This weekend took me back in time.
Seven years, to be precise.
Last Saturday and Sunday, my girlfriend Michelle and I had the privilege of delivering a massive truckload of relief supplies to the waterfront fishing village of Cortez in Manatee County – one of many places that felt the wrath of hurricanes Helene and Milton in less than two weeks.
The scenes I saw as I drove down the village streets were eerily similar to the first time I drove through the Florida Keys after Hurricane Irma in 2017. Buildings with roofs ripped off. Fences nowhere to be found. Plywood door and window coverings spray painted with “You Loot, We Shoot.”
And possibly the most heartbreaking of all: little one-story homes, many of which were carbon copies of the styles seen in Key West, with their entire ruined contents piled out on the street, waiting for pickup.
A day earlier, I’d asked my former Leadership Monroe County classmate Cary Knight, now a top official in Manatee County, what supplies were most needed in the area where we were headed. I got one word back.
“Everything.”
“They’re still in shock,” he said when I pressed further. “They can’t even articulate what they need yet.”
With pictures and videos of Helene and Milton’s destruction running rampant on social media, I was, sadly, prepared for many of the sights I saw on Saturday and Sunday. But what I also saw was the same thing that re-dedicated me to the Marathon community after Irma, when just weeks earlier I had been ready to call it quits and head back home to the northeast.
I saw, as Mister Rogers would have put it, “the helpers.” And today, I’m simply thankful.
I’m thankful for Karen Bell, owner of the Star Fish Company in Cortez, who took our donations and pledged to pay her employees to come in throughout the week and run, in essence, a “free shop” for all those in need throughout the village.
I’m thankful for my friendship with Cary, forged through Leadership Monroe. Cary took time away from the county’s Emergency Operations Center to personally ensure that Marathon’s donations found a perfect place to directly affect the people who needed them most.
I’m thankful for a girlfriend who dropped her weekend plans at a moment’s notice to spend more than 15 hours in a car over two days to keep me company and get the delivery done.
I’m thankful for Adam and Lauren Kane, friends from my time at Dolphin Research Center, who opened their home to us just days after weathering Milton themselves to give us a safe place to stay. And for my buddy Brian Reckenbeil, who offered the same even when his house didn’t have power back yet.
I’m thankful for Andy Sharf and the crews at the Overseas Pub and Grill, the UPS Store and Keys Fisheries, who staged collection points for supplies and made it possible in the first place to send up a second full truckload of supplies just one day after sending one to the panhandle. When Andy puts out a call for help, this town listens – mostly because he has a gift for finding ways to ensure the donations go to the right place, and works tirelessly until they get there.
I’m thankful for an insanely generous Marathon community. You all overflowed the offices at Overseas and the UPS Store with more donations than I think anyone was expecting – and that bar was already set pretty high. As I write this column, a third truck is on its way up, thanks to the amazing men and women at the American Legion.
I’m thankful to work for a company like the Weekly, who let this hooligan take the company trailer upstate at the drop of a hat, no questions asked, and supported the trip from start to finish.
I’m thankful for the people who reminded me that when someone is in need, the Keys move FAST. On Saturday morning, I put up a “last call” Facebook post for donations before heading to Cortez. In just four hours, I had more than $1,500 in my bank account to fill up three carts with cleaning supplies from Home Depot and Walmart on the way up. Thank you to Mary Stella, Rita Irwin, Cory DeWeese, April Sullivan, Brian and Karen Witte, Michelle Lincoln, Jen Davis and Nando Bonilla, Wendy Gates, Josh Mothner, Bev Fowers, Courtney and Dale Coburn, Irene de Bruijn and Adam Marengo, Melissa Goldblatt, Ben Miloszar and Sue Hilgendorf. Mary also braved the rain on Saturday morning to help me load up the trailer.
In a time when good news can get buried under headlines about scandals and disasters, it brought me an undeniable feeling of peace to know that this community is unmatched in its generosity and willingness to step forward and roll up their sleeves, even when the ones who need help are hours away. I know that if the same were to happen here (knock on wood), they would be just as ready.
And sometimes, all there is to say is “thank you.”
