“It was my honor and privilege to present the USMC Fallen Hero Medallion to the parents of Cpl Brandon Jeremy Murray of Cape Coral at 10AM this morning. Corporal Murray was a highly decorated US Marine who had distinguished himself as a brave and trusted warrior. 5 US Marines who served with Brandon in Afg were there to pay tribute. A part of me was taken away with Brandon today. God bless him, his family, and the USMC. Semper Fi”

Jonathon will continue to enjoy his weekend in the Fort Myers area where numerous local business’s have donated services to this fine young man.

Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau and the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce honored people and businesses for promoting community growth, creating local job opportunities and encouraging more people to visit the county at its annual award ceremony.

Operation Open Arms was honored with the Junonia award, so named after the “rare seashell that’s coveted by collectors visiting area beaches.”

Read the full story here.

OOA Founder Best Do-Gooder

Fishing guide and Capt. John “Giddy-up” Bunch’s seven-year effort to give troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan weddings, honeymoons, vacations, fishing trips and joy at no charge — a form of thanks — is unprecedented. Now also a licensed pastor, these days Capt. Bunch can perform weddings himself by land, air and sea (and why not? He’s a former Marine Corps officer, after all). More than 150 businesses in the region support his effort, but more support is always better support. You can find him at www.operationopenarms.org.

Not Your Usual “Best Of” List

Typical “Best of” sections in local newspapers require merchants to buy ads to have their names placed on the ballot. No ad, no chance to win.

That’s not their style here at Florida Weekly. They created a Best of Lee County that was fun, entertaining and untainted (for the most part) by commerce. They set out to create a list that captured the character or our unique area with the kind of flair you’ve come to expect from that publication. Read the full best of list winners here.

Operation Open Arms is helping the 1,999th service member in the seven years of the non-profit group. Alana Dent, a Navy Airman, took a limousine ride from SW Fl. Intl. airport to her mother’s house in Fort Myers. Dent is home on leave for 5 days.

“I am so happy to see family and friends and to ride in a limosine! I have never ridden in one before,” the 20-year old Dent told WINK News.

Her mother and brother greeted her at the airport, and all took the limo home.

“Pretty cool. I could get used to this,” said Dent’s mother, Christina Drake.

“I think it is wonderful that people remember our service-members and help them with special things when they come here on leave,” said Drake.

Operation Open Arms founder, former Marine Capt. John Bunch, was travelling out of state on Friday. But he told WINK News: “I thought we would have gotten to 1999 service-members before now. But the end of the military presence in Iraq and the draw-down in Afghanistan, is slowing things a bit. However, we will continue to exist, because there will be service people coming back home on leave for as long as we can see into the future. It has been a long and at times, hard 7 years. But we will keep going.”

Open Arms has provided 95 weddings for service people, as well as hundreds of free hotel accomodations, meals, and fishing excursions in the Gulf of Mexico.

Navy Airman Dent goes back to her home base in San Diego in 5 days, and then will deploy on a medical ship in the Pacific for the next 6 months.

“OPERATION GIVING EYES”… VISION OF A HERO!

Dr. Michael Collins, Board Certified Ophthalmologist and Fellowship trained Eye Surgeon is partnering with Operation Open Arms to provide Collins LaserVision (Advanced Surface Ablation) to a deserving man or woman who is currently serving or has served in the US military. Operation Open Arms is a nationally acclaimed military outreach program that offers US Service men and women visiting Southwest Florida every conceivable benefit during their two week combat leave or return from a foreign duty station.

Through this partnership, Dr. Collins will perform Collins LaserVision (Advanced Surface Ablation) free of charge, which is the only form of Laser Vision Correction surgery approved by most military branches. This advanced form of Laser Vision Correction Surgery uses state-of-the-art technology to make the procedure safer, bladeless, and flap-free unlike traditional LASIK.

To nominate yourself or someone you know, simply write a brief letter explaining why you, or someone you know, should be considered for free care. Email to: info@operationopenarms.org or mail to: Operation Open Arms, 3624 Bayview Avenue, St. James City, FL 33956. Please title essay “Operation Giving Eyes Submission”. Deadline for your nominees is May 31. You will be notified if chosen.

For more information about Michael J. Collins, Jr., FACS, please visit their website at www.collinsvision.com or call Lauren Dunford at (239) 936-4706.

From the PineIsland-Eagle.com

Operation Open Arms is granting another couple’s wish in April by taking care of a soldier’s wedding, which is the organization’s 94th wedding since 2005.

“Operation Open Arms is a network of individuals and businesses who extend every possible act of tangible kindness to our troops who risk their lives for our freedoms,” Operation Open Arms Founder Capt. John “GiddyUp” Bunch said.

He said in a recent USA Today poll, real estate values, the economy and how much 401Ks might be worth seem to preoccupy the psyche of most Americans.

“The relative concern for the well-being of our troops even stands behind the great political divide which keeps our country from being greater than it already is,” Bunch said. “However, there are still many Pine Islanders who chose to make a real difference.”

Some of those businesses and individuals include the Tarpon Lodge, Bert’s Bar, Sandy Hook, Jay at Bubba’s Roadhouse, Gerald Butters, Lisa Benton, Elaine McLaughlin, Maxine and Steve Woodard and Capt Chris Stanford.

The wedding for Matthew Welch, from Ashville, N.Y., and Haley Kibble, from Findley Lake, N.Y., will be held April 4 on the island.

By planning a wedding at no cost to the couple, Bunch said it provides them with the opportunity for a down payment on a house or to put money away to start a family.

Each Operation Open Arms wedding is worth a minimum of $15,000,

Bunch said. Operation Open Arms must pay for many things such as cake, limo, tents and the venue.

“But any time everyone chips in, the results are always magical,” he said. “Our troops have never contributed a dime. The first OOA wedding was all about my refusal to accompany a Marine to the Lee Courthouse and be his witness. In two days a full service wedding was provided.”

Jenifer Welch’s nephew Matthew, who turned 18 in October, is currently in training due to his planned deployment to Afghanistan on June 6. Matthew is a 12B Combat Engineer in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Welch said she has lived on the island for 10 years and Matthew’s grandparents, Bud and Dawn Welch of Bokeelia, have lived on the island for 16 years.

She said she has become friends with her nephew’s fiance on Facebook and has come to know her pretty well through their online communication. Once the engagement was announced, Welch said her nephew said they wanted to have a courthouse wedding.

Since Welch is a notary she asked them to get married in Florida.

“It turned into something way more than I expected, which is wonderful,” she said of Operation Open Arms helping with the wedding. “I thought it was going to be something that we would take them over (to Cayo Costa) on our personal boat with her parents, his parents and grandparents and do the vows and then go to dinner.”

A number of people came forward through Operation Open Arms to help with the wedding, along with the Women of the Moose providing the decorations and flower arrangements.

“It is kind of neat how it is all coming together,” Welch said.

The wedding started off with six people to witness the ceremony, which has grown close to 30 people now.

Welch said she used to work for Make A Wish Foundation, so she wanted to focus on the couple’s wedding day instead of Matthew leaving in about a month to Afghanistan. She said it is all about thinking positive about the wedding and not the outcome of him leaving for a year.

“They are very excited,” Welch said about the wedding plans. “We only communicate through Facebook. I send them bits and pieces of what people are doing. They are shocked at how much everyone is doing.”

She said they have made a lot of friends through the planning of the wedding.

“Everybody is offering to do something,” Welch said.

The couple is flying into town on April 1 for the wedding.

Since Haley’s dream is to have a beach wedding, the couple will most likely get married at the tip of Bokeelia on the beach, if they cannot make it to Cayo Costa due to the tides.

Annie Wenz will provide the entertainment for the wedding, Bubba’s is catering the food and Tarpon Lodge is providing a two-night stay for their honeymoon. The Matlacha Hookers also donated a large tent for the festivities.

“A special thanks is hereby extended to the new Madam of the Matlacha Hookers, DJR, for providing a critical level of support for this wonderful wedding. Thank you all for making such an enormous difference in the life of a U.S. soldier from Bokeelia who is being deployed to Afghanistan,” Bunch said. “You are all heroes in my eyes.”

Butters influential thought leadership on Optical Technologies has been recognized in journals and Wikipedia as “Butters’ Law of Photonics”. Butters is also a co-founder of a scientific and philosophical group, which is attempting to understand and predict, undiscovered intersections of Optical and Computational science. Butters retired from Lucent in 2000 as senior vice president marketing and technology. He continues active industry involvement as a limited partner in Venture Capital firms, board membership in private and public companies and as a technical advisor. Extensive reference information about Butters can be found at the ZoomInfo (zoominfo.com) website.

Butters is a co-founder of Double Black Diamond Partners.

Butters is a Fellow of the prestigious International Engineering Consortium, and has lectured at Universities in Asia, Europe and North America. He has given Commencement addresses to graduating classes of Vanderbilt University, North Carolina State University and American Sentinel University. He was awarded the Mississippi University for Women gold medal for helping to bring distance learning to rural Mississippi high schools.

Butters served on the Board of Trustees-Fisk University, Board of Directors of ANS {a not for profit corporation} formed by IBM, MCI and the University of Michigan,which provided the high capacity backbone for the original Internet. Also, Boards of the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Junior Achievement of Peel County, Junior Achievement of New York City, Rider University Business School, the AT&T Foundation, and Advisor to American Sentinel University,
Internet2, the US Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation initiative on advanced Sciences for American Universities.

“OOA needs a professional grant writer. OOA needs an office. OOA needs an administrative assistant. OOA needs a director to soon take my place. Most of all, OOA needs contributions to pay for all the things associated with a legit charity, like the American Red Cross has. They have a well-paid staff. They have a beautiful office, vans and cars. They have an advertising budget.

“I go to the post office after a charter hoping to see a check in Box 101.”

I don’t think Capt. Bunch cares about some of that — the beautiful office and what-not.

But he could use some help, and so could the young men and women coming home from very difficult places.”