The tastes of Creole salads, Asian soups, Portuguese chowders, Latin American and Greek seafood dishes, and Caribbean and Mexican desserts rolled over diners' palates Saturday night at the 10th annual Tastes and Sounds fundraiser.

New Orleans jazz and Italian sing-along classics provided the background for the decade-old event, a fundraising benefit coordinated by Massachusetts Children's Relief and hosted annually at Salerno's Seaside Function Hall in Onset. Guests paid $40 for a ticket that got them a buffet-style serving of tapas from around the world. Event-goers also had chances to win gifts donated by local companies, either by raffle or silent auction.

This theme for this year's Tastes and Sounds was “Tapas 10!”, highlighting the 10th anniversary of the fundraiser, and recalling flavors from the past nine years of cuisine selections.

This year's event benefited Turning Point, a Wareham-based day resource center for the homeless and near homeless, as well as the Wareham High School chapter of Best Buddies, a nonprofit organization that works to create one-on-one friendships, integrated employment, and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Sasha Miceli, a senior at Wareham High School and vice president for the school's chapter of Best Buddies volunteered as a server for Tastes & Sounds. Donations to their club, as well as the fundraisers they hold are put towards defraying costs for ticket prices and transportation fees to attend field trips.

“We've gone to watch the Providence Bruins, we went to see a play down in Falmouth, or sometimes we just go outside to a field where we play a game called Thomkins Baseball,” Miceli said, referring to a game similar to baseball played with a tennis racket.

Turning Point has received over $40,000 from MA Children's Relief's Tastes & Sounds since the event's inception.

“Many of our clients are people who are living in a home finding employment or those sorts of things," said David Shaw, chairman of the board at Turning Point, and pastor at Emmanuel Church of The Nazarene, in which Turning Point has an office location. "Turning Point is a place people can come to find referrals, financial assistance for wide variety of things. The goal being to keep people in their homes so they don't become homeless."

Massachusetts Children's Relief coordinator Sally Morrison, a former speech and language therapist for Wareham public schools, came up with the concept of Tastes & Sounds. When Hurricane Katrina hit 10 years ago, Morrison's students had pen pals in Slidell, Louisiana. The students took it upon themselves to coordinate fundraising for their pen pals.

The inaugural Tastes & Sounds was an end-of-the-year celebration of those fundraising efforts. Morrison felt the need to continue with the concept, and for the past 10 years, Massachusetts Children's Relief has gifted funds to organizations and causes such as the Boys and Girls Club, Onset Youth Center, Guyon Rescue, Hurricane Sandy, and Oklahoma tornadoes relief.

The night raked in $2800 worth of tickets alone, drawing a crowd of 70 people. Morrison said she still does not have the total amount raised for the nights.

Anything remaining that night was donated to the Church of Good Shepherd's pantry, and dishes were shared with veterans at the Kendrick House.