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The Florida International Air Show is one of Southwest Florida’s most exciting annual events, bringing incredible aircraft, aviation professionals and thousands of spectators together for an unforgettable experience.
In Episode 35 of the Hustle & Heat Podcast, we sit down with the team behind the Florida International Air Show to talk about what goes into putting on an event of this scale, its history and impact on the community, and what attendees can look forward to.
From the planning behind the scenes to the action in the sky, get an inside look at the people and work that make the Florida International Air Show possible.
🔥 Hustle & Heat Podcast – Episode 35
🎙️ Featuring: Florida International Air Show
Like, subscribe and follow the Hustle & Heat Podcast for more conversations with the businesses, organizations and people making an impact throughout Southwest Florida.
Automatic transcript from Buzzsprout. It may contain errors.
0:00 What’s up guys and welcome back to another episode of Hustle and Heat Podcast. My name is George, your host, and today I’d like to welcome Denise Dole from the International Air Show. Denise, welcome.
0:11 Thanks for having me. Good morning.
0:13 Good morning to you too. Thank you for coming. Tell us a little bit about what you do and why you do it.
0:20 As regards the Florida International Air Show, I uh I’m president of the show. I’ve been their first female president in 40 years for about six years now. Nice. Um I started out selling beer and beverages in the concession stands and fell in love with aircraft. I just, you know, if you haven’t been to an air show, I strongly recommend it. I often use the analogy of it’s like hot dogs, pizza, football, baseball, fireworks, and all wrapped into one with a little Leonard Skinner on top.
1:00 It just, it’s a that’s a go. It’s an American I’ve never been. I’m not gonna let it. I’ve catered like tents there and stuff, but I’ve never been to the air show.
1:08 And every air show is not the same. So you people can say, well, I mean, I’ve been to the show. It’s every show is different. We don’t get the same performers or acts every year, and we try to shake it up so that we bring something new and exciting with or without a Jet team. It’s still a good family atmosphere, and um we’re trying to raise the bar a lot more on just education in general as far as aviation is concerned. Because Charlotte County has a huge aviation um arena for career path development.
1:42 They do, they they they are really picking up that slack. I know someone told me that they’re they’re trying to build more mechanics or like create more mechanics for aircraft. They are because there’s a shortage on them or something like that.
1:55 Um and we actually are having a new facility, someone come into the area who’s building a hangar out at the airport, NAS MRO from Miami, and they will employ quite a few of those aviation mechanics. They do large aircraft maintenance like the allegiance jet uh jets and so forth, and uh it’s gonna be a great employment opportunity for youth and and folks that want to get into that career path.
2:18 That’s awesome. So, do you only do the air show here in Punta Gorda or do you do it?
2:22 Currently, I can say I am only doing the air show here in Punta Gorda. Um I have entered into a uh a partnership, an LLC, with um somebody from our show’s past, and we are getting into air show production in the future outside of Punta Gorda.
2:42 Like where? And what does that mean? You brought it up. I know I did it.
2:48 I can tell you the the name of the the venture is called Global Air Race Group. Um we’re in partnership with Air Race X, which is the new Red Bull air racing um kind of arena, and uh we’re looking forward to producing our first air show with with them.
3:04 Okay, very nice. So the air show this year is when November, you said November 7th and 8th. Okay. Um what’s new this year that you’re bringing to the show?
3:14 We have the uh uh F-35 coming into the show this year, which I believe, and there’s probably fans out there that have been to the show for years, but I want to say it’s the first time they’ve ever been here. Um it’s an awesome aircraft, it’s uh one of the um most expensive aircraft out there, um, and we’re looking forward to having them this year for the first time. Kevin Coleman with Red Bull is coming. I don’t think we’ve had him here either in his aircraft. Uh Aaron Deleu is coming back. Aaron’s a fan favorite. He does uh um some air race racing as well. And um we’re bringing Ninja Nation in to do obstacle courses on the ground. So we’re excited about our ground presence and our air presence for the show.
3:57 That’s very cool. So, what’s that process like getting like pilots and stuff to come here? Do you have to like pay them? You you can’t reach out, like what’s that process like?
4:05 It’s a two-step process actually, because the military has their way of doing things and how how we work through those um solicitation kind of channels, and then we sub supplement what what we receive from them with the um citizen side, the prov uh the performer side that’s non-military. The military process, two years out. So right now we’ve completed our paperwork for 2028.
4:32 Wow.
4:32 Um, we will uh complete what’s called a D D 2535 and submit those to all um branches of the military. So everybody would kind of just broad stroke it to see. And then um in at a conference in December in Las Vegas with the International Council of Air Shows, which is a huge undertaking, it’s everyone in the business, producers, performers, sound, everybody. About 2,000 people I would say are in this room. Um we will get notified by the military who they will be allocating to our show. So when people say, Well, why don’t we get a jet team? Um I would love a jet team every year. We provide we uh submit the paperwork for a jet team every year. We just don’t fit into their schedules every year as to what they consider. So it takes it’s a long process and a long range out process. Once we know who’s coming from either a demo team or a jet team side, then we look for performers that we think will accentuate those those type of acts and and put on a really good show. So last year was a little disappointing for us. You know, we thought we were gonna have an amazing show, and we did in some regards, um, but the government shut down really put a uh put a damper on what we thought we were gonna have in the Blue Angels returning and then the F-16 team.
5:57 So I’m trying to So what’s better on F-16 or F-35?
6:02 F-35. I hate to say that out loud because the F-16 demo team has always been very good to us. They come, they’ve come often. Uh but they’re on this 35. Yeah. The 35 is uh is definitely an aircraft that to see for sure. Yeah.
6:19 So they use that in like war and stuff like that?
6:22 I mean the the type of aircraft, yes, for sure. Not the parti particular aircraft that we might see here, but F-16s, F-18s, F-35s, F-22s are all military warcraft aircraft.
6:36 Um what are you most what what’s like the most enjoyable part of your job?
6:41 Watching the families and kids just get yeah, that look on kids’ face when that loud and fast comes over their heads is just amazing. It’s a great, yeah.
6:51 So tell us about that that uh process. You went from selling beer to now you’re the head honcho.
6:57 It seems like selling beer has always been my cat. It’s been my cat. I’ll tell you, I was involved with the air show a uh a while back. I’ve been in um in Charlotte County for almost 30 years now, uh relocated from Philadelphia, go go birds. F*** they have always been um interested in philanthropy and just different things like that. But then I also loved selling beer at the ballpark when the Rays were in town, and I did that for almost 14 or 15 years, and um that parlayed us into a lot of local events where people would say, Can you come and and be a concessionaire or help us with bartending or what have you? So I did, and then that experience led us into an event um for the Veterans Wall. It was over at the uh event center or the um Charlotte Sports Park, and from there I was asked to be on the board of directors as their director of concession and vending. And then I went to Vegas, and you know, when you go to Vegas, you can’t say no, and somebody said asked if I could be president of the upcoming year.
8:10 Why can’t you say no?
8:11 I always say I always start with a nah, I don’t know about that. You know, it might be too much. I don’t think I have a good skill set or my plate’s too full. Um that particular year I started with a no, it ended with a yes, and I’ve been president ever since. So I think it just comes with a passion of for what you do want to do and where you want to be. I would have been happy still selling beer in the concession stands, don’t get me wrong. It’s a great event to go to and support in some way. Um there was some leadership changes and shifting around at the top, and it that’s where I landed uh at the time. Yeah.
8:47 So you’ve been you’ve been in this position for six years now, right? Yes, I have. What’s your what’s been your biggest blessing and your biggest struggle in six years?
8:55 I want to say my biggest blessing is to be able to take a look at something that has 40 plus years of experience, and it’s very well respected, not just here in Charlotte County, but nationally we have a very well respected air show. Um and seeing what that’s gonna look like, you know, 20 or 30 years down the road and progressing our path towards that. Um we have a Earn Your Wings reading program for kids in elementary school. It started in elementary school. Uh, with some grant funding from the Charlotte Community Foundation, we were able to take that program into middle schools, and now we’re kicking it off with that same funding uh opportunity for year-round reading programs in summer camps and things like that. We did our first camp with the Boys and Girls Club this past about two weeks ago. We had 11 kids go through the program and they read a book that’s age appropriate, do a little recap of that book with someone that’s a you know okay to understand if they’ve read it, really read the book or not. Uh, and we give them a free ticket to the air show. Nice.
10:01 How do we get a free ticket to the air show?
10:03 Read a book. Read an age appropriate book.
10:06 I don’t read. I’m just kidding. Yeah.
10:09 We try to make it as easy. I mean, it’s that old circus mentality, right? Yeah. You give the tickets the kids free tickets, somebody’s got to bring them in the door, so you sell the tickets to your parents. Right. So um, with everything that’s happening in Charlotte County and its great educational programs with C uh Charlotte Technical College and um the Charlotte High Schools hangar, there’s a great opportunity for kids to really develop a path in aviation, whether that’s piloting, mechanics, um marketing of airport marketing, you know, whatever the case may be, uh, we want to be able to help showcase those opportunities to kids.
10:46 Very nice. Are you involved in the airport or anything, any of those um organizations?
10:52 Yes, actually, I was I had the privilege of recently being elected to the Punta Gorda Airport or Shawta County Airport Authority District 4 seat on the airport commission. So I’ll I’m gonna be happy to start serving in November in that capacity.
11:08 So what would be your job?
11:10 They oversee the the development around the airport, airport operations, just things like that. Um I’m I’m anxious to see what my job is gonna be. I’ve been involved, we’ve been involved with the airport and airport operations since with the show. You know, when we come we have a great partnership with them. It you almost have to. It’s almost like have you I’ve heard it said that it’s like the circus comes to town, you know? So we’re invading their space for a whole week, setting up tents and doing all kinds of things on the street.
11:44 So do they cancel flights for a whole week?
11:46 They don’t cancel flights, we work around the Legion’s flight schedule, which is sometimes a little challenging, but the you know they’re in a business too, the airport, so we’re not there to to you know conflict with them in any way. We actually try to support that. There’s a lot of folks that come to the show who’ve never been to the airport. They don’t know that a Legion has flights out of there or where they go, so um it’s a great marketing tool for Allegiant. Yeah, that’s true. Uh but um we’ve been we’ve in a been in a great partnership with them for a long time.
12:19 That’s awesome. Do you know what their goal is with that airport or if they want to keep getting bigger?
12:24 I think they want to grow, but they want to grow in a smart way. Um you know, you can’t just add additional flights and and um expect that people are gonna want to take those flights. You know, it’s like there’s a lot of behind the scenes as to where do people want to go, what are they looking for in travel, why are they coming here, where are they coming here from, um, and then finding airline partners that fit those needs. I think down the road, I’m not by any means know anything that nobody else knows, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s additional airlines in there that uh potentially go to you know other locations or bring additional business in. And the area around the airport is critical for you know uh warehouse space, logistical type things. Um so it’s a it’s a great hub for larger economic development than just the airport.
13:22 That makes sense. It does. Yeah. Give give the airlines a place to go afterwards kind of thing, do business. That, you know, is that if UPS wants to come in and stuff like that, yeah.
13:33 It’s a commercial it’s it’s commercial, but it’s also, you know, it’s for individuals and business type it it’s hugely impactful uh during disaster recovery. There’s a lot of things that happen there. And it’s um they have a agreement with the military as a um a fueling base, so there’s a lot of really cool planes that come in and out of there uh just to for fueling.
13:56 Really?
13:57 Yeah.
13:58 I know that.
13:59 Yeah, and their FBO is amazing. Their flight based operations center is is really cool too. That’s where we have our meetings at Lake Gate.
14:07 Yeah.
14:07 It’s a great space. Yeah.
14:09 How so?
14:09 They’re getting ready to get an air uh restaurant in there too. I heard what kind? I don’t know. I haven’t heard I haven’t heard the final deal on that.
14:17 They asked me to go in there, but I said no.
14:19 Yeah?
14:20 Yeah. Just scary.
14:22 What makes it so scary?
14:24 It’s not developed yet.
14:26 I I mean, what, the restaurant restaurant part of it?
14:30 No, the airport. Like I just don’t feel like there’s enough to support a restaurant.
14:34 Interesting.
14:35 To pay the bills, make money, make it worth it.
14:38 You don’t have a food truck, right?
14:39 No.
14:39 I just wonder, because they do food trucks out of there. I just and I don’t know.
14:42 If I did, I would love to because I know that’s a great opportunity.
14:45 It is, and you kind of test the the waters, right? You kind of dip your feet in the pool before you dive in, kind of thing.
14:51 Yeah, but like as far as like allocating more um employees and more of my time over there.
14:58 Yeah. That’s like any venture, right? Yeah.
15:00 It’s a big it’s a big commitment.
15:02 Sure.
15:02 Yeah.
15:03 And expense, I would think.
15:04 Yeah, you guys bring uh food trucks to the air show, right?
15:07 We do.
15:08 They’re always busy.
15:09 We we bring them on premises for individual guests, and we also use a food truck for our performer um feeding type. We we tied we kind of like to be good hosts for everybody that’s there, no matter what capacity.
15:23 You got a catered dubs barbecue.
15:25 You were out there. Uh uh somebody had you in a tent for the next team, yeah. Exactly. That was the Thunderbird show, was it not?
15:32 Yeah, something like that.
15:33 23.
15:34 Yeah.
15:35 Yes. So we do. We work with um local folks that want to bring in their own food, but we have a pretty good catering relationship right now with uh twisted fork too, and they they do on site, they come on-site, set everything up. Right. They do our premium line and all of our catering from on-site.
15:53 Nice. Mm-hmm. Nice.
15:55 Yes. People love it, people tend to like it.
15:58 Yeah, it’s not bad.
15:59 Yeah. I mean it works out. We’d we’d rather folks take advantage of our services because there’s a lot involved with bringing things in from the outside. I mean the oper the airport is still operational, right? So TSA, all the things, the rules still apply, so you can’t just roll your truck in anytime.
16:21 No, I understand.
16:22 Yeah. So um we kind of like to work out those details so we can make it as easy and flexible as possible for folks that wanna want to have a little extra in their chalet.
16:32 Nice. I mean if I if I had a food truck, I’d definitely be out there because every time well, from when the time I went, they was uh they were always busy.
16:40 They were you know, it depends on the crowd size. And if we have if we are privileged enough to have a jet team, um we will go into the higher numbers. It’s almost three times the size of a non-jet team show. Really?
16:56 It is so what’s the jet team? Like what do you when you say jet team, what do you mean?
16:59 It’s either the Thunderbirds, the Blue Angels. If we were ever uh lucky enough to have the Canadian red uh you know team come down, the snowbirds, you know, or maybe even a national team like the Red Arrows or something like that. Um they always tend to pool a much larger crowd than than uh just a civilian show with a demo team is what they call the like the F-16 or the F-22 as a demo team. But uh there is a large growth in just the interest in air shows in general. Uh so we we’ve seen an increase even on years when we don’t have a big a big name. Nice, a bigger name. I’ll say that bigger name. We’ll do about 20 to 25,000 people over the weekend.
17:47 And if you have a jet team?
17:48 Uh double that.
17:49 Really?
17:50 Yeah.
17:50 50 to 50. They come from all over Hong Kong.
17:52 All over. Like that’s one of my favorite things to do. And I I’m a nerd on data. And I constantly watch the ticketing or ticketing uh software platform to see where where folks are buying tickets from.
18:07 And what’s the farthest people have driven?
18:09 Um, I want to say like Australia, outside of the country. We’ve had guests come in. Really? Yes, we have. Yeah. Families from folks who are in the military that are gonna be here, you know, they’ll travel from wherever they’re coming from. Um yeah, I it’s it’s pretty interesting. And I like to lay the map of our ticket sales on the overlay it to the allegiance flight schedule to kind of see how that mingles. And that supports my my uh plea or whatever you want to say that we are a huge economic driver in the in Charlotte County.
18:47 And where’s the closest air show?
18:50 There’s probably eight or nine or potentially more shows just in Florida. Sanford has a show, which you know they like to call it Orlando, but it’s in the Sanford Airport. Stewart, Vero Beach, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, um Pensacola, obviously, with the Blue Angels having their operation center there.
19:14 Um so is Pensacola guaranteed the Blue Angels every year?
19:18 Yeah.
19:18 Really?
19:19 Well, they all have a home. And we uh actually you’re gonna get an exclusive, not an exclusive, but a sneak peek because I haven’t really mentioned this publicly yet. But we’ve always said we’ve been in November show for a long time now. Um we did it for some reasons years back for some funding opportunities from the county. But we struggle because our show always will land on the weekend of their homecoming. The year that they decided that they were going to come here, they pushed their homecoming a week back so that they could come here. Last year, the government shutdown obviously didn’t have that happen. But they won’t do it every year. So for us to be considered by them, um, we have to move off of a November show. So we’re gonna do that. We’ll be moving to April in 2028.
20:10 Really?
20:11 Yeah, to set us up hopefully for a better opportunity with not just and the Thunderbirds are doing a homecoming now too in Vegas, so we’re at a no-win situation, but April’s a good month though. It is, and we get out of hurricane season, so we’re you know, that we had to shut the show down in 24 for hurricanes. So we think it’s gonna be a good, a better situation for us and make us more competitive for air shows. We just need to make sure we’re not competing with other folks that always get those guys as well. So the larger shows like Lauderdale or Jacksonville or what have you, um Sun and Fun is one of the largest shows in Lakeland. If they’re on the same weekend, we’re still not gonna win, you know. So it’s really a lot more work. This year, I was the first one on the calendar. Like, I’m like, okay, we picked a date, I’m gonna be the first one up there uh on the internet because uh, you know, I’m like, I’m taking it. So people other shows tend to look and see who’s doing what around them and then kind of or they usually have their typical uh same weekend every year kind of situation. Um so we’re gonna roll the dice and see what happens in 28.
21:21 I think that’s a good idea. I do too. I don’t think it rains in April either, does it?
21:24 No, and hopefully the weather’s a little bit nicer um, you know, from a temperature standpoint, and we don’t have to worry about quite yet about you know, there’s nothing more disappointing than working extremely hard as an all-volunteer group for months, eight, nine months, and then having a hurricane shut you down right before the show starts. You know, so 2024 was disappointing for us also because we uh we were ready to go and had to pivot off of a hurricane season.
21:55 So, what about you? Are there anything else that you’re involved in that you do for the uh community?
22:00 Yes. Thanks for asking that.
22:02 Let us talk about Denise Dole. She’s not so dull, guys.
22:07 Well, and too, like everybody, some folks kind of think, you know, because of my my involvement is so strong in the show that that’s what I do for a living. But we’re all volunteers on that board, and we have a great, amazing team on the on the AirShow board. Um, there’s folks that are really dedicated to making that show what it is today. But what pays my bills every day, um, my eight to five or I guess you could say, is I’m a director of a nonprofit called Peace River Community Housing Partners. Porch, we like to call ourselves. And we’re a community land trust that develops affordable housing with a vet uh military veteran family first priority preference. Nice. So yeah, I’m in housing.
22:49 Housing and a little bit about that process, how does that work?
22:54 Um we the folks that we house and consider for housing are coming out of a homeless situation, so um and we work directly with service providers in the area to find those those tenants. We have five homes that we rent in Parkside in the Parkside area that we obtained from government surplus listing in 2020, so it’s been a while on those houses, and then we are in the midst of almost completing our first new build project on the corner of Scott and Lavella Street in Punta Gorda. It’s a huge triplex. If you come around that corner, you’re gonna see it. Um, which took us six years to build.
23:41 Wow, why so long?
23:43 We started before COVID with a with a um design for the triplex, went into permitting and found out that it would be considered as a commercial building and not a residential building. Why?
23:57 Because it’s a triplex.
23:58 Yeah. So we had to kind of pivot on that and do some additional work and raise some additional funds, and then it just seemed like we had a few hurdles after hurdles upon that. But what started as a I want to say it was a $700,000 project back in 2020 has now cost us over a million dollars to complete. It needed sprinklers, and now we need to monitor the sprinklers. Um the landscaping had to be a little bit different for a commercial building. Uh, there was a lot of things we we didn’t necessarily know about going in that we had to experience. But we’re extremely proud of the project, and we know what we’re not going to do going forward.
24:38 Yeah, you learned your lesson, right?
24:40 Yeah. But we’re excited about um something we are kicking off probably in the next couple of weeks. We received a grant from AARP uh about a year ago to hold a duplex design competition. So we’re gonna put it out to the public and hopefully get some partners where we are looking for a duplex design that will house youth aging out of foster care with a senior population because both are growing in our county right now, and in in a living situation that supports each other for um for successful housing. So we’re gonna kick that off in the next couple of weeks. So we’ll be looking for partners on that. It can be anybody who has it an interest in developing what housing might look like for that type of a situation.
25:31 Really? Yeah. You don’t need any experience or anything?
25:33 No, AI can make things wonderful these days, you know that you know, school age we we we want that youth component because you know they’ll be able to tell us what’s important in their housing. And um and senior senior housing is always an issue here. You know, we tend to build so many three-bedroom, four-bedroom, large houses and and kind of the aging population and folks um single veterans and things like that tend to not have that housing available to them in a situation like that. So we want to see what that looks like for growth going forward.
26:12 Well, what else? Is that all you do? Is there anything else?
26:14 Is that all I do? Let’s say Florida Air Show, International Air Show, Porch, Airport Commission. Um I’m still pretty heavily involved with the Chamber of Commerce and Which one? Charlotte County Chamber of Commerce.
26:30 Okay.
26:31 I was uh past president for them in 2017. And uh it’s it’s a great uh networking and establishing group to be a part of if you’re in that business community and things like that. They’re doing an amazing job with growth also.
26:44 So they are. They’re a pretty good chamber.
26:47 Yes.
26:47 I like the like to hang out with I’m a part of that chamber.
26:50 Good, good. What’s your what do you think is the biggest benefit of being a chamber member?
26:55 Just exposure.
26:56 Yeah.
26:56 And and opportunities to go out and network. Because there’s a lot of opportunities to go out and network with the chamber ribbon cuttings, all the events they throw and stuff like that.
27:05 And I’m sure you’ve hosted a lunch here, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So they like to uh I haven’t seen you at any of the lunches, but I’ll tell you what, no, listen, coffees are my thing because uh it’s before the day gets started, so I don’t get wrapped into like of other things and I’m like, okay, I can start my day with the chamber. I coffees are where I I usually live in the chamber world. Oh in the coffee.
27:27 Yeah.
27:28 All right.
27:28 Well wait to call me out there, though.
27:31 I’ve been doing that a lot on this podcast just to just mess with people.
27:35 I do you know what? I you always have good intentions because I’m I’m um I’d like to be a little bit more involved in the CDBIA as well and uh being a member of their women in professional building group. It’s just you just don’t have the time to do everything, right?
27:50 No, you don’t, and you do a lot. Yeah, you do a lot for one person, that’s good.
27:54 But I wanna I wanna figure out what what that looks like for me over the next couple years too. So it’s not just growth of the show or what we’re doing, but I want I want to make sure that my focus is where it it’ll be provide the best impact going forward. I think we’re really on that, I’m really on that track, or our teams are really on that track with uh education and housing and and the future of youth development here in Charlotte County.
28:17 Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah. Um any last words for the people, how to be a b***** like you, any advice?
28:24 Just don’t be afraid to uh say yes, I guess, right? Don’t be afraid to get involved. You know, I would love to see more younger folks get involved with a lot of things in our community because sometimes it does get a little old and stale, and we just tend to do things because it’s the easiest path to take. And um shaking it up a little bit every now and then is is a good thing.
28:46 That is true.
28:47 Yes. And I hear you I mean, I know you have some amazing barbecue because I’ve had it.
28:51 You gotta try it.
28:52 I have had it. Yeah, okay. I’ve had it. I was here for an Eagles game and uh turn off the camera.
28:59 Turn it off.
29:00 And I uh was in the next tent or the uh for the air show when you catered for.
29:05 The next team. Yeah, for the next team, yeah. That’s awesome.
29:08 Who are good supporters? Actually, Carla’s a great supporter of she’s on my board of directors for Porch. She’s a very big uh supporter of the air show.
29:16 Yeah, yeah. Carla’s a nice lady. Yes, she is.
29:19 She’s amazing.
29:20 She’s a real nice lady.
29:21 Another great community pillar in the community. And I heard you had Rita on uh podcast as well, Rita Bartler.
29:27 Yeah, from Dollars from Emigrams.
29:29 Yes.
29:29 Yeah, we do uh fundraiser. This will be our third one.
29:32 Do you do you want to hear the story backstory on that fundraiser? Yeah, I do. Okay. About, oh my gosh, so it was about 15 years ago or so, we met Rita I met Rita. I didn’t meet Rita, one of my friends met Rita at a women’s group luncheon of some sort, and she made a pitch about how they were wanted to expand into Charlotte County. They were only in Sarasota County at the time, and we were sitting around at various cocktail establishments at the time, this group of women, and we were trying to figure out how we could have a big we love to throw big parties, so we decided to start the bar stool open in uh Ponagorda in support of Readers uh Rita’s dollars for mammograms. And we did it for her for 10 years and gave her almost a hit uh quite a bit of money. And then she expanded into Charlotte County from that event. We uh after ten years, I came off as chairing the event and we had to partner with somebody who was going to take it on and do a bit a little bit bigger role, and that’s when it moved over to the Fred Lang Foundation. Um, and when that happened, another event had to spin out of that, and that’s when the uh Treasure Lanes picked up the that event and and took it over, and now it’s yours.
30:57 Yeah, that’s pretty cool.
30:59 Yeah, so that’s how that happened. Thank you, you’re welcome.
31:02 Thank you. That’s awesome. I didn’t know all that.
31:06 Yes. Rita’s a gr awesome. We had a great relationship with her for a really long time. Yeah, Rita’s a nice lady.
31:11 Yeah. We’re doing it October 3rd this year. You should come out.
31:16 Something’s happening on October. Oh, I have a class reunion in Philadelphia. Woohoo!
31:21 High school.
31:22 Bring me back to cheese state.
31:25 Uh yes. I love and people who do the whole what’s better, uh, Pat’s or whatever the other one is. Neither one of them. Yeah, Tony Luca’s my favorite. Tony Luca’s cheesesteaks are the best.
31:37 I’ve never been.
31:38 You never been to Philly?
31:39 No, I’ve never. Have you ever been to Philly?
31:41 You can’t say bad things about Philly if you’ve never been there.
31:43 I just hate the Eagles.
31:44 Why why? Why do you hate the Eagles?
31:46 Because I’m a Skins fan.
31:47 Okay, there’s that.
31:49 That’s a good reason to hate the Eagles.
31:50 It is. Well, Dallas, if you were a Dallas fan, you would have it would have been worse. But yeah, I know.
31:54 Like we can both agree to disagree on this. But you know.
31:59 Hey, and you know what? Sometimes even Eagles fans don’t like Eagles.
32:02 I know.
32:03 So it’s not always it’s a love hate really.
32:06 Maybe Chris and I will go to Philadelphia this year and try some villages.
32:10 You should. Today would have been, or this year would have been a good year to go. They had the FIFA World Cup there. They had the kind of money you think we got. Hey, North Park budget here today.
32:21 Literally.
32:22 You could do it on a North Park budget. Just tailgate in the parking lot. Take some take some uh barbecue up there.
32:30 Yeah, I will, I will.
32:31 I don’t know. Philadelphia in the parking lot’s sometimes just as bad as Flor Philadelphia in the stadium. You know, parking lot life up there is it’s an experience.
32:40 Really? Yes. Okay.
32:42 Especially when we’re well, we’re when we’re winning or losing, it’s an experience, yeah.
32:46 Are we gonna see you at a game this year here at Dove’s Barbecue?
32:49 Uh, you possibly may, I think.
32:50 You should come for an Eagle Skins game. We’ll hate each other for three hours. I yeah. And then we’ll have a shot afterwards.
32:56 I uh I know my brother’s here quite often. Um fungus, Dave Cabot.
33:03 That’s your brother?
33:04 We’re twins, yes.
33:05 Oh, I didn’t know that.
33:06 Yeah. Okay. So he he likes to come up here, so he tries to talk me into it all on occasion. Alright, that makes sense. Yeah, I didn’t know that. Yeah.
33:15 He has a food truck.
33:16 He does. He is our food, he’s our food truck vendor. Let me tell you if I have a minute to tell a story on this one, so because when we went to get the Blue Angels in in Vegas, it it came up. Dave Dave and outside the lunchbox and his partner Colin are our food truck vendor for performers. So they come up on the they get up on the apron. Anybody that’s coming in as performers or stage or any of the support stuff, we feed them out of that food truck. The first time they did it was for the Thunderbird show in 23. And when we went to Las Vegas the next year after that show, we were still catering to try to get the Blue Angels to come. And one of the questions they asked was, Are you gonna have that food truck?
34:06 I’ve never eaten there, but you’re the food store.
34:08 Yes. So he was a he was a part of the podcast. He’d be great on the podcast. Yeah, I’m sure. He is a talker.
34:19 Yeah.
34:19 Yeah. He’s a he’s a laid back kind of calm non-aggressive kind of talker. Like they do, they’re they’re doing pretty well. Um for that.
34:30 But yeah, he’s pretty popular.
34:32 He’s the one that got me into selling beer at the ballpark, too.
34:34 Um yeah, him and uh lunchbox or yeah, lunchboxer, yeah. Lunchbox moved though.
34:40 He did. Yeah, they’re in North, he’s in North Carolina now. But yeah, I tend to follow him around on the fun things. Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool.
34:51 Well, Denise, it was nice having you on the show.
34:54 Thanks for having me. Uh it’s been a pleasure to be here.
34:57 Thank you. And it was a pleasure to have you on. Is if there’s anything else you want to say to the people, just come out to the air show on November 7th and 8th.
35:04 We’re gonna have an amazing show. And you know what? We heard the voices and the masses say uh last year’s show was a little expensive, it was because we were supporting a very large show. We’re making tickets extremely, extremely reasonable for families and stuff this year. It’s a on a dynamic ticket pricing model, so the sooner you buy the ticket, the cheaper it’s gonna be for you.
35:29 How much were the tickets last year?
35:31 Uh I want to say General Mission was up in the $60, $65 range. Okay. I don’t think you’ll see a ticket over $45 for the show.
35:39 That’s good.
35:40 Yeah. And we have military and senior discounts.
35:43 Okay.
35:43 And kids are like 15, I think, or something like that, or will be at walk-in, so they might even be cheaper than that right now. Um so I strongly recommend if you’re going to come get your tickets early, it’ll be cheaper for you, and it’s a great experience. It’s gonna be a shorter day, it’ll be a nice little event for for families.
36:00 Well, the news, thank you. And uh thank you for all that’s been watching. Please like, comment, and subscribe. We appreciate you guys.
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