By Amy Scherzer, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, April 3, 2009
Girl Scouts honor Sally Hill, from left, Liz Kennedy, guest speaker Lee Woodruff, Rose Ferlita and Julie Janssen at the 2009 Women of Distinction award luncheon.
Take a closer look, urged co-chairs Stephanie Gibson and Sandy Murman, at Glazer Children's Museum's seventh annual Imagination Gala. Their creative crew topped centerpieces with magnifying glasses to drive the theme that seeing is believing.
"Just look where we are now,'' said Gibson, describing last month's Ashley Street groundbreaking and forecasting a Spring 2010 opening.
Kids swirled Hula Hoops while the grownups swirled cocktails at TPepin's Hospitality Centre on Saturday night. Busch Gardens catered the $250-ticket benefit, including playful chocolate "dirt" cakes, Gummi worms and colorful Rice Krispies "blocks" for dessert. Donors were asked to buy real blocks for $1,000 inscribed with their names.
The always-adorable Entertainment Revue girls, ages 6 to 18, sang, danced and inspired nearly 300 guests to share the museum's vision, wrapping up with John Lennon's Imagine. Then it was home to bed for the kids and cigars and cordials on the terrace for the adults with the always-entertaining Paul Wilborn and Eugenie Bondurant. Museum marketing and development director Heidi Shimberg expects the gala to net about $130,000.
Prom Night Rewind
Dressed up in tennis shoes and tuxedos, corsages and Cinderella gowns, guests tripped down memory lane at Prom Night Rewind, the sixth annual Starry Nights gala sponsored by Mental Health Care Foundation. Many of the 170 guests dug into their closets for the March 21 party at Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club, including prom king candidates Dick Greco and Brendan McLaughlin, and queen wannabes Linda McClintock Greco and Wendy Ryan.
Not vintage fashions, but $10 votes decided the winners: prom king Enrique Crespo, interior designer, and prom queen Jennifer Carlstedt, president-elect of Junior League of Tampa. Enrique made all his mother Anna's friends donate for him online, by phone and at the prom. The Junior Leaguers came through, too, as they did 60 years ago when they helped start MHCF, said foundation director Lorna Miller.
The birthday cake dessert delighted foundation board chairman Ken Walters, who was not counting candles. Full Circle played the oldies but goodies. The group really rocked on Johnny B. Good when Event Show Production dancers joined them acting as a high school drama club.
Girl Scouts Women of Distinction
Meet the 2009 Women of Distinction: County Commissioner/pharmacist Rose Ferlita; lifetime Girl Scout, Red Cross volunteer and philanthropist Sally Hill; child advocate and Ophelia Project Tampa Bay founder Liz Kennedy; and Pinellas County superintendent of schools Julie Janssen.
Girl Scouts of West Central Florida chose the four from community nominees for being exemplary role models to young girls, said event chair Toni Scarr. The March 24 benefit, emceed by one of the 1995 Women of Distinction, WFLA-Ch. 8 anchor Gayle Sierens, netted $50,000 for scouting programs.
Lee Woodruff, co-author of the bestseller In An Instant, enhanced the annual luncheon's reputation for top-notch guest speakers. Woodruff spoke of her husband Bob's ordeal when he suffered severe brain injuries from a bomb while reporting for ABC News in Iraq.
"Chutes and ladders,'' she described their life during his recovery. Her take-away message to 400 mostly female guests: Take time for yourself. You can't do it all.
Tampa Bay Heart Ball
Beloved for his cooking, charisma and charitable gifts, Frankie Marchesini was the perfect choice to receive the Heart of Gold award, said his friend Fred Meyer, who bestowed the honor at the Tampa Bay Heart Ball.
"I don't know anyone who could out give Frankie," said Meyer, who remembered that the retired restaurateur was hosting a charity dinner at his home the day he had a heart attack. Exuberant, Marchesini pinned tiny blinking red hearts on everyone at the American Heart Association benefit March 21, from the waiters to gala co-chairs Sid and Shelley Morgan, until A La Carte Pavilion glowed.
Emcee Stacie Schaible, WFLA-Ch. 8, got help from USF football coach Jim Leavitt in auctioning items, including three Black Diamond golf packages that sold for $1,500 each. An original Peter Max portrait commission, plus airfare to New York to meet the artist, sold to Fred and Debbie Rinde-Hoffman for $5,000.
Volunteers carried platters of little black gift boxes tied with pretty white bows, offered to guests for $250 each. They sold 33 boxes containing numbers corresponding to cool prizes such as Disney resort accommodations and a Fuji camera.
Before dancing to the Paul Vesco Orchestra, the 280 guests learned the $450,000 in proceeds from the $500-ticket Heart Ball would further the national AHA's "Mission: Lifeline" to advance treatment for the most deadly type of heart attacks.
Events
Saturday: Fashionollia '61, "Les Modes pour la Charite," hosted by Tampa Woman's Club; 10 a.m.; Doubletree Hotel, 4500 W Cypress St.; $50; (813) 839-7457.
Saturday: Fight for Life, black-tie gala and boxing matches benefits breast cancer patients at St. Joseph's; Morton Plant Mease and St. Anthony's hospitals; 6-11 p.m.; A La Carte Pavilion; $120 and up; (727) 667-3167.
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