PACE Center to Honor Three More Women at Grande Dames Tea

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Jan. 11, 2016 - PRLog -- PACE Center for Girls of Lee County has selected three more women to be honored at the Eighth Annual Grande Dames Tea honoring some of our community’s most revered women.

This year’s honorees are:

●          Betty Anderson of Fort Myers– Betty, 86, is a Fort Myers native  who spent 15 years in Africa as a missionary with her husband, the late Dr. Robert Anderson. The couple sold their Fort Myers home and his dental practice in 1976 to move to Africa to provide dental care to Africans who had never seen a dentist.  The Andersons spent four years in the bush villages of Ghana followed by 10 more years in Nigeria.  Sometimes the lines were 75 people deep waiting for care.  The couple retired from their missionary work in 1991 and returned for Fort Myers, where Betty dedicated her time and talents to First Baptist Church as part of a team assisting the homeless.

●          Rusty Brown of Fort Myers –  Rusty, 86, is a writer/dramatist who has reinvented herself again and again as a musical comedy singer, journalist, greeting card company publicist and adjunct professor.  In Fort Myers, she’s best known as a playwright and actor, bringing to life remarkable women such as Mina Edison, Clara Barton, Katharine Hepburn and others in her popular and original one-woman shows. As a journalist with The Cleveland Press, she launched a column on women’s concerns and the Women’s Movement that was nationally syndicated and appeared in 200 newspapers.  She also wrote for Women’s Day and Ms. Magazine and published a book, “Women As We See Ourselves.”

●          Dr. Geraldine Burchard Nobles of LaBelle – Geraldine, 78, went from bussing tables at her mother’s famous LaBelle restaurant, Flora & Ella’s, to becoming a successful mental health counselor in private practice and bringing Hope Hospice services to LaBelle and Hendry County.  She is the first certified abuse counselor in Florida.  A fifth generation Floridian and descendant of the LaBelle pioneer Poole and Forrey families, Geraldine and her husband, the late L. J. Nobles, Jr. worked in their Collier County agri-business raising fresh produce and operating the largest tomato packing facility in Southwest Florida.

The Grande Dames Tea honoring the three women will take place Tuesday, March 22, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Broadway Palm at 1380 Colonial Blvd. in Fort Myers.

Chair of the Grande Dames Tea is Deanna Hansen, with Mary Fischer serving as co-chair.  Both women also are members of the PACE Lee Board of Directors.

“These three outstanding women come from varied backgrounds and are sure to have some insightful advice for the audience and the PACE girls,” said Hansen.

“Our theme of The Wisdom of Age – Honoring the Female Spirit is so appropriate because each of these women has much to share from her own life’s journey,” Fischer said.

Invitations to the Grande Dames Tea will be mailed in mid-February, when registration also will be available online at www.pacecenter.org/lee.  Admission is $60 per person. Table sponsorships are also available. Attendees are encouraged to wear their favorite tea party hat.

This is the eighth year of the historic Grande Dames Tea.  Previous honorees have included Berne Davis, Eleanore Kleist and the late Barbara B. Mann in 2009; Jeanne Bochette, Helen Hendry and Veronica Shoemaker in 2010; Myra Daniels, Kathleen Nealon and the late Mimi Straub in 2011; Michel Doherty, Mavis Miller and Anna “Boots” Tolles in 2012; Thelma Hodges, the late Helen O’Rourke McClary and Ettie Francis Walsh in 2013; Barbara Norris Brown, the late Sarah Sciple and Margaret Sirianni in 2014; and Sharlene Hamel Dozier, M. Jacqueline McCurdy and Melvin Morgan in 2015.

The Grande Dames Tea was originated by PACE Center for Girls of Lee County to honor women who have played major roles in Southwest Florida history through decades of service, philanthropy and helping others.

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

PACE Center for Girls, Inc., is a non-residential delinquency prevention program targeting the unique needs of girls, ages 11 to 18 years old, facing challenges such as physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence, substance abuse, foster care, neglect, death of a parent, family history of incarceration and declining grades.

PACE is a Florida-based, not for profit organization, and the only statewide prevention program for adolescent at-risk girls in the nation.  In the past year, the Lee County program provided 110 girls with education, counseling, training and advocacy resulting in 93 percent having no involvement with juvenile justice within six months of leaving PACE, 77 percent improving their academic performance and 89 percent remaining in school or obtaining employment three years after leaving PACE.  As a result, PACE reduces the significant long term costs associated with teen pregnancy, substance abuse, unemployment and long term economic dependency.

PACE accepts referrals from the juvenile justice system, the Department of Children & Families, school personnel, community services agencies, parents, family members, friends and self-referrals.

For information about the Grande Dames Tea or to become a sponsor, please contact PACE Development Director Sara Garner at (239) 425-2366, ext. 2312, or visit http://pacecenter.org/lee