|
Christmas was celebrated a bit early for
the Caloosa Winnies this year! With beautiful Florida weather 26 coaches
traveled to Oak Haven RV Resort near Arcadia, FL for the weekend of
November 29th – December 2, 2012. This is our 6th year at
this park in December and it’s such a great park!
George & Hilary, the managers, are always terrific to work with
us as well as their residents!! The recreation hall was beautifully
decorated by the park residents and we were happy to enjoy their work!
Co-Hosts for the weekend were Jim & Marg Carney, Bill & Doris Palmer,
Nick & Ginny Sanborn.
Thursday at 4:00pm the group gathered for
Happy Hour, followed by a Chicken dinner with all the members bringing
dishes to share. As usual, GREAT food with GREAT people! Our traditional
Ice Cream Social was held at 7:00pm and the residents of the park were
invited to join us. After
all the sundaes were consumed, we began playing Bingo! Bud Swift was our
caller and the games were fun and winners evenly split – half the games
were won by Caloosa’s and half by the residents.
Joining us this weekend were new members
Ed & Carolyn Thomas, and guests Don & Linda Levine, Bob Houdek and Joyce
Hicklin. There were warmly
welcomed at Happy Hour!
Friday morning bright and early the hosts
were preparing pancakes to serve at 8:30am. After clean up was finished
we were off for a day trip to visit the exclusive island of Boca Grande.
This is a very quiet retreat for the residents there with old Florida
flavor! Shops, restaurants, beaches, and lots of history from the old
railroad days just ready for us to explore! We visited the 100 year old
Gasparilla Inn which is beautifully maintained, and the place the
Presidential Bush Family gathers over the Christmas holidays every year.
We had lunch at the Boca Grande Marina Eagle Grille which was a
delightful place with gorgeous views of the Gulf of Mexico. After more
exploring of the lighthouse and reading
about the history there it was time to return to Oak Haven.
Happy Hour/Heavy Hors D’Oeuvres began at
5:00pm at the Rec Hall! This was more like a meal than snacks! We have
the BEST cooks in our group! After the food disappeared we had a team
Christmas Trivia game. There was a tie between 2 teams, and the winners
were: Team 4: Bud Geng, Carolyn Thomas, Chris Ross, and Ginny Sanborn.
Team 11: Corinne Wightman, Frank Cipolla, Linda Levine and Doris Palmer.
Saturday morning was our Potluck
Breakfast – again with fantastic food to share! At 10:00am, President
Corinne Wightman called the business meeting to order and proceeded with
about an hour of business. During the meeting Corinne welcomed Don &
Linda Levine as they have joined our chapter, and also Bob Houdek and
Joyce Hicklin also decided
to join us! We are delighted to have these great people as members! At
the conclusion of the meeting a SkyMed presentation was done by Dorothea
Adams for those interested in the service.
The rest of the day members spent time
visiting, shopping, and enjoying the beautiful weather. At 4:00pm it was
time for Happy Hour, followed by a Ham dinner prepared by the hosts.
With the GREAT side dishes the members contributed, we had another
wonderful dinner.
At 7:00pm it was time for our exciting
“Pass The Buck Auction”. Members were asked to bring a package of
something – wrapped – to be auctioned to the highest bidder with the
proceeds going to our charity, Joshua House which is a home for abused
children. Our auctioneer, Mike Sofarelli was aided by his “elves”,
Charlie Zucker, Bud Swift and Don Levine. Such a team – and the laughter
was so loud at the antics of this team of guys! For about 2 hours we
laughed, opened packages and had so much fun! 2 members decided to make
additional donations to Joshua House to MATCH what the club raised!
THANKS to Frank & Diane Cipolla, Walter & Joan Lanagan for their
generous offer! It was heartwarming to also know that members who were
not able to join us for the weekend also sent donations to be added in
to the totals. Our grand total raised including all donations was over
$5,348! Special thanks to all our members for such wonderful generosity!
AND we had such great FUN!!
Sunday morning everyone met for our
traditional get away day breakfast – donuts, bagels, coffee & juice.
Many members pitched in to make sure the Rec Hall was left as we found
it before we packed up to leave.
Submitted by: Nancy Miller
|