Beach Bash highlights holiday weekend
Police officials and a Fort Myers Beach restaurant are combining forces to help prevent child abuse this Labor Day.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and Pinchers Beach Bar & Grill at 6890 Estero Blvd. will be holding a benefit for the Children’s Network of Southwest Florida. The Labor Day Beach Bash will be held Monday, Sept. 6, from noon until 4 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Pinchers on the south end of Fort Myers Beach.
During the Beach Bash, Pincher’s Beach Bar & Grill will feature live music and food and drink specials for the cause as well as setting up volleyball nets, a ping-pong table, corn hole games and offering jet ski rentals for active enthusiasts. Five percent of each lunch diner’s total bill from the restaurant’s tiki menu will go to the Walk to Prevent Child Abuse Fund. The fund-raiser, which is in its fifth year, has raised thousands of dollars to fight child abuse.
According to Pinchers General Manager Rob Podley, this year’s event grew from a small luncheon for police officials to a public-invited bash.
“We’re opening this up to every single patron who comes in,” he said. “We wanted to make this as big as possible for them and as successful as possible also.”
The Pinchers organizer is happy to assist in the Sheriff’s Office annual benefit.
“This is an opportunity to give back to the community,” said Podley. “To prevent child abuse is an important thing. If we can help out, we certainly will. We’d love to see everybody come on out and support the cause.”
Lee Sheriff’s Office Major Jim Jones agrees the Labor Day Beach Bash is an important benefit that should not be missed.
“We ask that everybody come out and support our efforts to combat child abuse,” said Jones, commander of the criminal investigations bureau. “This year, we’ve teamed up with Pinchers and the Holiday Inn to do a fund-raiser there. We’re excited about the event, and we’re very thankful for Pinchers for what they are doing for us. All of the money that will be raised from the benefit will stay right here in Lee County for the prevention of local children of abuse.”
Major Jones said county police officials will again be participating in this year’s Walk to Prevent Child Abuse -which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 16, at Pelican Preserve in Fort Myers- for the Children’s Network of Southwest Florida. Teams from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office have raised the most money at the Walk for the past two years and brought in nearly $6,500 last year.
“This is the fourth year the Sheriff’s Office will be participating in the fund-raiser,” he said. “We do a lot of different events to help prevent child abuse. We started off with a bake sale which we had (Thursday, Aug. 26), and, later in the month, we’ll do a car wash and a barbecue and a dunk tank where we’ll get the Sheriff Scott into the tank and have our employees throw balls at him for a good cause.”
Those interested in participating in the Walk to Prevent Child Abuse in October can contact Aimee McLaughlin with the Children’s Network of Southwest Florida at 226-1524.