2008 Moxie Photos

Whiskers & Wine - A Member2Member Event
(9/25/08) Wow!  Our members are really planning some great events!  This event was held at Animals By Nature, a pet store owned by member Marne Weiss on Tuttle Avenue.  We had almost 50 women in attendance who enjoyed delicious cocktails and wine served by Carol Prokap of PRP Wine and the girls from Szambalen Vodka.  There was also incredible finger food from Ophelia's On The Bay and delectable desserts from Christine Nordstrom of Wired Whisk.  The place was packed with humans and dogs, and everyone had fun trying to win amazing raffle prizes.  Proceeds from the raffle went to Gimme Shelter Pet Adoption, Inc, a 501(c)3 Florida registered non-profit company that helps pets get adopted.
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September 2008 mixer at South Gate Community Center:
(9/10/08)  What a great mixer we had!  We were a little light on numbers, though - perhaps the fall is a busy time with young ones going back to school.  It was a great time, though!  The food was fantastic - a great spread from Cosimo's.  The atmosphere was great for networking!  We hope you all love your new "special" name tags.  Please be sure to bring them with you to each mixer, lest you be stuck wearing a stick-on "guest" name tag.  Please join us in helping fight the battle against breast cancer by joining Team Moxie!  We will be taking donations again at our October 8th mixer.
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Serving Your Senses - A Member2Member Event
(8/28/08) Another well attended Member2Member event! What a great crowd of folks who came out to support SPARCC and your fellow Moxie members. We had lots of donations to SPARCC, including $100 from Women With Moxie! Thanks to everyone for coming out for this event! We had a packed house, and lots of great prizes were won.
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August 2008 mixer at South Gate Community Center:
(8/13/08)  Happy Anniversary to us!  Thank you all so much for joining us at our anniversary celebration!  We had great music by Melanie Massell and her HOT ITEM band and by Miranda Zimmer spinning Old Record Night.  The atmosphere was festive and a bit louder than our normal mixers, but everyone seemed to have a good time.  The food and drink provided by Cosimo's Brick Oven was fantastic!  They did a great job of quenching our thirst and delighting our pallet.  Congrats to all the award winners!  You deserve it!  And a special thanks to Laura Gale for my gorgeous plant - what a surprise!  Please join us next month at our normal [quieter] business networking mixer!  And don't forget to bring back your name tag!
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Sweet Temptations - A Member2Member Event
(7/24/08) Attendance was not an issue at THIS event! What do you get when you combine chocolate, vodka and Flemings? A room full of happy women! And that's what we had at this delicious and sinful event. A record 45 women attended this M2M event, and they all looked like they were in heaven.  I even brought home a little piece of heaven for myself... chocolate covered English toffee from Peterbrooke Chocolatier!  Member Rene Piper brought with her 6 beautiful young women who dressed up for the occasion.  We love to see the future of Moxie!  Heather Dunhill was there to represent Marjorie North and posted some more fabulous photos online - see them here.
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July 2008 mixer at Rustic Grill:
(7/16/08)  What a great mixer!  (Even though we missed Laura!)  I know we all enjoyed seeing the beginnings of the new Red Buddha Lounge at Rustic Grill, and I hope everyone got their photo taken by Cyndi Cochran of Cyn Photography.  We had a great crowd of folks and lots of new faces!  I'd like to say a special thanks to our Mixmasters:  Pamela Kirscher, Judith Chandler, and Maureen Ogilve.  They did a super job of making sure everyone got checked in.  We also had our first sponsor, Promotion Notions owned by member, Annette Gueli.  She had some great green promotional items to market your business.  Thanks to everyone who donated to the Boys & Girls Club's school supply drive.  We raised $110!  Moxie is donating $65 to make it an even $175, which will purchase school supplies kits for 10 children in Sarasota County whose families have limited resources.  Also, thanks to all who filled out Justin Erwin's survey - he is a dear friend to Moxie, and we wish him well in finishing up his degree.
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June 2008 mixer at Rustic Grill:
(6/18/08)  Who do I love?  Kelley Love!  Why do I love her?  Because she takes great photos at our mixers!  Thanks Kelley!  We had 120 great women at our June mixer, and what a great time we had!  The pomegranate martinis concocted by Rustic Grill were VERY popular, and they put out a great spread of food for us.   I'd like to say a special thanks to our Mixmasters:  Jennifer Shafer, Lynn Sheppard, Christina Donahue and Stephanie Caland.  They did a super job of making sure everyone got checked in and answering everyone's questions.  We had a special treat after the announcements - Moxie member, Christine Nordstrom, owner of Wired Whisk, gave away a delicious cookie to everyone in attendance.  Christine skillfully made them in the shape of our Moxie Mixer logo!  Thanks Christine!  As always, we saw lots of women raise their hand to let us know this was their first mixer.  Wow!  Keep coming - we love to have you.  I think there might have been a slight issue with the A/C as some of us are "glistening" in the photos, but that was a small price to pay for such a great night of interactions.  After the mixer, I even got to eat some food off Rustic's delicious new menu.  Yum!
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Your Not So Typical "Women's Wellness" - A Member2Member Event
(6/11/08) What's up with people signing up for an event and then not showing? That's ok, because the folks who did show up not only got to enjoy a fantastic event but also got a very cool Moxie shopping bag.  This event was organized by the gorgeous and talented Debra Hamilton of BankUnited and involved several of our amazing members.  Colleen Phillips did a life assessment exercise with us; Kayda Valone (who, seriously, was practically glowing) talked to us about macrobiotic foods and shared yummy samples with us; Angela Long gave us compelling reasons to do our breast self exams; Carol Prokap educated us about the delicious wines she was pouring; and Lisa Daily made us chuckle with her relationship advice.  We had SUCH a fun time, and I know I learned a lot.
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Workout Wake-Up Call - A Member2Member Event
(5/29/08) Turnout was a little low for this event even though we were giving away very cool Moxie shopping bags.  A great time was had by all, though.  There was delicious raw food provided by Leah and Joan of Raw Raw Foods.  Evolution was running a great Moxie 2-for-1 special.  The wine provided by Nancy Cameron was delicious.  Michelle Mician brought environmental information and compact fluorescent bulbs from the City of Sarasota, along with teaching a  yoga class.  Rosann Argenti taught a tai chi class.  I'm so glad some of you showed up in your workout gear!  SRQ Magazines were available courtesy of Debra Clark.  And Hilary Carver brought yummy snacks.
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May 2008 mixer at Rustic Grill:
(5/21/08)  I blame the absences of Kelley Love and Dill Ward for the fact that no photos were taken at this mixer!  Not because it's their job but because, for some reason, whenever I see one of them, I instantly remember that I need photos taken.  When I don't see them, my brain cells can't function in that direction.  It's weird.  ANYWAY, we had a fantastic mixer!  If you were there, you can attest.  We had around 120 people, and it was really the perfect number to make the room navigable and enjoyable.  It was a bit of a zoo last month!  We also made a few changes this month that seemed to really speed up the registration process and avoid bottlenecks we previously experienced.  I want to thank our three lovely Mixmasters - Debra Hamilton of BankUnited, Maureen Ogilve of Mo2vatedTravel.com and Jean Lejnar, The Organizer of Sarasota - for their brilliant work in keeping order as people arrived.  I think the night went smashingly.

Moxie on the Radio

(5/5/08) Cliff Roles, debonair man-about-town and host of practically everything, was kind enough to interview your humble co-hostesses on his radio show, Talk of the Suncoast, on 1220 AM WSRQ in downtown Sarasota.  Click here to listen to the interview

Wine, Women & Cash - A Member2Member Event
(4/29/08) 27 women showed up for this Member2Member event at WQ Headquarters.  It was a wonderful space in which to enjoy a great selection of international wines poured and described by Carol Prokap.  She also brought along some delicious cheese and chocolates.  Thanks for tempting our taste buds, Carol!  Our attendees also benefited from the precious metal expertise of Kathy Ervin and her lovely assistants.  They were handing out cold, hard cash in exchange for gold, silver, and platinum.  I even made a few bucks myself!  Thanks, Kathy!
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April 2008 mixer at Rustic Grill:
(4/16/08)  I'm practically too exhausted to write this.  That's what happens when you spend two hours in a room full of 190 women who are excited about their business.  I want to start by saying thanks to our three Mixmaster:  Allison Chambers, Pam Culmone and Sharon Cirillo.  With such a big crowd, they were a good first line of defense in keeping things in order.  Next, thank you to Rustic Grill for accommodating such a large group.  The bartenders work very hard for the tips we leave them.  You may have noticed the absence of our business card board.  With so many people, I thought it better not to bring it than to exclude 60% of the people whose cards would not have fit.  I am thinking of a solution as I know people like the board.  We successfully raised $74 to make our event carbon neutral!  View our certificate!  As always, we welcome your feedback as we strive to make your Moxie experience a positive one.
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Our first Member2Member event
(3/27/08) We had our first member-to-member event, and it was great!  20 women showed up to shower themselves in relaxing indulgence.  From chair massage to meditation to chocolate and wine.  We had it all!  Members Christina Donahue and Stephanie Caland of The Body Connection, and Kimberly Braun and Felicia Grant of Inner Power Retreats, put on a wonderful evening of "me" time.
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Extra! Extra!

(3/24/08) Oh no we didn't! Oh yes we did! Yes, that is us on the cover of the Business Weekly section of today's Sarasota Herald Tribune. Look how much you've helped us grow!  We thank you all so much for your enthusiasm and participation.  Our success is a collaborative effort.  Thank you! Click here to read the article

March 2008 mixer at Rustic Grill:
(3/19/08) You are not going to believe this... but we had around 120 fabulous women at our mixer this month.  I can't believe it either!  We also had some great new features this month.  First, we had 3 terrific women greeting you at the door:  Christina Donahue and Stephanie Caland of The Body Connection and Cheryl Eslinger of Divine Dinners.  They did a fabulous job of answering questions and directing people to the right areas.  We had two new signs (which kept falling over!!!) and an extra table to ease the flow of folks signing in and making name tags.  We hope no one minded going to the bar for drinks - I think that worked out just fine.  You may have also noticed that non-members were paying $5 at the door.  This is a change we had announced in our last few emails and through WQ Magazine's email (and on the website).  Next week is the first of our Member2Member events, and we hope it will be the first of many.  We are also planning quarterly activities that involve important causes.  The first will revolve around Earth Day, which is April 22nd.  We want to make our Mixer carbon-negative by asking for $2 donations from attending members, 100% of which will go to carbonfund.org to help finance projects like the large wind farms being built by FPL.
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February 2008 mixer at Rustic Grill:
(2/21/08) Holy cheese whiz!  Have we told you lately how much we love all of you?  We had around 97 people at last night's mixer!!!  That's right - almost 100 wonderful women came out to mingle with Moxie.  Thank goodness Rustic Grill had just put the finishing touches on their new Trellis Room.  And what a lovely room it is!  We even had our own side entrance.  Sorry about the parking - hopefully most of you found a space on 4th Street.  You must've found somewhere to park because you all arrived!  Thank you again to Sarasota Arts & Culture for sending out an email to their list and bringing us lots of new faces.  Thanks to Kelly Love for these great photos!
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January 2008 mixer at Rustic Grill:
(1/17/08) Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  What a great mixer last night at Rustic Grill!  Did we have fun or what?  (We did!)  It seems many of you had never been to Rustic, and your reactions when you got there were great.  It is certainly an interesting venue with a lot of character.  And how about the service???  I think we were all very impressed.  I promise to work out the kinks with our sound system if you promise to keep coming back!  Thank you so much for making it a truly great event.  Thanks to Kelly Love for taking photos!
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