Twenty Years of Service

The Edgewater Historical Society celebrated Twenty Years of service to the community of Edgewater in grand style at the Edgewater Beach Apartments poolside room on April 18th. This was planned and presented by a group of volunteers who worked for several months to get everything together. The highest thanks goes to Jere McCormick, who stepped up to present a wonderful dinner menu. Also serving on the committee were Lori Lynch, Kathy Gemperle, Betty Mayian, Sandee Remis and Elisabeth Szegho. On board to help with everything were Lori Lynch, Tom Murphy, Dave Gemperle and Susan Darnell. Stepping up for some special help with the dinner was Sylvia Lynch, who loaned her own oven for keeping the food warm.

The décor for the event featured, on each table, yacht signal flags that were made up by the students at Peirce school. Also part of the décor were larger yachting flags and a copy of the original Yacht Club Menu from the Edgewater Beach Hotel, donated by Marie Hopkins. There was even a gang plank to use to enter the dining area. The diners were met at the front entrance by the familiar faces of Betty Mayian, Linda Komosa and Evangeline Mistares, who was responsible for selecting the EBA for this gala event.

The Edgewater Historical Society is thankful for the donations to the event from Mark Palermo, Mike Roper of Hopleaf and Nancy Schroeder and Larry Ebert; the 7-11 on Foster Ave., J&D Liquors, Andersonville Wine and Liquors, Hollywood Pantry and Marie Hopkins. And tending bar were Bill and David deFuniak.

A special part of the evening was the Silent Auction, which was presented by Sam Fazio and Andy DeFunyak. The interest in the silent auction was high and, of course, there was some competitive bidding to keep things going. The Edgewater Historical Society presented a special award to Sam and Andy in thanks for their years of running this part of the event.

The event was a celebration of Marie Morrisette’s life, with a special part of the slide program featuring some of her family pictures, thanks to Marie Hopkins. Jim Pletz set up the program which ran on a screen most of the evening. Jere McCormick, Jim Pletz and Tom Murphy helped Kathy Gemperle with the technical part of that program. Thanks to Larry Rosen for taking photos of the evening. Keeping everything under control and on schedule was our commodore, Jim Pletz, who filled the announcements with nautical language and puns.

Then, at the end, we had the cutting of the Twentieth Anniversary cake, which was completely devoured by the happy crowd. So thanks to everyone who worked on the event. Thanks to everyone who attended the celebration. Now onto the challenges of the next twenty years!