HM Restaurant Group, which manages Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille, donated $7,725 to Captains For Clean Water in honor of Storm Smart, supporting the nonprofit organization’s mission of raising awareness and driving change to improve Florida’s water quality.
The money was raised $1 at a time from the sale of Send it South cocktails in 2025. The specialty drink program has raised a cumulative $11,072 since its introduction in April 2024.
“We are proud to support Captains For Clean Water and to make this donation in recognition of Storm Smart,” said Joe Harrity, a partner with HM Restaurant Group. “Through their support of Captains For Clean Water, we are honored to designate these proceeds in their name. We’re also grateful to our guests who ordered the drink knowing their purchase would help protect Florida’s waterways.”
Sold at Doc Ford’s four locations on the St. Peterburg Pier and Jungle Terrace in St. Petersburg and Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach in Southwest Florida, Send it South is a refreshing mix of mango and silver rums, blue Curaçao, pineapple and soda water.
A grassroots nonprofit, Captains For Clean Water was founded in 2016 by fishing guides concerned about the impact of Florida’s water management practices wreaking havoc on estuaries’ unique plant and animal communities. The organization opposes the current-day procedure of discharging fresh water from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers – a practice linked to blue-green algae and red tide plaguing South Florida’s waterways, threating human health and crippling its economy. Send It South references the group’s campaign that advocates a return to the natural southerly flow of critical freshwater through the Everglades and into Florida Bay, a process now impeded by dams, dikes and ditches built over a century ago. For more information, visit captainsforcleanwater.org.
As a locally owned company, HM Restaurant Group sponsors a number of projects benefiting local communities. Its successful Hospital Drinks program donates $1 from select specialty cocktails at Doc Ford’s to John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg and Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. The program has raised over $140,309 since its inception.
