STAFF PHOTOS BY DAN PARKER Dozens of folks attended the Boats, Boots and Bow Ties benefit put on by the Port Aransas Preservation and Historical Association (PAPHA) on Saturday, March 3, at the Community Center. Organizers hadn’t yet tallied how much money was brought in by the benefit by this newspaper’s deadline, but they said it was more than the event made last year, and that year was a success that hauled in tens of thousands of dollars. 

Attendees sit down to a meal after bidding on silent auction items; John Fucik and Suzanne Brayman dressed in their cowboy best for the occasion; a boat built at PAPHA’s newly restored Farley Boat Works annex stands in front of the Community Center as folks file inside; and Todd deClairmont of Austin grills squash, just one part of a dinner that included steak, quail, scalloped potatoes and peach cobbler. (More photos shot at the fundraiser are in the photo album section of the South Jetty’s Web site, www.portasouthjetty.com.)