01/14/2024
Thinking about shutting down the club and FB page. After what happened 21' don't think we will continue. To begin with someone jumped on our Sat. that Memorial weekend with their own thing so we had to change the dates. A lot of our previous sponsors whom we had helped grow their marine businesses through the years let us down and only 23 members step up to donate 20.00 each. People who had promised certain things did not come though at the last minute so we had to scramble to find a barge for the generator and ended up with one from a questionable source who did not deliver on time and I ended up having to pick it up on Sat. morning and even then had to put air in the tires to haul it. Got to the boat ramp to find out he wasn't coming to help launch it and failed to let me know there where holes in the hull which had to be plugged. The weather was terrible with winds gusting to 40mph Fri. and Sat. As Greg was pushing the barge with the generator and port-a-john on it thru the Boca Grande toll bridge and against the high winds through the trestle we could see the barge was sinking. He tried to make a shallow bar to ground it but the winds held it back and we watched helpless as it turned upside down and sank. I called a true friend who brought me two generators to use but by then someone had put the word out on line it was cancelled. So my bands had already cancelled at that point. We did continue on since the Ladies from K9's For Warriors were on the way from Tallahassee . The Mullet Band played Sat. and we blasted music and
on Sunday the Forbidden Fruit Farmers stood by us and performed. You find out who your friends are when things go to hell like that. Bottom line is that we had to pay for the generator among other things and the whole thing cost us over $20,000.oo which ate up most of our savings and broke our hearts. No one stood up for us to try to raise any money to help through go fund me or any other way. Over a period of six years and 10 very successful events we generated a lot of money for this community and even helped build local marine repair shops into dealers. We had people coming from Colorado, New York, Georgia among other states and as far away as England for our events which we discovered was the 3rd largest on water event in the State. We raised money for local charities such as Englewood Helping Hands but it seems that when we were in desperate need ourselves no one was there. Like I say" you find out who your friends are". So I will be closing down Party Cove once and for all soon as I clear up some loose ends. I want to thank those who were true friends of us for their support over the years. The real Cove'ers.
