Rule No. 1: The most important part ofgoing to a Hangar party is to find out ex-actly where the hanger is located at theVero Beach Airport.

The Children’s Home Society’s annualfundraiser, Rockin’ Vero Beach - Air ofMystere, start time was 6 pm and it wasalmost 6:30. Surely, there would be signs,balloons, arrows or some indicationwhere the party Hangar was located. Cell

phone calls made to friends at the eventto get directions went unanswered. Themusic was too loud. They were alreadyhaving a great time.

Then I looked in my rear view mirror,and realized I was not alone. Three othercars were in the same lost maze. Finallywe flagged each other down and con-vened to strategize. One couple even hadthe invitation with the directions, and

were still lost! Finally, we found it.What is it about Hangar parties? If all

the right elements are in place, they justseem to be a guarantee for success, andmake people feel like letting loose andpartying. This night was no exception.The minute I walked through the hangarentrance, I left the world of winding roadsbehind me and was transported to an at-

mosphere of total fantasy.The dramatic lighting made everyone

look like a movie star, acres of gauzy whitefabric fluttering in the breeze, dozens ofhuge chandeliers beautifully set aboveturquoise draped tables with 3 foot tallfloral centerpieces. It was dazzling.

The pulsating music made you feel likedancing the night away… on a floor, I

could not help noting, was not your typi-cal cement hanger floor but more like oneyou would see on a visit to the Taj Mahal.Off-white, smooth-as-silk, seamless withdozens of layers of epoxy, it was shinyenough to see your face in.

Splash on the Beach

Page 11Vero Beach 32963 / February 19, 2009

SEE SPLASH ON THE BEACH ON PAGE 12

Janet Vaines, Lloyd Elston

Diana and Rodger Pridgeon

Stephanie and Tim Womack

BY LINDA CLARKCOLUMNIST

Air of Mystere, and the Evolution of Dance

The beautifully designed, edgy-but-el-egant atmosphere of the interior was a

creation and collaboration betweenEvent Designers, Pam Shelton andPamela Tan, owners of the Big2Do, andMarta Schneider, Chair and the “drivingforce” behind this event and Barbara

Leigh, co-chair. Marta told me “I could not have done

this event without the the Big2Do girls.Barbara and I worked with the two ofthem and we were a great team. I knew I

could trust them to get the job done. Wehad tremendous camaraderie, and whatmakes it even more special is that theyare so on board with our cause and CHS.”

Beautiful and exotic “Mystere Girls”dressed in shiny spandex body suits hadjaw-dropping Neptune-esque “head-dresses” that were custom made for this

special evening. The “Girls” were weavingtheir way through the crowds, delicatelyholding trays of tickets for a “Chance orNo Chance” opportunity for guests topurchase.

The winner of this raffle would win aweekend at Palm Beach’s Brazilian CourtHotel and a round of golf and lunch forfour at The Breakers.

A hanger party is also a reporter’s andphotographer’s dream space. There’splenty of room to set up group photos,have access to everyone without fightingthe crowds in small spaces and you canreally see who’s there.

Page 12Vero Beach 32963 / February 19, 2009

Splash on the BeachThe Children’s Home Society fundraiser: Rockin’ Vero Beach - Air of Mystere

Georgia Irish, Alan and Lisa DefrancesTim and Tamara Cheney, Peter Jones, Marsha Sherry

Laurie Stewart, Lynn Potter, John Hendricks, Sandy Howe Ted and Sandra Howe, Tuny Hill

SPLASH ON THE BEACH FROM PAGE 11

We don’t care if you don’t like this window!

You see, we aren’t in the business to sell any particular window treatment. We’re in the business to please you.

That’s why we have pulled together what is probably more like 8,000 than 800 ways to dress up or down your window.

So if you’ve been thinking of doing or redoing your window in any style, any period, any color — or if you’d just like to see what the possibilities are — let’s put our heads together. The result could give you pleasure every day of your life.

Really Interesting Ideas in Decorating

Frank Lincoln Interiors5099 N. Hwy A1A, Vero Beach 231.1420

French Country Antiques

3245 Cardinal Drive, Vero Beach 231.5586

A window.

Photos: Mark Schumann

Shawn Marchetti, Tom Corr

I easily spotted Alistair and MarionKennedy, Paul and Jen Massey from Ray-mond James, Diane Burda from PrestigeTravel, Tony and Tuny Hill, Kathy Collins,Georgia Irish of Marine Bank & Trust,Tom Coor, of George E. Warren Corp. andhis wife Carol, Janet Baines, Sam andSusie Bell of the James Ford Foundation ,Sandy and Ted How, Eric and Judy Wetzig,Dave and Betty Hunter (there on behalfof Bill Bryant & Associates), Bill Kreinerand Gary Frazier of Marquis Insurance,Dale and Matilda Sorenson, Pat and CarolWelsch , the McCabes, the McCrystalsand Andy Taylor.

Sue McVay of Smith Barney was therewith her fiancé, Tom Whittington, a yachtbroker from Stuart. Sue has severalfriends on the CHS board and com-mented: “This is a wonderful organiza-tion. We want to get more involved. Tomand I are going to end up as a couple thatwill be helping children all over the Trea-sure Coast.”

Laurence Brooks, Executive Director ofthe Children’s Home Society, spoke withme about their capital campaign to raise$5 million for their new Youth Transi-tional Living Center. Planned to meethousing and educational needs for youngadults ages 18-23 who have been dis-charged from foster care and are left tofend for themselves, the new center willbe located next to Baines Hall. They are atthe $3 million mark and need to raise thebalance to make this happen.

We talked about the CHS adoptionprogram and that they are specifically fo-cusing on children over the age of fiveyears that need to be adopted. “This is the

age group we need to place, so that wecan significantly reduce the amount ofolder children growing up through thesystem,” Brooks told me. I shared with

him my vivid and powerful memory ofleaving the orphanage where I adopted

Splash on the Beach

Page 13Vero Beach 32963 / February 19, 2009

The Children’s Home Society fundraiser: Rockin’ Vero Beach - Air of Mystere

SEE SPLASH ON THE BEACH ON PAGE 14

Peter and Maureen Lee, Stan Orczyk Amber Clevenger, Barbara Leigh, Hala Laviolette

Jerrod Owen, Bill Kriener, Gary Frazier , Mitch Brown, Kathryn Ullian Alax Nall, Kelley Johnson, Dan Corrigan

Page 14Vero Beach 32963 / February 19, 2009

Splash on the Beach

Tony and Tuny Hill: Winners of Good Samaritan Award

my baby daughter in Zhaing Zhaing,China, and seeing all the older girls wav-ing from the building’s upper story win-dows who had never been adopted andwould be in that place until they wereadults.

Rodger Pidgeon, President of Corpo-rate Air, a full service aviation business atthe airport, donated the use of his hangarfor tonight’s event. As we chatted outside,he pointed out the two private jets thatwere spending the night outside to ac-commodate the party – one belonged toHanns Pielenz and the other was PatWelch’s Falcon 900.

Rodger grew up in a working class fam-ily outside of Buffalo. His dad worked forthe Ford Motor Company and whenRodger was 15, his mechanical drawingteacher, who was a pilot, invited him togo flying. “That was it,” said Rodger, whohas worked hard and become successfulin the aviation business. It made me real-ize how much impact a caring adult canhave on a child — to the point of shapingthe rest of their life — just by taking thetime to expose them to something thatmight interest them.

Rodger owns several hangars and flies

a Cessna 132. “This business has beenpretty good to me, and you never knowwho’s going to just fly in next.” He oftensees Bon Jovi as he swings by on his wayto Disney with his family, and has spottedCollin Powell, Pat Sajak Oscar de la Hoyaand John Havliceck.

Sat across from Allen and Lisa De-Frances during the dinner from Under-tow Restaurant, and next to Sandy andRon Rennick Jr. as Wes Davis began thelive auction. There were Sport FishingTrips, Ski Vacations, a Caribbean SeaCruise, a week in Nantucket, a quail huntat Long Shadows Ranch, and a getawayto Aruba, just to name a few.

Due to the generosity of many of theevent sponsors, all of the expenses in-curred in orchestrating The Air of Mystereevent were underwritten. This allowed100 percent of all money raised throughticket sales, raffle sales, silent and liveauctions, to go directly to help CHS’s pro-grams and, ultimately, the thousands ofabused, neglected and abandoned chil-dren in Indian River County.

-0-

Tony and Tuny Hill strike me as a veryconnected couple who truly work in con-cert and form a great team. They havestability and a sensibility about them, agreat sense of humor and big hearts. Andthis was a night all about hearts.

It was the Samaritan Center for Home-less Families 16th year to honor the con-tributions of outstanding volunteers anddonors in Indian River County. This year’sevent, held two days before Valentine’sDay at Holy Cross Parish Hall was enti-tled, “Give from the Heart.”

The event formally acknowledged theirefforts and contributions to so manynonprofit organizations in our commu-nity, and presented them with the “GoodSamaritan Award.”

Toby’s residential and commercial con-struction company, The Hill Group, is cel-ebrating its 25th anniversary this year,and was recognized in 2006 as the Out-standing Corporate Philanthropist by theAssociation of Fundraising Professionals.

Using the vast resources he has fromthe construction business, Toby hasmade significant contributions to the Hi-biscus Center, Habitat for Humanity andthe Environmental Learning Center, after

it was struck by lightning. Toby has served on a long list of non-

profit boards, including those of St. Ed-wards School, Special Equestrians andthe Busch Wildlife Sanctuary. He cur-rently is a board member for the IndianRiver County Chamber of Commerce anda big supporter of the Mental Health As-sociation. Tuny has also served on manynonprofit boards in Vero Beach and holdsthe Vero Beach Museum of Art, the Envi-ronmental Learning Center and the Edu-cation Foundation near and dear to herheart.

Speaking of hearts, as this evening wasgetting underway, each of the almost 200arriving guests was given a small redheart, to wear over his or her own heart,continually flashing as a reminder of thetheme of this special evening.

Tony and Tuny are an extremely likablecouple and have many good friends inthe community. Tonight during cocktails,they were flanked their many buddiesand colleagues who were there in theirhonor. I had to vie for position to get in aquick word with them before dinner.

Tuny grew up in West Palm and Tobygrew up in Orlando. They met in

Tim Maslin, Nicki Kent, Tasha and Aaron BowlesMaggie and Wayne Creelman, Bill and Nancy Curtis

Allison and Phil Barth, Robin and Brenda Lloyd, Randy and Candice MacMillan Richard Schlitt, Tonya and Wesley Davis