Thank you from the Mango Queen
To the Editor:
I would like to thank the greater Pine Island community for their tremendous support of my beginning reign as Mango Queen. Thanks to Charlene Russ for having the wonderful foresight to nominate me and to the hard-working Chamber of Commerce board of directors for electing me Queen. I hope that I went above and beyond your expectations!
Thank you to Scott Player for being my chauffer in the Fourth of July Parade — I truly felt like a queen riding in your red convertible! And thank you to Jim Griffiths for his creative thinking and to Wayne Reed for the use of his golf carts (did you know he has an airport for sale?). Thanks as well to previous Queen Tonya Player and perpetual King Richard, for helping me make the transition from civilian to royalty easier.
A very special thank you to Leoma Lovegrove, who sponsored me as queen and designed my vibrant wardrobe. Her endless ideas and continual vigor are infectious and energized me on a daily basis. I am thankful for her talent, her business skills and her promotional insight, as well as for her friendship. She makes me feel beautiful inside and out.
Thanks as well to all of my friends and my customers who supported me, many of whom fall into both categories. The gifts, the pictures, the hugs, the smiles and the laughs that occur daily in the deli, all in response to my role as queen, made me so happy that I was able to take on this role. Long live the queen!
And of course, thank you to my husband, Chris, who worked, without complaint, to hold down the deli while I was off running around with a tiara on my head and mangos painted on my butt. You’re a great cook, a wonderful man, a perfect husband and my best friend. You’ve been my king from the first day I met you!
Robin Lilly
2009 – 2010 Mango Queen