September 12, 2025 - 6:30 pm -9:30 pm
The Beaches Museum will host its 45th gala Beach Legends on Friday, September 12, 2025, at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse. Recognizing that tomorrow’s history is being made today, the highlight of the evening is our annual awards presentation honoring well-known, contemporary individuals as Beach Legends.
The fun begins at 6:30 P.M. with cocktail hour and silent auction, followed by a seated dinner to recognize our 2025 honorees as well as to conduct our live auction. This annual gala is our largest fundraising event. We need your sponsorship to ensure the success of this year’s gala! Proceeds will go toward the Museum’s educational programs and operational needs.
Since our first meeting on February 22, 1978, the Beaches Museum has worked to ensure that we “build a future for our past,” thanks to the support of individuals and organizations, including you! We would deeply appreciate your generosity to help us fulfill our mission.
VIEW THE SPONSOR PACKAGE VIEW THE AUCTION PACKAGE
MEET THE HONOREES
William “Bill” Gulliford: Actively working to improve the quality of life for our Beaches community, Bill Gulliford has brought energy and common-sense solutions to government, civic, and non-profit institutions throughout NE Florida and beyond. His belief in the future potential of historic Mayport led him to a seat on the Board of Directors of the Mayport Waterfront Partnership. In January 2023, The Community Center in Mayport Village was named in his honor in recognition of his many contributions to the revitalization of Mayport Village. Bill spearheaded the St. Johns River Ferry Task Force, which saved the ferry from shutting down. As Jacksonville City Council representative for the beaches, he lobbied and received $9.88 million to repair the Jacksonville Beach pier and $7 million for dune restoration from Atlantic Beach to Jacksonville Beach.
His impressive decades-long community and civic involvement record is too lengthy to enumerate fully, but it includes serving as mayor and commissioner for the City of Atlantic Beach. He was a founding board member, past president, and vice president for Habitat for Humanity of the Jacksonville Beaches, an elected delegate to the Carter White House Conference on Small Business, Presidential appointee to the Reagan White House Conference on Small Business, Citizens Democracy Corps volunteer to the Soviet Union for the US Department of Commerce, past president of the Beaches Boys Club, Beaches Quarterback Club, and Rotary Club of Mandarin. The adage of finding a busy person to get the job done certainly applies to Beach Legend Bill Gulliford.
Lori Anderson: A position as an operations manager for United Airlines at the San Francisco Airport may not seem like the training ground for a career in the non-profit world, but Lori Anderson’s accomplishments prove otherwise. During a Food for the Poor mission trip, she met her future husband, who lived in Ponte Vedra Beach. The couple eventually married, and Lori moved across the country to become a Beaches resident. Six months later, the California transplant was hired as the Executive Director of Mission House, a Jacksonville Beach non-profit working to assist the homeless population in the Beaches area. Using her management and interpersonal skills, Lori transformed Mission House, expanding services, renovating the building, and changing the community’s once negative attitude toward the organization to a more positive one.
She stepped down as executive director after 10 years but still serves on the board. Thinking she’d take a year off before looking for more work, Lori was quickly tapped to be the first professional Executive Director of Beaches Council on Aging, an organization working to improve the quality of life for Beaches senior residents. BCOA’s primary service is Beaches Dial-A-Ride, providing personal and affordable transportation throughout the community to promote the health and social engagement of homebound seniors and disabled persons.
Lori’s commitment to helping people has taken off since her time with United Airlines, a launch pad that’s taken her from organizing and supervising flight line activities to a high-flying 2025 Beach Legend.
Gabe Goodman: Many people knew Gabe as the “Bishop of the Beaches,” an honorary title he relinquished after retiring as the longtime pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Atlantic Beach. But to his congregation, he will always be remembered as a “beloved pastor” and compassionate community leader. After 34 years at the pulpit, Gabe can look back with pride on his many accomplishments and the people he touched, both from the pulpit and throughout the Beaches. He was the long-time lead pastor at the annual Beaches Sunrise Service on Easter Sunday at Sea Walk Pavilion. As a member of the Beaches Ministerial Association, he helped establish Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry (BEAM), a community-based organization serving low-income families, and Mission House, a nonprofit providing food, clothing, and medical care to the homeless.
Goodman initiated or expanded Community Presbyterian’s primary mission projects, which continue today. These included a cold-weather shelter for the homeless, Our Father’s Housewares, which provides serviceable furniture to needy families. The church also participates in the Family Promise program, offering a safe, temporary shelter for families without homes. With his wife Maria, the couple served by example, opening their home to foster children and homeless people.
In his sermons, Gabe sometimes stepped into the role of a biblical character, delivering his message in full costume from the character’s point of view. Gabe Goodman describes the Beaches as the “promised land.” Reflecting on his tenure, he often says God called him from the wilderness of Kennett, Missouri, where he was pastor for three years, to Community Presbyterian Church in Atlantic Beach. And now he’s being called a Beach Legend.
