There are a lot of things to do on any given Saturday night in West Palm Beach.  I heard about a special event taking place at the local Eagles Club, (#4219) on Military Road, so I thought I’d stop by to see what it was all about.  For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Eagles, they are a Nation-wide, non-profit fraternal organization that started in Seattle about 125 years ago, and their motto is “people helping people,” because that’s what they do.  After covering over-head and operational costs, all proceeds collected at every Eagle Club is spread around to various charities.

Tonight’s event was to kick off ‘The Annual Sweet Heart Queen’ charity fundraiser series, which is a challenge to see which of the three candidates vying for the title can raise the most for her chosen charity.  The three candidates are Jessica Rheny, who has chosen the ‘Kid’s Cancer Foundation,’ Nancy Green is doing her event for ‘Best Friends,’ which is a surrendered pet shelter, and Bridget Manken who is raising funds for the ‘Special Olympics.’   

It works like this; each candidate does her best to raise funds on her own and in her own way over the course of several weeks.  A bake sale here, a yard sale there; it all adds up.  Each of the candidates also gets to host their own fundraiser event at the Eagles Club, and tonight was Jessica Rheny’s turn; I might add that Jessica was already off to a good start before tonight with several hundred previously raised for her charity.  The Eagle’s Club generously provides the room and use of the kitchen at no charge, so that every dime raised can go directly to the candidates’ charity.

Dinner was prepared on site and served to the roughly 3 dozen guests.  There were raffles for lots of donated prizes including gift baskets, scratch tickets, and several other items; there was a ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and prizes included everything from Jell-O Shots and Free Drinks to surprise packages, and a 50/50 raffle.  There was also a balloon/dart game that was set up, however I chose the route of caution and departed before the darts started flying.  

Jessica is also planning a Car Wash at the site tomorrow at $10.00 per car, and each of them will continue raising funds for their charities until the contest ends on February 16, 2013.  At that time, the candidate that has raised the most will be crowned ‘Valentine Queen.’ 

Over the next several weeks leading up to the close, Nancy Green and Bridget Manken will have their chance to fill the house and raise much needed donations.  In the end, no matter which of these fine young ladies takes the Crown, they are all winners, and their selected charities will certainly attest to that. 

While gathering my information I had a chance to meet and chat with some of the regulars; Pat Crocker, Deana and Brian Gettig, Bill Van Campen, Tammy Corselli, and a number of others.  Every one of them just real, down to earth people, doing their best to help each other; the kind of people that anyone would want as their next door neighbor, and it made for a very pleasant evening for this reporter and everyone present.

Growing up in Boston during the 60’s as I did, I have always been very well versed on Kennedy lore; and while I hadn’t thought about it in many years, I was very aware of the "Honey Fitz" and President Kennedy’s attachment to this beautiful motor yacht.

Fast forward to today.  In my wildest dreams, I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to report on the official "re-launch" of this iconic piece of American History used by one of the most intriguing presidents of the 20th Century, much less be aboard her for the event.  But I was there, walking the decks where the President and his family spent many happy times, and I had a front row seat as she embarks on the next chapter of her very colorful story.

If this ship could only talk!  Indeed, if ships docked at Rybovich Marina in West Palm Beach could merely talk amongst themselves out of reach of our hearing, every other vessel there could do a lot of boasting.  They might say things like, “…look at my sleek new modern lines,” “…I can travel around the world without refueling or restocking anything,” “…I was built for a famous family,” “…my on-ship 'garage’ houses many smaller craft worth fortunes on their own,” “…I have three elevators on board,” “…I was made from the best materials and most advanced technologies,” “…I can do top speeds in access of 40 knots,” and they could make lots of other claims as well.  

However, there is a fairly new, much smaller arrival sitting mostly unnoticed amongst them that has just finished undergoing a major refit; and if she could join the above conversation, she probably wouldn’t so as not to brag.  But if she did, her story would trump all of them and those 'sea queens,’ beautiful as they are, would have no choice but to bow in humility to even be in her presence.  

I imagine she’d say something like: 

“…since I was built in 1931, I’m ancient by ship standards; my career includes a number of years spent on the Great Lakes with original owner Sewell Avery of Montgomery Ward; I’m a veteran warship of the U.S. Coast Guard, having been fitted with guns and rocket launchers and proudly saw service during WWII patrolling the coast, I was then returned to 'civilian’ duty as a presidential yacht.”  

The Palm Beach Kennel Club and the Rooney Family have a well established reputation for generosity, giving back to the community, and for being a class operation.  On Saturday evening, they once again demonstrated that reputation by hosting a Charity Poker Tournament to benefit a number of groups to include The Autism Project, the Palm Beach County FAU Honors College, Potentia Academy, and the Pathway to Independence.

I spoke with Alexis Barbish who explained that it was a simple enough event with a $50.00 buy in.  The winner of the event will have a chance to win in the World Series of Poker Circuit Event hosted by the Palm Beach Kennel Club next month.  The winner of that event will walk away with a guaranteed cool million and possibly more, and we plan on being on hand to congratulate that winner and bring the story to our readers. 

She also explained that the Rooney Golf Foundation is preparing to host several other charity events in the near future including their 6th Annual 5K Road Race in April at their Abacoa location, and their 12th Annual Golf Tournament at PGA National in October.  

Additionally, when I spoke with Theresa Hume, I learned that the Rooney’s Golf Foundation helps with and hosts a number of other charities using their own facilities and staff, such as this Sunday’s Coalition for Independent Living event.  

For more information on these and other events, you may visit their websites for more by going to www.pbkennelclub.com and www.rooneysgolffoundation.org 

As you’ll remember, we visited the So. Florida Fair last weekend before it opened so that we could bring you a sense of what goes on behind the scenes, and since I really like fireworks, I decided to walk through again on Friday night after the rush of the afternoon opening.

Just as expected, everything had come together nicely.  None of the certain glitches of the set up were apparent; there was nothing but fun and families having a good time at an old fashioned County Fair.

There are Funnel Cakes, Kettle Korn, Donut Burgers, flashing lights, the mixed aromas of Cotton Candy and just about every sort of fried, artery clogging, delicious culinary delight one can imagine; I even saw ‘Rocky Mountain Oysters, (of which I will take a pass, thank you very much)! 

Maybe you like the dizzying spinning rides, the simplicity of a Ferris Wheel, the slow and steady pace of a tram to ride over and view the entire affair, or any of the other choices.  You might find it just as much fun to simply walk around, forget about life for a few hours and snack on an Ice Cream while doing some people watching and listening to the gleeful screams of kids from 5 to 95, or maybe check out the world’s smallest woman, smallest horse, and an array of oddities to be found in the attached Carnival.  There is even a ‘famous’ clown at the dunk tank deep inside the Carnival that just begs to be dunked in a vat of stuff from the petting zoo.