The Cherry Grove Community Association, Inc.'s Community Honors 2014 awards dinner was held on August 23 at the lovely bayside Heaven ’n’ Earth.  Honorees were Alison Brackman, Don and Judy Hester, and Lorraine Michels, with posthumous honors to Jeanne Skinner, and Cherry Grove turned out in force to the fête.
This event is a community favorite and, though the sun and clouds had played hide and seek all day, the honorees and their friends were treated to a lovely early evening featuring Chinese lanterns swaying in cool breezes, the harbingers of the waning summer.  Food and drink were as abundant as the colorful guests, all eagerly anticipating the awards ceremony.
First, Matt Baney introduced Alison's accomplishments in an al fresco recitation of highlights of her 22 years in the booth of the Cherry Grove Community House.  His paean, appropriately set to "I'm Still Here," from "Follies." drew laughter from the audience.  Alison, resplendent in her black picture hat, spoke of how she came to be the doyenne of sound and how this community had enriched her life. And the love given and returned was palpable.
Roland Michely delivered an almost-roast of Don and Judy Hester, who first began coming to Cherry Grove when they were literally children.  Roland's delightful and heartfelt encomium took some familiar features and events and put a new spin on them with his customary humor and flair.  Don and Judy spoke very humbly, as is their way, and the tremendous number of accomplishments that Roland enumerated sounded like more than is possible for two mortals to have accomplished.   One could only imagine that Don and Judy must take turns sleeping!
Joan Van Ness waxed rhapsodic about one of her favorite people, even spelling out specifically what her spouse Lorraine means to her.  Sue Harrison, Lorraine's collaborator on the Cherry Grove book “Celebrating the Heart of Cherry Grove: ‘The Community House” that put $14,000 into the Save Our Community House campaign to preserve the Cherry Grove Community House, was behind Lorraine's camera documenting the evening and Lorraine took a photo of the assembled crowd with her cellphone to preserve the moment.  She invoked Harold Seeley's memory, as an inspiration for her work from the beginning, and the Cherry Grove Fire Department as well, and made special mention of the importance of Carl Luss' work in getting the historic designation for our theatre. She noted Toni Cesta's encouragement and influence in getting her book from dream to reality.
Finally, Gerri MacWhinnie took us on a lovely reminiscence of her mother Jeanne Skinner's lifelong love affair with Cherry Grove.  It hardly seems that five years have come and gone since Jeanne passed. Her picture is now featured in the Post Office, where so many of us met her for the first time, for us to visit.  She was a staple of Sal Piro's shows and he was on hand to share his favorite memories.  Rose Levine graced us with a few lines of "Rose of Cherry Grove Fame," one of Jeanne's favorite songs, and one of the most charming bits of serendipity from the evening is that Jeanne Skinner's parents are rumored to have named our bit of paradise "Cherry Grove." Many of Jeanne's children, grandchildren and great-grands had traveled from across the country to share our love and how honored we all are to have known her.
After all the awardees appeared together in their photo ops, and while they enjoyed the personal expressions of appreciation of friends and family, it was time for after-dinner drinks and dessert.  The breezes were cool, the lights were hot and the Cherry Grove community basked in a job well done.