’Tis the season for giving. And there are ways to help needy locals during the holidays.
And since Hurricane Irma struck in September, closing the Anna Maria City Pier, there are plenty of families among the pier “family” of employees hoping for a merry Christmas.
Those searching for ways to help out-of-work Anna Maria City Pier employees now have a fundraiser they can donate to that will help pay bills.
The Anna Maria City Pier Restaurant has been closed 15 weeks. Most of the restaurant’s 35 employees have found work to varying degrees in other restaurants, bars and businesses on and around Anna Maria Island, and some are trying to start up businesses to support their families.
However, most will say when asked they haven’t found a job they love nearly as much or for nearly the same pay.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy told general manager Dave Sork in September to advise his employees “not to stick around,” given engineering firm Ayres Associate’s prediction that the pier would be closed 62-82 weeks.
But former bait shop employee Brian Blaine maintains he and the other pier employees are a family, and they’d rather return home.
Blaine said the team was not transient, as he says they’ve been characterized, but people who have stuck around searching for ways to stay afloat — and stay connected.
In an effort to help his struggling family, Blaine put together a fundraiser that could provide some relief over the holidays.
He started a GoFundMe page Dec. 2 for city pier restaurant employees, and he hopes islanders and lovers of the pier will help him reach a goal of $5,000.
As of Dec. 18, nine people have donated $575, including a $100 starter donation from Blaine.
Former pier employees are increasingly realizing “what a great place it was,” Blaine said, adding that customers who returned to the pier year after year also are devastated by the loss of the iconic pier.
Blaine and Sork both frequently posted early morning sunrise Facebook photos taken from the pier, exclaiming their great fortune to work in the surroundings of Tampa Bay.
Sork said Dec. 15 that many employees were still reeling from the loss of the pier. “I think there’s still a good number of us who are not fully adjusted to the abrupt ending of our time there,” he said.
“We all knew that at some point the pier would be repaired,” he said, but we also assumed we would know in advance.
“If things had turned out a little bit different, we’d all be going to work today in that neat little place,” he said.
Sork said he fears “the ship has sailed” on quickly repairing and reopening the pier. But he appreciates Blaine’s fundraiser and all the efforts Blaine put into maintaining touch with the “pier family.”
“I fully support anything that helps out anybody that works there. It’s been a hard landing for a lot of folks,” he said.
Blaine said pier employees can do little more than “anticipate movement from the powers-that-be,” but in the meantime, he’s going to fund raise for his family.
“We’re all optimistic,” he said.
How to help: To donate to the fundraiser, go to gofundme.com, search for “pier family,” and click on the fundraiser with an image of the city pier. Your donation will benefit those who worked at the Anna Maria City Pier.