Fort Myers Beach is one of the more devasted areas after Hurricane Ian, and on Sunday night, a candlelight vigil is taking place to honor victims and survivors.
Melody King, who’s helping organize this vigil, said she wants anyone and everyone to come out and support the Fort Myers Beach community.
The vigil will be in memory of everyone affected by Ian, and King said this will show who still remains ready to rebuild their tiny piece of paradise.
Everyone will gather at the base of the Fort Myers Beach Bridge on Main Street to walk at sunset. They will walk from the bridge down to Times Square.
King said she is looking forward to hugging everyone who participates. “We’re going to show up, and if you guys want to come gather around five o’clock, I’m actually going to put you guys on mic if anybody wants to just share their first name there. Last name, they can leave their last name out. We just want to know what your favorite part of Fort Myers Beach was, and what you plan to do to help rebuild it. Even your tiny hands right here are capable of great things. I mean, ordinary people are doing amazing things all around us in our community,” said King. “We’re going to honor the people that we lost.”
King wants to honor those who lost their lives, as well as survivors who lost everything.
“We need a place to meet. We need a place to grieve. We need then again in 30 more days to do it again and see who’s getting stronger and to see who’s getting weaker. This is not a one-day. This is not a one week. This is not a one-year recovery as an individual that survived it and even for myself and my son and my family from my experience. My experience was nothing compared to the stories, the horror stories that I have heard from some of my best friends. All right, so we honor our survivors,” said King.
Preparations for the vigil will begin at 4:30 p.m. The vigil is expected to start at 6 p.m. For more information, you can visit their event page on Facebook.