Despite the amount of work still needing to be done the last few days have been quite slow.

When Rotary goes into a home, we help the homeowner remove items they can’t or don’t want to keep, help them clean out any remaining muck, then we gut the house down to bear bones – support beams and exterior walls only in all areas that are water damaged. Once everything is out we spray to mitigate mold and bring in large fans and dehumidifiers. All labor, the mold chemicals, and the dehumidifiers/fans are supplied free of charge. This saves the homeowners thousands of dollars in labor but requires several consent forms and waivers that take time to receive and coordinate for. Between this and precautions taken on account of Hurricane Nicole, which fortunately didn’t reach our area much, not much was able to be finished in houses this week.

Instead, on Thursday we spent a quite day at home with Susan binging our way through Handmaid’s Tale. On Friday, we spent several hours exploring the Edison and Ford Winter Estates and then visiting the shops and restaurants that have reopened in downtown Fort Myers. Many of the businesses got hit hard by the hurricane too so getting to support them as they reopened was a good pairing alongside the work we’re doing. We loved the ice cream at Scoops on First and we both found some cool jewelry at Spirit of The Earth.

Despite Hurricane Ian being over a month ago now, many residents are only now able to access their homes for a variety of reasons. So on Saturday we joined a Rotary crew in Sanibel and managed to do some yard work for one such homeowner who’s only been able to be back to her house in the last couple days. Though we haven’t yet been able to do work inside her house, we were able to use a chainsaw and our large crew to make a huge dent in the dead plants and broken lawn furniture on all sides of the house. Later that afternoon, we were also able to help clean Susan’s kayaks and power wash some back areas that hadn’t been finished yet.

We spent most of Sunday morning trying to reconnect the Internet which had gone out during a modem switch but didn’t manage to sort that out. The evening was spent volunteering at a wonderful fundraiser put on by the Rotary Club of Bonita Beach Sunset, The HumanitarIAN Music Festival. The event featured local musicians, food trucks, vendors, several raffles, and even a kids play area. All proceeds went to The Rotary District 6960 Hurricane Ian Disaster Relief Fund. It hasn’t ceased to amaze me how much the people in this community care for each other. They aid each other at every turn and seeing everyone volunteer, give money, and just come out to be together made a fantastic end of the night.