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Ft Myers Beach - Good Neighbor
STATE INSURANCE CARES-The Fort Myers Beach Woman's Club-The Heart of the Beach
When devastation strikes a community, true character emerges. The Fort Myers Beach Woman's Club exemplifies this through their remarkable story of service, resilience, and growth shared on our latest State Insurance USA Cares podcast.
Founded in 1950, the Woman's Club faced near extinction with fewer than 20 members until 2017. Today, they boast over 150 members and operate with a unique model that multiplies community impact. Rather than simply fundraising for themselves, they create opportunities for multiple nonprofits to benefit simultaneously through signature events like their annual Christmas Tree Festival and Put-in-Pub event. This collaborative approach has generated substantial support throughout the Fort Myers Beach area.
Their finest hour came after Hurricane Ian's devastation. Within just two days, the board mobilized to begin hurricane relief efforts that ultimately distributed over $750,000 to approximately 1,500 families. With minimal requirements—just a valid ID showing local residency—they provided immediate assistance when bureaucracy slowed other relief resources. Even after losing their historic clubhouse (originally the second school building on the island), they persevered, holding their Christmas Tree Festival in a parking lot rather than canceling.
Now, they're focused on rebuilding with plans for an elevated structure that will include community space, meeting rooms, and even designated areas for other nonprofits lacking physical space on the island. Their innovative fundraising continues with programs like the FMB Pub Passport, offering $120 in restaurant savings for just $25, and creative initiatives like their state competition and interactive mosaic wall of beach memories.
The Fort Myers Beach Woman's Club reminds us that community organizations can be powerful forces for good, especially in times of crisis. To learn more about supporting their efforts or becoming a member, visit fmb-wc.org or attend their monthly meetings held the first Wednesday of each month at 6:30pm. Together, we can help rebuild not just buildings, but the heart and soul of our beach communities.
Fort Myers Beach Woman's Club
Mari Torgerson & Megan Allers
175 Sterling Ave, Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931
(239) 765-1417
fmb-wc.org
State Insurance USA
4450 Camino Real Way
Ft Myers, FL 33966
239-567-9992
100 Lovers Ln 3rd Floor
Ft Myers Beach, FL 33931
(239) 690-6300
office@StateInsuranceUSA.com
stateinsuranceusa.com
Ft Myers Beach-Good Neighbor
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Welcome to State Insurance USA Cares podcast, where we celebrate the heart of our communities. Each episode, we highlight local charities and nonprofits who are bringing hope, help and healing to those who need it most. Get ready to be inspired by the amazing stories of people making a difference, because together we care.
Speaker 2:Well, hi, it's Gail Langner. I'm with State Insurance USA and we have an arm of our insurance company called State Insurance Cares, and it's where we donate to different local nonprofits. And today I'm honored to highlight the nonprofit of the Fort Myers Beach Women's Club, and with me today are Megan Allers and Mari Torgerson. So hi, girls, so glad to have you on with us today. Thank you for including us. Thanks so much for having me. Oh gosh, we're happy to. So people don't necessarily know about the Fort Myers Beach Woman's Club and you go. How could that possibly be Right? But they don't necessarily know, and so I'm so glad that you're on here today to tell us a little bit more about you. You actually started in like 1950, didn't you, isn't?
Speaker 3:that when it was established. Correct and Megan and I both got involved in 2017. They had less than 20 members left. Yes, and there was an active member that just did a membership drive, and that's when Megan and I became involved, and now I think we have over 150 members.
Speaker 2:I was going to say I think you tripled your membership, didn't you For sure? Yeah, I think so yeah. All right. So one of the things that I did not know back in the day when we first started donating to you and what you do is the reason that we do donate to you, because you guys are totally amazing is that you raise money to give away right.
Speaker 3:We raise money to give to other nonprofits, right. So a majority of our fundraisers include area nonprofits that they can participate in. We gather sponsorships such as State Insurance USA, and then we do sponsorship sharing after the cost of the event.
Speaker 2:Incredible, like the first time we were ever involved. Go ahead, megan. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to talk over you.
Speaker 4:Go ahead, it's okay, two of our biggest events that highlight that are our annual Christmas tree festival and our annual Put-in-Pub event. So those nonprofits that participate in those events. We gift them with that profit sharing but also we have ways during that event that they can be raising their own funds to go back to their nonprofit and we give whatever they raise for that event goes strictly back to them.
Speaker 2:Well, I happen to know about that because I'm the chair of the board of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, so I know about our wine tree and we are thrilled every year. And of course I can't even make a stick person. So I mean I always stand around and act like I'm helping, but I'm actually really not. I'm just standing there going here's this, here's this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, we certainly get some really creative trees, wreaths, centerpieces, and your wine tree is always front and center every year.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, I wish I could take credit for that. I absolutely cannot. I remember the first year we did it. We did it with corks, like we had cork angels. Kat and I were in the kitchen cutting these corks with knives and we had the hot glue gun and of all people me helping Kat Actually she was in charge of that sort of and it was a total ball putting that together. And then, of course, like I said, we have people that are really creative that put it together and make it look really great and we make a lot of money off of that tree, and so I thank you for that for sure. I know your clubhouse. Oh, my gracious, that was like the first school right. Is that right? Was your clubhouse?
Speaker 1:originally the second school.
Speaker 2:Okay, right, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was pretty heartbreaking to lose the building. We and Mary can speak a little bit more to this on the timeline, but previous to the storm we were getting ready to gear up and do a capital campaign to refurbish the building and renovate it. So Ian built us other plans and I know Mary's got some more information that she's going to want to share with you regarding that.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I know you're working toward getting a new clubhouse, but you own the land, right, correct? Okay, that was great that you had that. That's a beautiful piece of land, that's a great piece of land. That's a great piece of land for sure, and so I'm glad you'll you'll have a place in. Miriam really would like you to talk to um what your, you know what your plans are for that. Tell me if, if people were listening right now, like you, to become a member would be a great idea, right? Is that $75? Is that right To become a member?
Speaker 3:would be a great idea, right? Is that $75? Is that right To be a member? It's $75 at the first of our fiscal year, which is April 1st. After April 1st, after April 30th, it's $50 a year, but you don't get any voting rights until you have been a member for a full year. Okay, so you get to do the activities, you get to come to our meetings, you network, you get to do all the things, but you don't have voting rights.
Speaker 2:If you were a member? What would be, let's say, if I were a member and I would love to come and help, whatever? When do you meet? Like? What would that look like to be a member?
Speaker 3:Well, it's changed after Ian, because we don't have a clubhouse anymore, changed after Ian, because we don't have a clubhouse anymore. Our membership meetings are the first Wednesday of the month at 6 30. I'm always at the board meeting first and I don't. I think our next one is in September, but, megan, I'm not sure where it's at, do you?
Speaker 4:No, I believe we are back at the Pancake House, but we can confirm that. So they have been a wonderful partner for us for some of our meetings and it's nice because we get to give back to one of the businesses too.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say the same thing. Yeah, do they still have that side room?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, Perfect. Well, that you know exactly, and that's what we did with state insurance is one of the things that we do is like our. We do an event called Hats Off to you In fact, you'll be invited to it if you weren't invited to it last year where we get all, we gather, all the local nonprofits that we've given to throughout the year, and then we have an event at the end of the year called Hats Off to you, and it's just like hors d'oeuvres and drinks and so on. And last year well, the first year we did it was at Pink Shell Last year yeah, you were at the Pink Shell one.
Speaker 2:Last year we did it at Margaritaville, and so last year and what Blake does is he gives away more money. So last year I think we gave away an additional $9,000. We drew from the hat. And so we do the same thing. We try to give back, bring things to the beach. I mean really this year for our Christmas party, for our employees. We're going over Salty Sam's and take the pontoon out. They're going to drop us at Bonita Fish. We're going to have dinner there in their new side room, which is beautiful, and then take the party bus back. So we try to do the same thing you guys do. So thank you from the chamber side of things. Thank you so much for doing that. So tell me again I'm so sorry because I was talking too much when are your meetings again?
Speaker 3:The first Wednesday of the month at 6.30 pm, and I think it might be at the Pancake House, but we'll have to confirm that It'll probably be on your website right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly. For sure, or our Facebook page, and I think it's really important to point out that you know we have had this surge of membership, took notice of that and want to be a part of something that is so meaningful and impactful on the island. But I think Mary should highlight a little bit how we did that fundraising and what resulted of it.
Speaker 2:Well, and you gave away like three quarters of a million dollars, didn't you Correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Mary, speak to that. Tell us what you did Correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mary, speak to that, tell us what you did. So immediately after Ian, like everyone, all our members were displaced and we took our first donation towards hurricane relief. The board approved to do this on September 30th, two days after no-transcript. So I think that's like 1,500 families that were impacted. You know there were so many people the testament to. They had no idea where to go. They didn't know how to. You know how they were going to put a taco in their lunch. You know their lunchbox. You know, and we've had some really amazing stories.
Speaker 3:Gentleman lost everything and he just needed a pair of work pants to get back to work. You know, it's just and it was. There was not a lot of red tape like there was for other relief resources. You had to have a valid ID that said you lived in the 33931. And there was about three members three or four members from the Women's Club and two or three members from the Community Foundation that we united with to do that. But it was a very hands-on task as far as reviewing applications, getting IDs, confirming information. But I think it was the right thing for the Women's Club and the members and our community at that time Club and the members and our community at that time.
Speaker 3:You know, interestingly, on that note kind of you know, as our tenure with the Women's Club, megan's and mine, you know we've had, we had COVID, we had Ian, we've had different things and, ironically, the Christmas Tree Festival, which State USA or State Insurance USA is a sponsor to. We have not missed a year of the Christmas Tree Festival, even when, after Ian, we did it in the parking lot.
Speaker 2:Yes, we did.
Speaker 3:Yes, we did yeah, and so it just it goes to speak to, you know, the community just being resilient and wanting to continue. You know, I mean be resilient, I don't know, I don't have a better word for it. No, I know.
Speaker 2:And after watching and I know obviously you both watched the special that was on NBC a couple weeks ago. If you didn't, you can certainly watch it on Peacock and I know part of that film, I think, came from Dan Megan, with the boat coming towards your house. But after seeing that it made me to see it again realize, oh my gracious, look how far we've come. You know really.
Speaker 4:We actually took that from Mary and Tom's house.
Speaker 2:Oh, was it from your house, Mary. Yeah, yeah. So it was definitely surreal watching it again I know it really was and it was so tastefully done. It was done very. But you know to hear about mitch and mary and you know and okay, well, anyway, we're getting away from the women's club, but anyway um go ahead.
Speaker 3:I'd like to bring upail is that one thing also that we started doing after Ian is what we call the FMV Pub Passport, and I don't know that a lot of people know about that. We did start it in 2023. So we're on our third year. It runs nine months. It's $25 and has $120 in savings at local restaurants, and then you complete it. You get a stamp at each location and this year you get a commemorative Turfist Tumblr. That's great. How do you get one of those? Tell us, so you can. It's on our website. You can go to fmb-wcorg and and you'll see the pub passport and you can place an order and they'll usually ship out within three days. Otherwise, if you're on island or Fort Myers Central proper, you can pick it up at Hurricane Tina's or Wahoo Willie's or La Ola or Margaritaville Retail Store At the retail store. Okay, yeah, awesome, and that's something that is really good for our businesses, absolutely I wish I'd known about that.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I didn't, but I'm that's, that's good, that's good to know, but I brought it up. I'm glad you did too. We actually I was at a meeting with um, with uh vcb, this morning at the Collaboratory and they were talking about different efforts to. You know, bring people to more businesses, more hotels. You know that type of thing, and that's good to know. I'll, really, I'll, pass that along. Yeah, that's good, absolutely, I really, really will. So if people want to help, people always want to help, I think. What do they do? How do they reach out to you? What's the best way to help you help others, what's the best way?
Speaker 3:I think there's ways to help. In what is your. It depends on what a person's motivation is. Are they feeling philanthropic and they want to help us rebuild the Fort Myers Beach Women's Club? We'd love to hear from you. We have giving levels. It actually was a year ago today that we launched our capital campaign for the Women's Club oh that was timely, it was, it was a year ago today and ironically, it's kind of a crazy story, that boy.
Speaker 3:We had Don, the past president, and I had had one-on-one meetings for about three weeks and we got a million dollars in commitments in the first three weeks and then it was. I mean, yeah, it was. But then we had Helena Milton and it's kind of put it, it's been a damper. You know, it'll be really nice not to have a hurricane this year let's start there.
Speaker 2:Coming from an insurance company point of view, I would second that yeah.
Speaker 3:Um, I don't think our hearts could take much more, but no no, no, yeah, there's definitely a fatigue there, but, um, if you're interested in supporting businesses I just mentioned the pub passport we just launched if you're a nonprofit interested in participating in our Christmas tree festival, which the opportunity there I'll give a brief description is that the nonprofits are able to, as you said, the chamber puts in a wine tree, so they do metal rack that has, I think, like 110 bottles of wine. It's a lot.
Speaker 3:Right, it's a lot. It's pretty amazing. But other people donate different kinds of Christmas trees, there's wreaths, there's centerpieces, and if you're a business that wants to do that and donate the proceeds to a nonprofit, you can do that.
Speaker 2:It doesn't have to be a nonprofit for a nonprofit.
Speaker 3:But if you're a business that you really love Golisano Children's Hospital or that type of thing we invite you to participate and then everything that that tree sells it's on a silent auction. So whatever your tree or your wreath sells for all those proceeds go directly back to the non-profit. To the non-profit right To the non-profit and we'll write the check right to them, Above and beyond all of our expenses. Then we have what our sponsorships are remaining and we conclude that as an addition to what was earned on their item Right, Maggie.
Speaker 2:Wonderful.
Speaker 4:And I think you know another thing that some of our businesses have been doing, which I think is really thoughtful they're partnering up with one of the local nonprofits that's here on the beach, because the reality is, after Ian, everybody's volunteer base is down, it's harder to get things done. A lot of our nonprofits don't have spaces to work on things, so these businesses have been stepping up and partnering with them to work on things. So these businesses have been stepping up and partnering with them so they have twice the amount of volunteers that are working on the tree and twice the amount of creativity that's going into it. So that's a great way for those businesses to partner with nonprofits as well.
Speaker 2:That's a great idea, wonderful. Well, I know you did want to talk about, tell me about the building, the new building. I know you wanted to chat about what that's going to look like, what your vision is for that, for your new clubhouse.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry I missed it.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I think you asked about the future of the women's club, the new women's club building, and what your vision is for that.
Speaker 3:We actually do have drawings. We have been very blessed that Albert from AD Design and Jim Ink from Ink Engineering has helped put together our design and our building pro bono. It will be an elevated building, it will have a community room and then it'll also have a boardroom and it will have what we're calling an education room. And then also, because there's not a lot of nonprofits that actually have physical space on the island, we have three lockouts, which is they can rent those for a year, they have their own storage room and then they have access to our education room or our boardroom as needed and to host one or two events in our community room. Events in our community room um, we, you know, after, after covid and before ian, we were I mean, we were renting out our building pretty regularly. We had a wedding five days before ian, I think we were like you have to come get your stuff.
Speaker 3:There's going to be a storm. I mean I mean known, you know? Um, uh, yeah, you know we tried to because we we actually bought another storage unit and put it on our property. I don't even think we had power in there for a month before Milton and Milton washed it away.
Speaker 4:I mean so now we found it in the canal next door.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gosh.
Speaker 3:Unbelievable. So we reverted to just renting off Island, which works great. It's in a great location. But you know we actually went. Megan and I and Dawn went to the state this year. We had actually asked for some funds from the state and we were actually in the negotiating up until about two weeks before the budget went to the governor. And we were actually in the negotiating up until about two weeks before the budget went to the governor and we didn't make it in there. We were really hoping for that because we felt like it would be a boost to the donating. But I think we haven't stopped fundraising. We're still fundraising. We currently have a state competition going on that if your state make a donation on behalf of your state, the state that raises the most money will get to fly their flag for six months on our flagpole.
Speaker 3:Oh great, yeah. So we have, you know, innovative things that we're trying to do and we haven't given up, we're just ready. We've all kind of our committee has said we'll wait to make sure that there's no hurricanes this year I thought the timing's right yeah yeah, the timing's right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we have our wall too, uh we do part of our fundraising. Yeah, so that mosaic wall. They can pay 50 and upload their favorite picture from the beach or their vacation or their family photo. They can upload as many as they want and we're going to have a basically interactive mosaic wall in the building that can highlight all of these pictures.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. I love that Awesome. Well, I can't thank you two enough for taking some time out of your really busy day. I know both of you, Megan and Mari, are really, really busy people. I want to thank you for me personally and thank you for, obviously, the Chamber of Commerce for everything that you do and, of course, from State Insurance Cares we donate to local nonprofits, and that's what the heart of State Insurance Cares has always been about, and you will always be a part of who we give to and sponsor, and so I just wanted to know that. Just thank you so much to both of you and everybody on your board and so on.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it and so we'll talk again soon and we'll see you soon. And, of course, I'll be there for the Christmas tree festival, standing around watching people be creative. Thank you so much. All right, thanks for being on today. We really appreciate it. Happy to have you. Have a great day.
Speaker 1:Thank you Bye-bye. Thank you for joining us on State Insurance USA Cares. We hope today's story uplifted and inspired you. If you'd like to support or learn more about the incredible work happening in your community, visit stateinsuranceusa. com or call 239-567-9992. You can also visit CaboWaboJim. com. Until next time, be sure to let your sun shine and keep sharing good and positive vibes wherever the waves take you.