The Key Biscayne Community Foundation will host its Aqua Party at the Sonesta Beach Resort May 19 at 7:00 pm. Th e event will include dinner, a live auction, music by the Steve Kaplan Band and entertainment by Circ X. It will also have a reverse drawing with a $35,000 diamond, sapphire and ruby bracelet.

Ximena Antunez de Mayolo, the new executive director of the Key Biscayne Community Foundation, recently took the time to sit down with The Islander News and answer a few questions:

The Islander News: What are your goals for the new year?
Ximena Antunez de Mayolo: I think my goals for the new year are making sure that Key Biscayne, the community, the people of Key Biscayne, really understand that the Community Foundation is theirs, that it's here not only to serve them and serve all the various needs that aren't being met necessarily, it's also there to facilitate conversations, to facilitate discussions about the future of Key Biscayne and that we welcome and encourage the participation of anybody on the Key, because we're theirs. We wouldn't be a community foundation otherwise.

TIN: Are there any big projects lined up for the new year?
Antunez de Mayolo: I think two of the things that we're excited about for the coming year are we are working with the Key Biscayne Community School PTA - they're doing a Green Expo in February- and we're helping them line up sponsors, develop sort of where they want to go with the money and really just promote the 'Green Cause,' I suppose is the best way of putting it. I think it's a first step to becoming more active in environmental causes on the Key. We live on a beautiful island, we live in a beautiful community, and we very much to have a responsibility to maintain that and to promote an awareness of our environmental needs.
As for the second project, we're actually starting a health and safety advisory board that initially started as a youth safety advisory board, but then we realized that there are also older residents on the Key whose needs are not necessarily being addressed simply because we don't know. And while the Community Foundation does not have infinite resources, we are in a very enviable position in that we work with the Village.  We work with the churches, we work with all the different groups on the Key, and so it's like being able to say, "This is what you need. How can we get that?" And so I'm very excited about this health and safety council. We're probably going to split into smaller groups that can actually get work done. So those are the two things we're looking at for the beginning of this coming year.

TIN: How do you think your past experiences working in the art world shaped who you are professionally?
Antunez de Mayolo: I think my past experiences have shaped who I am professionally in that I've focused a lot on community outreach and education and I think it's helped me look beyond education in that sort of K-12 mindset and look at community needs and education needs that effect people of all ages. As far as working in the arts, I mean, I love the arts. I'm passionate about the arts, but I also think one of the great and exciting things about the arts is that right now, so many artists arc working with lots of mediums. They're working with scientists, they're working with engineers, and that sense of cross-cultural exchange, that cross-disciplinary exchange is something that 1 relish and enjoy, and I think you can apply it to any kind of work you're going to do.

TIN: You started your job December 3. What are your impressions of the Community Foundation so far?
Antunez de Mayolo: I started December 3 and I hit the ground running. There's not been a single moment to breathe. I love it. I think the Foundation has been very lucky in that it's been able to grow very quickly, but as a result of it being able to grow very quickly, I think that you have to think on your feet constantly. And so, 1 think doing that has been wonderful, but I think that set- ting aside time to let people get our overall policies, to look at our effects on the community and where we want to go next, that we have to be very thoughtful about that.

TIN: Lastly, how does it feel to be work- ing in your hometown community?
Antunez de Mayolo: I love it. I'm the luckiest person in my graduating class, honestly. I get to come back where I grew up. I get to come back to the place that helped make me who I am. I grew up with an extraordinary sense of being lucky and of feeling that the community I came from is wonderful, is very community-oriented, and that we're also very privileged. As a result, we had an obligation to give back and that's something my parents instilled in me, and it's something that was 1nstilled in me that I feel that affected wherever I went. When I went away to college. When I went to graduate school, regardless of what I did, I always had that sense of whatever work that you do in your life, you should make sure that you're benefiting the greater community, because if you've been given an incredible privilege, you should be conscious of what you do with that privilege.