Why It Pays To Stay Local, Center Place 'Brings It Home'

The 29th annual Center Place Patron Party is sold out, bringing home to Brandon a spring event  that represents one of the town's most-lucrative fundraisers of the year.

In years past, the event has been held off-site, in part to accommodate a larger crowd. Events have been held at the TPepin's Hospitality Centre in Tampa and at The Regent in Riverivew.

This year, though, to keep costs down and to capture more of the proceeds, Center Place officials and volunteers decided to keep things simple and "bring it back home."

"I'm really excited to have it back here," Center Place Executive Director Dawn Gailia said about the April 13 "Surf's Up, Support the Arts" fundraiser. "A lot of people who come to the gala may never have stepped foot in Center Place, so to be able to showcase our building and what we are able to do with it is important."

Added Galia: "Center Place has been in operation since 1976, so we must be doing something right."

The aim is to showcase the center and then some, using both the indoor and outdoor spaces for dining and dancing.

"Bringing it back home was important to me," Galia said. "We work for a non-profit and we want to be good stewards of the donations we receive. If we cut down on our costs then more money comes back to the organization. To me, that's important."

The Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association shares space with the Brandon Regional Library in the Sandy Rodriguez Center at 619 Vonderburg Drive. The building overlooks the expansive lake that separates the center from Parsons Avenue, between the Brandon Regional Hospital and the South Brandon Little League fields.

A newly reconstituted libray and Center Place parking lot has added several spaces and lessened the steep incline that once challenged motorists at the entrance.

Free valet parking will be offered at Saturday night's event.

Dining on the deck will be under tents, with flaps at the ready should rain occur.

At the event, this year's Patricia B. Odiorne Scholarship and S.L. "Spud" Clements Award recipients will be named.

Also on hand will be a bevy of baskets stuffed and designed for what has become the Greater Brandon area's most-impressive array of silent-auction items.

"Our silent auction supposedly is the best in town so we're all pretty proud of it. We wouldn't be able to do it without our community support," Galia said. "This year we have about 125 different baskets, with multiple items in each basket, and some baskets have three to four gift certificates donated by area businesses."