Sports pioneers gathered in Sarasota on Friday for the inaugural Trailblazer Lifetime Achievement Awards, presented at the Women’s Sports Museum Gala in Sarasota. And living legends Donna Cheek and Rebecca Rusch spoke with SRQ Daily about the challenges in their paths as they reached the top echelons in their field—and how they soared past them.

Cheek in 1981 became the first black equestrian of either gender to represent the United States in international competition at the American Junior Show Jumping Competition. She said it didn’t occur to her at the time how groundbreaking her achievement had been, but looking back feels proud. “I was very insulated from the racism, very insulated from the ugliness of the sport. My parents were aware of what was going on, the good, the bad and the ugly,” Cheek explains. “I wasn’t.” She first got a hint of that ugliness when her father tried to sign Cheek up with a top-notch trainer whose riding club wouldn’t allow Cheek’s entry. But even then, her focus remained on the next step, finding a trainer who didn’t care about her color. Her father would coin the nickname ‘Little Relentness’ for Cheek for her determination to gallop past all obstacles, including ones presented by those within the sport. 

On Friday, the Women’s Sports Museum honored Cheek with the Trailblazer Courage Award, causing the celebrated rider to reflect on the hurdles of life. “When I was doing it and making history and making things happen, it was just my reality and it didn’t seem hard,” she says. “As I have gotten older and pondered my past, I though , ‘Wow, that was really tough.’ To be a trailblazer, you have to have a lot of courage, and have to be self-motivated.”

Rusch, an endurance athlete perhaps best known for her history-making mountain biking sojourns, was honored with the Trailblazer MVP Award. Rush has made headlines recently for being the first person ever to ride the entirety of the 1,800-kilometer Ho Cho Minh Trail in Asia. The trip documented in the film Blood Road and included a visit to the plane crash site where her father died in the Vietnam War. Taking the road less traveled (or never traveled) led Rusch to acclaim, but it was in no sense of the words an easy trail. “You can always look back and say you’re a world champion this or that, but what you don’t see is the 30 years of sacrifice, the times when you are living out of your car with no health insurance and no place to live,” she recalls. "There are lots of failures, falling down and questioning ‘What will I be when I grow up?’”

But Rusch says she would never let anything stop her along the way. “I’m a part-time firefighter and an adventure athlete, all historically male-dominated fields,” she says. “But growing up with a single mom, we never even had a conversation and ‘Girls don’t do this career’ or ‘Girls don’t do that.’ That was never even the vocabulary in our house. Yes, there were road blocks, but not from me family or the people close to me.”

The Women’s Sports Museum also honored sports journalist Lesley Vitter, the only broadcaster to work telecasts for the Final Four, Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Triple Crown, Olympics, U.S. Open and World Figure Skating Championship, with a Visionary Trailblazer Award and tennis player and coach Ann Kroger, who most recently served as head tennis coach and associate athletic director at Haverford College in Pennsylvania before announcing her retirement, with a Trailblazer Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Photos by Wyatt Kostygan: Donna Cheek, left; Rebecca Rusch, right.

Popping up right alongside the high-rises and condos comes a pop-up store from Sarasota Architectural Salvage’s Jesse White designed to make those bare rooms beautiful. Going by the moniker Hand Picked SRQ and setting up at 307 South Orange Ave., the location may be temporary, but the offerings, they say, are timeless. Not quite officially open until later this week, nevertheless the doors are unlocked, the shelves stocked and sales are being made already to browsing customers.

Time is of the essence in making use of the old Michael Saunders office next to the Center for Architecture Sarasota, as the building is slated for redevelopment but currently and temporarily available for Hand Picked SRQ to ply its wares and turn an abandoned office into an indoor bazaar.

The remnants of the cubicle layout remain, but heavily disguised by layers of varied home décor, fine art, fabrics, furniture and odds and ends of all types. Local artisans each claim a nook, staking their claim in their own particular way with their own particular style. Ceramics and glassware abut painting and photography and sculpture. Home décor ranges from centerpiece antiques to subtle accents, from rustic and wild to modern and ordered. And with the ever-present possibility of a sudden order to vacate the building, styles and offerings will change regularly, giving the whole thing a fun sense of urgency. “It’s something I always thought about having,” says vendor Lisa Brecher of Lisa Joy Brecher Interior Design, a Philadelphia transplant with her own space in Hand Picked SRQ. “When this opportunity came up, I didn’t want to miss out.”

And even if the order to vacate comes, the concept is sound and one that White wants to continue exploring regardless. “There are many uninhabited buildings in Sarasota that we would be willing to pop up in when the time is right,” he says.

Hand Picked SRQ is located at 307 South Orange Avenue and open Thursday through Saturday, 10am–6pm. 

Williams Parker shareholder Charlie Bailey has been appointed chair of the 2017-2018 Board of Directors of The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is a not-for-profit organization that exists to maximize its members’ success, the community’s competitiveness and the area’s economic strengths. Bailey is a land use attorney, and counsels developers and landowners on a variety of land use matters. These include developments of regional impact, comprehensive plan amendments, rezonings, special exceptions, conditional use approvals, site plan approvals, variances and development agreements addressing concurrency issues. 

Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce

Kelly Gitt of the Gitt Team has joined RE/MAX Alliance Group as a broker associate in the Anna Maria Island office. She is also an associate broker and team leader with RE/MAX Platinum in Omaha, NE. Gitt has 13 years of experience in real estate sales and investing, and is a new construction expert. A native of Jupiter, Florida, she served in the United States Air Force for four years. She is a Certified Military Residential Specialist and Dave Ramsey Endorsed Local Provider, and was featured as a Veteran Business Owner in Edge magazine in West Omaha in 2014. Gitt also served as the real estate expert for WOWT Channel 6 News in Omaha for three years and as a Women's Council of Realtors Top Producer Panel expert in Omaha for two years. In 2014, she was nominated Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year. 

RE/MAX Alliance Group

Williams Parker attorney Erin Hope Christy has been appointed president of the Young Lawyers Division (YLD) of the Sarasota County Bar Association. The mission of the YLD is to integrate young lawyers into the legal profession by stimulating their interest in bar association activities, social and educational programs, and public service projects and by providing young lawyers with a voice in the state and local bar associations. Christy focuses her practice in the areas of real estate and land use. She handles complex residential and commercial real estate matters, including land use and zoning matters, developer representation, landlord representation and purchaser and seller representation in connection with residential and commercial purchase and sale transactions. Additionally, she counsels developers and significant landowners on a variety of land use matters. 

Young Lawyers Division

SRQ’s Best Bloody Mary is a new battle that’s never before been fought, therefore we need you to tell us where to go! Make your mark on this brand new category and vote in the 2018 Best of SRQ Reader’s Competition. After all, Bloody Mary’s do count as a vegetable, right? 

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