Michelle Ruiz. PHOTO PROVIDED<\/p>\n
Michelle Ruiz said she has been on Pine Island since she was 7 months old, although she was not the first in her family to live here, as she said it began with her paternal great-grandparents, James and Mary Kleager, who were the first in her family to arrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a little trailer park on Rainbow Drive. It was like 15 trailers. My dad came home one day and told my mom we were moving to Pine Island, Ruiz said, explaining her immediate family\u2019s beginnings on the island. <\/p>\n
She recalls the first time she tried to move from Pine Island out to Lehigh Acres with her grandmother and learned that the world had failed in its appeal to snatch her from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stayed with my grandmother Monday through Thursday and was back here Friday through Sunday night,\u201d Ruiz said. <\/p>\n
The move did not take her away permanently and she said she came back to Southwest Florida and met her husband in 2013. She said she convinced him to move from North Fort Myers to the island and that he also fell in love with Pine Island. Her love for the island is easily displayed in her current jobs with the Beacon of Hope. Ruiz is taking over the GED as well as the ESOL programs, offered in the Beacon\u2019s Center of Excellence, she said. She also began as a Girl Scout and became a Girl Scout leader in her 20s, because even before having had any children, she\u2019d wanted to help young women by becoming a mentor to them. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I had my son, I knew I could do Cub Scouts with him, and I did. He joined Cub Scouts in the third grade,\u201d Ruiz said.<\/p>\n
After the destruction caused by the last few hurricanes, Ruiz said she still finds the island as beautiful and as strong as ever. Hurricane Ian caused an issue that forced her and her husband to move temporarily to Cape Coral but she said she never had a doubt that she would return. <\/p>\n
\u201cI kept telling myself, you\u2019re coming back, you\u2019re coming back. Home is Pine Island,\u201d she said, admitting she didn\u2019t change her mailing address, or her son\u2019s school. <\/p>\n
When considering a wish for Pine Island, she takes the future into consideration as well as the environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wish is that the island can grow without losing what makes it special. I hope that the island continues to rebuild and grow, we protect its natural beauty, wildlife and small island feel, It\u2019s more than just a place to live,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cPine Island is a community where people support each other.\u00a0I want my children to grow up here, knowing it\u2019s safe and that it\u2019s a place to call home, no matter where they go when they\u2019re grown. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy wish is for a future where we balance progress with preservation, so the next generation can experience Pine Island the same way I did, safe, connected and full of life,\u201d Ruiz said.<\/p>\n