Chico's Charities sponsoring Grande Dames Tea March 10

Berne Davis

The Lee PACE Center for Girls announces that Chico's Charities has signed on as the title sponsor of the Grande Dames Tea honoring three of the community's most revered women.

The Grande Dames Tea will honor philanthropists Berne Davis, Eleanore Kleist and Barbara Mann, three long-time Southwest Florida residents who have enriched the lives of Southwest Florida residents through their dedication to the arts and humanitarian endeavors.

The Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre also is a major sponsor of the event, where the tea will take place on Tuesday, March 10, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets for the tea are $50 per person and may be obtained by calling the theatre

at 278-4422.

Additionally, Edison National Bank will sponsor this event, along with media sponsors Grandeur Magazine, The News- Press and NBC-2.

The theme of the Grande Dames Tea is "The Wisdom of Age - Honoring the Female Spirit."

"This is the perfect opportunity for our community and the PACE girls to honor these women, and to learn of the challenges and success of their life experiences," said Grande Dames Tea Chair Dena Geraghty, who also is a member of

 

Eleanore Kleist

the Lee PACE Center Board of Directors.

Co-chairs of the event also include Kathy Adams, Kathy Galloway, Nancy Humphrey and Andrea Prather.

 

The agenda for the tea will include interaction between the PACE girls and the three Grande Dames, in a question and answer format, that Geraghty said "is sure to be thought-provoking and poignant."

The PACE Center for Girls is a nonresidential delinquency prevention program targeting the unique needs of girls 12 to 18 years old who are identified as dependent, truant, runaway, delinquent, or in need of academic skills. In its two years in Fort Myers, the center has helped 152 girls.

PACE is a Florida-based, not for profit organization, and the only statewide prevention program for adolescent atrisk girls in the nation.

For information about PACE, contact Executive Director Debra Webb at 425- 2366, ext. 23, or visit www.pacecenter. org.

Barbara Mann