With just two weeks until Becoming Cosmopolitan: Fire & Ice is set to take place we have made the most difficult decision to cancel this year’s event. Hurricane Irma has wreaked havoc on our Southwest Florida community and Community Cooperative has been there to help folks recover every step of the way. Our focus has been ensuring that our community has the resources it needs to recover as quickly and efficiently as possible, and that’s where our focus needs to remain for the coming months. Most importantly, this event relies heavily on the small business community that donates items for raffles and auctions and we cannot in good conscience ask these businesses to donate when they are hurting from weeks of lost revenue.

Our sponsors have most graciously told us that in lieu of returning their sponsorship dollars they would like us to use their collective $50,000 as a dollar-for-dollar match to create a $100,000 fund to assist our neighbors in need who have been adversely affected by Hurricane Irma. This fund will focus on helping local families and our elderly shut-ins rebuild their lives, ensure they have the resources to repair, rebuild and provide basic human needs like food and clothing for those who lost everything and simply need to catch up from a loss of income due to Hurricane Irma.

There are thousands of people who are already looking to Community Cooperative for assistance and this need will only grow in the coming weeks and months. I would ask you to please consider making a contribution to Community Cooperative’s Hurricane Irma Fund which will be matched dollar-for-dollar through the generosity of our Becoming Cosmopolitan: Fire & Ice sponsors listed below. Donations can be made online at www.CommunityCooperative.com/IrmaFund or mailed to Community Cooperative at PO Box 2143, Fort Myers, FL 33902.