Social Studies: Gerri Aaron

Sitting on an L-shaped couch in her living room overlooking Sarasota Bay, Black Tie chatted with local philanthropist Gerri Aaron to find out more about her origins of philanthropy, her passions and her continued commitment to philanthropy in her hometown of Philadelphia. Claiming, “I’m not very funny today because I’m thinking,” Aaron gave us a peek into her life and passions for giving back.

 

I’m originally from Philadelphia. I think the first time I came to Sarasota was probably over 40 years ago as a visitor with my husband, who was in business down here. I always said, when we retire, this is where I want to be — we went from visitors, to living on Longboat Key part time in the ’80s, to becoming legal residents in 1991. When I first came here, I did what most people do on Longboat Key — I played tennis and bridge and I came into town for dinner and the theater.

I love Sarasota, it’s a wonderful place. I remember coming here from Longboat Key. My husband was sick with Parkinson’s, and we moved into town to Bay Plaza. All of a sudden I recognized that I lived in a city, a viable city, not just a place where people play golf and tennis and bridge. I was inspired and I had to try to translate that to the people on Longboat Key — that they had to be involved in this really important, growing city of Sarasota.

I became involved in the community after a luncheon I attended for the Arts Council (now the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County). I went up to the president at the time and said, “I really love your organization. I’m leaving to go up north in April, but when I come back I’ll be your slave, I just want to be involved.” I came back the next season and I was the slave for the Arts Council.

I was eventually asked to be on the board, the first board I was on in Sarasota, and that must have been close to 25 years ago. I became a community activist and a member of many other boards in town — cultural, educational, human interests and humanities, lots of boards over the years.

I started out as a community activist and then when things were looking up financially, I became a philanthropist. My late husband’s success provided me the ability to do so. I like to help people. Currently, I’m on the board of JFCS, AJC, Sarasota Orchestra and I just rotated off Planned Parenthood.

I am so spread out in my interests in this town and I’m still very involved philanthropically in Philadelphia as well.  I have been active in the town at a small university in the Philadelphia suburbs called Arcadia University. It used to be a small girls college called Beaver College, but it became a university years ago and I’ve been involved there in their physical therapy department. I started a rehab program, an exercise program for Parkinson’s patients and MS patients and I’ve been supporting that for about 11 years. They now have an endowment and they asked me to be the commencement speaker this past May. I gave the commencement speech for the graduates and that was very nicely received. I was hooded, and am now a doctor of humanities.

What do I do in my spare time? I don’t have much spare time. I used to be a dancer and a tennis player — I can’t do that anymore, but I keep up with political situations, world situations. I’m a big reader, I go to the theater, I go to musical events, to the orchestra; I’m very involved in the city and the things that go on here. I’m a social person — I go to every event, and I’m involved in a lot of them. In addition to being on a few boards, I’m on event committees as well.

People usually think I am so serene — I am not really serene. I can get out on that balcony and scream about some political thing that upsets me. I have a great passion that I express when I’m with my family or my partner Marvin, I’m not just a nice serene old lady — my kids could tell you plenty. As far as talking about who I am, I find it difficult to talk about, to describe myself. And I’m not sure if we are ever aware of how we appear to other people.

I’ve been with Marvin for six years. He’s also from Philadelphia and we’ve known each other for quite some time. We go out together a lot and have fun at the events that we go to and we love to go out with our friends for dinner and dinner parties. I love being with friends, having conversation, and a lot of laughter.