Black Tie & Tales

+ Hometown hero
Every time you walk or drive over the Ringling Bridge or admire it from afar, you have Gilbert Waters to thank. The bridge has become a Sarasota landmark and part of our day-to-day existence, but the process of getting it approved and built was long and tough. Waters started it and stuck with it to the finish.

Waters enjoys a glorious view of his accomplishment through the windows of his home on Golden Gate Point and now on one of its walls. His wife, Elisabeth, commissioned a painting by Craig Rubadoux, a close friend whose work the Waters have long collected. She then invited the artist, Sheila Moore, the owner of the Allyn Gallup gallery that represents him, friends and family for an afternoon reception March 15. The party was also the debut for three photo portraits of Waters shot by Barbara Banks in her studio. “A thousand words” doesn’t begin to describe them.

At the reception: Gil’s daughter Robin Waters and Elisabeth’s son Boris Schaerf, his wife Manuela, and best-dressed-by-grandma-baby Leni from Vienna. Among the locals: Ed and Shelley Sarbey, Heather Dunhill and Ted Meekma, Ina Schnell and Dr. Arthur Ankowitz, Felice Schulaner and Dennis Rees, Alfred Rose, Margaret Wise, Katie and Peter Hayes and many neighbors.

+ AJC: same message, different ears
David Harris, the eloquent American Jewish Committee executive director, has visited here frequently over recent years, each time delivering a similar message about AJC’s mission of global Jewish advocacy. His most recent visit was March 22 for the presentation of the 2015 Human Relations Award to Alfred and Jean Weidner Goldstein. Suffice it to say that recent acts of anti-Semitic terrorism have given his message new meaning and impact. And it was driven home even more forcefully when Alfred, in accepting his recognition, shared that his granddaughter had personally experienced anti-Semitism while traveling recently in Poland.

The seriousness of the AJC mission was balanced on the lighter side by the respect, warmth and affection that the assembly showed for the local AJC organization and the honorees. Harris said that the West Coast Florida regional office is AJC’s most successful in the country relative to market size — and that he can’t say no to Regional Executive Director Brian Lipton. Alfred, who has not one, but three honorary doctorates, started his acceptance comments with the same words he used at his Bar Mitzvah. His wife, Jean, evoked a powerful response by likening the loss of her country, Rhodesia, to the struggle for Israel, in comments that regional AJC Board President Anne Virag said, “Tied the whole evening together in a beautiful bow.”

+ Tidbits
“We’re Chanel from head to toe”… that’s how Sally Schule described what she and Saks’ new General Manager Terri Najmolhoda were wearing at the AJC event March 22 … Who wrote the lace memo? … Just about everybody else was wearing lace in one form or another, all of them as beautiful as they were au courant. Ladies in lace included Teri Hansen, Deb Knowles Kabinoff, Flora Major (hers was crocheted), Marie Monsky, Diane Roskamp, Mary Anne Servian and Carol Siegler … Standout hand-out  … The one to beat is the special edition, eight-page comic “Captain Creative and the Imaginator” created by instructor Gary Barker for Ringling College of Art + Design’s “An Evening at the Avant Garde.” President Dr. Larry Thompson and his wife, Pat, carried it when they made their ceremonial entrance at the March 21 event and it was presented to guests as they departed …

+ Black Tie Affair
3rd annual Blue Ties and Butterflies
Benefiting: Child Protection Center
When: 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 15
Where: Michael’s On East
Chairs: Donna Koffman, Peg Roberts and Nikki Williams
Tickets: $175
Info: Call 365-1277