By Micki Heckman

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Grace is the infant daughter of Kirk & Lindsay Tobuck from Panamas Hattie’s. She was born last December with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. She has endured 3 surgeries and suffered a heart attack in March. Grace has been at the Gainesville Hospital being treated & waiting for a heart transplant. The donor has to be the exact same age, so it isn’t easy, but the good news is that she is #1 on the list in Florida.

The weekend was kicked off at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre with a Kids Carnival in the morning during the Saturday Farmers Market. With each donation everyone received a gift for supporting Baby Grace. What a great time for all of the kids & their parents. There were many games, activities & Face Painting to keep the kids amused. Garth the Clown was in the crowd & added to the fun doing his magic tricks and playing the mandolin and singing songs. He also made funny balloon animals, flowers & hats for all the kids on request.

The fun continued on at Panama Hattie’s for happy hour with live music upstairs. Silent Auctions and Raffles were held with many generous people giving lots of $$$… There was a very successful late night benefit concert that raised many more $$$$$.

Sunday was a day of a lot of riding & fun as a large group of bikers met at Bar None for the sign-up. Chris was ready with her delicious breakfast & awesome Bloody Marys that got us all on our way. Wearing and flying the red bandanas that read Saving Grace we headed down AIA to the Sandbar a little piece of heaven. A great stop along the way that gave us service with a smile and a cold one of our choice. Touring along the ocean was a gorgeous sight and ride that took us to Finn’s Beachside where from the upper deck you can see forever and enjoy cold libations & good food. Raffles were won by some very happy riders. Next we were back to the tour and our next pit stop was the End Zone, always a welcoming place where everyone knows your name. Next it was back down to A1A to Panama Hattie’s where Grace’s big sister Emily was out front waving a flag to welcome all the riders. Music, liquid refreshments and fun was waiting for all to enjoy on the big deck upstairs. Getting late, so it was time to get along to Mardi Gras for the wrap up party and what a party it was. Many friends were waiting for the riders to arrive and DJ Marc D was playing his usual choice of great songs. Delicious food was served and beverages of your choice were to be had by all. There were many delighted winners of the wonderful donated prizes, the 50/50 was won and given back to the fund for Baby Grace. There was a silent auction with the most unique items to bid on that were donated by friends and local businesses. The choices were so many it was hard to bid on just a few.

This was a community coming together to help our own and congratulations go out to all who gave very generous donations, the entertainers who all donated their time and talent to help a family we all know and love. Jenna and Melissa especially deserve kudos as they so generously gave so much of their time and attention to this event. Thank You to all, you are awesome. Over $10,000.00 was raised with all of the proceeds going to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association

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