Imperial Bonita pool regulars meet at 4 p.m.

This story was the centerpiece for the Friends & Neighbors page. A page dedicated to gated communities in the area.


Maxine Green, 85, reacts to the cold water in the Imperial Bonita Estates swimming pool after her granddaughter Shellie Hannel, 38, and son Arthur, 10, asked her to join them for a swim.


Arthur Hannel, 10, does a handstand in the Imperial Bonita Estates pool while visiting Maxine Green, 85.


Lyna Lindsey, 62, talks to her Imperial Bonita Estates neighbors Georgia Hardy, 88, and Johnnie Schneider, 81. They are members of the “4 o’ clock gang” that spends every afternoon in the community’s pool.

Imperial Bonita Estates swimming pool is the place to be at 4 p.m. every day.

You’ll get a chance to meet what the residents call “the 4 o’clock gang.”

The gang, or group of sometimes up to 40 residents, meet to soak in the sun and spend time getting to know their neighbors.

“Usually we have more people but with bingo going on ... Bingo and swimmin’ in the same day is too much,” joked Tony Schneider, 82, while talking to neighbors about where everybody else was on Tuesday afternoon.

“Yeah, where is Max?,” said Chuck Zinser, 78, a full-time resident in response.

And, the conversation continued as each resident swam or sat on brightly colored floats, describing their neighbors’ whereabouts.

Swimming continued and so did the conversations about family members and that day’s activities.

Lyna Lindsey, 62, made a visit to her rose cooler during the morning hours.

“The roses were blooming too quickly and I told them,” she said while floating in the pool and describing in detail how the cooler’s filter had to be vacuumed.

Maxine Green, 85, a full-time resident, stayed near the stairs of the pool and spent time with her granddaughter, Shellie Hannel, 38, and her son Arthur, 10.

The Hannels have been visiting the community from St. Louis for the past three summers.

“It’s really great that we have a place to go on vacation with our family and the people here are just so nice,” said Shellie Hannel, who spends a lot of time swimming at the community’s pool. “It’s great to have the pool so close to home and if we want to go out the beach is nearby too.”

Green added she is happy to have a group she can spend time with in the afternoons.

“The pool is always full of different neat people from different places,” Green said. “It’s an ideal place to live,” she said.

Millenium House owner to star in educational video

Video producer Bob Burns and Eilish McCormick interview Millennium House adult day services owner Cindi Ryerson, who was selected to participate in an educational video to teach community college students about being an entrepreneur.

Cindi Ryerson, owner of Millennium House of Southwest Florida Inc., has been selected to participate in an educational video to teach community college students about being an entrepreneur.

A film crew flew in from New York and Boston to follow the day-to-day operations of Ryerson’s business who caters to caring for the elderly who aren’t ready to go into an assisted living facility or nursing home.

“It’s very overwhelming and humbling because I don’t think of myself as material to be taught in a classroom,” said Ryerson, who opened the adult day care services company in 2002.

The crew filmed days worth of tape that will be edited to fit a 20-minute segment, part of a case study series about what it means to be a real-world entrepreneur.

“This allowed me to work with the elderly on a more intimate level and it was a calling for me,” she said about having left a career in Fort Myers in which she ran a home infusion and home health company.

Millennium House currently cares for more than 30 of Southwest Florida’s elderly who must show at least one physical or mental disability.

“It helps them age in place and in a healthy setting where they don’t get depressed,” she said. “Our main purpose is that they have fun here and that they have purpose in their life.”

The setting is what was being caught on film by Burns-Solman Economics LLC, which is producing the video called “Living in the Entrepreneurial World.”

The series will eventually be tested and incorporated into classrooms across the nation.

“We want to move those ideas of business out of the business department and stimulate the thought of business in other professions,” said Eilish McCormick, one of the video producers of the project.

Stimulating that thought, McCormick hopes, will be conveyed through discussions and assignments that will go along with the video.

During taping, the film crew shot aspects of Ryerson’s business including her finances, new clients, social awareness of adult care services in the community, marketing efforts and how the elderly socialize.

“This is the liveliest place in town,” said Jamzie Firestone, a medicare clinical specialist, who was interviewed and filmed for the video.

Firestone is interested in helping Ryerson expand her business into the Naples area — one other aspect of the video that will show students how an established business expands its services into the surrounding areas.

“What Cindi has been able to do here is grass roots innovation,” said Bob Burns, the other video producer on the project that will be tested at Edison Community College in September. “There is a tremendous energy here and the idea itself is so right.”

Ryerson was nominated to appear in the video by Beth Hagan, a Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce member and an advisor for the project that will eventually include 20 entrepreneurs from around the nation.

SW Florida businesses can network via Web

Making new contacts, finding new business and keeping up to date with the latest news is sometimes difficult for business professionals on the go.

But Colin Wood, 25, of Naples, has created a new Web site — www.gulfshorenetwork.com — to fill the needs of busy business professionals in southwest Florida.

Using his savvy tech skills Wood launched what he calls the first site geared specifically for local businesses looking to stay connected.

“It’s a social networking site ... a place for business professionals to network with each other and it’s 100 percent free,” said Wood, who graduated from Barron Collier High.

He created the site, which launched about three weeks ago, after noticing that most sites including MySpace are for younger audiences.

“There is nothing like this in southwest Florida where its core focus is on this area,” he said about the site, which currently has more than 80 profiles created. “I thought ‘why not have something for southwest Florida and not for the whole country?’”

On the site, profiles that members create can include a picture, contact information about their business and specific interests.

The site also includes a discussion forum and an area for members to categorize their business based on clubs or groups.

Wood is currently working on putting all members in an area that categorizes them by business type.

“This will create more business for free,” Wood said of the site, which will include a few ads that won’t oversaturate the pages.

He is able to offer the site free of charge because the hosting cost is very low.

“It’s very inexpensive,” Wood said.

And, he would know. Wood first started in the business world at the age of 14 with quarter gumball machines.

By the age of 18, he bought up a local vending machine company and expanded it to 70 machines in southwest Florida.

“I have since sold the business and am focusing on this new venture,” he said, adding that he is hoping to launch another site with a focus on talent booking for musicians, DJs and comedians. “I’ve always been involved with computers and this site will just give people more.”

Southwest Floridians partake in grape escape

This story was written as the centerpiece story that introduced the wine package. The package included a story on a winery closing, a guide to grapes, a blog about wine tasting and a new local wine store.


Costco in San Carlos Park is the largest purveyor of wine in the U.S. and they create their own label including the
Champagne seen above.


Apryl Evans, 35, of Bonita Springs, thinks about her wine selection at the Costco in San Carlos Park. The store offers a variety of wines from around the world.

The Southwest Florida wine market is filled with customers eager to buy bottles of the alcoholic grape juice that's not only a symbol of social status but a staple of dinner parties and weekend get-togethers.

"People just love wine," said John Martin of Costco in San Carlos Park. "We try to deliver value where we can and what customers want."

The store is the largest purveyor of wine in the United States and their Southwest Florida stores sell the most wine companywide during January through April.

Wine is big business.

That's why wine drinkers looking for that wine they found on a recent trip to France or that glass they enjoyed in New York turn to local businesses for their fix.

Apryl Evans of Bonita Springs is just that customer.

"There is a bubbly and sweetness to it that I miss. I love that wine," said Evans, who was shopping at the Costco in San Carlos Park recently with her family.

She was selecting a wine that might come "close" to a glass she enjoyed an Italian restaurant in New York.

"They have a lot of selections here but that one I just love. I can just drink right through a bottle and not notice because it's so sweet," Evans said.

Evans and her husband, Orlando, 42, are the type of customers that businesses like, says Martin because they enjoy wine so much.

"There is a certain comfort level with Costco and there are other places that have more obscure wines but we don't try to be all things to all people," said Martin about the store that opened in February. "We have a good wine-buying group and they appreciate our effort."

Nicola's Liquors in Bonita Springs has a large selection comparable to Costco with wines from around the world.

"We've got tons of wine and a solid customer base," said Joe Nicola, the owner of the 5,000-square-foot shop on U.S. 41, which dedicates half that space to wine. "People come buy wine here because I think wine is easier to consume than hard liquor."

And he is right according to Julie Heuer of south Fort Myers.

She has been a member of Costco for eight years and says she buys wine for its health benefits.

"I don't drink a lot of wine but it's convenient," Heuer, 50, said while purchasing meats at the Costco in San Carlos Park. "I usually buy red (wine) for health purposes."

The health benefits are the reason most people give Nicola for shopping at his store or the ones located on Bonita Beach, Fort Myers and Estero.

"Some people drink wine because one glass or so a day is very good for your health," he said. "It's easier for the elderly people to consume a drink of wine. Wine is easier on the body."

The social aspects of wine are also the reason for the volumes of sales Nicola sees year round.

"Wines are good for drinking in the afternoon before going to dinner or when people come over to have with hors d'oeuvres," Nicola said. "The enjoyment is what counts and if you want it with food it works with that too."

Florida Winery located at Miromar shuts down

This story was written as part of a wine package that was being reported. In the midst of reporting, I discovered that the number had been disconnected and mall officials confirmed the store had closed. I followed the story and the rest is history.


The Florida Winery and Cigars closed its doors in April at the Miromar Outlets in Estero.

The Florida Winery and Cigars at Miromar Outlets in Estero has closed and customers will have to drive to St. Petersburg or Madeira Beach before they can buy strawberry or peach flavored wines or accessories.

"It probably closed the same way most business close ... it just wasn't making any money," said Tom Powers, CEO of The Florida Winery and Cigars, from the Madeira Beach location which is a separate entity from the store that was located at the outlet mall. "We were unusual and unique and we put a lot of effort in there but it just wasn't enough."

The effort cost owners to lose an estimated $300,000, said Powers, in the two years the store was open at the mall.

"In the 9 months of planning and two years of blood, sweat, and tears into that store and we never made a dime," said Powers, about the store that closed in April. "We didn't have enough pull (to customers) ... ."

Powers said their unique store was different and was a draw for Miromar Outlets but if the "management would have given us some kind of rent concession we would have still been there."

Combining high rent with competing malls including Coconut Point and Gulf Coast Town Center forced the closure of the store whose average ticket sale was $26, he said.

"The type of store we are doesn't afford us the mark ups that shoes and clothes stores have like the rest of Miromar stores. And, if you don't have that mark up, you cant make it up in those environments," Powers said.

Mall officials declined comment.

Blog: College wine-tasting class turns out useful

This blog was written as part of a wine package that included a story about a wine store, why wine is popular and where to get it in the local area.

I took wine tasting in college.

The one phrase that turns heads at parties or causes people to shift oddly in their chairs and gleam as they form questions in their heads.

Most notably: What college did you go to?

Answer: Florida International University.

Which is usually followed by questions about geography and how I ended up there.

But what people forget is that FIU is in Miami.

A big city known for celebrities, parties and booze. Lots of it.

Wine included.

Also, FIU has the second best Hospitality program in the country.

So growing up in a city in love with alcohol and a renowned program, a wine-tasting class seemed more up my alley than algebra, psychology or the history of Southwest Florida.

Especially a class where I could sit and "evaluate" eight to nine different glasses of wine every Tuesday night for 12 weeks.

I learned about the culture, consumption and allure of wine including the history, grapes and winemaking.

I even figured out why some wines are bottled with corks and some have plastic tops and what role dirt plays in taste.

And that wine isn't about price at all. It's about taste.

We were graded based on two exams about regions, vineyards and being able to read wine bottle labels.

But the real test was in my ability to describe the "nose of the wine" or use words like "tannin, palate, fruit, oak or nuttiness."

It was a cultural experience and a class that would equip me for life after college.

Heck, I've never walked into a restaurant and been asked about rock formations, the pythagorean theorem or the history of the United States.

But wine ... I can pick up a menu and order.

That was the point of the class.

Wine, gifts and more at WineStyles

This story was written for a wine package that included a guide to grapes, a personal blog about wine tasting and where to buy wine in the local area.


WineStyles Wine & Gifts part owner Anthony Rodriguez sells gift baskets geared toward wine lovers, chocolate lovers or just those looking for a little relaxation with lotions and bath salts.

Taking the guesswork out of wine buying is the goal of WineStyles Wine & Gifts shop part-owner Anthony Rodriguez in Naples.

He along with his wife, Celina, and relatives Doug and Denise Kay opened up the 1,600- square foot store on Immokalee and U.S. 41 to show customers that selecting wine can be easy — no matter your palette.

"I can help them based on what they like in particular whether it be new world or old world," said Rodriguez, who will refund or exchange a wine if it doesn't fit a customers flavor.

And getting that flavor right is possible for Rodriguez who offers 152 selections that are categorized by style and food pairing.

"We arrange our wines by style or palette, not region ... we have demystified the wine buying process," he said of the store that has been open for eight months.

Rodriguez says wine buying can get confusing because there are so many options from vintages and regions to what is popular at the time.

"For me it's easy to sometimes give customers what they want because we have the more boutique reds, whites, sweets but also carry some of the brands people really like," he said.

Rodriguez's store, which is the latest to open in a franchise of 160 stores nationwide, includes a wine bar in which customers can sample wines before purchase.

"We strived for a warm feel where people could come and spend time," said Rodriguez, whose wife helped decorate the store that includes seating areas. "There are feminine touches in here that Celina and Denise put that just make the customer say 'wow' when they walk in."

And that wow affect combined with Rodriguez's hospitality background and customer service keeps customers returning.

"We specialize in wines that are $10 to $25 but its the service we give to our customers that they like," said Rodriguez who will hold cases of wine for customers who call in or special order wine free of charge.

The store also offers wine tastings that are open to the public twice a week, every week with light hors d'oeuvres. Customers may also host private wine tastings at homes or visit the shop for happy hour every day.

"We are a one-stop shop because we offer all types of services and even have the most wine accessories that no other wine store in southwest Florida," said Rodriguez about the store that can also special order accessories.

"There is a lot of history, tradition behind wine and we are here to show that it's not difficult," he said.