Suzanne Bower of coastal Delray Beach is involved with this year’s 20th Annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball, which benefits the George Snow Scholarship Fund. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Linda Haase
For Suzanne Bower, volunteering is as natural as breathing.
The coastal Delray Beach resident immerses herself in the community, helping out everyone from the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce to the Boca Raton Junior League to Boca Ballet and St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church.
This time of year, however, she’s busy with another of her favorite organizations: the George Snow Scholarship Fund.
Bower, the mother of an 8-year-old daughter, is on the organizational and auction committees diligently at work on the 20th Annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball, scheduled for Jan. 26. The event, which draws about 550 people, raises money for scholarships for local students.
Last year’s event raised more than $130,000, part of the more than $509,000 in educational grants awarded to 73 students that year.
And that, she says emphatically, is something to be proud of.
“It is amazing to see what this group does for kids. When I go to the awards ceremony, it brings it all home. I love seeing the joy on these kids’ faces and knowing we gave them an opportunity they wouldn’t have had,” said Bower, a broker associate at Mizner Grande Realty LLC, who began volunteering for the organization in 1995.
“The event is known as the hippest, hottest, coolest event in South Florida. They have entertainment, fireworks, amazing auctions and great food. And you walk away feeling good knowing the money is going to a very worthy cause.”
Her hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Having a great volunteer like Suzanne return year after year and help us bring enthusiasm, experience and new ideas to the Caribbean Cowboy Ball is a great asset to the organizational committee,” said Debi Feiler, the fund’s program coordinator.
Although Bower is über-busy spending time with family, working and volunteering, she makes time to walk and run — and, she says, Delray Beach, where she has lived since 1995, is the perfect venue for those activities (and so much warmer than her previous home in the Northeast.)
“What is not to like about Delray Beach? It has a beautiful beach; it’s a small town with character and is filled with warm and interesting people. There’s never a dull moment, but it can be as quiet or as loud as you want it to be. It‘s just one of those special places,” she said.
“I like being involved in the city, getting the pulse of what is going on.”
The 20th Annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball
An annual event sponsored by the George Snow Scholarship Fund to ‘ensure that no deserving scholar in our community will be deprived of higher education because of a shortage of funds.’
When: 6-11 p.m. Jan. 26
Where: Red Reef Park, 1400 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton
Tickets: $175
For information: Call 347-6799 or see www.scholarship.org
Comments