Fat Tuesday has come and gone but the memories are here for a long time. This year’s Mardi Gras celebration served up great food, including untold pounds of Phyllis Bustamante’s famous coleslaw and Julie Rodriguez’s chicken and sausage gumbo which was fantastically out of this world yummy.
All The democratically elected or appointed judges who are up for a election were in attendance as was the Veterans Caucus Chair, Claudia Risner who arrived with three friends all dressed in authentic costumes from Europe.
Martha Trujillo managed the kitchen along with Vice Chair Mary Jane Parks, Ward chairs Julie Rodriguez, Phyllis Bustamante, and Tim Julian.. Lots of volunteers showed up to get signatures as well as candidates to include house district 47 representative candidate, Reena Szczepanski, Isaac Romero, who is running for County Assessor, and of course, the Santa Fe County Sheriff who had his own table of five. Former Attorney General Gary King had two tables of friends and family that also included Cordy Medina and Cathy Thompson.
Chair Vadurro Welcomed everyone one as she served guests their choice of fabulous lemon, chocolate, or chocolate cherry cakes she personally made, as well as 90 chocolate chip cookies. Which were to die for, by the way. She took turns dancing with various guess including six year old Nora, daughter of Bethany Custard, who took lots of great pictures of everyone having fun.
Jodi Dionne expertly managed the auction table for the Federation which netted about $1000.
Volunteer Michelle Sharbo, read Native American animal cards and the daughter of Taro cards for the mini guests. All in all everyone reported a festive time and the party made some money while preserving the tradition of its annual Mardi Gras event.
Music was by DJ Lief Darling. Roberto Montoya paid for the DJ, created a La Verdad and burned up the dance floor.