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It’s a long way by car from Mississippi’s Gulf Coast to Marco Island — 20 hours to be exact — which gives one plenty of time to think and talk along the way. Especially if that trip is a result of helping out after the disaster known as Hurricane Katrina.

“Cindy Love, Roger Raymond and I were in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina doing relief work,” explained Bill Morris, the Chairman of the Marco YMCA Capital Campaign. “We were on the way back to Marco Island, just talking among ourselves, and Stan Gober’s name came up. We all said that here’s a guy in our local community that does so much for the whole area for years and years and years. And we decided that this would be a good time and a proper thing to put together a roast to honor him and, hopefully, raise some money for the YMCA at the same time.”

Gober, the owner of Stan’s Idle Hour Restaurant in Goodland, has long been known for getting behind and putting all his energies into such programs as Habitat for Humanity, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and many other charitable projects throughout the years.

Talking about getting such a shebang off the ground and actually attaching legs to it was quite something else though. And after seeing the idea get off to a rather wobbly start, Morris decided it might be best if he stepped in.

“I was really quite excited about the whole idea so I said, ‘I’ll take it over. I don’t have the time, but, heck, I’ll take it over anyway,’” Morris laughed.

And while he couldn’t really go out and personally do individual ticket sales, he did get together with Stan and organize the roast. He also rounded up some super supporters including Laura Murfin-Grasser of the Marco YMCA Capital Campaign as well.

“Laura has just been a huge help with this,” Morris pointed out.

The next step was convincing Gober to go along with the roast idea.

“After taking it over, I went down and met with Stan and I said, ‘OK Stan, we’re really doing it’ and he was pretty excited about it,” Morris said. “I said ‘here’s my idea, what do you think?’ He just beamed and said ‘Great.’”

The central theme was to be as close to a ‘Stan event’ as possible even though as Morris pointed out, it was a double-edged sword concerning the uniqueness of the man.

“One facet of the roast is the fact that it’s time — it’s long past time — to honor Stan,” Morris said. “He is an amazing person. He’s done so much. He’s giving, he’s caring, and I haven’t bumped into anybody who doesn’t like him. People may not always agree with him, but they certainly don’t dislike him.”

The roast not only boasts Stan himself who is the personification of entertainment himself, his music, and his jokes, but will feature as close to a Florida cracker dinner at the Marco Marriott Resort and Spa on March 20 as possible.

“I’ll tell you,” Morris said smiling, “when the Good Lord smiles on you, the Good Lord smiles on you. When we went to the Marriott, they were just happy to host the affair. The only question was the date because there was a big convention coming in around that time. I can’t say enough about how cooperative and helpful they have been toward us concerning this event.”

Ticket and table sales have been moving along quite well according to Morris with 17 of the allotted 20 already sold (at $2,000 a table with individual commemorative Bimini blue tailored buzzard lope polo shirts) and the $150 single tickets also showing brisk sales. The event is already at capacity which is just over 200 along with hopes of expanding to a larger attendance.

“It’s a shirt you can actually wear somewhere,” Morris noted.

Some of the roasters who will be having their way with Stan include old friends such as Joe Klimas of radio, Lee Lundberg of the Historical Society, entertainer Johnny Angel, Jack Patterson, Whitey Ellsworth, Jeff Walker, and Larry Sheets among others.

The event hopes to raise approximately $50,000 which will be applied to the Marco YMCA’s drive for a $6.1 million expansion to the existing building.

“There will be a new building which will have an indoor walking/jogging track, gymnasium, substantially enlarged workout facilities, and a critical phase of connecting that building with the existing one as well,” Morris added.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Marco Marriott Resort and Spa with tickets still available at the Marco Island YMCA, Stan’s, and Island Woman in Goodland.

The ‘Old Cracker’ dinner buffet includes: seafood chowder served in mugs, sweet slaw, cucumber, tomato, and cilantro, Boston lettuce with dandelion greens, BBQ ribs, roasted BBQ chicken, fried catfish, dirty Cajun rice, cornbread, collard greens, key lime pie and chocolate macadamia cake.

But the main event will be Stan Gober himself — and he’s still worth the price of admission.