Brandon Charities Set To Reap Royal Highness, Mayoral Receipts

Move over, honorary mayor of Brandon.

There’s a new “buy-your-way-into-power” contest afoot.

Be it known throughout the land that royalty tops mayoral rights, at least as far as the Sylvia Thomas Center is concerned, and at least according to the calendar.

Kicking off April 19, and culminating with a crowning May 23, is the Royal Highness Race, for which Irma Davila, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Brandon,” and Ernest Hooper, the self-knighted king, will do the honors of oversight.

Meanwhile, the word is out that the race for honorary mayor of Brandon is looking for “candidates,” who each year through the month of June set about the land to raise money for their chosen charities, and for the Community Roundtable, which for decades has run both the mayor’s race and the annual Greater Brandon Fourth of July Parade.

This year’s mayor, Cami Gibertini, has agreed to open the April 19 ceremony for the Royal Highness Race, set to begin 3 p.m. at the Times building of Greater Brandon, at the Winthrop development in Riverview, at the southwest corner of Bloomingdale Avenue and Providence Road. (See details below.)

The race culminates with the crowning of both a prince and princess of Brandon, determined by the subjects who successfully raise the most money over a 30-day time period.

This year’s contestants are Anthony Caligiure, sponsored by the Original Leena’s Chocolates; Cathy Smead, sponsored by GMS Landscaping; Angela Stone, sponsored by the Oaks Bar and Grill; and Simone Tolley, sponsored by Uncle Mike’s Smokehouse Grill.

Unlike the mayor’s race, the royal race is for one charity only, the Sylvia Thomas Center, which is billed as the only agency in Hillsborough County funded to assist adoptive families after the adoption has been finalized. The agency provides support groups and services to adoptive families, including Teen Scene, which serves as a support group for adopted teenagers.

“We are the agency charged with keeping the ‘forever’ in forever families,” said Denise Jamieson, the group’s president and chief executive officer, and also a board member for the Community Roundtable.

According to center officials, the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County, the center’s prime source of funding since its inception in 2000, has changed priorities, cutting the Sylvia Thomas Center’s funding by $73,000 this fiscal year. No funding is earmarked for next year.

“We look at the Royal Highness Race as a key fundraiser to enable us to continue to serve these hurting children and struggling families,” said Gerard Thomas, the chair of the center’s board, in a news release.  

The Royal Highness Race is a plug, too, for the Tampa Times Brandon Bureau, for which Hooper serves as editor, and for which Davila, founder of ID Marketing and Events, once worked in marketing.

Connecting business concerns to community and civic needs is a major underpinning of the mayor’s race as well, which each year brings “candidates” to the race who select charities to support. During the month of June, the candidates stage fundraising events to support their causes. Ten percent of the proceeds go to their sponsoring organization, 10 percent to the Community Roundtable, which in turn supports nonprofits throughout the year, and the remaining funds split among the selected charities.

The mayoral candidates raise their funds through June and up to the morning of the Fourth of July parade, where receipts are counted, by tradition, at the law offices of B. Lee Elam, at the corner of Lumsden Road and Parsons Avenue. The newly “elected” mayor is then presented to the community in the parade.