Big Bear Lake, CA – April 18, 2011, 12 noon – The mood was upbeat at Sunday night’s “Man About Town” finale hosted by Soroptimist International of Big Bear Valley. The audience remininised over the last 18 years of Man About Town campaigns as a big screen replayed some the past year’s highlights. The three candidates this year included Gus Gonzales, Bob Jacowski and Ty Warren. During the evening the men each performed a skit that coincided with their campaign theme. Gus Gonzales spoofed his “El Zorro” character with look-alike masked men who were past Men About Town including Vince Smith, Skip Suhay, Rick Rey and Jay Obernolte. Ty Warren’s team performed scenes from his popular participatory theater show “And Now For Something Completely Different” enlisting the participation of the other two MAT candidates. Candidate Bob Jacowski, along with sidekicks Michael Perry and Ron Peavy, imitated the antics of the Three Stooges enlisting the help of the divas, Elena Peavy, Nancy Walker and Kim Boda. The grand finale at the end, however, announced that there could be only one Man About Town, crowning Gus Gonzales, “El Zorro”, as the candidate who raised the most money. An astounding sum of $106,319 was raised during the six-week MAT campaign this year for this year’s project to “Stop Teen Violence” in the Big Bear Valley. Also, announced at the MAT event, three weeks ago, Soroptimist went into partnership with the Big Bear Valley Recreation and Park District donating $380,000 for a community pool. That money was raised over a three-year period from Man About Town campaigns. According to Reese Troublefield, Rec and Park District Manager, plans are underway to renovate the existing pool at the Tennis Ranch located at the east end of Big Bear Valley in the fall for a grand opening around June 1st. Currently, the District is scoping the project to see how to bid it out to stay within the parameters of their $380,000 budget. Reese states that more information will be made available in the coming weeks.
