The Arts Project of Cherry Grove's (APCG) annual two-night Casino, at the Community House in the Grove, has long represented one of the organization's major fundraising efforts of the season and some of its movers and shakers have sometimes gone east, to Fire Island Pines, to run a casino as part of the Pines Party.

This year, for the first time, the Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association (FIPPOA) and APCG, major organizations in our neighboring communities, collaborated on a "Sunken Treasure Casino," at Whyte Hall, the Pines community center, on July 31 and August 1, as an official part of the "Poseidon" Pines Party, subtitled "an underwater spectacle." The Pines' Ellen Feldman and Hal Hayes were Casino Co-Chairs and APCG's Mary DiFede and Troy Files, AKA Homecoming Queen Beach DeBree, coordinated the Grove effort, with the assistance of pit bosses Bobbie Green and Sue Panzer, and many volunteers from both communities. The proceeds from the two nights, benefiting both organizations, totaled approximately $7,900.

Casino staffers, dressed as fanciful sea creatures, pirates, and sailors, dealt cards inside Whyte Hall, and spun wheels of fortune and tended bar on the deck, on the first night, as a prelude to the 12th annual Pines Party. On the second night, Casino, in the theater, coincided with "Aqua Fever," the winding-down party, on the deck.

Caesar's, Atlantic City, donated cards, a raffle prize of a vacation in Atlantic City, and the presence of two go-go boys to the proceedings.

Under consideration for the future, according to APCG President Michael "Coco Love" Coffindaffer, is establishing a pattern of holding Casino in the Grove one year and in the Pines the next.