More than 300 people gathered Saturday night to feast on a variety of chocolate items.

Cakes, cookies, candies and other chocolate creations were featured at Safe Passage’s second annual “An Evening of Chocolate” fund-raising event at the South Pointe Centre, 200 Gurler Road.

“The proceeds are going to go to the expansion of our facilities,” said Pam Wiseman, director of Safe Passage.

Safe Passage provides domestic violence and sexual assault support services for DeKalb County residents. Money is being raised for Safe Passage to move into a bigger building and expand its services.

“We picked chocolate for obvious reasons,” Wiseman said. “Chocolate gives comfort to people, and that is what we try to do at Safe Passage.”

During the night, attendees participated in a public tasting of the entries for the baking contest. The night ended with awards being handed out to youth chocolatiers, community chocolatiers and culinary professionals.

Judges rated the usual chocolate items, such as cakes and cookies, but also tested some unique items. A chocolate bean dip took first place for the non-dessert category.

“Everything here looks so good,” said Joy Hadley of DeKalb. “There’s a lot of neat things that have been made. I don’t think I can handle more than one plate.”

Hadley is a secretary in the mechanical engineering department at NIU. She said she came because her husband was one of the 30 judges.

Judges included many community leaders, including State Rep. Robert Pritchard (R-Hinckley), State’s Attorney Ron Matekaitis (D-DeKalb), DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow and Sycamore Mayor John Swedberg.

“We have community leaders from all over judging,” said Cynthia Folgate, volunteer and community events coordinator of Safe Passage. “We didn’t expect to get the kind of response we did last year, [when] we ended up having only 12 judges eating 31 different entries.”

The night also included a variety of chocolate-related performances by NIU Theatre and Dance students.

“We are very happy to be here on behalf of the Safe Passage benefit,” said Deborah Robertson, associate professor of theatre and dance.

Safe Passage would like to thank the NIU Theatre and Dance Department as well as South Pointe Centre, which provided the banquet hall and tables at no cost, Folgate said.

For more information on Safe Passage, call 815-756-5228.