The Rotary Club celebrates 100 years of service in Fort Myers with new landmark

After 100 years of striving to make Fort Myers a better place, the Rotary Club is celebrating its work in our community. The Rotary Club is celebrating with a new landmark by the Caloosa Sound Amphitheater in downtown Fort Myers.

Consider what Southwest Florida would look like if I-75 wasn’t completed before 2008? But the Rotary helped push for a much earlier completion and the interstate got done in 1986. It’s fair to say life here would be different without the Rotary.

Don Molloy is the President of the Rotary Club in Fort Myers for the last 14 years. But he’s appreciated the Rotary’s good work his entire life.

“We raised over $2.5 million through fundraisers and grants that we gave to a lot of nonprofits here over the years,” Molloy says. “We have raised over $400,000 for the Children’s Hospital.”

The Rotary’s done a lot more than that, and now add a $36,000 clock to the list. The clock stands next door to the city’s brand new amphitheater.

“I already just started seeing posting on Facebook where people were taking their grad photos here,” Molloy says. “People were you know taking their first wedding photos downtown.

This marks 100 years of Rotary history in the city. It also offers a promise of more to come. Fort Myers Mayor, Kevin Anderson, loves the partnership.

Mayor Anderson said, “When the rotary approached me and said would the city be willing to accept the donation of a clock and my response was, it’s about time.”

The Mayor pointed out the landmark will stand above people. So when big concerts start coming to the amphitheater next door and you need a meeting point, you can find each other at the clock.