- April 19, 2024
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Members of the Longboat Key Club gather on Feb. 15 to play cards and raise money for Breast Health Sarasota, Inc.
Photo by Lesley DwyerMarcie McGovern and Becky Smothers play backgammon.
Photo by Lesley DwyerA snack bar for the ladies to enjoy while playing cards.
Photo by Lesley DwyerAmy Renninger plays Mahjong.
Photo by Lesley DwyerAmy Renninger, Marlene Wilkening, Sandy Skierkowski and Ellen Horak
Photo by Lesley DwyerMarion Levine and Ronni Bernard share a long history of chairing this event.
Photo by Lesley DwyerArleen Klein, Suellen Kaeb and Marion Levine. Klein and Levine are this year's event co-chairs, and Kaeb is the chair of Breast Health Sarasota, Inc.
Photo by Lesley DwyerTerry Neis and Sandra Krause play cards for a cause.
Photo by Lesley DwyerSheila Pizer organizes her cards.
Photo by Lesley DwyerSheila Winne, Andy Frank and Dottie Baer-Garner
Photo by Lesley DwyerJudy Posner, Debbie Karlin, Esther Emmerman and Judy Katz
Photo by Lesley DwyerThe ladies of the Longboat Key Club laid their cards and purses on the table Wednesday afternoon. The women gathered in the Harbourside ballroom for an annual games day to benefit Breast Health Sarasota Inc.
“This started many years ago when Golf for a Cure took up the whole dining room, and people wanted to put money into breast cancer research,” Co-chair Marion Levine said. “It’s for those people that don’t play golf or tennis.”
After a COVID-19 hiatus, 137 members came out to play backgammon, canasta, mahjongg and bridge this year. So many that the raffle tickets sold out and $10,000 was raised, which doubles past donations.
“Last year, this group raised $4,500 just playing cards,” said Breast Health Sarasota Inc. Chair Suellen Kaeb. “The Longboat Key Club, in 2022, raised over $85,000 with their combined events.”
Donations pay for screenings, mammograms, biopsies and breast MRIs. Breast Health also sponsors a mobile mammogram bus. In October, 50 women in Newtown received breast cancer screenings. They plan on sponsoring four more screenings in Newtown this year.
“We’re finding that women of color and the hispanic community, they have a little bit of distrust going into the big hospital system. It’s intimidating, and there may be a language barrier,” Kaeb said. “So we do these mobile units in their communities, and they’re more apt to come out and be screened.”
