to www.haveaheartcommunitytrust.com.

HAHCT vice president Bret Pahwul (left) at the Have A Heart fundraiser at the Village Gourmet Cheese Shoppe.