Community puts putters to good use
For some on Fort Myers Beach, giving back to the community is a type of civic duty. The Fort Myers Beach Woman’s Club’s Putt and Pub Crawl furthered those duties on Saturday with the 10th annual Putt & Pub Crawl.
Restaurants throughout the downtown area sponsored putting holes as they were visited by thirsty, dressed-up golfers patronizing their businesses and competing for prizes.
Peggy Anderson invited her friends Shannon Buschman, Kim Sullivan and Tina Truskowski from Chicago to join her in the event. This was Anderson’s second year competing and the first for her friends.
“We all flew down here for it,” Buschman said.
“It’s a good excuse to get away for the winter,” Sullivan said.
The quartet enjoyed the challenge at The Whale, which featured a spinning wheel with challenges such as: putt on one foot, doing jumping jacks and then putt, and putt with your eyes closed. Originally, landing on #4 meant putting your head on the club and spinning around 10 times before putting but that stopped after too much dizziness.
The putting at the Whale was to benefit the Friends of Matanzas Pass Preserve. Tim Murphy, a member of the Friends of Matanzas Pass Preserve, was helping to lead the putting activities at The Whale. He said a decision was made to stop the spinning and instead change the directions on #4 to just putting between your legs.
Over at Mango Ritas, folks like Annie Boston-Reamey and Kathy Miller were dressed up as Pete Lallo bargained with them to take one more putt for a dollar to try and land a hole-in-one to benefit the Friends of Lovers Key State Park.
Lallo, whose brother John runs the establishment, said their hole has been voted the best five years in a row. This year, putters had to lift the golf ball along a rail uphill about 15 feet before the ball emptied out onto the putting green. The object was to hit a hole-in-one.
“It’s fun to get to hang out with people on the beach and raise money for charities,” Lallo said.
If there was an award for best energy at the pub and crawl, it would have to go to the members of the Community Foundation assembled outside Plaka at Times Square. Robin Bush, Susan Krajewski, Kelly Smith and Alicia Steinhagen cheered on the putters who came their way on a sunny afternoon.
“Everybody’s having a blast,” Smith said.
Smith stayed the course through sunny temperatures in the 80s from the morning through the afternoon.
“Every single one of these are such good causes,” she said.
The Community Foundation gave more than $25,000 away last year to a variety of charities on the beach, Steinhagen said.
At La Ola, Rita and Mike Watson represented Turtle Time. “We’re here to spread the word about the turtles on the beach,” Mrs. Watson said. They spoke about the work they do helping with the hatchlings of turtles and assisting those in need of help by working with CROW.
Other organizations and restaurants that partnered together at the event were the Pierside Grill for the Friends of Bay Oaks, Yucatan Bar & Grill for the Fort Myers Beach Art Association, Matanzas on the Bay for Friends of the Arts, Nervous Nellie’s for Friends of Matanzas Pass Preserve, and The Salty Crab for Beach Elementary PTO. The Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce also provided assistance.