Chairman’s Corner

Jerry Santeiro

A Message From Our Chairman

Our biggest annual celebration, the Masquerade Ball was a great success!  We are very grateful to our title sponsor Bacardi, USA, Inc., as well as the many table sponsors, silent auction contributors, attendees, and volunteers for making the evening a spectacular and memorable event.  The Ball is our main annual fund raising event, and funds raised at this dinner help operate the Foundation and provide support for the many programs we are involved with, including our two major initiatives:  CoralGables@HOME and GablesHomePage.com.

• CoralGables@HOME To benefit seniors who may not otherwise be able to join CoralGables@HOME, a dedicated group of Gables residents motivated by Jeannett Slesnick are “Losing It BIG TIME!” for the cause.  These individuals are committed to losing weight over the next several months in order to raise money (through pledges by supporters) for purchasing CoralGables@HOME memberships for these deserving seniors.

CoralGables@HOME’s held its first annual “Dishing It Up!” Tour of Kitchens Silent Auction, Kitchen Tour, and Luncheon on January 22-23, and it was a great success.  CoralGables@HOME continues to grow in membership numbers and we anticipate great things in 2010, especially with the added services we are able to offer with our newly donated retired police car from the City of Coral Gables.  We thank the Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Commissioners for their consideration and support of our organization, and our initiatives.

• Gables Home Page The launch of GablesHomePage.com with much fanfare at the Masquerade Ball generated a lot of media coverage in several local publications and on the City’s cable channel.  The site is attractive and informative, and allows us to weigh in on issues of importance to us, and also use it as our personal bulletin board to post upcoming events and pictures from personal celebrations.  I hope that we will all embrace the site and make it truly our own.  The Foundation has entered into partnership with the Miami Herald to share content with their local online site.  If you have not already done so, please go to www.gableshomepage.com and register to particpate. We hope you will become a frequent user of this wonderful addition to our e-landscape.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the staff at the Foundation for making it easy for all of us to serve in our volunteer capacities, and for representing our community in such a professional manner.

Until next time,

Jerry Santeiro