On the Towners are in the thick of holiday hustle and bustle, none more than the Christmas Belles, who have been cooking up a flurry and gathering donations for the Christmas Toy Shop.
Donors filled several vehicles with children's gifts Dec. 5, then went into the St. Petersburg home of Mark and Marianne Mahaffey, which accommodated a merry throng of women.
The Belles spend hours preparing the goodies for the annual midday graze: casseroles, gelatin salads, trays filled with tiny sandwiches and mountains of sweets.
Thanks for all those treats go to Mary Wyatt Allen, Marion Ballard, Lynn Cox, Tina Douglass, Dawn Fisher, Ashley Gairing, Kally Harvard, Rosemary Hempel, Susan Hicks, Judy Holland, Shannon Knowlton, Anne Long, Laurie Lowe, Evelyn Moorefield, Lynell Owen, Carol Piper, Ardith Rutland, Nancy Rutland, Iris Salzer, Betty Shamas, Judy Stanton and Patsy Wheeler.
Sharon Jackson, the toy shop president, greeted guests alongside Santa. The jolly old elf wore sunglasses, and I couldn't see his face for the shades and the hair and the beard, but he sounded a lot like Pete Gairing. He and his assistants will be dispatched soon enough to make sure that needy children have gifts for the holiday.
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If there is a more competitive event than the annual "Create Your Own Gingerbread House" competition to benefit the American Red Cross, I'm not sure I want to be around to witness the spoils.
The Don CeSar Beach Resort & Spa, host venue for the Dec. 4 event, supplied premade gingerbread structures plus chef's toques, plastic aprons, icing, pastry bags, star tips and construction basics such as candies and pretzels for the contest. Participants were allowed to bring additional materials. Most did, some in wheeled luggage.
As frosting and other sweet stuff flew, champagne fueled the creative surges, and energetic music helped intensify the activity.
Dick Crippen, executive director of the Rays of Hope Foundation, was master of ceremonies, and Karol Bullard and Mary Critchfield were co-chairwomen.
Yolanda Fernandez of WFLA-TV; Jen Holloway, Bay News 9; Perry Iannaconi, an interior designer; Barry Spaulding, executive chef at Salt Rock Grill; and Eric Neri, executive chef at the Don, were judges, as was I. It was a tough field, and we decided on these winners:
Sweetest house, Lenne Nicklaus-Ball, St. Pete Beach; most original, Mary Potter, St. Petersburg; most fun, Patty Gassner, St. Petersburg; most traditional, Karen Whitley, Pinellas Park; best in show, Brooke Bowman, Sarasota.
The best theme award went to the holiday seasons team organized by Alice Rimel of St. Petersburg, the second consecutive win for that group.
Cheryl LaMar of Clearwater received the people's choice award.
Elves helping to organize the event were Sandi Averitt, Sue Brett, Michelle Bullard, Debi Burns, Kristen Chambers, Marilyn Dowie, Angeles Ferlita, Laura Gilmore, Pam Horvath, Charlotte Kendall, Jane Randall Kirby, Betsey Lurie, Tina McDonough, Leslie Nink, Andrea O'Hara, Mary Shuh, Edie Spies, Heidi Thomas-Kirschke, Toni Walsh, Peggy Weniger, Connie Whitehead, Brenda Whitman, Andrea Winning and Diane Winning.
Blessings on the cleanup crew who had to remove icing, glitter and other sticky stuff from hotel carpets and chairs.
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Northshore, the 1927 Italian Renaissance house with a stunning view of the bay, was filled with holiday decor and a warm crowd Dec. 7 for the Museum of History guild's candlelight celebration.
Dr. Curtis and Julie Songster, the owners, are downsizing and joining other cliff dwellers in St. Petersburg's downtown condominiums. They received visitors and were generous with details of the house's past.
Louis Alexander, a paper company magnate from Wisconsin, had the structure built and was host to luminaries such as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison as they made their way to their winter homes in Fort Myers.
The spacious structure features the work of master craftsmen and artisans who worked on the Don CeSar and Vinoy hotels, including hand-laid flooring and hand-painted Chinoiserie walls, and touches that were unusual for the era, like built-in closets and spacious baths.
Chairwomen for the event, a fundraiser for the museum, were Mary Wyatt Allen, Catherine McGarry, Sally Poynter and Ann Taylor.
Olympic Catering of Tampa prepared the food.
Carole Merritt, Realtor for the property, and Coldwell Banker Real Estate of St. Pete Beach sponsored the benefit.
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Speaking of impressive homes, Bill and Kathy Stover opened their waterfront Italian villa in St. Petersburg on Dec. 3 for a holiday gathering of the Collectors Circle of the Museum of Fine Arts. The organization raises money to buy art for the museum.
Shuttles from the museum brought guests to the residence, which has limited on-street parking.
Cocktail buffet fare came from Luigi's in Tampa.
Bill Stover, wearing a red jacket, was bartender for the evening. He loves doing that, he said, because he gets to meet everybody at the party and have a conversation with each guest.
Great idea.
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The Pinellas County Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on Dec. 4 honored Gene Patterson, who is editor emeritus of this newspaper, presenting him with the Gardner W. Beckett Jr. Civil Liberties Award.
The evening news team at radio station WMNF received the Irene Miller Vigilance in Journalism Award.
"We continually have to press back the curtain of repression," Patterson said, accepting the award on behalf of the Atlanta Constitution, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for his columns heralding civil rights, and the Washington Post and St. Petersburg Times, where he later was an executive.
"You may not win them all," he said. "There are more important things than winning. You fight the (battles) others won't."
Ray Arsenault presented the Beckett award and memorial remarks about Perkins Shelton. Maria Vesperi presented the Miller award. Nigel Watson remembered the late Bill Hafling; Adrien Helm, the late Larry Hyman.
Paul Pohlman presided at the dinner, held at Banquet Masters II, Tampa Bay Conference Center, Largo.
- Mary Jane Park can be reached at 727 893-8267; fax (727) 893-8675; e-mail park@sptimes.com and P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.
