Tampa Bay: We’re charitable!

Tampa Bay: We’re charitable!

Painting renovators
It looks like those guys and gals at Balance Tampa Bay truly are on a mission to improve Tampa Bay. The organization brought a “small army” of volunteers to the Francis House over the weekend of St. Patrick’s day and painted the entire exterior of the large building. According to Francis House executive director Joy Winheim, the project saved the charity thousands of dollars and helped divert more funds for direct client services. The building will now match the new Carlos Alvarez Annex that will be built shortly, and the organization is still raising money for that project at GoFundMe.com/FrancisHouse. It wasn’t only the exterior that got a facelift. Steve Srouf of Steve’s Carpet Cleaning donated a floor buffer and took care of some of the floors within the structure, which also saved a ton of money. If that wasn’t enough, Srouf left the buffer behind so Francis House Staff can keep up with its floors in the future without having to hire a service.

Clark wins CODE
We love it when alliteration makes a headline work, so when Craig Clark was named Mr. CODE 2013, we knew the announcement would have a great ring to it! Craig Clark was chosen out of five contestants to represent the CODE Bar within the Flamingo Resort at International Mr. Leather in Chicago later this spring. The resort was packed with vendors, leathermen and women and former title holders. In fact, at one point the entire stage was crowded with title holders from contests held across the state and around the country. This was the second year for the competition and expect to see Clark and contest organizers to be out and about at fundraisers to help get Clark to Chicago for the competition.

Quench/Watermark raise $450 for Metro
On March 20, Quench Lounge in Largo was packed with people from throughout Tampa Bay to participate in Watermark Wednesday, a social networking and fundraising event that benefitted Metro Wellness and Community Center. Several representatives from Watermark were on hand throughout the night to sell raffle tickets and to just chat up the guests and entertainer Kori Stevens brought the crowd to its feet with a very 70s performance promoting Pricilla, Queen of the Desert. The Broadway show will be at the Straz Center in April and the facility donated a number of tickets to be raffled during the night. Several notables were on hand that evening, including Largo City Commissioner Michael Smith, Pinellas County Commissioner John Morroni and Larry Biddle of the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. In all, $450 was raised for Metro and it will be used for client services and LGBT programs in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Pasco County. Another Watermark Wednesday in Tampa Bay is in the works and those details will be announced very soon.

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