The blog below is an excerpt from the Bradenton Yacht Club's Monthly member magazine, "Poop Deck". This article can be found on page 17. 

It’s finally time for our first Great Mates dinner meeting of the year. It will be held on Thursday, September 19th at 6 pm. Check the Poop Deck for reservation information or call the Club at 941-722- 5936. All BYC members are invited. If you have never been to a Great Mates meeting, please come. If you haven’t attended a meeting in while, please give us another try. We have a professional comedian, Juanita Lolita, to entertain us at the September meeting. It should be a lot of fun.

Hope Family Services is the charity chosen to be the recipient of our March 7, 2020 Gala. Hope is a private not-for-profit corporation whose primary purpose is to provide services to victims of domestic violence. We will have some information to share with you about the organization at the September meeting.

On July 11th, Mayor Wayne Poston was kind enough to join us at the Hope Chest Thrift Store on 1215 8th Avenue in downtown Bradenton to draw the names of the two winners of our Sail through Summer Giveaway to benefit Hope Family Services. One winner won a donated 12 ft. Sailboat and the other won 2 weeks of sailing lessons for a child at Bishop Sailing Center. Whether you have items to donate or want to shop to find some treasures, Hope Family Services will benefit from your generosity to The Hope Chest Thrift Store.

At our October 17th dinner meeting, Palmetto Mayor Shirley Bryant, as well as Brian Carter, President of Bishop Museum will speak to us. Mary Ann Gamrot has a lot of ideas for our entertainment, some of them still tentative. For our January 16th meeting she is thinking of WORLD TRAVELER NIGHT. We know that so many of you have stories about unusual travel experiences. Hopefully, you’d like to share your stories with us, whether they be funny, scary or exhilarating Mary Ann would love to have you get in touch with her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

She would welcome any entertainment ideas you may have as well. So, bring your $1 to the September meeting to renew your membership for the upcoming year or to join the Great Mates for the year. Visit our website at TheGreatMates.org for information. – Sharon Goslee