News

Rod & Gun Club members find

Run for Roses a great reason to party

Rod & Gun Club members and their guests review the field before the running of the Kentucky Derby.

Mark and Dawn Donohue visit with Louise Glover, who wears a hat adorned with feathers.

Cindy Krebsbach cheers during the running of the Derby.

The third annual Kentucky Derby Party & Spring Fling was held at the Gulf Stream home of Bob and Jane Souaid.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
INSET BELOW: The Rod & Gun Club's logo is seen above the fireplace mantel.

By Ron Hayes
    
    On the evening of Saturday, May 7, while the jockeys at Churchill Downs prepared for the 142nd Run for the Roses, Jane Souaid ran around her Gulf Stream home, preparing for her third annual Kentucky Derby Party & Spring Fling.
    Out on the patio, caterers readied a lavish spread of hors d’oeuvres and drinks by the pool. In the kitchen, chef Michael Suchlicki tended roast turkey and tenderloin. In the corner, a big chocolate cake layered with strawberries waited, celebrating in frosted script the Run for the Roses 142, beneath a crossed hunting rifle and fishing rod, logo of the Rod & Gun Club of Florida.
    An hour later, about 80 club members and guests filled Souaid’s home and patio, chattering clusters of khaki slacks and floral hats, while four strategically placed televisions broadcast the countdown to post time.
    “I like the club because it’s very family-oriented,” Souaid said in a rare spare moment. “And there’s an emphasis on safety. I’ve hosted a CPR class here, and we support boating safety and concealed carry training classes. I grew up military and we support education, not fear.”
    In 2013, Souaid’s husband, Bob, was among the 10 men who joined Steve Jara at the Tryst restaurant in Delray Beach to organize what became the Rod & Gun Club of Florida.
    “I grew up here and used to hunt down where the Boca Raton Country Club is now, across from Costco,” says Jara, 52, a senior vice president with Golden Bear Realty and the club’s founder. “My idea was to have sportsmen come together and enjoy the outdoors and social functions with like-minded individuals.”
    The club is a private, nonprofit entity and potential members must be sponsored by a member, have a co-sponsor and then be approved by the membership committee. Jara declined to reveal the membership fee or annual dues, but an added benefit for members is the partnership program, which offers discounts at hunting and fishing resorts such as Chiggerchaw Lodge in Lake Burton, Ga., where several spent an April weekend trout fishing.
    Today, the club boasts about 70 members, and while they are indeed “like-minded,” they are hardly all alike. Some hunt, some fish, and some do both. Some shoot birds that live and breathe, some shoot only clay pigeons. Some catch fish and mount them, and some just toss them back. Some kill animals, and some can’t bear to.
    “I fish,” Souaid said. Her biggest catch was a 5-foot, 6-inch, 58-pound bull dolphin off the Bahamas. “It took me 43 minutes to reel it in. I go clay shooting, but I don’t have the heart to hunt.”
    On the other hand, founding member Hop Kennemer of Delray Beach has a ready retort.
    “You gotta eat!” he reasons. “I hunt birds primarily — duck, dove, quail, turkey, pheasant. I like to eat the things I hunt. I don’t kill animals just to kill them.”
    Whatever the fishing and/or hunting passions, the club members’ common denominator seems to be socializing. “Once a member is approved, the entire family is the member,” Jara emphasizes. Both spouses and children are welcome to join the club’s activities, which include a sailfish tournament every January, a fall sporting class tournament at Quail Creek Plantation in Okeechobee and a Christmas party.
    At the Souaids’ Kentucky Derby party, members were encouraged to bring guests and potential members, which is how Dr. John Westine, a Delray Beach plastic surgeon, happened to be there. An avid fisherman, Westine was eager to share his iPhone photos from a trip to the Pacific coast of Guatemala, where he and fellow sportsmen caught 230 blue marlin, striped marlin, sailfish, etc., etc. And let them go.
    “You want it to be a sustainable sport,” he explained. “If guys kept purging the sea, it wouldn’t be sustainable. So it’s the thrill of the hunt. It’s going out there and not knowing what you’ll find — communing with friends, the smell of the air, the undulating motion of the boat, the sunrise as you head out to the fishing grounds dreaming of that marlin you’re going to catch — and let go.
    “I’m not a hunter,” he said. “I don’t want to shoot anything and watch it suffer.” He smiled. “But we did eat about 30 mahi-mahi.”
    At post time, the partiers gathered before the Souaids’ four TVs, drinks in hand, to watch jockey Mario Gutierrez ride Nyquist to race “the fastest two minutes in sports” faster than the other thoroughbreds. Some cheered, some sighed. If any casual wagers had been made, losses and winnings were paid and collected. A line formed for turkey and tenderloin, drinks were refreshed.
    The Run for the Roses had been run, the Run for the Roses cake was served, and the Rod & Gun Club’s members and guests went on socializing.
    For more information, visit rgcfla.com or the club’s Facebook page.