The Civilized Life in Sarasota: WRC's Renaissance Luncheon

The Women's Resource Center's (WRC) Renaissance Luncheon always has a terrific turnout, but this year they broke records with 650 fabulous women and a few brave men attending at the Ritz Carlton. As you can see by the photos below, everyone was in their bright spring colors - very pretty!

The luncheon really is an all day extravaganza. I am sure everyone involved is totally exhausted by the end of the day! They really did a fabulous job though. Everything seem to run like clockwork. Starting at 10:30 AM, the boutiques are all set up in the entry way, or what do we call it - grand foyer, big hallway, holding pen? Whatever it's called, it looked like lots of shopping was going on there.

A performer from the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe opened the luncheon and was charming in her Josephine Baker mode, as she not only sang several songs beautifully and powerfully, but she also made several costume changes right on stage! It was quite remarkable AND entertaining!

Executive Director Janice Zarro introduced a mission video, which was quite well done. It seems like everyone's videos were well done this year. It really gives you a clear picture of the programs and the successes of the organization. It is very interesting to me how many women the WRC touches and how it crosses all socio-economic lines. The theme for the luncheon was "the reinvention of self" and you could see that in several personal stories in the video. An "ask" was then made. Two anonymous donors had pledged $20,000 if the WRC could raise $10,000 today. How much do you want to bet they made it?

Speaking of reinvention of self, that was the topic of guest speaker, Gail Sheehy's talk. Ms. Sheehy is, of course, of Passages fame - the seminal book about the different stages of our lives. A couple of interesting tidbits she talked about....Men age well when they have attentive wives. Women age well when they have good girlfriends to talk to....We need to reinvent ourselves every seven years, as our body totally changes during that time....Try to learn something new every day to keep engaged....Serotonin releases into your body when you talk to a girlfriend.....Chronic health problems often occur in women past 50 because they are so busy taking care of everyone else that they forget to take care of themselves. They are in the most vulnerable stage of their lives....and finally, Gail said she stopped Passages at age 50 because she was young when she wrote it and didn't believe anything interesting happened to women after 50! She has definitely changed her mind about that!

The Ritz did a good job with food and service - a nice pecan crusted chicken breast on mascarpone soft polenta and braised spinach with a chocolate mousse for dessert.

Others seen in the crowd and not photographed below were Honorary Chair, Eva Slane, Marjorie North, Estelle Crawford, Kim Bald, Gayle Guynup, Jane Lautner, Nathalie McCullough, Stephanie Shaw, Pat Johnson, Leanne McIntire, Hillary Steele, Inna Snyder, Carolyn Spizzirro, LeeAnne Swor, Judy Cuppy, Elizabeth Nace, Joan Kindred, Carla Smith, Marsha Fottler, Alexandra Jupin, Dr. Marguerite Barnett, Judith Skornicka Schwartzbaum, Barb McSweeney, Flori Roberts, Jean DeLynn, Pat Hoeffler, Audrey Coleman, Jamie Aymerich, Liz Maggio, and just hundreds more!