Strutters celebrate this year's parade with big party

The Mangoheads held a party last night to celebrate this year's King Mango Strut, to be held Sunday, December 26. The raffle prizes were drawn -- there were 85 of them! Everything was given away from the grand prize, a Clipper Cruise, worth over $5000, won by Nathan Kurland (shown with his lady Cecilia) to a lasagna pan, won by Gail Baldwin. At left, Antoinette Baldwin prepares the entries, putting them in the big drum. They were chosen by a couple of kids chosen from the audience.


The crowd filled the center and back rooms at The Grove Spot, it was a very well attended event. The prizes took about an hour to be called and people had a good time with that, there were lots of laughs, especially when bald people won prizes at hair salons.


Barbara Lange, left and Petra Sampery, both won prizes. Barbara won a $100 gift certificate to Le Bouchon restaurant; Petra won a few prizes, including a set of yoga classes worth $250.00. At right, Don Howe won a $430 ring donated by H&H Jewels, who in total donated about $1000 worth of prizes. Rick Jenkins won a $640 pearl necklace donated by Clearly Creative Jewelry.


Jane Decker, with the JCI's sold t-shirts. They will be selling them on Strut day along the route. They go for $15 for short sleeved shirts and $20 for long sleeved shirts, caps are $15. Joel Krieger, shown right, won a $55 massage at Aruj Salon; Michelle Niemeyer won a $75 gift certificate to Jaguar. There were lots of restaurant certificates, the village restaurants were very generous. I won a $50 gift certificate to any of the shops in the Engle Building in the center of town, there were 10 of those, which was quite generous of them.


The Will Thomas Band performed live and people danced to them late into the night. It was a great party for a great event and everyone is ready now for the big event on December 26.