FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Fort Myers Brewing Company is no stranger to being involved with the community or giving back.
This year the popular Winter Wonderland celebration is back, "We canceled our Octoberfest right after Hurricane Ian because we didn't want to have a big celebration," Tap Manager, Tyler Lopez with the brewery thinking back to how far they've come as a community this year.
But, owners Rob and Jen Whyte are always helping out the community, right after Hurricane Ian, Rob transformed their food truck, used during Covid into a mobile laundromat after he saw a women's story on Fox 4, but this isn't anything new for the brewery.
"Every organization we’ve been helping even before Ian we wanted to keep that up," Lopez said.
Jen Whyte, who's on the board of the Gulf Coat Humane Society knew just as much as people were impacted by hurricane Ian, so were their pets.
That's why Lori Hardacker says she's thankful not just to the Brewery, but everyone in the community, "A lot of people lost their pets in the hurricane, so its been very sad, but very inspirational after the hurricane."
The community support is felt everywhere everyday at the brewery, "Even a lot of the food trucks have been and feeding the fire departments and feeding at hospitals for free, so we wanted to make sure we kept things as normal as possible for them to be able to come here and support their families while also supporting the community," Lopez said.
On Friday night, those who attended the Winter Wonderland were able to shop around at the hand crafted market, listen to live music, enjoy local food trucks, bring their pooches and take pictures with the grinch for five dollars, that went straight to the Humane Society.
"We’ve had tremendous support from the community, even before the hurricane," Hardacker said.
The biggest night of the weekend is Saturday for Winterfest! it'll feature specialty beers, a food truck rally and special holiday concert.
The Brewery is hosting The Music Hub’s production of A Very Rowdy Christmas, featuring live shows by The Rowdy Bards, Sheena Brook and Chris Bepko.
The free, family-friendly holiday concert also features lively performances by students of the Naples School of Irish Dance, a special solo by Maggie Potts and a big, old-fashioned Christmas carol sing-along.
Attendees are encouraged to come in their most festive attire and to bring donations of new, unwrapped toys to benefit the Lewis P. Tabarrini Children’s Music Outreach Foundation’s annual toy drive, bringing holiday cheer to children in need across the region.
