While attending a music festival on Pine Island in November of 2005, the idea for the Bonita Blues Festival was hatched during a conversation between co-founders, Kevin Barry and Mike Pfeffer. The thought was that since we (Bonita Springs) have the best music venue in southwest Florida at Riverside Park, we should also have the best music festival and use it to help as many people in need as we possibly can. Mike, Kevin, Mike’s wife Terry and Kevin’s fiancée, Jennifer Auer all scrambled to cobble the event together. From raising donations, finding volunteers and sponsors, to printing the programs until 3am the morning of the festival, they were able to pull it off by the skin of their teeth. “We are totally committed to providing the highest caliber of blues music available. That way we can be certain our festival will grow each year and we will be able to help more and more people.”

With only three weeks to promote the event after the city gave approval, our optimistic estimates of the number in attendance fell a bit short. However, overall we were very pleased with the event. It was a beautiful day, there was plenty of food and beverages, (and left-over T-shirts), the music was excellent and 99% of the feedback was extremely positive. We also raised money for the Liberty Youth Ranch that provides homes for orphaned children. It doesn’t get much better than that.

2008

Last year we formed a not-for-profit corporation with a Board of Directors and various committees to promote and manage the festival. We would like to thank Frank Sennish from Bonita Print Shop, Len Eckert from iConDo Creative Services, Elizabeth Brune, professional fund raiser, and Anthony Rodriquez from WineStyles for joining the original four on the Board.

This time our fund-raising efforts benefitted the Shelter for Abused Women & Children, Early Start and the Immokalee Friendship House. If you have ever considered volunteering your time to give back to the community, we highly recommend any of these incredible organizations. They really do make a difference in many lives.

2009

This year our committee members included the original four of Mike & Terry Pfeffer, Kevin & Jennifer Barry, along with Len Eckert from iConDo Creative Services, Frank Sennish, Bryn & Eveleen from Celtic Cottage Computers, and Mark Borg.

We are so grateful to all the volunteers who together with great music, beautiful weather and a perfect venue helped to make this year's event such a success.

This year's chosen charity was the Bonita Assistance Office which provides emergency relief for community residents to lessen the impact of financial and personal crises, which is more important than ever in these trying times.

We are already looking forward to an even bigger and better festival next year. Hope to see you there!