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Rain dampens inaugural Freedom & Family event but fest still deemed a success

4 min read

If there was one big lesson learned by the organizers of the inaugural Freedom & Family event at Jet Blue Park this past weekend, it was next time, perhaps do it when it’s a little bit drier.

Heavy rain put a considerable crimp in the festivities, especially on Saturday when the final three musical acts, including Brian Howe and One Night Rodeo, couldn’t perform because of heavy downpours and lightning.

Despite that, the Invest in America’s Veterans Foundation, which put together the event to thank veterans and their families in a baseball setting, deemed it a success as it did get the word out about the Foundation and the Southwest Florida Military Museum & Library in Cape Coral.

“We felt it would be a good idea to have a tribute to both ends. We had great response from the military, we had a lot of ROTC kids come in, it was a great event,” said Invest in America founder and president Ralph Santillo. “Most times it takes about a year to put this together, we did it in 10 weeks. When you’re a military person, you do things that surprise people.”

Among those who were amazed by how things turned out was U.S. Rep. Curt Clawson, who came Sunday to make a brief speech and talk to his constituents about the hot topics of the day.

“It was ambitious and successful. This was their rookie event and look at how well it’s gone. I’m blown away,” Clawson said.

The one thing the military people could not control was the rain. Lightning cut the event short on Saturday, leaving the field outside the park mushy. More rain Sunday further dampened the event.

“Maybe next year we’ll do this in October or November. But we will do it again. I want to make this an annual event,” Santillo said.

Jet Blue Park was booked for all of October. Santillo said November was a busy month for them with the Vietnam Wall and Veterans Day coming.

Two stages were set up to present nearly 20 acts of every kind, from dance troupes to rock bands. On the field there were military reenactments, marching bands and recruit competitions.

Civil War re-enactor Lou Stickles was dressed as a chief sergeant of the 47th New York regimental hospital, which he said was the unit stationed in Fort Myers during the Battle of Fort Myers.

“We’re trying to teach people about the origin of the MASH unit. These were set up in 1861 by the surgeon general,” Stickles said. “Only about 75 of 100 survived when they got here.”

Meanwhile, Navy veteran John Dykhuis, part of an organization of submariners called the USSVI, was showing off his traveling submarine display, telling the story of what they did, to paraphrase David Bowie “sitting in a tin can, far below the world.”

“We do something called Caps for Kids where we make medically challenged children honorary submariners,” Dykhuis said. “We like to demonstrate what we did.”

Helping out were countless volunteers, such as former Cape Coral Mayor John Sullivan, who said the event was great for publicity, as many people don’t know of the museum’s existence.

“It’s important we open those doors and let people in, especially the young people so they can understand the history of this country,” Sullivan said. “It’s such an important institution here in Cape Coral.”

The foundation transformed the park’s gift shop into a mini-museum about early baseball in Southwest Florida and the great players who served their country during wartime.

There was also a motorcycle rally, a truck, classic car and hot rod show, military vehicles, bounce houses for the kids, dozens of vendors and more.

Rain and all, Santillo said he hoped to break even. The event was supposed to raise funds for the museum, with the possibility in the coming years of a larger, expanded facility

“We got the word out. People can recognize us. We hope we can get more people into our museum. We got exposure we wouldn’t ordinarily get,” Santillo said. “We’re growing and we have plans for the future.”