Bird Key Yacht Club hosts a party 'like it's Y2K'

The 65-year-old clubhouse at Bird Key Yacht Club is sticking around for a short while longer, and members decided to embrace those remaining days with a "Party On" celebration on April 26.

Commodore Michael Landis and Vice Commodore Tony Britt took the opportunity to uncover a time capsule originally buried at the clubhouse on Feb. 9, 2000.

Britt read a letter from then-Commodore Paula Herod, who coincidentally was the first woman to hold the title since the club's formation in the 1960s.

"My personal wish as commodore is that you be blessed with committees and staff members as dedicated and hardworking as mine have been," Britt read aloud to attendees.

She thanked the members of her time for working hard to make Bird Key Yacht Club a "home away from home."

"This doesn't just happen," she wrote. "It takes work and commitment from devoted people."

Landis began pulling out other historical documents, and before long, he was up to his shoulder reaching down into the cylinder encased in concrete. One after another, items denoting that moment in time came out of the vault. 

A pennant with a previous Bird Key Yacht Club design came out, followed by notes from the important committees of the day, photographs, and issues of the Longboat Observer, Pelican Press and Sarasota Herald Tribune reporting on the new millennium.

The capsule did not hold any gold doubloons or any of Al Capone's loot, as some viewers had guessed. But it did safely preserve tidbits of the club's history, which Britt said members will proudly display at the new clubhouse.

His wife, Irene Britt, said she found the message from Herod to be the most interesting item in the vault. Having seen the plans for the new clubhouse, she said it will be a "spectacularly beautiful" gathering point for this longstanding organization.

"It'll be a new home for our friendship," she added. "That's never going to change."

After the uncovering, members reminisced about their time in this building, dined, then headed to the dance floor to fully embrace the "Party On" theme.

Britt said members eagerly anticipate making the most of their remaining days with the current clubhouse, and they look forward to hopefully breaking ground for the modernized facilities in September.

Once construction is complete, current club members plan to bury a new time capsule of their own, and Britt said it should have some interesting items for future excavators.

"I think because we have such a humorous bunch of people, we'll throw a bit of fun in there too," he said.