CEO Note: SW FL Service-Learning Trip

June 14, 2023

Earlier this month, I was able to accompany our current class of the Ryan Nece Foundation’s Student Service Program to Southwest Florida for a service-learning trip.

As some of you may know, we traveled to Houston for last year’s trip – a location I chose because of my personal connection to the city, after spending the first eight (8) years of my nonprofit career there. But this year, Southwest Florida chose us.

Reflecting on Hurricane Ian

As the end of September approached, I remember feeling like it had been a quieter hurricane season… So, when Hurricane Ian formed and was rapidly intensifying, my gut feeling said this was going to be a bad storm. As Ian started shifting south towards Tampa, I watched as our community evacuated. Personally, my family and I stocked our house with groceries and supplies and boarded our windows. (We were not in an evacuation zone.)

It was a dim few days in the house with boarded windows, but nothing compared to the darkness our neighbors down south were met with. I will never forget watching in horror as Sanibel Island was completely destroyed by Ian – a place I’ve grown to love from family vacations. The stories of people who evacuated Tampa to Ft. Myers only to be met with the Category 5 storm heading their way instead rang in my ears for weeks after Ian.

Since September, I have sat in these immense feelings of gratitude and guilt: Gratitude that my community was spared and guilt because another community was in shambles.

Planning The Service-Learning Trip

This is when the planning for this year’s domestic service-learning trip to Southwest Florida began. In the planning process, I wanted to give up so many times. Working with a community who is actively in disaster-relief mode is challenging. Each week, they are trying to tackle something different.

It wasn’t until we were about a month away from departure that I could even put together an itinerary for our students and their parents. I had to book important pieces of the trip – like transportation and lodging – before our service projects were even in place. It felt like a gamble, but one I knew I needed to take, because I could tell this community needed us and our teens.

Serving Southwest Florida

On June 3rd, we loaded up two 15-seat passenger vans and traveled down to Southwest Florida. During our six-day trip, our students were able to partner with eight (8) different nonprofit organizations. Collectively, we provided more than 1,000 hours of community service during our stay. The long-term impacts of Hurricane Ian were heard and seen at every location:

One of the most gut-wrenching stories I personally heard was from Rick, a member of Wintergarden Presbyterian Church (a local hub for disaster relief and serving those who are food insecure in Port Charlotte area). At 2A the night before Hurricane Ian’s arrival, he and his wife made the hard decision to pack up their five (!!) kids and head to the church. His wife didn’t want to leave, but he felt in his gut that this storm was different. For 12+ hours, he and other people at the church took 2-hour shifts holding the sanctuary doors closed during the storm while the building took on 150+ mph winds. Without someone holding the doors, the wind gusts through the building would have taken the entire roof off and the church wouldn’t have been able to be the sanctuary it was for so many who fled there for safety. After the storm, Rick and his wife went back to their home to find it a total loss. They have had to completely start over, while navigating this trauma with their five children.

This was just one of the many stories I heard. If you are ever in the area, I encourage you to drive Ft. Myers Beach, which looks like the storm only hit the area two weeks ago. As many throughout the trip reminded us, the work to rebuild isn’t done just because it’s no longer in the news cycle.

The Student Experience

This trip was about allowing these students to experience a community outside of their own, showing them how Southwest Florida is addressing community needs while navigating recovery from a natural disaster. It was powerful to see our students bond over their love of community service and watching them overcome different tasks and challenges as a team. Some important lessons our students learned:

Even nine (9) months post storm, people are still trying to rebuild their homes and lives, and it will take this community years to recover completely.
Sometimes, you must help where you’re asked/needed, and it doesn’t always align with direct disaster-relief, but often in serving other projects, which were neglected while the community shifted its focus.
Our temporary discomfort is nothing compared to the permanent discomfort some of these storm victims have endured.
Getting to know others outside of your network reminds us how we all share many common threads.

Being with our students makes me incredibly hopeful for the future of our world: One where we have leaders who are inclusive, service-minded, and educated on how they can use their skills, talents, and platforms to make our communities stronger. Thank you to every person who made this trip possible – from our chaperones and donors to the nonprofit partners we worked with. You are helping to spread the #powerofgiving mindset!