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Service League Will Showcase 3 Homes In Holiday Tour

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By BARBARA ROUTEN, Tribune Correspondent

Published: December 5, 2007

Updated: 12/03/2007 09:45 pm

BRANDON - The General Federation of Women's Clubs Brandon Service League is showcasing three decorated houses on this year's Holiday Home Tour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets are $12 and must be purchased in advance - directions to the homes are printed on the tickets.

The 9,300-square-foot residence belonging to Raymond and Patty Conrad will house a bake sale with cookies, sweetbreads, brownies and cakes wrapped appropriately for gift giving. Refreshments will be served at Wally and Claudia Ingram's home. Each house, including that of Allen and Lynn Despain, will have a drawing for a basket.

The Despain house boasts many Christmas trees.

"There are 10 full trees, some half trees, trees in the bathrooms and many on the porch," Lynn Despain said.

One tree, laden with kitchen gadgets, hangs upside down above the breakfast table. A 12-foot-tall tree seems none too large in the family room. Sprouting up elsewhere are a basket tree, a Florida tree with cloisonne ornaments shaped like flamingos, crabs and seahorses and an all-white tree.

Numerous Nativity sets are displayed throughout the house, and one room is full of Noah's ark toys and pictures. There is even a dedicated gift-wrapping room.

Why decorate so much - and why open the house to the public?

"Christmas and Easter are the most important times of the year and what we celebrate," Lynn Despain said. "The rest makes people comfortable. With the decorations you can talk about the Lord and share your faith - God even uses houses!"

Claudia Ingram said, "We're from Texas originally. ... We built this house to have people over - it's part of being a Southerner - you open your home."

It is the third house tour in which the Ingrams have participated, (the first for the Brandon Service League) and it is the 49th house Claudia has inhabited. She grew up in a military family. Her late father was Air Force Lt. Col. Frederick Fritz, and her husband, Walter C. Ingram, is an Army colonel. Their son, Matthew, served as a captain in the Air Force for six years.

She has transformed their red dining room into a White House room, placing 17 years' worth of commemorative white and gold White House ornaments on the tree. During the three years they were stationed in Germany, Claudia collected about 35 nutcrackers, hundreds of glass and wood ornaments and two German Christmas windmill or carousel pyramids.

She founded the Piecemakers Quilt Guild, which explains the 20 or so Christmas quilts on display. Candy canes are nestled in the pockets of the Advent calendar quilt, adding a sweet twist to the long wait until Christmas.

Money raised by the tour enables the service league to fill many needs in community organizations such as the American Cancer Society, Good Samaritan Mission, Emergency Care Help Organization, Brandon Care Pregnancy Center, Everyday Blessings Adoption Agency, Brandon Outreach Clinic and the Bill Carey Boys & Girls Club of Brandon. For information about the league or to inquire about membership, visit www.bsl.cc.

Tickets for the home tour are available from any league member and, while they last, at the Green Boutique, 1032 Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico; the South Shore Group Real Estate office, 16637 FishHawk Blvd., Suite 103, Lithia; and in Brandon at the Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium, 2080 Badlands Drive; David Andrew Hair Studio & Spa, 725 Lithia-Pinecrest Road; or the office of B. Lee Elam P.A., 101 E. Lumsden Road.

For information or to purchase tickets, call Candy Jackson, home tour chairwoman, at (813) 624-3453. To inquire about corporate sponsorships, call Sandy Pullinger, (813) 684-5479.

It's Time To Adopt A Foster Angel

SUN CITY CENTER - A Christmas tree at United Community Church was decked with cut-out paper angels as part of the Foster Angel Program, which gives holiday gifts to Hillsborough County foster children.

Each angel contains gift ideas and details about a child's age and sizes. Participants choose an angel and use it as a shopping guide, then return gifts to the church by Dec. 16.

The angel should be attached to the gift. If wrapped, one end must be left open.

Monetary gifts also are welcome. Checks should be made payable to the United Community Church, with Foster Angels written on the memo line.

For information, call Jane Ruth, mission coordinator, at (813) 924-4385.

"I've been doing this for eight years," Ruth said. "It's really fun."

Art Club Highlights

SUN CITY CENTER - The Art Club of Sun City Center chose Shirley Lingertot as Artist of the Month for December and will display her work through the month in the Art Room showcase, the Gallery, the Sun City Center Library, Sun City Center Chamber of Commerce, A.G. Edwards and Sons, the Golf and Racquet Club and Sun City Center Visitor's Center.

Lingertot worked as a public health nurse. She spent time in the Delaware Valley, home of many artists, including Andrew Wyeth, who drew inspiration from the picturesque countryside. Lingertot, always fascinated by athletic subjects, learned how to paint them in watercolor by taking art classes in the 1980s and by reading books about famous watercolorists.

The art club will hold a free mixed-media painting demonstration by Roberta Snyder after a club meeting and social that begins at 1 p.m. Dec. 13, in the Rollins Theater, 970 Cherry Hills Drive. A sale of art supplies will follow the demonstration.

Snyder was instrumental in the formation of the Florida Watercolor Society. A prize-winning artist, she also has been an art show judge. She worked 13 1/2 years at the Kennedy Space Center preparing placards, greeting cards and charts for astronauts.

A two-day acrylic landscape workshop will be conducted by Joanna Coke from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 13-14 in the Art Room, 954 Cherry Hills Drive. The class will be limited to 15 students who will need to bring some materials with them. A list of required items is posted in the Art Room near the sign-up sheet and is available from Virginia Laudano, (813) 633-6042.

"Joanna's fee for the workshop is fixed, and the cost to individual attendees will depend on the number of participants," said Ed Laudano, club publicity chair. Art Club membership is required for attendance; for information about joining the club, call Nancy Cooper, (813) 633-0084. For information about the workshop, call Ilene Hemingway, (813) 633-6564.

Snippets

The Sun City Center Swingers Square Dance Club will hold its Holly Christmas Plus Square Dance from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Friday in Community Hall, 1910 S. Pebble Beach Blvd. Van Coble will call and Mary Wiewiora will cue. Members will bring hors d'oeuvres; the club will provide punch. Another dance, at 7 p.m. Dec. 14 will take place in the Rollins Theater, 970 Cherry Hills Drive. For information, call Leah Micklatcher, (813) 633-3986, or Terry Hatch, (813) 633-0551. ... Prince of Peace Catholic Church, 701 Valley Forge Blvd., Sun City Center, invites all Catholics to a penance service at 7 p.m. Monday in the church. For information, call the parish office, (813) 634-2328.

Send news and photos of community interest to Barbara Routen at The Tampa Tribune, 505 W. Robertson St., Brandon FL 33511, e-mail neighbors@tampa bay.rr.com or call (813) 657-4531.

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