Longboat Key Lawn Party
Lifestyle Alison Kanter September 4, 2026
Lifestyle Alison Kanter September 4, 2026
The Lawn Party by the Bay is Longboat Key's signature fundraiser. In 2025 it drew more than eight hundred people to Ken Thompson Park, served bites from thirty-two local restaurants, and delivered a record $123,900 to the Children's Guardian Fund. It is organized entirely by volunteers.
The 2026 Lawn Party is Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 12:00 to 2:30 PM at Ken Thompson Park on City Island. Tickets go on sale in October.
I am Danielle Gladding, Broker of Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty and President of the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key since 2025. This year my daughter and Sales Partner, Alison Kanter, and I are co-chairing the event. I write about this island constantly — the neighborhoods, the buildings, the market. This post is about the afternoon that tells you the most about what kind of place Longboat Key actually is.
The format is simple, which is part of why it works. Admission covers unlimited tastings from local restaurants and beverage partners, plus live music. You walk from tent to tent, you eat extremely well, you run into half the island, and you go home having funded something that matters.
In 2025 thirty-two restaurants took part — the most in the event's history. The Blues Pig Band played. There was an artists' tent, and the 50/50 raffle that has become one of the afternoon's main fundraisers. Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier welcomed people at the gate.
Every part of it is run by volunteers. Nobody on the Kiwanis side is paid, which is worth saying plainly, because it means the money goes where it is supposed to go.
In 2024 the Lawn Party did not happen. Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit back to back, two of them severely affecting this island, and an outdoor food festival was not remotely possible.
The need did not pause. So the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key took $50,000 out of its own operating account and gave it to the Children's Guardian Fund anyway. As past president Michael Garey put it to the Observer at the time, the club could not raise the money that year, but the need was still there.
That is the part of this organization I would want a newcomer to understand. A small volunteer club on a barrier island wrote a fifty-thousand-dollar check out of savings because children in foster care do not get a hurricane year off.
The 2025 Lawn Party came back on December 6 and turned into the most successful in the event's history.
The check presented at the club's February 5 meeting showed $103,900. The full figure includes a $15,000 match from The Carter and an additional $5,000 from Mayor Ken Schneier and Cynthia Craig, given on top of their sponsorship. Together that broke the previous record of $107,000 — and as Michael Garey noted, it did so while ticket prices stayed flat and costs went up.
The Observer covered both the return of the Lawn Party in December and the record check presentation in February, with photographs by Dana Kampa.
The Children's Guardian Fund is a 501(c)(3) that responds to the needs of children removed from unsuitable homes. It serves Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties — Florida's 12th Judicial Circuit.
Their work covers three things:
The Lawn Party has benefited the Fund for years, and 2025 was the largest yet at $123,900.
An event like this runs on local businesses and families deciding to show up.
The Resort at Longboat Key Club was the Diamond Presenting Sponsor of the 2025 Lawn Party. Managing Director Rick Konsavage told Longboat Key News the resort wanted to be the main sponsor because it aligned with the club's philosophy of supporting the community. On an island of roughly seven thousand year-round residents, a sponsorship at that level is a meaningful part of why the number came in where it did.
The 2025 list also included the Robert E. Dods Family Foundation at gold; The Jeffrey P. McKee Foundation, the Longboat Key Foundation, Observer Media Group, Stifel LeBaron Wealth Advisory Group and Long Wealth Advisory Group at silver; Brista Homes, Building Raving Fans, MIC Insurance, Secur-All Insurance Agency and Reed Medical Group at bronze; Your Flooring Warehouse as site sponsor; Goodwill Manasota as event program sponsor; and Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty as tray sponsor.
Nobody takes a salary. Not one person, at any level, in any year.
An event for eight hundred people does carry real costs, and some of them come due long before a single ticket is sold. We are frugal with every dollar of it, because the whole point is that the money reaches the Children's Guardian Fund rather than the event itself. By and large it does.
That is also why seed money matters. For 2026, our treasurer Jeff McKee has already written the first check through the Jeffrey P. McKee Foundation, sponsoring at the gold level. That money is what lets the planning start.
In-kind sponsors help hold the costs down too, by giving something other than cash. The Observer is one of them, providing a great deal of advertising for the event. In-kind support is easy to overlook on a sponsor list and it is worth a lot.
Here is the part that says the most about this club. A number of our own members sponsor the event they spend the year organizing.
Jeff McKee is one. Several other Kiwanians sponsor at bronze and specialty levels. These are the same people chasing restaurant commitments, setting up on Friday and working the gate on Saturday.
So it is not only our time. It is our treasure as well. Nobody asks us to do both, and we do it anyway — which is a fair measure of how much this event matters to the people who put it on.
For 2026, Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty is sponsoring the Children's Bounty — a new feature this year. We are organizers, and we are sponsors, and you should know that when you read our description of the event.
Michael Garey, immediate past president of the Kiwanis Club and owner of the Lazy Lobster, chaired the 2025 Lawn Party and has done more than anyone to shape what the event has become. He keeps a set of photographs showing how it has evolved — it began as a bike-a-thon, and for years it was a gathering of tents and chairs near Temple Beth Israel.
Svetlana Ivashchenko is Executive Director of the Children's Guardian Fund. Marlis Carter is both a Kiwanian and a Fund board member. Cynthia Craig is a former board president of the Fund.
And the club remembers the late Woody Wolverton, who was a longtime champion of this event.
It is a genuinely fun day. Thirty-plus restaurants competing to feed you their best thing, wine tents, a band, the bay right there, eight hundred people who mostly know each other. If you came only for the food and the company you would leave happy.
But it is the whole island turning out for something larger than the island.
The children the Children's Guardian Fund serves are in foster and state care. They are there through no fault of their own — removed from homes that were not safe, most of them with very little say in any of it. They are as vulnerable as anyone in this community gets, and they are largely invisible unless someone decides to look.
An afternoon on a lawn does not fix that. What it does is put real money behind emergency needs, behind the ordinary parts of childhood these kids would otherwise miss, and behind the volunteers who stand up in court and speak for them. That is a concrete thing a few hundred people can accomplish between noon and half past two on a Saturday in December.
It is the best day of the year on this island, and it is not close.
Fair question, and I will answer it directly.
I have lived in Sarasota since 1976 and worked in real estate here since 1981. In that time I have watched a great many people move to this area, and the ones who settle in best are almost never the ones who bought the best house. They are the ones who found something to belong to.
Longboat Key is a small island. That scale means a volunteer club can raise six figures in an afternoon, and it means the people you meet at the Lawn Party are the people you will see at the grocery store in January. If you are considering a move here, that is more useful information than any market statistic I could give you.
Ken Thompson Park sits on City Island between Longboat Key and St. Armands, next to Mote Marine and a short way from Marina Jack. Parking is on site. Come early if you want to talk to people.
Kiwanis is one. There are others — our community involvement page covers where else we spend our time.
If you are weighing a move to Longboat Key or anywhere in Sarasota, we are happy to talk about neighborhoods and market conditions. We are equally happy to tell you which organizations are worth your Saturday.
Call Danielle at 941-539-8535 or Alison at 941-306-9786.
— Danielle Gladding | Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty | President, Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key since 2025 | In Sarasota since 1976 | Realtor since 1981 | Broker since 1987
Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 12:00 to 2:30 PM at Ken Thompson Park on City Island, next to Mote Marine. Tickets go on sale in October at lbklawnparty.org.
The Children's Guardian Fund, a 501(c)(3) that responds to the needs of children removed from unsuitable homes across Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. The Fund covers emergency needs, enrichment and normalcy for children in care, and support for Guardian ad Litem volunteers.
A record $123,900 in total impact. The check presented in February 2026 showed $103,900, with a $15,000 match from The Carter and an additional $5,000 from Ken Schneier and Cynthia Craig bringing the total higher. It broke the previous record of $107,000.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck back to back, two of them severely affecting Longboat Key, and the event could not be held. The Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key donated $50,000 from its own operating account to the Children's Guardian Fund that year regardless.
Thirty-two local restaurants took part in 2025, the most in the event's history, serving more than eight hundred attendees.
The Resort at Longboat Key Club was the Diamond Presenting Sponsor of the 2025 event. The 2025 list also included the Robert E. Dods Family Foundation at gold; The Jeffrey P. McKee Foundation, the Longboat Key Foundation, Observer Media Group, Stifel LeBaron Wealth Advisory Group and Long Wealth Advisory Group at silver; and Brista Homes, Building Raving Fans, MIC Insurance, Secur-All Insurance Agency and Reed Medical Group at bronze. For 2026 the Jeffrey P. McKee Foundation is sponsoring at gold, providing the seed money that covers up-front costs. The Observer is an in-kind sponsor. Several Kiwanis members sponsor the event themselves, and Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty is sponsoring the Children's Bounty. Sponsorship opportunities at several levels are listed on the Lawn Party website.
Yes. Nobody involved in organizing the Lawn Party takes a salary at any level, and a number of Kiwanis members sponsor the event financially on top of the time they give. The event does carry real costs, some of which come due before tickets go on sale, which is why seed money from sponsors matters. The club is frugal with those costs so that the money raised reaches the Children's Guardian Fund rather than the event. In-kind sponsors, including the Observer with advertising support, help hold expenses down further.
The Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key, entirely through volunteers. Danielle Gladding has served as club President since 2025 and is co-chairing the 2026 event with Alison Kanter. Michael Garey, immediate past president and owner of the Lazy Lobster, chaired the 2025 Lawn Party.
On City Island, between Longboat Key and St. Armands Circle, adjacent to Mote Marine Laboratory. Parking is available on site.
Yes. The 50/50 raffle is open to everyone, and sponsorships at several levels are available through the Lawn Party website.
Bay Isles — the gated community at the south end
Danielle Gladding co-chairs the Lawn Party by the Bay with Alison Kanter and has been President of the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key since 2025. She has been a licensed Florida Realtor since 1981 and a broker since 1987, lives in Queens Harbour inside Bay Isles, and runs Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty with Alison. Danielle: (941) 539-8535 · Alison: (941) 306-9786
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