Beacon fundraiser opens Dec. 3
The Beacon of H.O.P.E.’s 6th annual Holiday House of H.O.P.E., hosted at the historic Tarpon Lodge, will be held Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 3-5.
“We will kick off the event Thursday, Dec. 3, at 4 p.m.,” Elsie Stearns said. “Then at 5 p.m., Mr. and Mrs Clause will arrive ‘island fashion’ by boat at the docks of Tarpon Lodge. Last year hundreds of children were there to welcome Santa.”
“We have set up a ‘Holiday House’ workshop at Island Exchange Center,” decorator Carol Cassell said. “Jay Johnson was kind enough to offer us work space. This allows us room to accumulate holiday oriented items from the Beacon’s Attic. A number of the items we sell at the Holiday House come from the Attic. I begin going through their inventory in June and pull out holiday items we can re-purpose. Many of those items become part of our Holiday House.”
“Once again we will auction off our ‘artists tree’,” Stearns said. “This tree gives us an opportunity to show off the incredible talent of our local artists. The tree has over 200 hand-painted ornaments from our local artists. The Matlacha Art Association provided all the materials and decorated the balls. This is a ‘home-grown.’ one-of-a-kind tree that was very successful last year and will once again be auctioned off!”
Thursday evening’s featured author is D.L. Havlin. Havlin, the author of “Blue Water Red Blood,” “Cross on Cotton Creek,” “September on Echo Creek” and the recently released “Bully Route Home.” Friday’s guest authors are Gretchen Coyle and Deborah Whitcraft. Coyle and Whitcraft wrote “Inferno at Sea The Morro Castle.” Saturday’s guest author if John Mills, author of “The Hooker, the Dancer and the Nun.”
“This year we have a ‘Snow Man’ theme and Mel Meo has created a snow man with sunglasses for this year’s invitations,” Stearns said. “There is also a ‘family friendly’ menu as well as face painting, crafts and a special evening of story telling by Mrs. Tonya Player, songs from the Pine Island Eagle Choir and the United Methodist Church Chancel Chimes. Plus the rooms of Tarpon Lodge will be filled with Holiday shopping!”
Vendors include CW Fudge’s Chocolate Candyland, Mullethead Outpost, Sanibel Soul Jewelry, Friends of the Beacon Specialty Shop and Reel Chase.
Holiday House hours at Tarpon Lodge are Dec. 3, 4-7 p.m., Dec. 4, 5:30-9:30 p.m. and Dec. 5, 5:30-9:30 p.m.
The Tarpon Lodge is at 13771 Waterfront Drive in Pineland, near Bokeelia.
For more information about the Holiday House, contact the Beacon of H.O.P.E., 5090 Doug Taylor Circle, St. James City, at 239-283-5123.
An example of some of the items from last year’s Beacon Holiday House, right and left.