Plethora of prizes STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Members of the Port Aransas Education Foundation Board of Directors display just a few of the many prizes that will be available at Mardi Gras in October on Friday, Oct. 2. Seated, from left: Janice Roberts, Michelle Sowers and Julie Shodrok; standing, from left: Wendy Moore, Beth Owens, Vanessa Brundrett, Addie Belcher and Kim Fon. Mardi Gras in October is not a party to miss.

Get your dancing shoes and best partywear on and don’t forget your wallet. It all benefits the Port Aransas schools.

The event, scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 2, at the Port Aransas Civic Center, 700 W. Ave. A, is conducted by the Port Aransas Education Foundation (PAEF).

Individual tickets are still available for $35 each, which will entitle the buyer to a shrimp boil dinner, cooked by Charlie Zahn and crew. An open bar is included in the festivities.

Alias Hart and Jones will donate their talent and time for the occasion. The band has donated the musical entertainment since the first Mardi Gras in 2007.

The Port Aransas High School cheerleaders will provide babysitting at the high school gym, 100 S. Station St., from 6 to 10 p.m. Show your Mardi Gras ticket when dropping off children. No fee will be charged, but donations will help support the cheerleading organization. Pizza will be provided.

Tickets may be purchased at Whitten Real Estate, 136 Cut-off Road; First American Title, 200 S. Alister St.; or at the Family Center IGA, 418 S. Alister St.

Auctions will include 25 wrapped boxes for $100 each, one of which will hold a pair of diamond and white gold earrings, valued at $1,150. Treasure box keys will be sold for $100 each. One of the 20 will open a box holding two round trip Southwest Airlines tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S.

Other prizes will be awarded through auctions, both silent and live, or prize drawings, including a three night stay in Guatemala with two days of fishing; a $1,000 scholarship to college of your choice; box seats for 20 at an IceRays game; two Rockport getaway packages, each including two nights’ stay, dinner for two and a gift certificates to a beachwear boutique; a Fredericksburg weekend getaway; a spa retreat in Boerne for six women including 24 hours of pampering and massage; a birding trip for two aboard the Skimmer; an aerial beachcombing trip for two; a book basket; a baseball signed by Nolan Ryan; and a catered cocktail cruise for 30.

To donate a prize, call event chair Michelle Sowers at 749-3607.

This year’s event is again sponsored by the Clark family of Port Aransas and Mark Grosse Real Estate.

Formed in 2006, PAEF is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising money to award grants to Port Aransas schools for educationally enriching programs and items not funded in school budgets.

Mardi Gras in October is PAEF’s biggest fundraiser of the year. The organization asks Port Aransas individuals, organizations and businesses to donate items toward the Mardi Gras silent auction or prize drawings.

PAEF has awarded $135,000 in grants to Port Aransas schools over the past three years.

In the latest round of grants, conducted in April, PAEF awarded schools with 29 grants totaling more than $57,458.22. That money paid for teacher training, computer equipment and software, educational field trips, library books, interactive white boards, welding equipment, drug and alcohol education programs and more. Purchases ranged from musical instruments for elementary school students to an educational weather station for the roof of Port Aransas High School.

For more information about PAEF, visit www.paisdfoundation.org.