Conversation with Michael Garey

Michael Garey is chairing the Longboat Key Gourmet Lawn Party for the second year. With a record 36 restaurants participating, Garey hopes to net a record $80,000, which will be donated toward the Longboat Key Kiwanis Club’s scholarships and local children's charities.

Why did you become event chairman last year?

We felt we could reach more people with more technology, with the website, social media and other promotional aspects. We felt we could expand the event further than Longboat Key and St. Armands Circle. We now have participants from Bradenton, Anna Maria and Sarasota. I chair the event, but the success of it and the reason we’ve reached our goals is because of the great job by Kiwanis members and the community.

What is your day like during the Lawn Party?

We actually start the set-up process at 3 p.m. the day before and work until it’s done. Last year, we worked until 9:30 p.m. The day starts at 6:30 a.m., and I walk the grounds early and make sure everything from the night before is in place. Then I go into production mode. Steve Branham heads up the parking situation, Susan Phillips coordinates the admission process for 1,200 people, my wife, Catherine, heads the seating process in the tent, our restaurant chairwoman, Michelle Waldron, makes sure all the restaurants and beer and wine purveyors are ready to go, Brenton Cloud coordinates a team of volunteers, and my daughter, Jenna, helps record raffle sales. It’s my job to support the committee and wear an obnoxious green shirt so everyone can find me.

How will this year’s be even better than last year's?

This year, we changed the ticket prices up a little bit. Instead of tickets to the event being $25 or $30 and raffle tickets being $100, we combined them for $50. You can also buy a raffle ticket individually for $25. Every year, we had a huge demand for the event but not the raffle tickets. It was a big challenge to meet our raffle goals, so our course of action this year was to balance it, and we are ecstatic with event sales. Even with the price increase, we are at well over 1,000 tickets sold. We are anticipating a sellout at 1,200. We’ve sold more than 750 raffle tickets so far and have 2,000 total to sell. I think we’ll sell it all, but it’ll take a big push this week and at the event to pull that off.

What about the Lawn Party do you look forward to the most?

What I look forward to the most is the day going well and people having a great time. Then, we get our reward in August when kids come to breakfast and get their scholarship money. It’s a community effort, and I get way too much credit for it. So many people are involved in pulling this off. The town of Longboat Key, the support of the communities, the restaurants, the media and the Kiwanis volunteers are all reasons why we succeed. It’s a lot of work, but I do not go at it alone, and I’m grateful for everyone involved.

How has the event evolved over the years?

It has gone from a very nice Longboat Key-centric event held for 400 to 500 people to Longboat Key’s signature event with an expanded outreach that this year will have more than 1,200 attend. I was at the very first St. Jude Gourmet Luncheon in the Temple Beth Israel parking lot in the early '80s...The event outgrew its capacity there, and it’s in its fifth year as the Gourmet Lawn Party at the Key Club.

How are you filling the void without Edith Barr Dunn and her 50/50 raffle?

I’ll be sad without Edith, but we’re looking for the silent auction to fill that void. Bob Gault has done a great job with that component. We anticipate it’ll be a great success, and we have some amazing items, including a Team Renick free listing package, several weekend getaway trips, a Cannons Marina boat package and a few other great things.