Page 6 - TR What Women Want Feb 2016

6SS • What Women Want • An Advertising Supplement to the Three Rivers Edition • Sunday, February 7, 2016
KELVIN GREEN/THREE RIVERS EDITION Jacksonville Alderman Mary Twitty, 57, is part of a six-member committee organizing the Sertoma Club’s annual Father Daughter Banquet to raise funds for scholarships. The banquet will be at 5 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Jacksonville Community Center. Tickets must be purchased prior to the event.
DADDY’S girl
Jacksonville alderman, volunteer helps behind the scenes for Sertoma Club’s Father Daughter Banquet
BY JENNIFER ELLIS SPECIAL SECTIONS WRITER
Mary Twitty, 57, may be shy in front of the camera lens, but there’s a twinkle in Twitty’s eye, and her face
lights up when the Jacksonville alderman talks about the annual Father Daughter Banquet that she and members of the Jack- sonville Sertoma Club organize.
It was Twitty who came up with the idea for the formal banquet that got its start six years ago and has since more than doubled in attendance, with nearly 300 people at the event last year.
Inspiration for the event
When the Sertoma Club was looking for a fundraising opportunity for its scholarships, Twitty considered the idea of a daddy-daughter ball like the one her brother-in-law and nieces had attended.
Twitty had always been a daddy’s girl, and while it would be likely to find young Mary in the tool aisle at the local hardware store with her dad, Ray Carter, who worked as a contractor building many of the homes in the Jackson- ville area, her parents often hosted parties at their home. There’s even a black and white photo of Mary dancing with her dad at a sock hop they put on when she was a teenager.
“It’s not the greatest picture of us, but it means the world to me,” Twitty said.
That photo, along with a few others, gets slipped in with the decorations at the banquet every year.
“My dad’s always on my mind,” Twitty said. “He’s been gone 12 years now, but there’s probably not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him.”
Father Daughter Banquet
The event kicks off with attendants giving each of the girls a long-stem rose as they pile into a limo with their dads for a short ride around the community center. It’s a strictly dads-and-daughters affair — no moms allowed — unless they are there with their dads.
Of course, the moms are likely a big part of the girls’ preparation for the event — dress shopping and getting their hair, nails and makeup done.
So after they’re done getting their little girls ready and send them off with Dad, the mothers line the entry to the community center like paparazzi or “mamarazzi.”
“When [the dads and daughters] walk the red carpet, moms are there, grandmas are there, and aunts are there, and they are all snapping pictures — it’s just magical,” Twitty said.
Bubbles fill the entry as girls walk hand in hand with their dads to be greeted and crowned with tiaras by beauty queens from North Pulaski and Jacksonville high schools, then have professional keepsake photos taken, which are emailed to the fathers.
“It’s so much fun,” Twitty said of the crowning. “One year we ran out, so I called my husband and said, ‘Hurry up and get up here, and bring my box of tiaras.’”
After the fathers and daughters enjoy a sit-down dinner, there’s plenty of sweets, including an ice cream bar with a variety of toppings, a heart- and tiara-shaped cookie bar and a cupcake bar to keep them powered up for the father-daughter dance-off and more.
There’s also a photo booth stocked with a variety of props to help create fun mementos of the night.
“That’s been a really big hit,” Twitty said. “That stays busy from the minute we open the doors until they close.” There are no age limits on who can attend. There are dads who come to the event with their babies, and
Mayor Gary Fletcher shows up with his 35-year-old daugh- ter, Autumn Evans.
“Even though she’s a grown woman, it kind of reminds her she’s still my baby,” Fletcher said. “But what’s neat is they’ve got two daughters, so her husband takes them, so I’ve got my granddaughters there, too. For us, we make it a big family thing.”
Twitty said she looks forward to finding a moment to take a step back every year and reflect.
“To me, it’s just a blast to watch the dads,” Twitty said. “I just love to slow down and get on over to a corner and take it all in. It’s just — I love it.
“It’s so cute,” Twitty said. “I’ll be walking around tak- ing snapshots, and you can hear the dads talking about a ballgame or going fishing, but the minute that little girl yells ‘Daddy!’ they are out there. The dads really make it all about their little girls that night.
“To me, it’s just a magical night. ... It’s just something they are always going to remember, you know. I never had that opportunity to do anything like that with my dad.”
It takes a team
In addition to Twitty, five other committee members play a major role in putting on the banquet: Tara Smith, Valerie Perry, Pearl Jenkins, Kristen Kennon and Laura Walker.
Twitty doesn’t enjoy the spotlight; in fact, she said if it wasn’t for getting the word out on the banquet, she’d never have agreed to be featured.
“Can’t you feature one of them? I like to be in the background. I don’t like the limelight at all,” Twitty said. “It’s that humility that makes me appreciate her that much more,” the mayor said, “because genuinely hum- ble people do things for the right reasons, and they
don’t want to be in the spotlight.”