When Fiends Have Fun

I'm on the board of the Friends of the Mound House, the first board I've ever served on. Our purpose is to raise funds for the Mound House, a historic home on Fort Myers Beach that sits on Estero Bay. It's the site of an ancient Calusa Indian shell mound and, in the not too distant future, the property will also house an upscale archeological exhibit.

However, because the efforts to save this home were at odds with the interests of some in our community, there are likely those who refer to us as the Fiends of the Mound House.

But I think these folks must be having a hard time hanging onto that. Especially after Saturday night and our Art Under the Stars event.

Our auction featured 27 participating artists with additional art for sale. Close to 100 guests wandered through the rooms of The Mango Street Inn looking at fine art while listening to acoustic guitar. All were pleased with the wine and imported beers, the cheeses, and the chocolate covered pineapple. I believe it's common knowledge that only the funnest of people serve a delight such as chocolate covered pineapple. 

It was so much darn fun I hated to see the evening end! I even bought a piece of art! I'll share more on that Wednesday. I feel certain all on our little island must now be thrilled we exist.

As we were hanging the show, one of our wild afternoon storms rolled in. This respite from the humidity made it necessary to turn up the music and dance as we worked through each room at the inn. Afterward, low and behold, a magnificent rainbow put in an appearance, one of the most brilliant I've seen in years. I don't think you always get quite so much purple in your average magnificent rainbow. 

Was that a positive omen for our event? All cried amen...and danced a few minutes longer. As you can plainly see from the picture of myself with Sheila Elsea and Babs Snyderman, when fiends are bent on fun and success, there's no stopping them.

To learn more about the Mound House, visit www.moundhouse.org. 

To learn more about The Mango Street Inn, visit www.mangostreetinn.com. Dan Andres, who owns the inn with his wife, Tree, took the rainbow picture. 

FYI, in the early summer I donated my fashion show, The Stories My Clothing Can Tell to our cause. To see some of the gowns and the beauties who wore them, paste this link into your browser:
http://www.laurienienhaus.com/fashionpage.htm