Rainbow Village was very busy preparing for the Zephyrhills Founder’s Day parade after hearing that this year’s theme was “That’s Entertainment, The ‘60s.” We decided on “American Bandstand” as our theme that happened in the ‘60s. We had a Dick Clark lookalike, a Roy Orbison lookalike, and a Patsy Cline lookalike as our stars. We also had great dancers and our walkers who danced dressed in their ‘60s outfits. A big thank you to all who helped us build, decorate, and create music that won us first place in the RV division at the parade. A big thank you to Will Gard and Sandy Abel who co-chaired the event.
(Photos courtesy of Sandra Gilbert-Abel)
Our annual fashion show, featuring Bon Worth fashions, was held with a very large crowd of ladies. This year it was called “Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow.” A light luncheon consisted of ham salad, cottage cheese and peaches, veggies and sweet breads. Nicki Purcell performed some selections from “The Music Man.” Mimi Cass-Clark from Bon Worth emceed the fashion show. The models were Pat Brown, Connie Gray, Nancy Newton, Carol Smith, Glenda Walker and Pat Woolaver. This was the spring selection of clothes at Bon Worth. A big thank you goes out to Pat Johnson and Sue Larkin for co-chairing this event, and their great committee.
This is my final article that I will write with news from Rainbow Village. The past six years reporting and submitting pictures have been a wonderful experience for me. You are never too old to try new things, and this was new for me. It was fun reporting the news happening in our resort. We have a very active park and lots of events to report, and you get to meet lots of great people doing this job.
My husband has developed some health issues that force us to head home to York, Pennsylvania, full time. We are selling our place in Rainbow Village that we lived in for the past 14 years, and heading back to Pennsylvania on the car train that travels from Sanford, Florida to Lorton, Virginia.
During my time at Rainbow Village, I served as chairman of the church board, sang on the church choir, and was the Queen Mother of our Rainbowettes Red Hat Ladies that hosted a special fundraiser each year to help Meals on Wheels, Zephyrhills elementary schools, the homeless, hospice and Thomas Promise. I co-chaired many Founder’s Day parade floats that our resort entered. My husband and I were the King and Queen of Rainbow Village. I especially enjoyed taking pictures of all the events and reporting them to the newspapers.
These past 14 years were like a dream come true! I accomplished things that I never dreamed I would ever do. I will always remember my time at Rainbow Village and Zephyrhills, and all the great people that I have met over our years in Florida. God bless you all!
By Sandra Gilbert-Abel
Rainbow Village
Published March 23, 2016
