{"id":131479,"date":"2026-01-25T20:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T20:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/131479\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T20:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T20:27:11","slug":"enjoying-a-seat-at-the-table-for-a-wonderful-cause-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/131479\/","title":{"rendered":"Enjoying A Seat at the Table for a wonderful cause"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Terry Tincher turned 70. -STEPHANIE DAVIS \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019re well into January, I couldn\u2019t be happier to be back in the social saddle! My 2026 calendar is filling up, and I love to see it. It\u2019s officially fundraising season, which means it\u2019s time to sparkle and shine.\n<\/p>\n

I was happy to take a seat at a sparkly table at the Burroughs Home & Gardens recently for the annual Our Mother\u2019s Home of Southwest Florida fundraising event, A Seat at the Table. I was really looking forward to this one \u2013 I\u2019d been before and it\u2019s such an excellent theme for the mission of Our Mother\u2019s Home, which is to empower young mothers in the foster care and human trafficking systems to break the generational cycle for themselves and their children. The staff and board of this organization are dedicated to making sure that these young women have a seat at the table in the literal and figurative senses. And while this fundraiser is plenty of fun and we got to enjoy a delicious dinner and silent auction, it\u2019s also the kind of evening that makes you think. Moderator Jason Teeters came up with thought-provoking subjects that related to the cause and really got folks talking and telling their own stories \u2013 it was truly inspiring. I sat with some girlfriends from my Mahjong group (yes! I\u2019m still playing Mahjong \u2013 every week for a year now!), including Maureen Green, Jen McWhinnie, Sunny Lubner, Liz Abbott, Sharyn Rosenblum, and Melissa Vogt. We got to see lots of friends like Cole and Rachel Peacock, Kehrin Hassan, Neil Volz, Marin Asher, Kristalyn Atwood and lots more with a special shout-out to the Executive Director & CEO of Our Mother\u2019s Home, Angela Rackley-Meadows who gave a touching, funny, and deeply heartfelt speech about her first year with the organization \u2013 another inspiring moment.\n<\/p>\n

Another seat, another table \u2013 but with a birthday cake<\/p>\n

One of downtown Fort Myers\u2019 most popular fellows had a major milestone birthday last week, so we got to celebrate Terry Tincher\u2019s 70th trip around the sun. Terry is a downtown pioneer who moved to the River District with his wife Mimi and 3 kids more than 25 years ago and immediately started working towards its renaissance. He opened art galleries, lounges, and helped create Art Walk \u2013 Terry is truly a downtown treasure. Artist Jane Lane hosted a delightful birthday dinner at her home, where we toasted Terry with a group that included local art legends like Lucas Century, Mary Voytek and Pat Collins \u2014 along with Maria Paterno, Michael Stipac, Toby and Mitch Belding, Chris and Lydia Black, and plenty more.\n<\/p>\n

First Farmers Market of the year
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Stephanie Davis. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

A treat to end my week turned out to be the inaugural Fort Myers Farmers Market in downtown Fort Myers. It\u2019s happening every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the corner of Broadway and First Streets. There was so much to choose from \u2013 fresh produce, fresh seafood, juices, coffees, teas, pickles, olives and even cheese, flowers, and clothes. Mayor Kevin Anderson and his wife Krista were there, I also saw Brad Cozza, Kenny Brewer, Ginny Henderson, Joyce Owens and lots of out-of-towners enjoying the market, too.\n<\/p>\n

Stephanie Davis is a recovering girl-about-town formerly known as the Downtown Diva. A nearly native Southwest Floridian, when she\u2019s not photographing events for Florida Weekly, she\u2019s perfectly content to stay at home binging Netflix with her husband and three cats, Tennessee, Lilibet, and Jack.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Terry Tincher turned 70. -STEPHANIE DAVIS \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY Now that we\u2019re well into January, I couldn\u2019t be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-131479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}