By RAY QUIROGA
Ralph Ayers is shown inside his art gallery/business, “The Purple Parrot”. Ay¬ers has been an active member and a recent chair of El Paseo Art League, of which he stepped down from on Monday. (Staff photo by Ray Quiroga)
If you Google the term “giving back,” don’t be surprised if Ralph Ayers’ name is first to pop up on your computer screen.
Throughout his years as a Valley resident, Ayers has been an active member and a recent past president of the local Rotary Club; a volunteer at his church, St. Andrew’s by the Sea; an adjunct art professor at UTB-TSC; a local businessman; an artist; an arts enthusiast and cofounder of El Paseo Arts League Foundation, of which he has been its chairman since its formation some seven years ago.
For Ayers, however, it was time to hand the reins over to new leadership, and on Monday, at the foundation’s annual membership meeting at South Padre Island’s Padrerittaville, he recounted his time as the foundation’s chair and passed the baton to its new elected leader, Mary Hartman.
Ayers, who, with his wife Kitty, owns and operates Purple Parrot fine arts, gifts and collectables in Port Isabel, has had a long vision in mind for the greater Laguna Madre area, a vision in which he hopes arts lovers from far and wide will view the area not only as an outdoors destination by an arts destination as well.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of the Jan. 27 edition of the Port Isabel South Padre Press.
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