Category: We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: Party on the Green

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date August 28, 2024
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Marsha and Mark Anthony (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Guests arrived in shorts and FedEx caps to “Party on the Green,” the fourth-annual bash thrown by Alex and Rick Gardner during the FedEx St. Jude Championship at their home on the 15th green at TPC Southwind.

The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital connection happened when they began using Evite Online Invitations for the party, says Rick, president of Fremont-Wright, which owns architectural and engineering firms around the country. Evite has “a great system where you can just link to a charity of your choice,” Rick says. So, donating to St. Jude was a “no-brainer.”

This year, they decided to “make it a true benefit for St. Jude” instead of just donating money online. Alex was “actually in communication with people at St. Jude that are involved with the tournament and they helped out with banners and pop-ups in the house.”

About 150 people attended. “I don’t think there’s anybody who hasn’t known someone who has a child that had to go to St. Jude,” Alex says.

The party “spread a lot of good cheer.”

Tags Alex and Rick Gardner, FedEx St. Jude Championship, TPC Southwind

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WE SAW YOU: Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date August 21, 2024

Reid Halford, Seth Cartwright, and Eli Christenbury (Photos: Michael Donahue)

More than 2,000 people attended the sixth annual Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival, which was held August 10th at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

“We say ‘a beer fest with a chicken twist,’” says Caroline Hall, regional events director for iHeartRadio, which puts on the festival. “Our goal is a tailgate for adults. Having a big play area for adults.”

The play area included inflatable basketball, cornhole, and other games, as well as, for the first time, a mechanical bull.

The event included 16 food vendors. The beer, which included brew from Meddlesome Brewing Company, Memphis Made Brewing Co., and Beale Street Brewing Co., was from Ajax Distributing Company Inc.

The next big iHeartRadio event will be the annual Wine on the River, which will be held October 5th at Tom Lee Park.

Tags Beale Street Brewing Co., iHeartRadio, Meddlesome Brewing Company, Memphis, Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival, Memphis Made Brewing Co., Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium

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WE SAW YOU: Skol-astic Book Fair

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date August 21, 2024

Michael and Diana Townsend (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Guests could raise a glass and shout “Skol” to toast the Skol-astic Book Fair, which was held August 10th at Soul & Spirits Brewery.

People put their noses in beer and in books at the event, which featured “Lyric,” a brew made for the occasion. Ryan Allen, who owns the brewery with his wife, Blair Perry, describes it as “a farmhouse ale with Earl Grey tea.”

“We just do it for the book fair every year,” he says. “So, it’s really only available that day. This year I doubled the amount I made last year, and it still sold out in the same amount of time.

“We call it ‘Lyric’ because lyrics are the words of a song. It’s a way to tie in the theme of the book fair and being a wordsmith.”

Melissa Justice, DJ Reitzel, and Rian Taylor

Describing their event, Ryan says, “We invited all the bookstores in town. And this year, I think a little more uniquely, we invited individual authors that could come in and sit and speak with people and sell their books.”

They want people to “connect directly with the authors.”

Tags Burke's Book Store, DeMoir Books & Things, Memphis, Novel, Skol-astic Book Fair, Soul & Spirits Brewery

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WE SAW YOU: Elvis 7s Rugby Tournament

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date August 14, 2024

Jack Albert, 18, just played his first Elvis 7s Rugby Tournament, which was held August 3rd at McBride Rugby Field at Tobey Park.

“I thought it was really cool,” says Albert, who plays in the Eureka Kings (no Elvis affiliation) Rugby club in St. Louis, Missouri.

“It was fun to just enjoy the music and the environment and get to play the sport I love at the same time,” he says.

The music that played during the games was mostly recorded Elvis standards, as well as a mix of other artists. The event, presented by the Memphis Blues Rugby Club, features a sideburns contest and Elvis-themed prizes.

**Juliette Robinson, Gabrielle Naples, and Meredith Feltenstein**

Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” was played. “I think they only played that once,” says Albert. “We were walking on the field and that song came on.” Or, in rugby lingo, “I was about to go pour out my heart on the pitch, leave it on the field.”

Albert wore protective covering on his right leg so he wouldn’t mess up his new tattoo. It’s an anime symbol “from Berserk” and basically means, “Everybody has a bigger purpose in life and you’re destined for greater things than what you think.”

Tags Elvis, Elvis Sevens Rugby Tournament, Memphis, Memphis Blues Rugby Club

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WE SAW YOU: Wax & Wine

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date July 24, 2024

Sean Kelley, Schuyler O’Brien, Josiah Hoss, Cole Jeanes, Harrison Downing, Kai Molica, and Payne Ritchie (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Mary Helen Randall waxed enthusiastically about “Wax & Wine,” a fundraiser held June 28th at Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

“It was one of our bigger events,” says Randall, Stax director of communications. “It was insane how quickly the tickets went.”

Smith Ann Drummond, William Drummond, and Maura Chiles

A total of 240 people attended. “It was our second year to do it, and was an absolute success. It was sort of a new crowd for Stax — people who had never experienced the music before or didn’t have a reason to come. There’s a really passionate group of DJs and vinyl collectors and vinyl lovers out there who were instantly drawn to this event.”

The “wax” in the title was the vinyl sets from DJs, including celebrity DJs Sean Brock from Nashville, Tennessee, and DJ Paola Puente, aka Double Peas, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The “wine” was the more than 15 wines selected by Rootstock Wine Merchants.

The “wefreshments” (sorry, can’t lose the alliteration) included fare from celebrity chef Sean Brock, who, in addition to being a DJ, is also the two-time award-winning James Beard chef/owner of Bar Continental in Nashville.

Tags FreeSol, Sean Brock, Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Wax and Wine

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WE SAW YOU: Hole-in-One Charity Festival

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date July 10, 2024
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Anthony Dionne, James A. Edwards, and Father Joe Sax (Photos: Michael Donahue)

This year’s 66th Hole-in-One Charity Festival at St. Louis Catholic Church drew “well over 10,000, but maybe pushing 15,000,” says Wes Kraker, who’s been involved with Hole-in-One for more than 20 years.

June 21st and 22nd drew at least 2,500 people each night, Kraker says.

This is the annual St. Louis fundraiser that begins on Father’s Day and ends six days later.

As Kraker explained to me last year, “We transform the campus at St. Louis Church into a 37-tee-box range. And we give out cash and prizes for good golfers for getting holes-in-one or close to the hole. Certain qualifiers shoot out for a car from City Auto. And we accumulate points for performers all week. And those top 10 performers shoot out for a million dollars on Saturday.”

Jon Shivers, Corderoa Smith, and Patrick Shivers

Joseph Tidwell, Cory Human, and Cole Tidwell

The St. Louis Men’s Club puts on the event. Proceeds go to St. Louis Church sports, scouting, and youth ministry programs.

The “St. Louis Men’s Club Culinary Institute” makes outstanding food, including barbecued bologna.

Tags Golf, Hole-In-One Charity, St. Louis Catholic Church, We Saw You

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WE SAW YOU: Glam Rock Picnic

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date July 10, 2024
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Mike McCarthy lent a hand as guests climbed a ladder in front of his
10-foot, papier-mache sculpture work-in-progress of David Bowie.

Guests at his “Glam Rock Picnic” were given little pieces of clay to tap onto the sculpture to help build the statue.

**Chris McCoy, Craig Brewer, and Natalie Ensminger**

The statue, which portrays Bowie in the “Tokyo Pop” jumpsuit by Kansai Yamamoto, has four heads, which represent Bowie’s predilection for taking on different identities.

The goal of McCarthy’s nonprofit, Sculpt Memphis, is to preserve Memphis music through sculpture. He believes placing the statue in Overton Park near the site of the old Memphis College of Art in Overton Park would be a good spot for the Bowie statue when it’s completed. In 1973 Bowie visited the school, then known as Memphis Academy of Arts, to accept a watercolor by Dolph Smith, an instructor at the time.

Smith and his son, Ben Smith, attended the picnic.

“I thought it was a great kickoff to phase one,” McCarthy says.

The ultimate goal is to cast the sculpture in bronze. Which may mean another party or two in the future.

Tags David Bowie, Memphis College of Art, Mike McCarthy, Off the Walls Arts, Sculpt Memphis, We Saw You

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WE SAW YOU: Craft Food & Wine Festival

Post author By Michael Donahue
Post date July 3, 2024
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Brandon Claybon and Cristina McCarter (Photos: Michael Donahue)

Brandon Claybon, a native Memphian now living in Los Angeles, was one of 636 guests at the fifth annual Craft Food & Wine Festival, which was held June 23rd at The Columns.

The fundraiser for Church Health featured more than 30 food-related businesses.

Chastity Pointer-Gibson and Courdria Pointer

Marcus Hamilton, Kula, Debra Westbrook, Verlisa Westbrook,
and Verles Westbrook

“It was my first time at the event,” Claybon says. “I thought it was amazing. Absolutely extraordinary for Memphis to have something like this. And bringing people from all walks of life to come together, break bread, and drink wine. It was amazing.”

Asked how many stations he frequented, Brandon says, “I probably stopped at about 20. And then I ate a hamburger after. I waited the entire day for the festival, so I didn’t eat before.”

Caleb Knight, Vino Wright, and Josh Mutchnick

Claybon and event organizer Cristina McCarter were best friends at Bolton High School. “This year, it was just in the cards. So, basically, I had wrapped up a shooting with Tyler Perry in Atlanta.”

This year’s Craft Food & Wine Festival raised about $7,000, McCarter estimates. That brings the total raised over five years to “close to $60,000” for Church Health, she says.

Tags Church Health Center, Craft Food and Wine Festival, We Saw You