The Art of the Possible, held Thursday, April 18, at Asado Life waterfront restaurant in St. Augustine raised funds for two important local causes: the St. Johns County Education Foundation, which operates as Investing in Kids (INK!), and Ocean Sole, a nonprofit based in Ponte Vedra Beach and Kenya.
It was a full evening, featuring exceptional fare from the Asado Life chefs, a silent and live auction of several collectable and experiential treasures, a photo booth, custom selfie station, door prizes and live music by Brad Newman.
Cathy Newman, INK! executive director, described the mission of the organization founded 30 years ago.
“We support the public school district here in St. Johns County,” she said, “so all 50,000 students, all 6,000-plus employees, which includes about 3,600 teachers and instructional staff.”
One of those attending the event was Tina Hemby, this year’s St. Johns County Teacher of the Year.
“I’m just so excited about participating in the fundraiser because INK! does so much for our community in the education field as far as helping students and helping teachers,” she said. “INK!’s just amazing. It’s a really good cause.”
Hemby teaches eighth grade pre-algebra at Millcreek Academy. She has been a teacher for 29 years, 10 of which she has served in St. Johns County.
Ocean Sole CEO Erin Smith described how her organization pays about 1,000 people for the many discarded flipflops they collect from beaches along the Indian Ocean and then pays about 100 Kenyan artisans to fashion the flip-flops into colorful animal sculptures to sell.
Ocean Sole’s mission is to clean polluted beaches, build conservation awareness, connect people through the artwork and generate funds to benefit low-income communities.
The cuisine was a mixture of gaucho-inspired cooking methods and modern fine dining. Asado Life is located at 173 Shipyard Way on the shores of the San Sebastian River.
Sponsors for the event were GreenPointe Holdings, Old Town Trolley Tours, Leonard’s Photography, All American Air Charitable Foundation, The Volen Group — Keller Williams Luxury International and Grand Canyon University.
