On Wednesday, November 16, 2016 the Jr. Leadership Cape Coral program kicked off with 30 high school juniors at the Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral Welcome Center. Next, we hopped on to a Goodwill bus sponsored by Keiser University to the Fort Myers Beach Coast Guard station where students interacted with speakers from the station commander to new recruits who talked about what they do in the service of our country.
Thanks to Day Chair Captain Pete Louzao, the students learned about the Coast Guard’s twelve different missions. In addition, the students had the opportunity to participate in a team-building exercise where they competed against each other in a pump-out simulation of a sinking vessel. They did this without vocal instruction from the Coast Guard, they only had the written instructions which were included in the pump-out kit. Next, there was a competition where students were tasked with throwing a buoy line 70-feet into a metal drum.
The second part of the day included a trip back to the Chamber Welcome Center where Waste-Pro cooked up hot-dogs and hamburgers provided by Siesta Pebble Pools. After lunch, Brandon Deaver, Zack Zeis, and Bill Johnson worked with the students on other team building exercises in order to increase their familiarity and interaction as the students represent seven different high schools.
Our next day is Philanthropy Day with the Cape Coral Community Foundation, led by Jackie Lawson and Michael Chatman. The students will tour four community service agencies like the Cape Coral Caring Center, Cape Coral Special Populations, Lifeline Family Center and Street Chicks in Recovery. The really cool part of this day is that students will learn about an opportunity they have to determine which agency or agencies will receive a $3,000 grant after they spend some additional time working and learning about one of the four agencies. The bus for this day is sponsored by Jones, Haber & Rolling’s, PA and Prime Communications, lunch is sponsored by Lifeline Family Center, snacks are provided by the Cape Coral Caring Center and Street Chicks in Recovery.
The Chamber could not provide programs like these, which are free to the students, without help of volunteers and sponsors like LCEC, the Cape Coral Community Foundation, the NewsPress, Keiser University, Waste Pro, Haber & Rolling’s PA, Prime Communications AT&T, Lifeline Family Center and Siesta Pebble Pools. We truly appreciate the investment of time, treasure and talent which are contributed by the village to raise a child!
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Mike Quaintance, 2017 Jr. Leadership Chairman at mquaintance@keiseruniversity.edu.
Mike “Q” Quaintance, MBA, Keiser University Business Department Chair
