Cape May Mermaid Guild has fun while aiding charity

CAPE MAY - About a year ago - during an evening organizers hope to repeat Sunday - a group of local businesswomen raised more than $20,000 in a mere three hours at a charity event they had quickly pulled together and dubbed the King Neptune Bachelor Auction.

About 400 people paid $25 each to watch 21 men proffer everything from a traditional dinner and a movie date to an elaborate chef demonstration for 15.

Even Cape May's mayor, an unmarried guy in his 60s, got in the act for charity and took four women to dinner on a memorable quadruple date.

Dates garnered between $250 and $1,400 each.

Still together are a couple in their 20s who met the night of the auction. Even married gals bid, choosing bachelors who painted rooms in their homes or taught tennis. Around town, people are still talking about the guy who walked on stage presumably wearing only a trench coat. He raised hundreds of dollars in about 10 seconds.

So expectations are running pretty high as those same no-nonsense women, fancifully calling themselves the Cape May Mermaid Guild, plan a second bachelor auction Sunday to benefit the Community FoodBank of New Jersey-Southern Branch. The event will begin at 5 p.m. at the Rusty Nail, 205 Beach Ave. Tickets are again $25.

"It comes down to the fact that no one can say no to a mermaid," said Sue Lotozo, an artist who operates a silk-screen shop called the Flying Fish Studio and is a founding member of the group.

Organized about three years ago as an ersatz chamber of commerce, the group consists of only female business owners in Cape May. Members pay annual dues of $200 and contribute to gift baskets that are auctioned off.

The guild promotes itself through a free, colorful map that features members' boutiques, galleries, restaurants, inns, and other enterprises. About 20,000 maps are given out each year.

"The image of the mermaid is one of those iconic things that people are attracted to when they come to the Shore, so when they see us at an event, they instantly want to know what we're about," said Lotozo, who often accompanies the group's elaborately decorated, traveling tabletop exhibit to fund-raisers.

Unlike other mermaids, these gals don't swim. Instead, their siren song raises money for regional charities, to the tune of $40,000 in the last 36 months.

In addition to the food bank, recipients have included the Cape May County Coalition Against Rape and Abuse, Animal Outreach of Cape May County, and the Brendan Borek High Tides Memorial Fund.

"Individually, none of us could write a check for $20,000 to the food bank," said Lotozo, one of about 40 group members. "Together, we realized we can do so much more. And we can have a lot of fun while doing it."

But these are busy women, running businesses and taking care of families and homes.

When a core group of four came up with the idea for the Mermaid Guild, they didn't want an organization that required endless meetings, committees, votes, or the other conventional trappings of such a group.

So the guild has no set leader. At various times members "jump in" to organize events. One of the biggest annual fund-raisers has been selling $1 chances on a mega-gift basket - a prize worth more than $4,000 that has included donated gift certificates for lodging, restaurants, and other services.

"It's all very laid-back," said member Joanne Klineburger, who owns the Great White Shark, a clothing store on the Washington Street Mall. "We don't even have meetings. We communicate via e-mail and Facebook. But somehow we have created a cohesion that allows each member to bring in different talents and skills to the group."

And that has been interesting to watch as the group has evolved, said Margie Barham, executive director of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey-Southern Branch.

"We were amazed at what this group did for us last year with the King Neptune Auction and how they did it," Barham said. "To say that it was a success is certainly an understatement, because for every dollar they raised, we were able to buy $10 worth of food for needy families and individuals."