Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key nets about $1,600 on short-notice event

When Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key Club President Michael Garey asked for feedback on the club’s 50th anniversary brunch on May 15, the biggest qualm from members was that there was so much food available they couldn’t try it all. 

The club’s brunch brought in 165 diners and grossed a total of $5,410. Garey, who owns the Lazy Lobster where brunch was hosted, donated half of the money to the club, who then paid Garey for supplies he purchased. In total, the Longboat Key Kiwanis Foundation will take home about $1,600. This brunch will replace the former pancake breakfast, which Kiwanians hosted and cooked themselves. 

“We did a lot of work on the pancake breakfasts, and if we were lucky, we netted about $600,” club member Lynn Larson said. 

The brunch was planned on short notice, because Kiwanis member John Wild only realized in March that the club’s 50th anniversary was fast approaching. Garey got down to work as fast as he could, but wishes he could’ve contributed more time and planning efforts. There will be some changes next year, but the brunch will return. Money this year will go toward the foundation, but there may be a specific benefactor in the future. 

“I learned a lot as a restaurateur,” Garey said. “I've never really done a brunch here before, so that was a learning experience for me. A lot goes into it. How quickly tables turn is a key factor in how many people you can take, and we never did it before. So all that data and detail. It's going to make next year's brunch better.”

The second half of the meeting featured an impromptu speaker.

Jo Bell, a former Longboat Key police sergeant and longtime Longboater, originally came to the brunch hoping to reconnect with Kiwanis. He was the first recipient of the Kiwanis Club of the Keys’ Policeman of the Year Award in 1973, and Garey invited him to speak about Longboat Key back in the day. 

“The police station was at 501 Bay Isles Road (now Town Hall), we had gas tanks right there, the speed limit was 55 miles an hour bridge-to-bridge,” Bell said. “There was no stopping, no slowing down. … We were chasing the kids around just like cops do everywhere, just like I did back north.”