Alexandria — Scores of Del Pepper's friends gathered at Mango Mike's last week to help start her re-election campaign. There was green beer; there was Irish-type food; there was delightful entertainment. The Irish Breakfast Band, a group of musicians of widely varying ages (one of them in fact is 10 years old — Molly Hayes) has been playing Irish music for nearly 30 years since being started by Sean Doherty. Among the members are Gordon Johnston, Karen Helbrecht, Martha Beall, Sue McIver, Marcia Finnerty, Sandy Hoar, Peter Hayes, Tom Van Wagner, Rick Netherton, Lisa Anderson, Katie Duffy, Melissa Gouffray and Roger Darus.
PARTYGOERS
Elected officials in attendance included U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, Mayor Bill Euille and Council Members Kerry Donley and Paul Smedberg, along with Council hopefuls Justin Wilson and John Taylor Chapman. Patsy Ticer, Randy Sengel and Ed Semonian were there, along with Dick Hobson, Donna Fossum and Vola Lawson.
Enjoying themselves were Mike and Linda Oliver, Moina Ratliff, Joe Shumard, Bo VanderVoor, Keith McDonald and Bill Kellogg. Other guests were Bobby Jacob, Eileen Ferrara, Tom Boyle, Mike Ayers, Herb Treger, Judy Miller and Ronnie Campbell. Also attending were Pam and Kerry St. Clair, Marlin Lord and Kathryn Brown, David Fromm and Amy Slack, Don Bush, Gayle Reuter, and Libby Cooperman.
Betty Livingston and Laura Mandala, with many helpers, organized the celebration. A dozen dancers from the Boyle School of Irish Dance rounded off the afternoon with a rousing performance of hard-shoe Irish step dancing.