Love was in the air

A big smile from Denise, who made the evening's decorations

"let me think about it"

"Hi there, welcome to the dinner dance"

Love was all around, thanks to our decorations chairperson, Denise Kowal, who is one of our newest Kiwanians and also the Founder & CEO of the Sarasota Chalk Festival.   Denise would not tell us what she had planned to do for table decorations, but instead wanted to surprise us.......she did.

Five figurines made of cellophane wrapping paper in various poses (see upper left, "the thinker") and to the left side (below) "the greeter", were crafted by Denise and friends - each one taking a day's labor and involving a number of her students.  Very lifelike, because they were originally created from the human form.  They were made by wrapping ladies (and one gent, on bended knee holding a ring) with the Saran clinging wrap, and then CAREFULLY cutting them out of the form, and giving each figure a few final turns.  Denise recounted how the only fatality was somebody's shirt tail, during the scissors surgery.

Denise was also gracious to allow us to put these remarkable table decorations up for auction, which resulted in our Kiwanis Foundation gaining an additional One Thousand dollars.  That and other auctioned items, plus the money earned during the Casino Party portion of the event will go to help local students in need, with grants and scholarships.   Ms Kowal, you are one of the faces of Kiwanis, and in this case provided five very lifelike bodies to help make Valentine's night memorable.

Oh, by the way - it was not a piñata, however one buyer mistakenly took my intro wrong when I said that there was something inside - which, of course, WAS true (but we released the model for good behavior).   Next year if Denise is willing, maybe we'll actually place a $100 bill in ONE of the figurines, but only one - bidding might be a bit more spirited that way.