by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Super Bowl excitement is heating up in Jacksonville and even the city’s biggest names know it. Anticipating the myriad of special events and activities headed her way, Jaguars co-ownerDelores Barr Weaver said she’ll stay busy for the entire week before the Sunday evening game.
“The Super Bowl is absolutely among the most exciting things ever to happen to Jacksonville,” Barr Weaver said before Wednesday’s Super Book Celebration at City Hall. “It’s amazing and I know we are going to be constantly on the go. We have so much going on.”
Barr Weaver said she and husband, the other co-owner Wayne Weaver, will likely be attending dozens of parties — she couldn’t decide which she was most looking forward to — and entertaining their closest out-of-town friends that week.
“We have 18 guests coming in for the game,” she said. “That’s a lot, but they’re not staying at my house. I don’t think I could handle that.”
In between the black-tie affairs and the action at Alltel Stadium, she’ll likely spend the rest of her time going through boxes of thank you cards next week.
As part of the Super Book Celebration, the Jaguar Foundation which she heads teamed with a host of non-profit organizations to donate more than 100,000 books to local children from low-income families.
Weaver also saw fit to donate an additional 39,000 books to the hometowns of Super Bowl rivals the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles.
“That’s a really unique part of this program,” Weaver said. “I think it’s wonderful to be able to give not only to the children of Jacksonville, but to the children of other communities, too. We’ve taken a program that is so positive and expanded it so much farther.”