Charlotte County libraries offer free sunset cruise with new library card

by: Marco La Manno

Posted: Sep 6, 2023 / 02:28 PM EDT

Updated: Sep 6, 2023 / 02:28 PM EDT

library cruise FRANKLY.mp4_image

by: Marco La Manno

Posted: Sep 6, 2023 / 02:28 PM EDT

Updated: Sep 6, 2023 / 02:28 PM EDT

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PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (SNN TV) – As the Helen M departed for its Cabbage Key cruise, King Fisher Fleet President Ralph Allen reflected on getting into the business in 1985.

“I’m going to be 40 [years] in this! Been stuck in the same rut for a long long time but I love it here,” Allen joked.

King Fisher Fleet was launched by Bob and Helen, his dad and mom.

“And we now have a large tour boat that’s named the Helen M, Helen Marie Allen,” said Allen.

His daughter, Elissa Allen, is the general manager, so the business is now in its third generation.

Allen’s mother visited as SNN was filming, and both Ralph and his mother say they’re physical readers.

“An old guy like me is used to thumbing through,” Allen said.

Their appreciation for a library’s ink-filled shelves is the size of Charlotte Harbor.

“You can walk in the street unannounced, [and] what you have at your disposal at no cost is astounding, and people don’t take advantage of it,” Allen lamented. “Libraries in much of the nation have been a centerpiece in small towns and big cities too.”

A decade ago, he went to Charlotte County Public Libraries to see if his business could promote National Library Card Month in September. This was before Jonathan Westbrook, the Librarian Supervisor for Punta Gorda Charlotte Library, started working there on March 18, 2020.

“[The] first day COVID shut the place down. It was an amazing time,” remembered Westbrook.

Westbrook loves books.

“I am a voracious reader. I read anything except for westerns,” Westbrook said.

Like Allen, he thinks libraries are integral to the community.

“I’ve often said public is only six letters long but it’s the largest word I’ve ever dealt with. The entire population of the planet will walk through those library doors,” said Westbrook.

Now every year, if you walk through the public library doors and get a new card in September, you get a free sunset cruise with King Fisher Fleet. That means access not just to paper books, but eBooks, audio books and even banned books, plus DVDs, streaming movies and archival research.

It’s no coincidence that National Library Card Month is the same month kids are going back to school. Charlotte County Public Libraries is hoping that one evening on a sunset cruise leads to a lifetime of cruising through free information both digital and physical.

Charlotte County public libraries are located in Englewood, Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. This offer is for new cards only, not a replacement or updated card. For information on King Fisher Fleet, visit their website here. For information on Charlotte County libraries and National Library Card Sign-up Month, visit the county’s library website here.