Community homes aglow

The Frontier Civitan Club first Tour of Homes will be 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3, and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 4. Tickets are $25 in advance/$30 day of. To purchase tickets or learn more, visit frontiercivitanclub.org/Tour_of_Homes.html or call 407-359-8941.

The tour can start at 669 Oneida Lane in Winter Springs or 2203 Snow Road in Baldwin Park. Armbands and maps are available at both locations. Net proceeds benefit local charities and community projects as supported by the Frontier Civitan organization.

Six Central Florida homeowners will deck their halls and open their homes for holiday cheer, and charity, this weekend.

The first Holiday Tours of Homes, presented by Frontier Civitan, will feature homes in Baldwin Park, Winter Park and Winter Springs and allow attendees to get a peak into homes, from traditional to modern, and walk away with some ideas for their own holiday décor.

The tour is the collaborative effort of Civitan members Olga Calvet, a Baldwin Park resident, and Frances Conner, a Winter Springs resident. Both will open their home for the tour.

Calvet, a founding member of the Frontier Civitan Club, said past fundraisers for the group have focused on silent auctions. Calvet and Conner decided this year they wanted to do something different.

“I think this is something that people can do and enjoy for a nice outing for Christmas,” Calvet said. “This will give them another option [to traditional events such as the Nutcracker Ballet].”

“Plus, you are helping a charity,” Conner said.

More than a service organization

Although Frontier Civitan is part of a large international organization, the Orlando group has autonomy in its decisions about which charitable causes they chose to be involved with.

Besides working with myriad organizations, such as the American Heart Association, Coalition For The Homeless, Special Olympics, Down Syndrome Association and Clean The World, Calvet said, “We try to locate people that would not qualify for any governmental and other agency help. There are a lot of people that just fall through the cracks because they don’t qualify for one reason or another.

“At Christmas time, we will find families that fall through the cracks and buy presents for the children.”

Frontier Civitan is one of six Civitan clubs in Central Florida and is exclusively female, as it has been since starting up in 1974.

Of the 30-plus members, said Conner, more than half have been members of the club at least 15 years.

“We love what we do,” Calvet said, “and it has gone a little further that just having a group of women come together to serve the community. We are also helping one another.”

Being involved and giving back

Calvet said the club also sponsors Junior Civitan clubs at Bishop Moore and Lake Howell high schools “to teach leadership and to teach young students that they have to be involved in their community … and give back. We take this very seriously. Our club is very involved in working with our juniors.”

It was through the Junior Civitan Club at Bishop Moore that Calvet met Marta Khoury, whose daughters were both involved in the high school group. When Calvet asked Khoury if she would volunteer her house for the tour, Khoury said yes.

“They help so many organizations, it is something worth doing,” Khoury said. “Why not share the goodness?”

Khoury and her husband, Robert, live in a Mediterranean-style home they built eight years ago on Genius Drive in Winter Park.

“We wanted it to be homey and cozy, and we wanted it to blend with the scenery around us,” Khoury said. The home is located on Lake Virginia, with a view of Lake Mizell from the front door.

An 18-foot tree graces the main room of the house, and complements the reds and green of the traditional antique furniture, handed down from Robert’s mother. But other rooms will be more whimsical, Khoury said.

“Every part of my house has a story to tell. We want to have something different in every room,” she said, including unusual, handmade decorations, such as a beaded tree she purchased at a recent Festival of Trees event.

“You don’t have to spend a lot of money on decorations. Simple things make it very pretty and elegant,” Khoury said. She suggests vines and leaves from your garden, as one example.

Khoury recalls the traditions of her childhood in El Salvador, where pine Christmas trees were not commonly used, and Santa left presents under the beds of children.

“When I grew up, I remember my mother would go and find branches and spray them and we would make our own ornaments. That’s how we grew up,” Khoury said. “It is just so much fun to create something. It is very therapeutic. That’s why I love doing crafts and doing anything with my hands.”

From traditional to modern

The Calvets’ Baldwin Park home will serve as a registration point for the southern end of the tour. Attendees can either register online and pick up their arm bands at the Calvet home, or the Conner home in Winter Springs, or purchase them at either location the day of the tour.

The second Baldwin Park location is the townhome of the Calvets’ daughter, Alexandra, and will feature a “modern and sleek” approach to holiday decorating in juxtaposition to the Spanish Colonial “with a Cuban twist” custom home the Calvets built in 2005.

“Not necessarily Spanish … but very traditional,” is how Calvet describes her decorating style. She said one of two trees in the home will include all crystal ornaments in red and jewel tones.

Conner’s decorating scheme takes inspiration from and pays homage to her homes roots. Built more than 20 years ago in Winter Springs’ burgeoning Tuskawilla neighborhood, she describes her home as “Southern style,” customized with bricks, wide plank flooring, and doors brought from New Orleans by the previous owner.

“[Christmas] was my mother’s favorite holiday,” Conner said. “And I love to decorate … period!”

Rounding out the tour are the homes of Betty Wiseman, in Winter Springs, and Gloria Lochrane, in Winter Park.