In a letter to Women’s Club members, President Dawn Thomas announced that the Women’s Club Capital Campaign Committee had developed plans and created a budget to rebuild the Women’s Club Clubhouse.
The Woman’s Club Clubhouse was the island’s first schoolhouse, a dance hall for teenagers and a community gathering place. It was built in 1938 as the second beach schoolhouse and served as a school until 1948, when it could no longer accommodate all of the island’s children. It has weathered many storms over the past 82 years. Almost two years ago, it was completely destroyed by Hurricane Ian.
Thomas says the vision for the property where her building once stood is to create a place for everyone in Fort Myers Beach to enjoy. “We are designing the clubhouse to encourage nonprofits to use our facility as office and storage space and as a place to host their events. We also envision residents being able to host gatherings for friends and family there.”
The Women’s Club is expected to announce its capital raising project in the next few weeks to raise the funds needed to construct the new building.
Albert D’Ambrose, owner of Studio AD, is part of the team building the new building. Jim Ink of Ink Engineering has also donated his time to help get the project started.
