Irish Dancers at Pot o' Gold Dinner

The Sarasota Herald recently reported the increased diversity of our community is making this a much more interesting and vital place to live.

Apparently, it’s news people respond more positively to variety than homogeneity.

I am always bemused by these collective “a ha” moments but then I never spent much time in Sun City, either. (For those far sighted readers please note; I wrote Sun City, not Sin City).

Diversity is something we are seeing more of at the Squadron and I for one think it creates a more interesting and vital place to be like changes happening in our community at large.

Just consider in the last several weeks we were visited by The Water Tribe, a hard core group of nautical enthusiasts from the Pinellas/Hillsborough area, we held a dynamically successful Mid Winter Regatta pulling from 11 states and 3 countries, we had over 30 participants in The Pot O’ Gold Regatta who were then entertained by International caliber Irish youth dancers while feasting on corn beef and cabbage and for the second year in a row we were visited by The Phoenix Academy.

This group of middle school kids, led by science teacher and member Sue Forrest once again spent Swiftmud grant money to improve the scenery at the Squadron while practicing Florida Friendly and sustainable landscaping. Have you seen the frangipani from their work last year coming in to full bloom? It was karma having the kids back to see the results of last year’s labor and work again for our mutual benefit.

Looking forward we have our first annual Classic and Crafted Boat event Saturday and in April an egg hunt for kids to celebrate Easter, a Sailmonster sponsored pig roast, the Rainbow Regatta and more.

I could use this space to provide updates on our dialogue with the State regarding the mooring field, I could share some recent member complaints regarding parking challenges, I could even elaborate on conflicting short term goals of various Board members.

But it’s late March and the wind is blowing. And if you haven’t been to the Club lately you might be surprised how diverse it’s becoming.

We can talk business later.