On Saturday, July 22, 2017 at the Field Club in Sarasota, The Riverview High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame Board was privileged to induct two outstanding graduates from the Class of 1977.

One of the inductees traveled a road that led her from Sarasota to the University of Texas to New York to California and of course to Santa Barbara and to Port Charles.

The other inductee stayed much closer to home. He attended the State College of Florida on a tennis scholarship and later studied history and political science at New College before serving up a variety of tasty delights and dedicating much of his time to volunteerism.

Julie Hanan Carruthers, at one time or another, worked as a production assistant, an associate director, an editor, a producer, a senior supervising producer, and an executive producer on several very popular daytime soap operas: Santa Barbara, Port Charles, General Hospital and All My Children. Some may remember that Carol Burnett had a reoccurring role on that show.
 
Julie’s dedication to excellence throughout her career was recognized by the television industry not once, not twice but 16 different times…16 Daytime Emmy Award nominations of which  8 resulted a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. Julie’s accomplishments are made even more remarkable when considering the highly selective and extremely competitive nature of the industry she chose.

Unlike Julie, Michael Quillen chose a career path that kept him closer to home. From the time Michael and his business partner open Gecko’s Grill and Pub in 1992 to the expansion of their business plan that includes at least 13 restaurants AND over 600 employees, they have had a decades-long history of serving as Business Partners with dozens of schools and organizations in Sarasota and Manatee County…a history that includes the donation of time and of dollars to help those in need! Helping organizations such as the YMCA’s Youth Shelter, which offers temporary housing to youth who are homeless; Operation Second Chance, which helps wounded and ill combat veterans. During the 2016-2017 school year alone, they donated more than 35,000 Super Student meal cards to encourage school attendance, good grades, citizenship, and kindness.

That sincere commitment to volunteerism has resulted in the Gecko’s Hospitality Group being named as a Florida Restaurant Neighbor Award winner…a distinction it has received for five consecutive years. In addition, at a gala dinner held last March in Washington D.C., they were one of three recipients of the National Restaurant Neighbor Award.

Congratulations Julie and Michael!