By Darrell Fuller, American Red Cross volunteer
Is there anything more uplifting than the unbridled laughter of children at play?
It can be hard to be joyful when you’re a kid and you’ve spent weeks in an evacuation shelter because of Hurricane Ian.
A spontaneous partnership between the Boys and Girls Club of Lee County, Fla., and the American Red Cross made an occasion for joy happen recently for young evacuees in the Hertz Arena in Fort Myers.
For some of these kids, it was the first time they’d left the arena since Hurricane Ian devastated a large swath of Florida on Sept. 28.
It started when Amanda Curbelo toured the shelter representing a local nonprofit called Think Pineapple. She’s also the director of resource and development for the Boys and Girls Club of Collier County in Naples, Fla.
She was talking to Randy Klink, who was part of the Hertz Arena management. They noticed lots of children at the shelter, but not a lot of space to act like a kid. Curbelo thought her organization could help.
Curbelo called her colleague, Julie Todaro, vice president of resource development for the Lee County Boys and Girls Club in Fort Myers, (and a Red Cross volunteer from Miami) and they hatched a plan.
Todaro brought in her CEO, Denise Gergley, who had already visited the Red Cross disaster relief headquarters to introduce herself.
They were connected to Zach Stokes at Red Cross, who connected them with Nigel Holderby, who in turn connected them with Heather Carbagal, who was part of the shelter leadership at the Hertz Arena.
At the end of this lengthy chain of connections and arrangements was a scene of toothy grins and leaps of joy as children scrambled off a private bus and into a land of ping pong, billiards, video games, basketball, soccer and space to just be kids.
The Boys and Girls Club was what they needed after weeks of dislocation and stress.
“We’re so happy to have them here,” Todaro said. “We have about 35 (evacuee) kids signed up already at our Park Meadows location for our after-school program. We have room for 60 kids, so the children from the Hertz Arena are a great addition. I think some lifelong friendships could be made today.
The Boys and Girls Club starts each day with free time at various activity centers, then breaks the children into groups for fun programs of arts, educational games and more. On the day the shelter kids were on hand, lunch was provided by a local Papa John’s franchise.
“We’re grateful to work with the Red Cross to give these amazing youths a chance to get out of the shelter and be kids again,” Gergley, the Boys and Girls Club CEO, said.
American Red Cross relief is free to anyone with disaster-caused needs, thanks to the generosity of the American people. If you would like to support the Hurricane Ian response financially, visit redcross.org, text the words IAN to 90999 to make a $10 donation, or call 1-800-HELP NOW.