Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Furor threatens benefit for kids

Hillsborough Commissioner Ronda Storms objects to a strip club owner's sponsorship of the fundraising event.

By BILL VARIAN
Published November 12, 2005

TAMPA - Hillsborough Commissioner Ronda Storms is known for confronting things she considers improper, and doing it forcefully.

This time her intervention may cancel, at least temporarily, Auction for Angels, a charity to benefit poor and abused children set for next weekend.

Storms is upset that organizers asked strip club owner Joe Redner to be a sponsor and included his corporate logo on an invitation picturing a young girl. She called other sponsors to alert them.

Now one of two charities slated to benefit from the auction, A Gift for Teaching of Tampa Bay, in Tampa, has pulled out. And the head of the other is concerned that children might lose out due to the commissioner's latest crusade.

"I morally disagree with that type of business," said Jan Horn, executive director and founder of Blooming Place for Kids, in Clearwater, which raises money to send foster children to summer camp in Lithia. "But if that man wants to make a contribution to a charity that helps neglected and abused children, if that's what he wants to do with his money, then I commend him."

Storms said her problem is one of association between a charity event seeking to help children with a business that she feels hurts women. The girl is pictured above the logos of what are represented as four sponsors, including Joe Redner Enterprises. One of Redner's enterprises: Mons Venus strip club.

An invitation landed in Storms' mailbox Thursday, which is when she called the other sponsors, including the Tampa Bay Lightning and Wyndham Westshore Hotel in Tampa where the auction is scheduled for Nov. 19. Storms confirmed she asked representatives of each if they knew with whom their names were being associated.

"This girl is a very little girl," Storms said. "It looks to me in the picture like she still has her baby teeth. Anytime it looks to me like a child is being exploited, and in my opinion associating a child with the adult entertainment industry looks like they're being exploited, then I'm going to address that."

Storms said she is further disturbed that Redner is being allowed to purchase credibility with marquis treatment in the event.

Redner, who also has a fitness club and various real estate holdings, expressed outrage in a sometimes profanity-laden rant. What difference does it make if he contributes and his corporate logo is depicted on a charity invitation, he asked.

The only one drawing the association is Storms, he said. And he said the only ones taking a hit from her involvement are children who need it most.

"I'm dumbfounded and speechless," said Redner, who has clashed repeatedly with Storms over his involvement in adult business. "This is the mentality I've seen in this woman all along: "If you cross me, I'm don't care what I've got to do, I'm going to get you.' "

Redner said he contributes to many other groups, including Joshua House, the Police Athletic League and the Shriners Hospital.

He made a $500 donation and agreed to purchase a $500 table at next week's auction organized by Imago Charities Inc., an affiliate of Imago Magazine, a monthly magazine in Dunedin that chronicles bay-area events and personalities. Imago representatives say this would be their fifth annual auction for children's causes, and others have gone off without a hitch. This year they expected to raise $30,000.

Then Imago owner and publisher Adrienne Davis began receiving calls from the announced sponsors Thursday saying they had been contacted by Storms. Davis called the two charitable beneficiaries to notify them about the commissioner's voiced concerns.

"Imago, and Imago Charities, is not a political entity," said Norm Roche, Imago's editor. "(Davis') first question was "Who is Ronda Storms?' and then "What did I do to her?' "

Imago's editor, Norm Roche, said A Gift for Teaching decided to withdraw. It gives free school supplies to poor children and schools with large numbers of poor children.

A Gift for Teaching receives a $50,000 grant from the Hillsborough government each year, and has raised more than $1-million in its nearly three years. With little knowledge of the organizers of the auction, and concerns being raised, the charity's leadership thought it best to bow out.

Sue House, board chairwoman of the board of A Gift for Teaching, said the organization doesn't want to get the reputation that "it doesn't matter who you get money from as long as you get money."

Roche also said Wyndham Westshore withdrew its sponsorship. With invitations already out that now misrepresent the beneficiaries and at least one sponsor, he said it will be difficult to go on as planned.

"Frankly it has crashed," he said. "It's a matter of, now we've lost a sponsor, and we've got a PR issue where there's a shadow on the integrity of Imago and we need to fix it."

However, there appears to be confusion.

Wyndham Westshore general manager Marcia Dmochowski said the hotel has never considered itself a major sponsor of the event. Imago was given a two-night stay at the hotel as a donation for the auction, Wyndham's standard offer for such events. Imago is paying regular prices for the ballroom and food, she said.

As part of a standard contract, she said, Imago was supposed to let hotel personnel review any materials for the event that depicted its logo, and that did not happen. So when Storms called to ask her if she knew Joe Redner Enterprises is a sponsor, she asked Imago and voiced concern.

Just the same, she said Wyndham is not asking for invitations to be reprinted, or rescinding its donation. Dmochowski said she hopes the auction will still take place there.

"Everybody should be able to move forward to make this a success," she said.

Lightning president Ron Campbell, who fielded Storms' call, could not be reached for comment Friday. But team chief operating officer Sean Henry said Lightning officials were also surprised they were called a major sponsor after donating a gift basket of hockey souvenirs for the auction.

The episode may prompt team officials to ask more questions about charitable donations, but the event is in line with other team philanthropic efforts, and they have no plans to withdraw, Henry said.

Both Henry and Dmochowski denied that Storms requested or demanded any action of them. Henry said Campbell told him Storms did caution him to take a long, hard look at those the team associates with.

It doesn't matter how Storms put it, said radio personality Jack Harris, who is scheduled to serve as an emcee at the auction along with his two co-hosts on a morning show on 970-WFLA.

"That's pure intimidation, anyway you look at it," said Harris, wondering if she would have objected to ABC Liquors or Hooters restaurant being a sponsor.

Storms said she didn't tell anyone whether they should participate, but simply drew attention to Redner's role. She said she finds it curious that major sponsors didn't know they were sponsors, and wonders why an organization would jeopardize the reputation of its event for $500 from Redner.

"What if I had gone to this event," said Storms, known for her campaigns against the adult industry. "That would have been a story in and of itself. There would have been stories that said I attended an event sponsored by the adult entertainment industry."

[Last modified November 12, 2005, 01:02:11]