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EP # 256 From Hurricane to Hope: How One Chamber Keeps Fort Myers Beach Thriving
What happens when a community faces repeated crises yet emerges stronger each time? In this captivating conversation with Jacki Liszak, President and CEO of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, we discover the resilience that defines this beloved coastal destination.
For nearly a decade, Jacki has guided the Chamber through a remarkable series of challenges—red tide, Hurricane Irma, COVID-19, and most recently, Hurricane Ian. Her journey began unexpectedly when she volunteered to save a community fireworks display and was subsequently "hoodwinked" (her words, with a laugh) into taking the Chamber leadership position. That spontaneous decision launched her into advocacy work that has proven vital to Fort Myers Beach's survival and revival.
The conversation reveals Jacki's passionate commitment to water quality as the cornerstone of the island's future. "Without our clean water, we can all stop the discussion because people are not going to come here," she emphasizes, highlighting the Chamber's dedicated Water Foundation that studies, educates, and supports clean water initiatives around Estero Island. Currently, the waters around Fort Myers Beach boast exceptional clarity, appearing "Caribbean blues and greens"—a testament to ongoing environmental efforts.
Jacki dispels common misconceptions about the Chamber's role, explaining they're an independent non-profit rather than a government entity. She details how their work extends far beyond traditional business support to include tourism promotion, resident engagement, and even preventing scams targeting community members. The Chamber has become a trusted connector, linking innovative solutions (like 3D-printed seawalls that foster marine life) with decision-makers to benefit the entire ecosystem.
For visitors and locals alike, Jacki shares an insider tip: right now is an exceptional time to enjoy Fort Myers Beach, with shorter booking windows creating opportunities for great deals at resorts and vacation rentals. Whether you're seeking sunset views, dolphin sightings, or simply toes in the sand, Fort Myers Beach awaits—with the Chamber standing ready to enhance your experience.
Ready to discover what makes this community so special? Connect with the Fort Myers Beach Chamber at 239-454-7500, info@fmbchamber.com, or visit their offices to learn how you can enjoy—or even contribute to—this resilient paradise.
FMB Chamber
Jacki Liszak
(239) 454-7500
100 Lover's Lane
Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931
info@fmbchamber.com
It's time to check out your neighbors on the Good Neighbor podcast, where we bring good vibes, great neighbors and local businesses in Southwest Florida together. Here's your host, Cabo Jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 256 of the Good Neighbor podcast. Today we have Good Neighbor Jacki Liszak from the Fort Myers Speech Chamber. Welcome.
Speaker 3:Good morning Jim.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, yeah absolutely Always good to get to know people in the community and share their stories with our listeners. So I know Fort Myers Beach in general has been through a lot lately, but why don't you explain a little bit about what the Chamber is doing currently?
Speaker 3:So I am the President and CEO of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce. I'm going on my ninth year now in the chamber position and every year has been interesting and engaging and eye-opening and all of these things plus more as I've gone along my chamber journey here. You know, of course, coming in starting with Red. Tide and quickly morphing into Hurricane Irma. And then we had our lovely friend the COVID visit us for a couple of years, and then our bad neighbor. The H word that's named started with an I, which.
Speaker 3:I won't say either one of them Started with an I, which I won't say either one of them. And of course then, coming out of that and all of the challenges that a community on the rebuild is facing, the Chamber has been there every step of the way, to support the businesses, of course, as is the Chamber's mission, but also to encourage and promote our tourists, our guests that come, whether they come for a day or come for half a season, and then, of course, our residents on the island, which are critical, and some of those visitors and guests who are seasonal. We also call them snowbird residents. So the Chamber's goal really is just to promote the community, protect the community, engage and educate the community and kind of be a hub for all things. Fort Myers Beach.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Let's back up your story a little bit. You've been in it for nine years. How did you get involved in it to start with?
Speaker 3:I jokingly say I was hoodwinked. So, bud, no, sarah, if you're out there, this is all your fault. If you're out there, this is all your fault. Yeah, I had come home from my last contract and the town was going to cancel the fireworks and I stepped forward to help fundraise to save those, just as a private citizen. And through that effort I got to meet some of our amazing residents and business owners, and one of those people was Bud Nocero, who was the then chamber president, and he stepped up to try to help us save the fireworks for the beach, which we accomplished. We fundraised enough to get us our I think it was our 4th of July fireworks that year that were in jeopardy. And through that process, unbeknownst to me, bud was looking to retire, and so he got me at a weak moment one day and said hey, what, what do you think about being the chamber president? And I was like I don't. What is that? I don't know.
Speaker 3:I never knew what that was, but, um, you know, we belong to the chamber with, with my company, sea gypsy here, but I had never even crossed my mind, and so went home, talked with my family about it and uh, decided to go ahead and take a chance at this kind of a completely different business line, a completely different professional road. So, you know, the fork in the road opened up and I went to the one way. So and it's been, it's been an absolute pleasure and a joy. A few moments of heartache, but way, way overshadowed by the amount of amazing things that have happened in the last eight to nine years.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's been nine years. You must be doing something right, so congrats to you on that. Let's talk about some of those challenges. Obviously, we know the obvious things, but you've been through a lot in nine years. You know what kind of challenge are you facing currently.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, one of the things that really stands out to me, and will for the rest of my life, is my education and now my passion for clean water and environmental stewardship of the waters that surround our island and the bay and water everywhere really. But I have had a crash course in the Caloosahatchee River, the Everglades, our national estuary that's behind us, the Gulf waters in front of us, red tide, blue-green algae and all kinds of things that make up what are our waters around the island, and to me that is our biggest challenge going forward. Yes, the rebuild is important. Yes, you know it's going to take a while for our community to come back economically and vitally and we have a lot of growing pains with that happening now. But really, the cornerstone of all of this is our water, and without our clean water we can all stop the discussion because people are not going to come here.
Speaker 3:If our water is ugly or if our water is unhealthy and it's something I think that we've kind of pushed to the back burner because of these other obviously important things do, things that affect us on the island here and affect our stormwater runoff and what we put on our yards, things like that. We have to ring that bell and remind folks that this is a big part of the reason why we all came here. Right, we came over that bridge and you saw that what View that everybody argues about and what's in the view. And you saw that, what view that everybody argues about and what's in the view the water. So you know, our water has been stellar the last gosh, I don't know what six months. We've also been very, very dry, so we don't have all that water coming down the Caloosahatchee and that's you know, when it's when it's. You know a lot of it has to be there, the tannins, and obviously you know some of the runoff, whatever. But that's had a huge effect on why our water is really Caribbean blues and greens right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and kudos to you guys and everybody involved with that as well too. I was at the beach this weekend and, you know, for the first time in many times going there years, I could actually waste high water. I could still see my feet in water.
Speaker 3:I was like this is the cleanest it's been in a long time which you know I love you know, and that's why we love it here I love it too, and some of the factor obviously has been that we just have not had a lot of rain, because that puts a lot of the fresh water coming down.
Speaker 3:But you know, there are things that are happening in the everglades, that are happening in the uh, the kl, that are happening in the Caloosahatchee River, in our reservoirs that are built and still being built, and there are things that are happening that we need to be mindful of, legislative-wise and otherwise, that could affect what happens to our water. We also continue to do water monitoring. The chamber has a foundation, a 501c3 arm, that is our non-profit foundation. It's called the Fort Myers Beach Chamber Water Foundation. Its sole purpose is to study, educate and support the water, clean water around Estero Island. So we are going to be doing a ribbon cutting on a water monitoring station that we just had built at the mount house. So that's coming up on the 16th of June, so kind of one of the initiatives we have going on.
Speaker 2:I love it, you know, and still, a lot of the water is nice now, but we need to make sure it stays nice and stays clear and you know we're doing the right things to protect it in the future as well, absolutely, so it's kind of a strange question question, but are there any maybe myths or misconceptions surrounding what you do, you, the chamber, do? That would maybe clear up for listeners yeah, so there's a big one.
Speaker 3:Actually they think we're a part of the town of Fort Myers Beach. We are not. We are not a government entity, we are a non nonprofit. It's a 501c6 trade organization. Typically chambers of commerce support businesses inland, like the Fort Myers Chamber and Stereo Chamber. They support a lot of business activity, business initiatives.
Speaker 3:We are a little different out here ourselves Sandcap Chamber, Pine Island Chamber, a little bit different because we're so heavy tourism. So we not only support the business but we also do a lot of tourism-related information, visitor-driven information, visitor information as well. As I believe strongly that the chamber also serves the residents of the community. So we engage our residents fairly heavily. And then we're an unusual chamber in that we're fairly event heavy. We do a lot of events throughout the year way less than when I first took over through because of lots of reasons, but we still do quite a few events like the American Sand Sculpting Championship. That is the chamber's event. But I think a lot of folks think the chamber in some counties and in some towns the chamber is tied to the government, they are funded by them or they are actually a part of the government that's regulating or ruling the town or county. In our case, and actually in Lee County, none of the chambers are part of any of the local governments.
Speaker 2:Very nice, Important information and good to know as well. Do you notice anything trending? I mean, obviously there's a lot changing in Fort Myers Beach, but do you notice trends?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So one of the interesting trends that we're all talking about is how quiet it is right now. This reminds me of more like when I took over the chamber originally maybe you know, eight years ago, nine years ago, when we came out of season, we went way down like somebody turned a faucet off, like the water just stopped, and we are very, very slow If you compare us to pre, even COVID years with our residents are, with our visitors on the island right now it's incredibly quiet. So I think one of the trends that I'm seeing is that booking windows are much, much shorter. When you go to book for a hotel. It used to be people would book out two weeks to a month to six months out. They're booking days out, weeks out, couple weeks out, that's it. So a lot of last minute travel we're seeing. We're seeing a decrease, a downward pressure on our nightly rates on the island.
Speaker 3:So actually, for those of you that are within drive distance, man, you can get some great deals out on the beach right now if you want to come out for a staycation, and you know our downtown is still a little busy. You know Margaritaville keeps things hopping down there, which is great. Our downtown is still a little busy. You know Margaritaville keeps things hopping down there, which is great, but even some great deals going on at all of these resorts and at the vacation rentals. So I highly encourage our friends inland if you want to get out for a weekend. It's all summer long, it's going to be a beautiful time to come out and have a nice vacation.
Speaker 3:So that's one of the trends we're noticing Travel has definitely changed.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And who doesn't want to be at the beach? So local people get out there and head to the beach while it's quiet.
Speaker 3:It's quiet, which is great. You can get into the bars and restaurants. There's not a line. We've got some lovely summer specials going on. Everybody's doing half price pizza on Monday night at the Junkanoo and then they have prime rib Saturday at Salty Sam's at Parrot Key. So there's all these great specials going on right now absolutely head to the beach for sure, so your story.
Speaker 2:Are you from Southwest?
Speaker 3:Florida originally. So not originally I'm from Ohio east of Cleveland, but I was homeschooled on the island as a kid through the 70s and 80s. My folks would come down for the winter, like November to end of January, and so I basically was brought up on the island. I'm not a true beach kid because I did not go to the beach school, so I don't really count kids. But, um, you know, I've been down here obviously since then, have seen all the changes. Uh, you know, brought my, my husband, my before he was my husband here. My husband, you know, walked the beach pregnant with both of my boys, had toddlers on the beach, had little boys running on the beach, had young adolescent boys running on the beach. And I'm proud to say that one of my boys has come back to live here full time and both of the boys consider this their home, so nice.
Speaker 2:Fair enough.
Speaker 3:Hopefully next generation will continue to get them to honor that tradition.
Speaker 2:That's it. I'm the same way. I came from Wisconsin. I blame my parents for not being born down here, but it got down here as quickly as I could.
Speaker 3:So you know, I should have probably gone to the beach school. I don't know why they didn't just toss me into school, but you know it's a different time. Then you just, you know, your parents pulled you out and you caught up when you got home. That's kind of how it was then.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I know your job can be very demanding, but we live in paradise, so what do you do when you get a moment of time to yourself?
Speaker 3:Yesterday I spent a glorious day on the boat. So that's, you know, out on the water, you know it doesn't get any better than that. And you know, get my toes in the sand and look for some seashells and you know, go look for dolphins and wildlife and just kind of enjoy the sunset and the sunrise that we have.
Speaker 2:They're both incredible on our island, absolutely it's about enjoying the finer things in life at the beach.
Speaker 1:And when I go.
Speaker 2:I start in the morning and I don't leave until the sunset, so I'm there all day.
Speaker 3:I understand. I understand Sometimes a little bit of a sunburn too, too, if you miss a spot or two on you with sunscreen.
Speaker 2:You won't notice it until you get home, but you'll notice it for sure, right? So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about the Fort Myers Beach Chamber? That?
Speaker 3:maybe they wouldn't be too aware of Gosh. I think that you know we're here to help. That's the biggest thing I want folks to know. You know, if you have an issue with something, if you can't find something, you need help with something. Uh, if we don't, if we can't handle it or don't know the answer right away, we certainly know enough people that we can go help find the answer for you.
Speaker 3:Um, you know we we do all kinds of stuff that nobody ever understands or sees. Um, you know we do all kinds of stuff that nobody ever understands or sees. You know, even this morning we had an email come across our desk. It was sent by accident, but we found out that someone was potentially being scammed on the island. So we were able to get a hold of that person, step in and help them from not being scammed by some fraudster. So like kind of strange stuff like that happens all the time, but we are happy to be a point of reference. You know someone who's trusted, who you can come to if you need a service or you need to find somebody.
Speaker 3:Or a lot of times we have guests call us who are coming in and they've booked through maybe an Airbnb platform or something like that, and they just want to make sure it's a real house with a that's really a rental house or something. So we'll go as far as to drive by the house or, you know, call the owner ourselves and just make sure that that is legit. We do all kinds of stuff like that. You know, we support the town with things that they're working on. We support the county with things they're working on. We do a lot of fam trips. The county calls us and they have groups coming in and need a guide to take them around. So I'll take them around, or one of the folks on the team here will take them around. We provide guest packages for weddings that are coming in town or trade groups that are coming in. We'll put goodie bags together for them and welcome them.
Speaker 3:If we have a new homeowner we're, you know, happy to, you know, share references and stuff like that we just get. I got called today by a company that makes living seawalls. So we're going to connect them up with the town and with our environmental team and with our the folks that control all of the waterway stuff here in Fort Myers Beach, and connect them up to make them aware of this new technology 3D printed concrete seawalls that sea life can grow on, instead of just a flat surface or vinyl. So it's a great opportunity. As we're rebuilding Right, people need to replace their seawalls.
Speaker 3:These seawalls attract marine life. The marine life filter the water and help to keep it clean. It's this really great all around win for us. So we'll make sure that we make those connections with the town and pass that off to them. So those kinds of things we do and I think so much of what we do is behind the scenes folks never and a lot of it truthfully we don't. You know, we do that on purpose. We don't need to be ringing the bell all the time. So let's make others shine, because that's what makes a great community.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thank you for doing all you do. You're a trusted resource for everything Fort Myers Beach. I love it. How would our listeners go about contacting you if they had questions or want to just learn more about the area?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, and don't forget too, we're always looking for volunteers for things like sand sculpting and all of that. Or our other nonprofit partners that we work closely with also need volunteers, like the Rock, the Arches. They just emailed me this morning. They may need some volunteers for their event coming up. So feel free to reach out to the chamber. You can call us 239-454-7500 or you can email any one of us.
Speaker 3:Info fmbchamber f for fort m for Myers, b for beach. So the letters fmbchambercom. Or you can pop by. We're at 100 Lovers Lane in the building on the third floor here, right to where the next, where the red coconut and the Wells Fargo used to be between the two. Or you can pop by our visitor information center, the Roxy. That's out on time square and, by the way, we're always looking for volunteers to help man that. So if you have a little free time, you want to go out and greet guests and share the good news about Fort Myers beach and all the great things that are happening here. We're always looking for volunteers out there too. Any, any of those ways. But you know, come on by, stop in. We'd love to see you.
Speaker 2:Perfect, Jacki. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and we'll see you at the beach.
Speaker 3:And thank you, cabo Jim, have a great day.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast, bringing together good vibes, great neighbors, local businesses in Southwest Florida to nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show. Go to Cabo Wabo Jim. com.