Help Restore Fort Myers Beach Arches
Your support is vital in helping us achieve our goal of creating a new Commemorative Arch in Bowditch Point Regional Park. Every contribution, whether big or small, makes a difference in preserving our historic legacy for the community and future generations to cherish.
Sponsorship Opportunities and Donations
Restore Fort Myers Beach Arches, Inc is super excited about Arches Cinco De Mayo May 3rd, 2025 on the San Carlos Island at Erickson & Jenson Shrimp Sales Docks. We’ll come back to San Carlos Island for the 1st time since 2019. The event is our 5th Annual Rock the Arches Music Festival with a Latin flare featuring Mariachi, Country, Rock, and Tejano Music. We will have Latin Dancers, A Low Rider Car Club Car Show, A Community Chefs Pink Gold Mexican Shrimp Cook-Off Competition, a Mexican Market, Mexican Games, Raffles, and more. We will also be advocating for the struggling Shrimp industry. Proceeds benefit our organization.
Local Businesses we are asking for your support. We are asking for a donation, become a sponsor of our Arches Cinco De Mayo Event. We will take anything you feel comfortable contributing to our raffles (We suggest a sponsorship level of $100 or more). We will market your contributions and involvement in our event. It will be a great time to get your name out to the public again. Check out the Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/share/J38nQ5VcDdprenNR/
Send any gift certs or vouchers to Restore Fort Myers Beach Arches Inc.
C/O Steven Ray McDonald
11796 S Cold Creek Place
Vail, AZ 85641
We’re also asking local businesses to donate an etched brick (if you haven’t already) for the Commemorative Arch Kings Walkway. These bricks will make up the sidewalk to the Commemorative Arch. This is also a great way to put your name and support of this cause out to the public advertising forever. Maybe you consider a family brick, and/or a loved one, they are all good subject matter? You can join the growing list of businesses advertising under the Arch. Click the link: https://www.bricksrus.com/donorsite/walkthearches/
You can also make a cash donation using our on-line “Donate” button on our webpage or on this webpage. Click the link: https://mickyds2002.wixsite.com/restorethearches
We are committed to working with Lee County to preserve the remains of the Fort Myers Beach Arches (1924-1979) by using the remains in a new Commemorative Arch in Bowditch Point Regional Park. We have spent $20K to have the surfaces removed and ready to be applied to a new Arch. We are funding this project.
Thanks for your support. Please phone or email Steven Ray McDonald at mickyds2002@yahoo.com or call me 520-227-9902
Arches Cinco De Mayo Pink Gold Cook Off
We are requesting your restaurant participation in our Arches Cinco De Mayo Pink Gold Cook-off May 3rd, 2025 at Erickson Jenson Seafood Sales. We are asking for your restaurants’ chef s participation in the judged event. The only rules are that you make a Mexican Pink Gold Gulf Shrimp Dish (examples are Shrimp Tacos, Mexican Pizza, Fiesta Shrimp, Camarones ala Mexicana, Cinco De Mayo Shrimp, Shrimp and Avocado Salad, etc.). We ask that you make a minimum dish size of 8 quarts. Your dish is a donation to our group. After judging, the remaining food will be available to our guest for cash donations to the benefit of Restore Fort Myers Beach Arches, Inc. We will supply a place to plate your dish and an 8 quart food warmer.
To accept the invitation; just name your dish and we will advertise your participation. The who’s-who of Fort Myers Beach will be judging your dishes in front of our music festival attendees, and the winner receives a plaque during the award presentation. This event is sure to draw local press. We will also advocate that local restaurants source local seafood to help save the second biggest industry on Fort Myers Beach survive. Our event is bringing awareness to the peril of the Shrimp Industry on Fort Myers Beach. Competition from cheap sub-quality farm raised shrimp from third world countries, Hurricane Ian recovery, and even property grabbing threatens the industry that has thrived for 70 years on Fort Myers Beach. They are a cherished part of our Fort Myers Beach landscape. The shrimp are still in abundance in the area and yields are high. Many of our areas shrimpers did not bother to return after Ian. Others are still considering their future. The last shrimp docks at Erickson Jenson Shrimp Sales are the location of our festival. They need our support.
Be an avid supporter of the Restore Fort Myers Beach Arches and our shrimp industry project and help us build a commemorative Arch. The Fort Myers Beach Arches are one of the only things still existing that were created on Fort Myers Beach before the 1926 Hurricane. They became synonymous with the town itself and stood for 55 years. They were part of our identity. But for a tragic miscommunication in 1979, we would still have them. It is important to us to see them back on the landscape of Fort Myers Beach. Please do what you can, to help us return this icon and in some way bring it back to the thousands of citizens and visitors that have overwhelmingly polled and petitioned for their desires to restore the Arches. Thank you. Call or email me if interested (mickyds2002@yahoo.com).
Steven Ray McDonald
MSgt, US Air Force Retired
President, Restore Fort Myers Beach Arches, Inc.
520-227-9902
