Elks set benefit for Pine Island Chamber
By MEGHAN McCOY
The Pine Island Elks Lodge will hold a Pine Island Chamber of Commerce Benefit Dinner next month to help the business organization with its recovery efforts.
Pine Island Elks Entertainment Chair Jim Flanders said on Monday, Jan. 16, he received a call from a friend and local entertainer R.V. Parks, expressing his concern over the devastating fire at the Pine Island Chamber of Commerce.
“We discussed ideas that might help the Chamber with their recovery and almost immediately came up with the idea, Pine Island Chamber of Commerce Benefit Dinner,” he said. “I contacted other Pine Island Elks House Committee Members, and Pine Island Elks Exalted Ruler, Joe Eisenberg, to discuss the idea and all members enthusiastically agreed to sponsor the event.”
The benefit dinner will be held at the Pine Island Elks Lodge, 630 Pine Island Road Northwest, on Feb. 22. The bar will open at 4:30 p.m., dinner will be served at 6 p.m. and the entertainment will be held from 7-10 p.m. courtesy of R.V. Parks.
Dinner will consist of an elaborate prime rib buffet.
One hundred and twenty tickets will become available to the public for purchase on Jan. 30 for $20 a person.
For information regarding tickets and where to purchase them call event co-chair Jo DeShaw at 239-282-1071 or Sue Trimble at 239-283-4477.
For those who want to make reservations for a party of eight or more people can do so by calling DeShaw or Trimble.
Flanders said various other activities will be held throughout the night as well.
“The chamber is so valuable to our community as a whole,” DeShaw said. “We hope this will be the first of many events to help the chamber rebuild and that other Pine Island organizations and businesses will join in with more activities of this type.”
The Lee County Sheriff’s Department called in the fire at 3:02 a.m. Jan. 13.
The fire was put out in less than an hour with no injuries. Although the building was destroyed, the Greater Pine Island Chamber of Commerce have set up an RV, which was donated by Calusa Ridge, on the property to continue their operations.
The State Fire Marshall’s Office determined the fire to be arson.