Afternoon Tea Aboard the “Fort Harrison Express” Raises Funds for the Outdoor Arts Foundation

Nov. 19, 2012 - PRLog -- CLEARWATER, FL: On November 11th, the historic Fort Harrison in Clearwater Florida hosted an afternoon tea to raise funds and awareness for the Outdoor Arts Foundation.  (www.outdoorartsfoundation.org) 200 guests attended and nearly $2,000 was raised through donations at the door and through the sale of raffle tickets.

The event began with a short presentation about the Outdoor Arts Foundation. The Foundation has been active on public arts projects in the area since 2000, when it produced the “Tampa Bay Tour of Turtles.” The Foundation most recently exhibited decorated fiberglass Elephants around town as part of its “Herd About Tampa Bay” project during the Republican National Convention.

“It’s a very exciting time for us. During the RNC, we had the opportunity to exhibit the talents of our Tampa Bay area artists to the entire country,” said the Director of the Outdoor Arts Foundation Jay Goulde as he addressed the audience

The presentation was followed by a three-course tea of scones, small sandwiches and pastries, created by the gold medal-winning chefs of the Fort Harrison.

The guests were then treated to an old-time radio style reading of the romantic Western story “The Tinhorn’s Daughter” by L. Ron Hubbard.

Directed by Kathy Sweigart, the show starred Colin Taufer, Melissa Ryan, Tom Godfrey, Dylan Cefail, Alejandro Licea, LD Sledge and Nick Hill. The story was narrated by R.F. Daley, a long-time professional actor and narrator for the 80-book Stories from the Golden Age audiobook  series for Galaxy Press  (www.galaxypress.com) and Author Services, Inc.

”Tinhorn’s Daughter”  was written by Hubbard in the 30’s, and is the tale of Betsy Trotwood, recently arrived from the East to the Wild West to find that her father is not the gallant rancher she thought he was. Complicating matters is that she starts to fall in love with Sunset Maloney, the bandit who is determined to ruin her father.

Guests aboard the Fort Harrison Express were also invited to have their photos taken at an old-time photo studio and have their tickets stamped by the train’s Conductor, Actor Alan Mehanna.

For more information about the Outdoor Arts Foundation, please go to www.outdoorartsfoundation.org.