One of the outstanding characteristics of the Burnt Store Marina community is how supportive and giving most residents are.  There are close to 50 condominium or homeowner associations within the gates and three major recreational clubs. Most of these entities have volunteer boards of directors and countless sub-committees and activity leaders. Some of these Boards, such as Section 22, have relatively high profiles in these pages, but hundreds of other unsung heroes operate unselfishly and often under the radar throughout the year in support of the well-being of our homes and lifestyles. Many others serve on not-for-profit boards outside the gates and volunteer for other charitable organizations. This article touches on a few of our residents who were most significantly affected by Hurricane Ian this past fall and winter. They were either thrown into situations requiring their deep commitment and resourcefulness, or identified needs in our community, and found solutions for them.

The residents of Grand Isles I & II faced extraordinary challenges after September 28. Their buildings suffered numerous water incursion problems and other damage, they were without power or running water for much longer periods than the rest of Burnt Store Marina, and faced months of remediation effort. Fortunately, only 17 of the 112 homeowners were year round residents. This softened the consequences slightly for those owners who had another residence where they could seek refuge (not that this would reduce their worry!). Most of the full time residents, and many of the other owners, spent months leading a nomadic and transient existence. They often relied on the goodwill of BSM neighbors and friends who kindly took them in for extended periods.

One of those Grand Isles I & II residents was Condo Board President Leroy Munster. Leroy worked close to full time on the hurricane recovery projects for the entire fall and a good part of the winter, often devoting up to 20 hours a day to the effort. Leroy had recently retired from his job as Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer (and previously Product Launch Director) at Abbott only to find himself thrown back into this all consuming volunteer role. He describes this task as more complex than anything he ever faced in the corporate world. Leroy was well supported by his entire Board including Treasurer Rick Currant, Maintenance Liaison Director Greg Broxterman (who was also the Rear-Commodore of Platinum Point Yacht Club during the post-Ian period, and was up to his elbows working on that club’s hurricane recovery efforts), Facilities and Storage Liaison Director Mike Murphy, Directors Phil Hinderaker, Cynthia Ramsey, Bill Boykin, Greg Saunders and Special Board Reps. Larry Weld, Rick Bretlinger, and Jim Power. They held twice daily status meetings in the Club Room and managed the multitude of service companies who had to be engaged. In all 59 Emergency Board Meetings were held up to February 15, 2023, 17 regular Board meetings, 4 Town Hall meetings for residents and an average of 2.5 communication emails to all residents per week. This short profile cannot do justice to the scale of tasks performed by this condo board team, though perhaps this is fodder for a future article.

Another remarkable story which emerged from the Grand Isles I & II disaster recovery drama was that surrounding another owner in those towers, Cynthia Schanno. An aircraft broker from St. Paul, MN, Cynthia has only lived in Burnt Store Marina since May 2021. From noon September 28 through 3:00 am September 29 she endured the terror of a Category 4 hurricane battering her second floor unit. She was one of the residents who met in the Club Room the next day and undertook the task of knocking on every door in the complex to ensure everyone was safe, and assess needs. During that first week those needs were many, ranging from food to fuel to housing. Cynthia herself was fortunate enough to find shelter with another Good Samaritan in the community, Gordon Rayner. She constantly remarks on how this disaster brought out amazing acts of kindness and generosity and bore witness to the best in human nature throughout the marina.

At 3:00 am on October 3 trucks and semi-trailers from the remediation company began arriving. Cynthia greeted the trucks and was moved almost to tears when one of the employees asked her plaintively “ma’am, ma’am, do you have any water?” She quickly learned that the remediation company employees, most of whom had travelled from out of state, did not have access to proper nourishment and of course little was available for purchase in the area. They also had no where to stay locally because of the flood of utility workers who had taken up all available local hotel rooms. For weeks these employees had to commute from hotels in Tampa on top of their 12 hour work days, seven days a week. That first week there were 35 workers on the Grand Isles I & II site but this grew to close to 150 contractors at one point. Cynthia commented on how dedicated and conscientious the workers were, despite living and working away from their own homes for extended periods.

The need for food and drink was critical and Cynthia sprang into action. For the first three days she sourced 100 breakfasts from the Waffle House. This was quickly replaced by food purchased at Publix and eventually by meals which Cassandra from Cass Cay brought down from their still operating restaurant in Bradenton for 30 days. Pat, Diane and their team at the Trading Post prepared egg sandwiches and other meals for the workers. All of this food was served by Cynthia from a six foot table set up outside the complex. Initially donations were solicited to defray costs but eventually the remediation company, StopLoss, assumed the costs for their employees. Over a period of 11.5 weeks Cynthia served 10,588 meals to the multitude of workers involved on the property. After December 12 food trucks were engaged by the contractor. Cynthia also worked closely with her Board and maintained a database of ARC request projects.

Cynthia Schanno (center) serving meals in front of Grand Isles I & II

These are just a few of the hundreds of examples of how Burnt Store Marina residents banded together to cope with Hurricane Ian’s trail of destruction.

Published in the May 2023 Beacon.