Upcoming Events

Mon, May 1- Board Meeting starting at 6 pm, Secretary Carolyn's House 5600 Blyth Court in Bokeelia.

Thurs, May 4- PIE Fishing Derby Committee Meeting starting at 6 pm, Knight's Landing 16489 Porto Bello St in Bokeelia.

Fri, Sat, and Sun, May 5, 6, and 7- Belk Charity Days 2342 Surfside Blvd in Cape Coral. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED. See details below.

Sat, May 6- Shred Day 11 am - 1 pm at Pine Island United Methodist Church, 5701 Pine Island Rd, in Bokeelia close to the center. Volunteers needed. See details below.

Sat, May 6- Blood Drive 10 am - 3 pm at Miceli's, 3930 Pine Island Rd in Matlacha. Appointments are strongly encouraged. See details below.

Mon, May 8- General Membership Meeting starting promptly at 6:30 pm at House of Omelets, 900 SW Pine Island Rd in Cape Coral. See details below.

Sat, May 13- USPS Stamping Out Hunger Food Drive starting at 9:30 am at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church 12175 Stringfellow Road in Bokeelia. See details below.

Sun, May 21- PIE Fishing Derby at Jug Creek and Knights Landing. See details below!

Members are encouraged to visit the website for up to date news, meeting minutes, financials, merchandise and committee event forms.

Madam's Corner

Ladies,

The time has come to wish those of you heading north for summer a fond farewell.  We wish you safe travels and look forward to seeing you when you return.

For those who are staying through the end of May, we actually have a busy month ahead.  This Saturday, you have three opportunities to volunteer, and your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

• Our Blood Drive is Saturday from 10 am - 3 pm at Miceli's.  Reservations are strongly encouraged, see the flyer below. 

• The Elks could still use a volunteer or two to help them at their annual Shred Day.

• Belks Charity Days begin on Friday and run through Sunday.  We need teams of 2 or 3 on Friday.  I'll be there from 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm.  Saturday, we need a team from 10 am - Noon, and from 2 - 4 pm.  Sunday, we are wide open.  This is an easy way to raise money and very well supported by the community.  You can expect three busy days.  Please call or text me at 239-910-3829 to volunteer.

Then on Sunday, May 21st, is the Pine Island Elementary Fishing Derby.  We are very excited to host this for the 2022-2023 school year and it's coming together.  We will be filling in the slots where volunteers will be needed at our May General Membership Meeting.

Hope to see you there, as we will be presenting our Hooked on Education Scholarships.

Stay well, be safe, and help out when you can.

Madam DJ

Crafty Help Needed

Anna VanKirk is in charge of the kids craft area of the Pine Island Elementary Fishing Derby in May. She needs help with cutting fish tails prior to the event. This is something easy that you can do while watching TV from home! Please contact Anna 239-258-1218 ASAP.

Anna is also looking for volunteers to help out at the event on May 21.

Volunteers Needed at

Belk Charity Days May 5, 6 & 7

Friday, May 5th through Sunday, May 7th.  The store at Surfside opens at 10 am each day and we have been invited to participate.  We will be onsite selling vouchers for $5 each which gives the shopper $5 off their next purchase.  And we keep 100% of the $5 for each voucher sold!  They will have special sales going on all weekend and these coupons are stackable.  VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED and we are not the only group that's been invited.  So, please reach out to DJ as soon as you can with the date and time slot that you would like to volunteer, and I can reserve those time slots in advance!  Call and leave a message or text DJ at 239-910-3829.  (For starters, I'll take the 5:30pm to 7:30pm slot on Friday evening; anyone care to join me?)

Free Shred Day Event May 6

The Greater Pine Island Elks Lodge #2871 will again be hosting a FREE Shred Day for the Pine Island Community.  From 11 am to 1 pm on Saturday, May 6, residents can bring banker-sized boxes or 13 lb. plastic bags of documents to the Pine Island United Methodist Church, 5701 Pine Island Rd, Bokeelia, FL 33922, and have their documents shredded securely and safely by Shred It Direct.  A drive-thru format in the church parking lot will be used.  While FREE, monetary donations will be accepted to benefit the award-winning Pine Island Leaders of Tomorrow (PILOT) free after school enrichment program. 

They are in need of 10-15 volunteers. Please contact Darcy 954-816-9779.

General Membership Meeting 5/8

Monday, May 8, 2023

House of Omelets

900 SW Pine Island Rd

Doors open at 5 pm. The meeting begins promptly at 6:30 pm.

We will be awarding our Hooked on Scholarships at this meeting!

Please don't forget to bring food pantry donations!

(Keep reading to the end of this newsletter for more details.)

USPS Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive 5/13

The following information has been shared with the Matlacha Hookers:

For this year's 2023 USPS Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive we have created pineislanduspsfooddrive@gmail.com to handle all email correspondence.

If you plan on volunteering the day of the event or know anyone interested in getting involved, please contact us at your earliest convenience so we can get everyone into positions for the day.  

We need volunteers in the areas of:

Collecting Boxes

Drivers

Hall Setup

Weigh In

Sorting Donations

Expiration Verification

Hall Breakdown

As the event gets closer we will only communicate with registered volunteers from this email to avoid overburdening anyone with unnecessary emails.

Thanks, 

Guy & Connie D'Alessio

Guy D'Alessio 917-774-7397

Connie D'Alessio 917-584-8569 

Pine Island Elementary Fishing Derby

Sunday, May 21

The next meeting for the planning committee will be Thursday, May 4th at Knight's Landing at 6pm! We will be reviewing the needs for volunteers and will have sign up sheets for all members at the May 8th General Membership meeting.

Currently looking for an individual who can work with Suzanne from Jug Creek on the food. Jug Creek is handling most of the food. We will be supplying a pulled pork sandwich as a non-seafood option.

If interested please reach out to Julia at 239-298-1113

From the Beverage Committee

Kid side of the event: Knight's Landing, 16489 Porto Bello Street, Bokeelia, FL 33922. 

This is the site for the kids portion of the P.I.E. Fishing Derby. Kids' crafts, kids' food and beverages and the fishing tournament activities will be held here.

Volunteer role: stock beverages, replenish ice in coolers, sell family beverages, and collect money or charge by credit card.
We need 4 volunteers, for three shifts of two hours (total of 12 volunteers)

Shifts: 8 am- 10 am, 10 am- 12 pm, 12 pm- 2 pm. 

Please send name, phone number, and email address to Linda Bohacek 715-579-5009 Lbrdh4pets@gmail.com

Adult side of the event: Jug Creek Marina, 16498 Tortuga Street, Bokeelia, FL 33922. 

This is the site of the adults portion of the P.I.E. Fishing Derby. Hooker Merchandise, food, music, Hook-A-Basket, and 50/50 raffle activities held at this site.

Volunteer role: stock beverages, replenish ice in coolers, sell adult and family beverages, and collect money or charge by credit card.

We need 4 volunteers, for two shifts of three hours (total of 8 volunteers)

Shifts: 11 am-- 2 pm and 2 pm- 5 pm. 

Please send name, phone number, and email address to Linda Bohacek 715-579-5009 Lbrdh4pets@gmail.com

Hurricane Ian Rebuilding Committee

We are proud to announce the Hurricane Ian Small Business Grant!! This grant has been designed for the Greater Pine Island Area locally owned and operated businesses!! Ten (10) Businesses will be chosen to receive $2,000!

Timeline:

Announcement May 1, 2023 - we will be advertising via social media, Pine Island Chamber of Commerce, local banks and word of mouth!

Application will be released May 15th for businesses to apply.

Deadline for submission - June 23rd.

Winners will be contacted and invited to the July 10th General Membership meeting for the check presentation.

We need your Volunteer Hours. If you volunteered doing any HURRICANE RELIEF please email Julia at 12thmadam.julia@gmail.com and report your hours. Please estimate by for the following months: October, November, December, January, February and March. We do not need specific dates. Also if you are reporting your hours via a different source there is no need to report them to me. I know we have a few ladies working with other entities and may have already submitted them.

(If you only helped out for supply giveaways I have those hours totaled)

Wednesday, May 3rd, 6:00PM

Resilient Lee Recovery Task Force Town Hall Meeting

If you are interested in hearing about the Hurricane Ian Long Term Recovery Efforts being made by the Lee County Group.

Pine Island Elementary School

5360 Ridgewood Dr., Bokeelia, FL, 33922

Pine Island Food Pantry News

The Food Pantry is in need of the following items: laundry detergent, canned diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, instant mashed potatoes, jelly, all types of crackers (saltines, Ritz, Townhouse, oyster/soup), egg noodles, and pasta (elbow macaroni, penne, ziti). Please bring donations to the next General Meeting or drop off at one of the following locations:

Winn-Dixie, V.F.W., American Legion, Moose, Centennial Bank, the Matlacha Post Office or at the pantry when it is open on Monday and Thursdays, 9 am - 11 am.

Visit pineislandfoodpantry.org to learn more. Thank you!

Membership Information

New password for website was updated February 27th.

Members Only Area Password: @HMP23

Herald and website content submissions, along with questions or concerns, should be sent to Christy Rau at MHwebmistress@gmail.com.  Please do not email Christy by replying to, or forwarding a Herald publication.  Since we use the free version of WIX for both our website and emails, the Herald emails actually go out under a different email address, which she does not have access to.