Port Aransas South Jetty

Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras treasures STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Port Aransas Education Foundation officers display some of the items that will be prizes in drawings and auctions at the foundation's Mardi Gras in October celebration at the Port Aransas Civic Center on Friday, Oct. 5. From left are Janice Roberts, Michelle Sowers, Jay Jones, Addie Belcher and Jana Snow. You can benefit Port Aransas schools, get a great Cajun meal and maybe outbid everyone else for a cool prize if you go to the Mardi Gras in October celebration on Friday, Oct. 5, at the Port Aransas Civic Center.

The Port Aransas Education Foundation will auction off a round of golf at Padre Isles Country Club, a week of lessons at a surf camp run by champion Port Aransas surfer Morgan Faulkner and many other items and services during Mardi Gras in October.

The event, which will feature a Cajun boil and live music, will help the education foundation raise money for grants to Port Aransas schools. Festivities will be from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Other auction items: A fishing trip in Costa Rica and a tour of the USS Blackhawk, a minesweeper vessel at Naval Station Ingleside. And more.

Twenty keys to a treasure chest will be sold at $50 apiece. The key that opens the treasure chest will win two round-trip tickets on Southwest Airlines to any city where the airline flies.

Each person who buys an adult ticket to Mardi Gras in October will receive a ticket for a drawing. Each ticket must be in the drawing bin by 8:30 p.m. on the night of the event.

The last ticket drawn will win a $500 cash prize sponsored by Island Moorings Marina. Participants may purchase extra chances for $10 each on the night of the event until the drawing begins at 8:30 p.m.

Admission to Mardi Gras in October will be $25 apiece or $500 for a table of 10. Individual tickets will be sold at the door. Student food tickets will be $10.

At press time, 24 of the event's 26 tables for 10 had been sold. Deadline for buying a table is 5 p.m. today - Thursday, Oct. 4.

Tickets are available at Whitten Real Estate, Family Center IGA and First American Title or at the door, as available.

There will be a cash bar.

Established last year, the Port Aransas Education Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising money to award grants for programs and items that aren't funded in school budgets for one reason or another.

Last year, the foundation awarded more than $21,000 in grants to Port Aransas schools.

High school cheerleaders will offer babysitting during the Mardi Gras. To make arrangements, contact Michelle Sowers at 749-3607 or sowers@centurytel.net.