Ohioans — by birth, by adoption, by naturalization, by marriage, by loyalty, or by liking via any other means of affiliation — are invited to the second event hosted by the newly organized V.I. Buckeyes. Sunday, April 9, is the date, 2 to 5 p.m. is the time, and The Old Mill nightclub is the place for the gathering, which will be a combined social event and semi-business meeting.
The business to be addressed includes discussion of proposed bylaws and the apportioning of assignments in preparation for a major event the group will host on May 21 at Magens Bay, according to V.I. Buckeyes president Carol Lotz.
Toward that end, the group will be seeking to raise funds at Sunday's gathering through an auction of various Ohio items and a 50/50 cash raffle. According to founding member Merry Phillips, the items up for bid include colorful Ohio posters; Cincinnati Reds, Bengals and Bearcats memorabilia (including a Bengals Superbowl XXIII baseball cap); Cleveland Indians and Browns items; and two 1-pound bags of Ballreich's Potato Chips imported direct from Tiffin.
There will be a cash bar and light hors d'oeuvres.
The May event will be a barbecue beach party featuring Ohio music, horseshoe pitching, grilled bratwurst, "and at least one celebrity Ohio guest, we hope," Lotz said.
Lotz says she and five other St. Thomas residents with Ohio roots decided to found the V.I. Buckeyes earlier this year "just because I kept running into them, and they kept running into other people who it turned out were from Ohio in one way or another." The first cocktail sip, in February, attracted about 25 people, and Lotz says she heard soon afterward from St. Croix residents interested in getting involved, too. "The Texas Society of the Virgin Islands started out small," she said. "Who knows where this could lead?"
The buckeye, by the way, is the official tree of the State of Ohio. The nut from the tree, which is rounded and a shiny, deep mahogany brown, thus resembling the eye of a buck, is also called a buckeye and is carried for good luck. In the vernacular, a "buckeye" is an Ohioan — "native or otherwise, we don't make distinctions," Lotz says.