Today is Helen Wrobbel Day in Punta Gorda

There were some puzzled looks this morning as the regular attendees of the Punta Gorda City Council meeting walked through the chamber doors.   The room was packed with people lining up against the walls and no seats to be had.   Was there some significant new ordinance being voted on or was there a variance being considered that a number of residents objected to?  None of the above.

Friends and supporters of Helen Wrobbel, long-time Punta Gordan, current President of the the Punta Gorda History Society,  and board member on the Punta Gorda Federated Woman's Club, had gathered to hear the pronouncement of Helen Wrobbel Day today in Punta Gorda. 

Helen was her usual humble self as Mayor Goldberg pinned a corsage on her and a proclamation was read touting her many volunteer activities and accomplishments since she moved into Punta Gorda back in 1959.  Among other things, Helen, a former volunteer firefighter herself, was largely responsible for the consolidation of a half-dozen volunteer fire stations into the Charlotte County Fire Department in the early 1980s.  She has also shepherded the Punta Gorda History Society in its efforts to save many of the historic buildings in Punta Gorda from being demolished.   Helen has also served as chair of the local chapter of the American Cancer Society.

But Helen's heart is at the Federated Woman's Club Building which she has managed since 1999.  Helen told us she did this because Rose Peeples (Gussie Baker's  and Vernon Peeples' mother) made her promise "that nothing would happen to the building and that it would always be the Punta Gorda Woman's Club."  I know as others do in the community that Helen always keeps her promises.  

Congratulations to a wonderful Punta Gorda woman on her day in Punta Gorda -- she really belongs here.