{"id":56227,"date":"2022-11-25T14:55:16","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T19:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=56227"},"modified":"2022-11-25T14:55:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T19:55:24","slug":"former-vp-mike-pence-visits-fort-myers-beach-during-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/11\/former-vp-mike-pence-visits-fort-myers-beach-during-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"Former VP Mike Pence visits Fort Myers Beach during Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On this Thanksgiving Day, a few residents were offered a small slice of normalcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That normalcy being offered through a Thanksgiving meal, hosted by the Beach Baptist Church. And some encouraging words shared by a certain guest in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe literally started digging tables and chairs out of debris piles, getting them cleaned off and here we are!\u201d said Shawn Critser, Pastor of Beach Baptist Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Here\u2019 is the Beach Baptist Church off Estero Boulevard. Where remnants of Hurricane Ian are scattered all around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cJust make them feel at home,” says Shannell Wolff, with Casting Lots Ministries. “A little normalcy is big in a torn up world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A small slice of normalcy being offered with a hot meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our private vendor who\u2019s been helping us cook meals every day, twice a day for three weeks said let\u2019s do Thanksgiving so this is what we got!\u201d said Critser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What they\u2019ve got are dozens of Fort Myers Beach residents, sitting side by side, gathered over a Thanksgiving Day meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Honestly, we\u2019ve been saying let\u2019s cook for 200, we never actually thought it\u2019d be that many people,” Critser said. “And yet we went way over it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

With the exception of a special guest- former Vice President Mike Pence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s a privilege for Karen and I to be here in Southwest Florida,” said Pence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former vice president touring the church with his wife seeing Ian\u2019s damage first hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We thought there\u2019d be no better place to be on Thanksgiving Day than here encouraging people who\u2019ve been through so much over the last two months since Hurricane Ian came ashore, but have shown a resilience and a faith and a generosity that you see in this gathering today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A day that has some feeling a little more thankful than the day before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Thankful for the fact that we can be thankful every day,” said Critser. “That\u2019s what we want to be today- thankful for every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Said Pence, \u201cI know the best days for this region lie ahead and will once again be an extraordinary place that recovers from this very difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this Thanksgiving Day, a few residents were offered a small slice of normalcy. That normalcy being offered through a Thanksgiving meal, hosted by the Beach Baptist Church. And some… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1942],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56231,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56227\/revisions\/56231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}