Fran Myers receives Humanitarian Award
Beach resident Fran Myers has been called an environmentalist, preservationalist, leader, activist, volunteer, founder, community-minded and inspirational. She can now add Humanitarian of the Year to her titles after picking up that distinction at the 2009 Best of the Beach Awards hosted by The Beach Observer/Bulletin at Pink Shell Resort Friday, Feb. 12.
Myers, co-owner of Red Coconut RV Resort with husband, Tom, has collected a laundry list of selections, awards, accomplishments and volunteer activities. It has been said that her impact in the community and its residents has inspired and driven those around her to become more involved.
“It’s really quite an honor,” said Myers. “I’m very surprised and very grateful. As everybody says ‘you have to give it back to the community.’ The community has been very, very good to Tom and me.”
Myers moved to Fort Myers Beach in 1975. Community involvement began the next year when she founded the FMB Democratic Club of which she was president for four years. Since then, she has been named to no less than 14 appointments, while picking up prestigious awards such as the 2001 Paulette Burton Citizen of the Year and the 1998 Sam Walton Business Leader Award.
“She is absolutely the most fitting and appropriate person to receive such an award,” said Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott. “The thing about Fran, she’s not here for the award. She does what she does because she enjoys it and her heart is with the Beach. She and her husband, Tom, have done an awful lot for the Beach. I’m really proud of her and happy to see her accept the award.”
True to the word, Myers wasn’t aware she was picking up the prestigious award. “You guys kept a good secret,” she said.
A true humanitarian is someone who is devoted to the promotion of human welfare and to social reforms. Just ask her good friend Roxie Smith, who was named as one of the finalists for the 19th annual Paulette Burton Citizen of the Year Award for 2009.
“Fran is truly, truly a great humanitarian,” said Smith. “She is able to do all these things because she cares so much about the community and all the people.”
Myers accomplishments include the following:
– 1979: She was appointed to serve as chairperson of the Lynn Hall Memorial Park by the Lee County Commissioners; In that capacity, she was instrumental in getting the park reconstructed and refurbished; The Board of County Commissioners also named her the first woman chairperson of the Lee County Port Authority.
– 1985: She was appointed to the Lee County Tourist Development Council and is the longest-serving member; The same year she served as the FMB Chamber of Commerce’s Chairperson of the Board.
– 1986: She founded and was president of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce.
– 1988: The BOCC named her to lead the development of Bowditch Pointe Park.
– 1990: She was a driving force to build a swimming pool on the island through the “Save-A-Life-Building-A-Pool” Foundation.
– 1993, She was instrumental in the purchase of the building that houses the local chamber and visitor’s center.
– 1995, She was selected to an office for San Carlos Island’s Southwest Florida Marine Institute, an organization dedicated to help discipline youths after their first criminal offense. After the Beach incorporated, she helped to obtain a state grant and was chairperson of the Main Street U.S.A. program, which improved the visual appearance of downtown Fort Myers Beach.
– 1997: She was appointed to serve on the “Do the Right Thing” Committee by then-Sheriff John McDougall; She was selected to an office at the Edison/Ford Winter Estates by the mayor of Fort Myers and was a founding member of the Friends of Edison/Ford Winter Estates.
– 1998: With the cooperation of Uncommon Friends Foundation, she served as chairperson in the campaign to build an outdoor classroom pavilion; She received the Sam Walton Business Leader Award, sponsored by the Wal-Mart Foundation and Sam’s Club in Fort Myers.
– 2002: She was named the 2001 Paulette Burton Citizen of the Year.