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Treasure Run Planned To Remember 'Pop'

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By LAURA FRAZIER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

TAMPA - Sherrie St. James-Bastien is organizing a treasure hunt of sorts to mark the one-year anniversary of her father's death in November, and to benefit the organization she said helped ease his passing.

The Ray Kitchens Memorial Pirate Treasure Run to benefit LifePath Hospice is St. James-Bastien's effort to turn the heartache of her father's yearlong battle with an aggressive, fatal form of dementia into a glorious celebration of helping others.

"This event is to honor my father's name and to help Hospice continue their angelic work," said St. James-Bastien, a Plant City native who lives in Oldsmar.

The organization enabled her father to die with dignity, she said, and offered much-needed counseling after his death for the grief-stricken family.

"They provided him with such loving care, and they never turn away people who can't afford the services," she said.

LifePath Hospice, which has inpatient facilities and resource centers throughout Hillsborough County, accepts Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance and provides sliding-scale fees for patients without insurance. LifePath also offers services free for people who cannot afford to pay and are ineligible for government services.

The fundraiser will kick off at 8 a.m. Nov. 1 at The Creative Native Gallery on Falkenburg Road in Tampa, just west of Brandon, where St. James-Bastien displays her award-winning underwater photography and metal sculptures.

Participants will receive a treasure map to a half-dozen or more checkpoints. At each checkpoint, players will draw tickets and coins for prize drawings to be held at the final destination, Quaker Steak & Lube in Clearwater.
Motorcycle groups and pirate krewes will participate, but Rhonda Kitchens, St. James-Bastien's sister, said the ride is open to all walks of life and all types of vehicles.

"They can drive a bike, a car, a golf cart, whatever they like," said Kitchens, who hopes to recruit more checkpoints that reflect the kind of places her father enjoyed.

"We'd love to have some old Florida bars or restaurants, someplace with trees or on the water," she said. "That would really incorporate the spirit of my pop."

St. James-Bastien said everyone is invited to dress as pirates if the mood strikes them.

"It's all luck and pure pirate chance," she said.

At the end of the run, about 25 vendors will display artwork and merchandise at Quaker Steak & Lube, including metal sculptures by St. James-Bastien, who fancies herself a "welding sculptress."

She took up welding during the last stages of her father's illness, and although he was debilitated and unresponsive, she felt compelled to bring her sculptures of sea turtles to his bedside and talk aloud about them.

About a week after Ray Kitchens' death Nov. 6, St. James-Bastien said she felt chills when she checked her Web site. Her first sea turtle sculpture had sold online on the same day and at the same time that her father died.

"I felt like that was his way of telling me that he loved me and that everything would be OK," she said.

GET INVOLVED

For information or to register for the Treasure Run, e-mail Sherrie St. James-Bastien at scubadiva1@aol.com or call (813) 774-9785. For sponsorship, checkpoint or donation information, call Rhonda Kitchens at (941) 704-7558.

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523 or lfrazier@tampatrib.com.

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