Colasanti’s Market in Highland hosted the Bo Schembechler “Heart of a Champion” fundraiser Tuesday evening. Customers purchased special bottles of wine and had the bottles signed by former University of Michigan football players who played for Schembechler. Colasanti’s Market, the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center and Cathy Schembechler put together this charity event to support research that will lead to new methods to prevent, diagnose and treat heart disease.

Rob Knue, wine manager at Colasanti’s Market, organized this event for the third time, which ran from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. According to Knue, "for each bottle of wine purchased, the U of M Cardiovascular Center receives $2 per bottle." A small team of former University of Michigan football players, including Jim Brandstatter, Don Warner, Rich Strenger, Don Moorehead, Craig Dunaway, Ali Haju-Sheikh and Fritz Seyferth, were on hand to autograph the bottles of wine.

Customers started lining up at 6:30 p.m. at the market as the formers players arrived at Colasanti’s. An estimated 150 bottles were autographed as the players shared stories with customers who came from all over including Milford, Highland, Hartland and Lake Orion. Many said they purchased the wine as holiday presents. If you wish to make a donation for the U of M Cardiovascular Center, you can visit http://www.med.umich.edu/cvc/about/gift.html.