Tourism Award Winner UPFRONT
Ellen Hale of the Bon Appétit Group was
Ellen Hale of the Bon Appétit
Group was honored by industry
association Skal Tampa Bay.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 37
awarded the Salute to Tourism Award by
Skal Tampa Bay, one of our community’s most
prestigious tourism groups. She was nominated
for the well-deserved award for her support of
the Tampa Bay hospitality industry at all levels,
local, regional and international. In addition to
her activities as director of public relations for
the Bon Appétit Group, she serves in leadership
positions in a wide variety of travel and tourism
organizations, where she can be depended on to
help support projects with her “can do” attitude.
Joyce and Walter Larson hosted the 15th
annual Holiday Cocktail Party benefit for
Infinity at their home in St. Petersburg.
Sterling High Tea
The St. Petersburg Opera Guild held
“The Holly and the Ivy,” its 57th
Silver Bells luncheon and silent
auction benefit for St. Petersburg
Opera at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.
Michael Roberts, the event’s master of
ceremonies, introduced the guild’s
president Alfred May, who welcomed
guests before the opera group’s artistic
and executive director Maestro Mark
Sforzini conducted the five women
and five men who form the Holiday
Sparkle Singers, accompanied by pianist
Teresa Ancaya. Sforzini announced
the guild’s 2021 Cultural Awardees as
professor Michele Kidwell Gilbert and
her husband Dr. Gordon J. Gilbert, who
founded the St. Petersburg Celebration
of the Arts and ardently support the
community’s various arts organizations.
REBECCA MALOWANY
Infinity Holiday
Benefit
Joyce and Walter Larson, who have
hosted annual holiday cocktail parties
at their Snell Isle, St. Petersburg home
for the benefit of Infinity, the League to
Aid Abused Children & Adults Inc. and
its three agencies, held what Joyce says is
their grand finale at their home. About 175
guests enjoyed delectable delights, heavy
hors d’oeuvres and cocktails during the
glamorous indoor and poolside fundraiser.
Infinity’s goal is to improve lives by
providing financial assistance to direct
services that aid abused and neglected
children and adults in St. Petersburg
through Brookwood Florida Inc., CASA
(Community Action Stops Abuse) and the
Suncoast Center Inc.
The Holly and the Ivy
Krista Whipple, center, was thanked by
the St. Petersburg Opera’s Michael Roberts
and Maestro Mark Sforzini for co-chairing
the St. Petersburg Opera Guild’s benefit
with Peggy Grom.
Retired NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, center, was
thanked for being the guest speaker at the Sterling
Society’s High Tea benefit for the Dunedin Fine Art
Center by its co-chairs, board members Syd Entel and
Carol Bickford.
The annual benefit tea of
the Sterling Society of the
Dunedin Fine Art Center,
this year named “High Tea
with Astronaut Nicole Stott,”
was held at the Belleair
Country Club and featured
more than scones and
miniature sandwiches. The
guest speaker, retired NASA
astronaut Nicole Stott, spoke
and presented slides about her
career at the Kennedy Space
Center, her work on two space
flights and on the NEEMO 9
mission from which she holds
the women’s world record for
saturation diving.
GRAM
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