Renee Bray, the Sun City Center Community Association’s new entertainment director, was introduced by emcee Bill Hodges to Community Hall’s sold-out crowd at a Neil Diamond show Feb. 11. She is assuming the responsibility of planning the CA’s entertainment functions and replaces Lynn Manzi who resigned in January for health reasons.
“We are thrilled to have Renee onboard and are looking forward to her organizational skills and entertainment background to add a fresh dynamic to our program,” said CA’s Community Manager Lyn Reitz. Bray’s position will include managing events for the CA’s 11,500-plus members as well as those open to the public.
Bray, 62, and her husband Bill moved to Sun City Center in 2013 from Rochester, N.Y. and are both active in the community. She has served as the president of the SCC Pickleball Club for the past three years and a member of the SCC Long-Term Planning Committee since 2016. Bill is active in Good Samaritans, Masters Swimming and the Sawdust Engineers. They came to SCC as second-generation residents; her parents, Al and Renee Benoit, lived here for over 25 years. Together, the Brays have four grown children.
She holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification and was global program manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise until she recently retired. Bray has connections to the music world as a performer herself. She is part of a local musical duo known as Coastal Remedy and also performs solo, where she sings and plays saxophone. Her love of music started at an early age with piano lessons and continued through high school playing the clarinet. While building her professional career and raising a family, she participated in karaoke as a hobby.
Bray said she is delighted to be working for her community in a field she loves that can utilize her strengths. “I have a lot of great ideas I hope to introduce into the program,” she said. “Feel free to stop by the CA Offices to meet me. I welcome your feedback.”
