Harlem Heights

More than 300 Harlem Heights families enjoyed a festive meal at The Heights Foundation located off Gladiolus in Lee County to celebrate an early Thanksgiving. The celebration offered a buffet, face painting, games, and even free karate lessons from National Karate Fort Myers. Each family left with a turkey and Publix gift card for their own Thanksgiving dinner.

What started as a grassroots effort to help families become self-sufficient has now become a neighborhood anchor.

Learning an instrument can have a lifelong impact on children. The New England Board of Higher Education says that learning music strengthens brain pathways and builds discipline and teamwork.

The Heights Center’s MOSAIC program provides opportunities for children from low-income households to learn to play a musical instrument and to perform with ensembles of their peers. We learn about the program in an encore conversation with musician, educator, and Director of Arts and Community Programs at the Heights Center, Melissa Barlow, who founded the program.

The Heights Center’s MOSAIC program provides opportunities for children from low-income households to learn to play a musical instrument and to perform with ensembles of their peers. We learn about the program in a conversation with musician, educator, and Director of Arts and Community Programs at the Heights Center, Melissa Barlow, who founded the program.

One local food pantry is facing two critical issues: Hurricane season approaches and the number of people in need of food assistance is rising.

A nonprofit group that shepherded rebuilding in Harlem Heights after Hurricane Ian inundated the south Fort Myers neighborhood in 2022 recently declared: Mission Accomplished.Adventures in Missions helped residents of 258 homes and partnered to rebuild 176 homes along with hosting more than 5,000 volunteers to support hurricane recovery, said Chris and Sarah Horvath, disaster relief leadership for the interdenominational organization.

A community celebration of thanks was experienced for the second year Saturday by 650 Harlem Heights residents at the Heights Foundation/Heights Center.

A volunteer group is committing another seven months to rebuilding homes in the Harlem Heights community, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Ian. Adventures in Missions, a Christian-based group in Georgia, helps the needy all over the world. It's sending more volunteers to the lower-income neighborhood in Lee County.

Volunteers helped distribute solar-powered lights Saturday to several Southwest Florida neighborhoods hit hard by last year’s hurricane as part of the "Be The Light" initiative sponsored by Better Together.