"So what's this fundraiser called again?" Katie asked me as we drove down Southside Boulevard.
"Spring for the Arts!" I reminded her, "I went last year and had an awesome time. This fundraiser is like nothing you've ever seen before. I mean, it's got the food, wine and dancing that most fundraisers have, but there are things that set it apart. Some really big names come out to this event each year. Last year, Joanie and Russell Newton came, (be sure to google them) and so did the Haskells. They own Haskell Construction company."
"Oh wow," Katie responded, impressed, "What else makes this event so amazing?"
"Well, THE most amazing part of the evening will definitely be the live auction. Not all fundraisers have one. Tens of thousands are bid on incredible items like a party for 20 at the Luxury Suite in the Jaguars stadium, or a trip for four to California. Also, the silent auction is HUGE. There are probably a hundred items, all very unique and some very valuable. This event raises huge amounts of money each year."
"And all that money," Katie mused, "Where does it go?"
"To the Cathedral Arts Project. They are the charity the party is raising funds for. Its a really great organization that sponsors after-school twice weekly arts classes for needy kids. In fact, Cathedral Arts Project is Northeast Florida's largest provider of after school visual and performing arts education." http://www.capkids.org/
"Someone did her research," Katie sang.
I laughed as we pulled up to the complimentary valet right in front of the Deerwood Country Club. We hopped out of the car in our little cocktail dresses, barely able to contain our excitement. Right outside the entrance, a group of young school aged kids from San Jose Elementary Violin Class sat in rows of chairs, playing violins. They sounded great, I couldn't believe how talented they were!
We headed inside and checked in. We were each handed name tags, a program and a bid card. We headed straight over to the Jacksonville Magazine photo backdrop to have our pictures taken. I learned my lesson on this last year -- if you want your photo taken by Jacksonville Magazine, get it done early in the evening.
From there, we were each handed wineglasses by a handsome man in a suit and we headed to one of many wine tasting tables. There were so many tables set up with excellent wines to taste that we never had to wait to get a glass. Drinks in hand, we started to have a look around.
I went to this event last year, and one of the most striking differences from last year to this had to be the decor. The decor was of course lovely last year but this year... ohmigod it's almost impossible to describe. Beautiful green moss and bright violet orchids were EVERYWHERE. On the center of each table and at other various locations around the hall were these tall clusters of wood branches in vases. The branches were adorned with fresh orchids and hanging from the branches were tea light votives. The low lighting and the moss and orchids gave everything a romantic, "Garden of Eden" feel. The decor for the evening was done by Dawn Sinisgalli -- an interior decorator and wedding planner.
The crowd looked a bit larger than last year's crowd. It seemed there must have been several hundred people in attendance. The crowd consisted mostly of couples, and most people appeared to know each other, so there was lots of animated conversation going on around us.
As Katie and I perused the silent auction, we saw the usual gift baskets, cases of wine, artwork, and spa treatments. However, we also spotted several unique items, including a cooler on wheels that had built in speakers and doubled as an MP3 player, an autographed photo of Steve Spurrier, a three hour cruise for 12 in the Casa Mia Yacht (minimum bid was $1000), and a hunting trip for six at a local hunters lodge. My favorite item in the auction was a striking painting of the Jacksonville skyline done by many Cathedral Arts students, working on the painting in rotation for over a month. I grabbed one of the party guests and asked them to snap a picture of Katie and I with the painting.
While we were looking at the silent auction items, we ran into Kimberly Hyatt, a Presbyterian minister, and Executive Director of the Cathedral Arts Project. Soft spoken and sweet, with an obvious love for her work, Kimberly was a joy to meet. She told me a little bit about the good work the Cathedral Arts Project does, and why the Spring for the Arts Fundraiser is so important. "Cathedral Arts Project's classes reach over 1,000 public school students each week, teaching these kids skills they will need throughout their lives. Over the past four years, over 75% of these students improved their grades, behavior, communication skills, and their ability to express anger and handle conflict. There are literally thousands of children on the wait lists to get into these classes. The funds we generate from events like these make it possible to help these kids."
After chatting with Ms. Hyatt, Katie and I moved onto the food. We found an empty table on the lovely patio outside. The view from there was GORGEOUS -- it overlooked this huge lake surrounded by the lovely lush green golf course. The air was warm, with only a hint of cool breeze. Katie and I were grateful for the warm weather, since we'd decided to wear relatively short cocktail dresses.
Deerwood Country Club provided the food, and I'm sure this goes without saying, but the food was FANTASTIC. Among the goodies we sampled were garlic shrimp orzo, tender fillet of beef, black bean cakes with guacamole and sour cream, baked salmon with Asian ginger glaze, and salad with crumbles of goat cheese.
While we ate, Katie and I met Pepper Peete, the executive director of a great charity called First Tee of Jacksonville, and Brenda Titus, a member of First Tee's Board of Directors. First Tee brings golf instruction to at-risk kids that might never get the chance to learn the game otherwise. "The kids learn all their life skills through the game of golf," Brenda explained. http://www.thefirstteejacksonville.org/
"To see the change in the lives of these kids is so wonderful to watch," Pepper chimed in. "In fact, we've had several kids return to give back to the organization after many years, who are finishing up college, fluent in several languages, even heading off to med school. The thing I hear time and again from these kids is that the confidence, and respect for their environment that they learned learned in our programs has made all the difference in their lives."
Pepper and Brenda went on to tell me that in October, First Tee will hold their fourth annual "Taste of Golf" Fundraiser, First Tee's biggest fundraising event. "Several of Jacksonville's finest chefs and venues will bring some fabulous food," Brenda gushed, "Several local celebrities should be there as well -- it's going to be a great event!"
"I'll be there!" I promised.
As soon as we finished eating, we heard Charlene Shirk's voice over the microphone, so we hurried into the ballroom to hear her speak. Charlene used to be a First Coast News anchor, but in 2007 took a job as Director of Community Relations for the Players Club Championship. She was the emcee for the evening, and she was a natural-- confident, good at public speaking, and of course beautiful and charming. Her short hair was up in a sort of french twist and a she wore cute short aqua colored dress. She welcomed all the guests, plugged the upcoming Players Championship (May 3-9th) and even relayed a story of how the work of Cathedral Arts has inspired her.
"Whenever Kimberly Hyatt sends out Cathedral Arts Project correspondence, she always includes a picture of a student from the program with a work of art, or holding an instrument, or standing in a dance outfit. I recently received a picture of a little girl with curly strawberry blond hair holding this amazing painting of the Eiffel tower she had painted. I know the kind of environment this girl lives in each day, but in her face I saw such hope and such pride!" here Charlene's voice broke a little and flooded with emotion. "I put that picture on my bulletin board at work and each day, if I'm having a tough time at work, I take a deep breath and look into that little girl's face, and it gives me strength and inspiration to keep going."
Next Charlene introduced Mr. Russell Newton, an honorary chair of the evening, who presented a Guardian of the Arts Award to a representative from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. Mr. Newton was lighthearted and funny. He indicated Charlene Shirk and joked that he was trying his best to "keep up with a 21 year old cheerleader" while onstage. He quipped that his wife, Joannie had dragged him out to the event, and made fun of the fact that one of them was Episcopalian and the other Presbyterian. He also read a speech written by Kimberly Hyatt all about the ways Blue Cross had contributed to the Arts in Jacksonville.
Next Brian Sexton (Jacksonville Jaguars radio play-by-play announcer, often called "The Voice of the Jaguars") took the microphone and kicked off the live auction. He started out asking if anyone in the crowd would be willing to donate the cost of sponsoring one child in the program for one year -- one thousand dollars! I remember when I saw him do this last year, I was floored. He wasn't auctioning off any items here, just asking for a huge donation. Several bidders in the crowd pledged to do just that (including the Blue Cross Rep). It was pretty cool to watch. Then he dropped down the amount to $500, then $250, then $100. Lots of bidders pledged lots of money, even before Mr. Sexton started auctioning off anything. I thought that was really generous.
Speaking of amazing generosity, Mr. Sexton then announced that the first item up for bid in the auction, a party for 20 in the Fidelity National's Luxury Suite during the Indianapolis vs. Jacksonville game had already been bought by an anonymous donor. This donor had pledged $20,000 for the party and was going to give it to some members of the Navy! Then he went on to auction off the other items including an in-home dinner for 8 prepared by Bistro Aix chef Tom Gray, lunch with Jaguars player Maurice Jones-Drew and private tour of the stadium, a year's membership to Marsh Landing and Serenata Beach Club (retail value $100,000!) and a trip for four to Sonoma Valley Inn in Napa Valley. The live auction was really cool to watch with small bidding wars going on involving thousands of dollars, and most items going for over $5,000.
After Brian Sexton finished up auctioning off the live auction items, Charlene Shirk took the microphone again to make some announcements about the silent auction. By this time though, the friendly crowd had gotten even more friendly after lots of wine tasting and socializing, and Charlene had trouble talking over the growing chatter. "Don't make me shut down the bar!" she teasingly threatened.
Next the band KTG started playing fun party songs like "Brick House", Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" and even more modern stuff like "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas. (http://www.ktgentertainment.com/) I've heard them play at several local events, and they're fantastic. Lead singer, Teri Levine had a really nice voice -- she did an awesome job with Etta James' "At Last". Several couples came out to dance, and some of them had obviously been taking ballroom classes and were very talented. One of the band members, Roderick McMorries often walked out to the crowd encouraging people to come out to the dance floor and dancing with some of the ladies.
After watching the dancing for awhile, Katie and I headed into one of the small rooms adjacent to the ballroom to sample some amazing desserts. There were dark chocolate shells filled with cream and plump blackberries, strawberries and raspberries, and small key lime pie tarts among other goodies. I must have crammed several desserts into my mouth and they were all incredible.
Right around that time I spotted Charlene Shirk looking at a few of the silent auction items and socializing with friends. I was dying to meet her, but wasn't totally sure what to say, so I congratulated her on what a great job she'd done despite the chatter of the crowd. "The first year I emceed I got my feelings hurt about everyone talking!" She laughed, "This year, I just threatened to cut off the bar, even though I can't really do that..." Just then someone grabbed her to talk to her, so I didn't get a lot of time with her, but it felt cool just to be able to meet such a prominent local celebrity.
Eventually we decided to head home but agreed that it had been an amazing night. "Let's go to Spring for the Arts next year, too!" Katie gushed while we waited for the valet to bring my car around. "And since its a year away, that will give us enough time to round up eight thousand dollars so we can bid on a weekend in California!" she laughed.
"Oh definitely," I said as our car pulled up. I glanced over at the now empty seats where the young students playing violins had greeted us when the night began, and added "And we'll know our money is going toward a really worthy cause."
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