Chamber announces latest list of Celebrity Waiters
From our own Lee County Sheriff to a county commissioner, TV personalities and more, the list of the latest “celebrity waiters” has been announced by the North Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce for the upcoming Celebrity Waiter Event.
It is one of the biggest fund raisers for the chamber each year, said Kim Constantine, executive director.
“This event is one of our primary events to support high school student scholarships,” she said. “We also have great waiters.”
The event will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 21. at Faith Assembly of God Church, located at 6950 Bayshore Rd., in the North Fellowship Hall. The event will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is open to the public.
Besides Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott, a regular at the event for several years, and Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah, NBC2 personalities Robert Van Winkle and Haley Webb are among the waiters.
County Commissioner Tammy Hall will be represented by her liaison Carmen Salome, who many have worked with locally. Michelle Brisendine, North Fort Myers’ honorary mayor, also will wait on guests.
From local organizations, Suzie Gillespie of the Sun Coast Resource Center and Lisa Cronin of Community Cooperative Ministries Incorporated will be there.
From the business community look for Tom and Kerrey Hoolihan, Hoolihan Real Estate & Lifestyle Centers; Baron and Kim Cohen of Cohen and Cohen Catering; Heather and Joe Mazurkiewicz, BJM Consulting; John Browning, owner of 3 Fishermen Restaurant and Ashley Carroll, general manager of Best Western Water Front.
Jason Sherman, owner of the Diamond District, will not only be a celebrity waiter but help with the auction at the event.
From the political arena David Mulicka, Honc Marine/candidate for state representative will a waiter for the day.
Not only will civic leaders, businesses and organizations be represented. North Fort Myers High School’s Football Coach Barry Goettemoeller has signed on, along with Lorena Placencia, Miss Florida US International.
Brooke Huffmaster, of Huffmaster Center of Music and Learning, will be a returning waiter, sure to bring great singing and music to the event.
More waiters may sign on.
Tickets are $35. Call the North Fort Myers Chamber at 997-9111 or register on line at NFMChamber.org.
Monthly chamber luncheon focuses on security
in our electronic age
The August monthly Leadership Luncheon focused on the topic of security in our electronic age.
The guest speaker was Larry McCoy of CounterStrike Security & Sound. He talked about his company – a single site entity, not part of a large chain – and advances in home and business security.
A major part of his business is security cameras, he said.
“In the past they were big, bulky and if large many could just be pulled down more easily. Now they are streamlined and truly more vandal resistant.”
He showed some of the newest smaller compact models.
“In the past you had to have a telephone line (for systems) now we can communicate by cellular, log in on the Internet or smartphones. These are the second generations of systems, and we have a lot of cool, new stuff, new apps and more.”
He also noted new technology called Hostage Codes. This allows users to alert security systems a hostage or criminal present situation is taking place without alerting the criminal and possibly causing harm. A “Dispatch Do Not Call” feature is activated by a separate code only the user would know, different from the original alarm code.
Also speaking at the meeting was Best Buy Stores Store Manager Riq Gonzalez. Best Buy is a new chamber member, and Gonzalez brought several members of his team to meet members, and talk about how they help ensure and work with computer and electronic security issues.
The monthly chamber luncheons are held the third Wednesday of each month at Bianca’s Ristorante Italiano in North Fort Myers, with the exception of the September date for the Celebrity Waiter’s event.
For information on any chamber event, go to nfmchamber.org or call 997-9111.