Sarasota Bay Parrot Heads come through for kids

Santa Claus and singer-songwriter, author and entrepreneur Jimmy Buffett would be proud of the Sarasota Bay Parrot Head Club for the effort they put forth to ensure that hundreds of needy children in Sarasota County will have a brighter and better Christmas.

These holiday efforts culminated on Sunday, Dec. 2 when more than 200 Parrot Heads (Jimmy Buffett fans) gathered at Sun-N-Fun’s Woodland Hall in Sarasota for their annual “Christmas in the Caribbean” holiday party and Toys for Tots toy drive.The area in front of the performance stage was packed with more than 50 bicycles, lined up in a U-shaped formation and surrounded by 10 tables covered with toys of every variety imaginable---soccer balls, basketballs, footballs, baseball gloves, dolls, cars and trucks, educational toys, scooters, pogo sticks, action sets, stuffed animals and much more.

By night’s end, there were enough donated toys on hand to nearly fill a mid-sized U-Haul truck, to be distributed by the Marines and Toys for Tots in Venice.

Attendees enjoyed an excellent buffet-style dinner catered by Sun-N-Fun. The drinks flowed and the dancers danced to the roots-rock sounds of Ted Stevens and the Doo-Shots---a band that oddly enough plays not a single Jimmy Buffett song, although they did bring their Buffett CDs to play on breaks, including Jimmy’s holiday classic “Christmas Island.”

During the first intermission, club President Dana Sochaki thanked Lakewood Ranch resident and Parrot Head club member Dave Lacy for single-handedly securing the donation of 27 bikes. “Rumor has it he was knocking kids off their bicycles in Lakewood Ranch,” Dana joked, before asking Dave to stand and take a bow and congratulating him for doing a “great job.”

The Big Award

During the band’s second intermission, Dana invited the club’s board members to join him onstage for the annual tradition of naming their Parrot Head of the Year. Addressing a room full of Parrot Heads, he said, “We looked at the list and talked about it, and there was one name I thought was a no-brainer this year … It’s a person who’s been in the club a long, long time … someone who I think is the most deserving person … I’d like everybody to give a big hand to Parrot Head of the Year, Patty Myles.”Upon hearing the news, Patty was overcome with emotion. Her eyes filled with tears as she approached the stage. Unable to speak, she embraced in a long hug with her daughter Shannon.

Patty’s husband (and club treasurer) Rich Myles stepped in to fill the silence, calling out in that booming voice of his signature Parrot Head cheer: “Hey, Sarasota Bay Parrot Head Club … in the honor of Patty Myles, what time is it?”

On cue, the Parrot Heads responded with their traditional response: “It’s time for a team drink!”

Shannon then took the microphone and said, “Ladies and Gentleman, I just want to say on behalf of Patty, who’s a little choked up at the moment, thank you to all of you. She couldn’t ask for a better group of family and friends to be here for her and she loves you all. The whole family loves you … Thank you very much.”

This was followed by Dana introducing L.J. and Mike, a pair of retired Marines from Manatee County. One of the two Marines addressed the crowd and said, “Hoo-Rah! … I am flabbergasted by your organization. This is unbelievable, you should be proud of yourselves.”

The Marine provided a brief history of the Toys for Tots organization: “Back in 1947, in California, Los Angeles, Major General Hendricks (no relation to this author) and a group of reservists got together and said, ‘We need to do something for the kids.’ They collected 500 toys and it was so successful they’ve been doing it ever since. Annually, over 200 million toys are collected and it’s all thanks to people like you.”

He concluded his remarks by saying, “I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Thank you for all you’ve done. Our goal is to make sure that every child has something under the tree for Christmas. It’s all about the kids.”

Rich decided it was time for another Parrot Head cheer, this time in honor of the Marines and Toys for Tots. The Parrot Heads gladly obliged with another team drink.

After reining in her emotions, Patty shared her thoughts while standing off to the side of the stage. “It was quite an honor,” she said. “I’m very happy and I’m overwhelmed.”

When asked what it takes to be Parrot Head of the Year, Rich said, “Patty has been a member of the club for 11 years and was the vice-president for 10 years. She brought the club a long way during that period.”

Sharing his personal thoughts on his wife’s accomplishment, Rich said, “I love it. I think she’s earned it. It’s been a long time coming. Anytime you’re a vice-president of any club that raises $30,000 to $40,000 a year for charities, it shows that you’re organized and that you can do it.”

The happy couple then wandered off to refill their drinks.

What's a Parrot Head Club?

Before the band started up again, Dana took a few moments to discuss the non-profit Sarasota Bay Parrot Head organization, saying, “We’ve been around for almost 17 years now. Our motto is ‘Party with a purpose.’ Everything we do is about raising money for charities. We have many different charities and causes---Alzheimer’s research, Relay for Life, Mote Marine, Save Our Seabirds, Miracle League---you name it. Whoever needs money we try to help them out.“Basically it’s a social club made up of Buffett fans and Parrot Heads who got together and raised money for charities they wanted to support. We have over 500 members from all over the country ---a lot of snowbirds and a lot of locals, a mix of both. I love these people, they’re a great group.”

He said the club donated $2,000 of its own money to this year’s toy drive. The rest of the toys were donated by club members who were asked to bring a bicycle or donated toy as their admission fee to the holiday party.

Dana estimated the value of the toys collected to be between $7,000 and $8,000. As for the more than 50 bicycles collected this year, Dana joyfully said, “This is the most we ever did.”

Club members pay a $35 annual membership fee. In addition to the many fundraisers the clubs hosts, club events include a monthly social, happy hour get-togethers at local watering holes and the seasonal “Tuesday on the Island” gatherings that take place on Siesta Key.

The club will host a Casino Night in February to raise money for The Wildlife Center of Venice, hoping to duplicate or exceed the $9,000 raised at last year’s event.

And when the main man himself, Jimmy Buffett, the supreme leader of the Parrot Head cult, brings his traveling musical circus to the area, the Sarasota Bay Parrot Head Club will be there to party with the undisputed king of "trop-rock" and Florida-flavored fun. “We get a bus and we show up en masse,” Dana said. “We do major, major tailgating … that’s one of the things we do big time.”

When it was pointed out that there were folks tailgating in the Woodland Hall parking lot before the holiday party commenced, the club president smiled and said, “Yeah, I might have had a little to do with that.”