December 9, 2025 | Anna Maria, Community News

Kids, adults have a ball at Lester Family Fun Day

10-month-old Slater Fortenberry sat on a pony after his 3-year-old brother, Maverick, rode the pony, joined by their dad, Andrew, and their mom, Mackenzie, who both grew up on Anna Maria Island. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

ANNA MARIA – Lester Family Fun Day helped ring in the holiday season at The Center of Anna Maria Island while raising money for The Center.

The Dec. 6 event featured inflatable bounce houses, slides and play areas, pony rides, a petting zoo that featured goats, ducks and a small pig, a visit from Santa, the Manatee High School Drumline, The Grinch’s dance contest, children’s games and activities, ice cream from Small Town Creamery and hot dogs donated by the Anna Maria Oyster bar and cooked by Duffy’s Tavern, which also provided and cooked the burgers.

DJ Freeze played the music and served as the master of ceremonies, assisted by the SOZO Missions youth from Bradenton. The family fun concluded with a 50/50 raffle in which the winner was decided by golf balls dropped from a helicopter.

After participating as the snowman in the Grinch’s dance contest and getting out of his costume, Center Executive Director Chris Culhane said, “Lester Family Fun Day is incredible. I think this is our 24th year – minus the COVID year it would be our 25th. Next year we’re going to have our 25th Lester Family Fun Day. We do it for the kids and we do it for the Lesters. That was their dream – to have an incredible community event with old-school prices, old-school food, old-school tickets and old-school family fun. I think this is the busiest one we’ve had.”

After their 3-year-old son Maverick rode the pony, his mom, Mackenzie, said she and her husband, Andrew, both grew up on Anna Maria Island.

“We love it,” Mackenzie said. “We’ve been coming since we were kids and we try to bring our kids every year. This brings the community together.”

Vivienne Ornelas was the last in line to visit Santa before he called it a day. Vivienne and her parents recently relocated from Denver.

“It’s fun,” she said of her first Lester Family Fun Day.

Vivienne’s dad, Larry, said, “It’s a fun event and I had lunch.”

When asked about his stop at The Center, Santa said, “It was fantastic, with a lot of nice people. A lot of kids were happy and a couple of them cried.”

Santa said the most requested items this year are Nintendo Switch gaming consoles, iPads and cell phones and he’s still compiling his nice and naughty list for the youngsters, and the grownups, too.

Santa said his preparations are going well for his upcoming world-wide delivery day: “The reindeer are working out every day, Mrs. Claus has the elves working hard and we’ll be ready for the 24th.”

As he departed, Santa said, “Have a Merry Christmas.”

At approximately 2 p.m., a helicopter piloted by Sarasota Helicopter Services owner Stan Lee circled The Center a couple times with Tom Sanger Pool and Spa owner Tom Sanger and his daughters Violet and Daphne onboard.

Lee then briefly hovered the helicopter over the golf flag planted in the athletic field and Sanger emptied the bag of golf balls purchased by 50/50 raffle ticket holders in advance. The ball that landed closest to the pin won the raffle. After Culhane grabbed the winning golf ball, the kids raced in to collect the golf balls and place them in a cardboard box.

The winning ball belonged to Anna Maria resident Marina Rosaco, who won half of the more than $3,000 raised by the raffle ticket sales that offered a single ball for $50 or three balls for $100. The other half of the raffle ticket proceeds went to The Center. Rosaco said she chose ball #93 in honor of her grandmother, Marina, who passed away at the age of 93.