Easter Parade

Bonnets, baskets bring bucks for Lakeside

From the moment she arrived, Virginia Gazewood showed "hatitude."

It was a slam dunk for "most elegant" and she knew it.

Who could compete with a Texas straw cowboy hat festooned with a pastel tulle netting train, tulips and a single rose garnished by a Navajo silver belt buckle?

"I love this hat," Gazewood said with a laugh. "I threw this together between 10:30 and 11."

She pointed out her accessories which included a Navajo silver necklace and bracelet sporting fist-sized turquoise fish.

Gazewood might have hogged the limelight had not three Easter bunnies arrived at the Lakeside Community Club meeting with 30 drop-dead gorgeous baskets overflowing with goodies.

"Every year they come up with something better," Cemmie Aasheim, club president, said as she inspected the basket bounty spread out in the Vista Linda restaurant in Somers.

She referred to Barbara Coppock, Sam Matson and Pam Quinby, the creative forces behind the baskets at the club's noon Easter Extravaganza. Coppock confessed that her own extravagant ways created the event.

An artist well-known for her colored etching, Coppock said the event began six years ago when her turn came up to create centerpieces for the April meeting. She decided to make Easter baskets.

"I can't do anything halfway," Coppock said with a laugh. "I'm famous for that."

Her artistic bent gave the boot to chocolate, hollow-bodied bunnies reposed on a snaggle of plastic green grass. Coppock's four grandchildren learned long ago that grandma and tradition rarely shake hands.

"One time I sent them plastic terrariums with bug cages," she said with a laugh.

Her baskets were such a hit six years ago that a spring fundraiser blossomed on the spot. For the next five years, Matson joined into the fun of shopping year-round for the spring Easter basket auction.

"We go to Wally world and get everything half-priced after Easter," Matson confided. "The greens (citronella) came out of my green house."

Quinby, new this year to the basket team, joined Matson and Coppick to create all the baskets on the Saturday before the Wednesday lunch. They hauled massive bags of loot out of their garages and basements for six hours of frenzied sorting and arranging.

Lois Buck, a 30-year member, said the Easter event as well as the club's other activities have become one of her major social outlets.

"We have fun," she said. "We're all supporting each other and our community."

The club has such a long history that most of the members of its earliest days have passed on. But Buck recalled it was called the Welfare Club when she first joined three decades ago.

Another member, Debbie Otto called the Lakeside Community Club "a ton of fun" while contributing to the west shore communities. With their major Lakeside Community Fair, the basket auction and other events hauled in over $20,000 in the last two years.

"At the end of the year, we give it all away," Otto said.

Some of last year's major recipients were the Lakeside QRU, the Rollins Volunteer Fire Department, the Somers Volunteer Fire Department and School District #29.

The club's $21,000 also helped Abbie House crisis line, HOME, Samaritan House, CASA, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs, West Shore Library and food bank.

Serving as auctioneer, Matson pulled out all the stops to get the bidding hot and heavy for this year's live auction Easter basket sale.

"This is such a girly one," she said, holding up a basket overflowing in pink.

A bidding war ensued, netting $45 for the treasury.

The generosity continued as club members fought over a basket accessorized with a stained glass box, a red hat special, and a garden-themed collection and a stuffed-lion and plant that snared $65.

"Now we're gonna have loooooove cookies," Matson said with a wink at the crowd.

The next basket got the crowd laughing and a few male bystanders blushing. Matson steamed up the crowd for the kitchen-themed basket.

"It's got a very sexy apron in it," she said, as a helper flaunted the item. "You could tantalize your husband just wearing that."

In a few minutes, the baskets left on the arms of smiling club members and the treasurer was left with an even bigger smile after another profitable Easter basket extravaganza. Matson's appraisal of the committee's efforts was confirmed.

"I think they're our best effort yet," she said. "Barb, Pam and I had a ball putting these things together."