After helping community, FEK asks for your help!

10 days post Hurricane Ian. A hell of a time. My husband and I, owners of Flying Eagle Kombucha, in Fort Myers, FL, humble down & finally ask for your help.

We’ve been so busy in our community & recovering physically & emotionally that we haven’t really come to terms with our own damage. We didn’t see another way around this devastation period than helping our immediate community in need. ✨ Just like SO many of you. ✨

I AM SO PROUD of SWFL and proud of those afar who have helped however you can.

We’ve been busy with the flood damage in our own home, our neighbors in Dean Park Historic District & my mom’s in Matlacha. We simply used our home as a hub to collect resources & help others. & people just SHOWED UP!

Because our attention was elsewhere in our community, and the power only just came back on at our brewery, we just realized brand new equipment, only used for 1 month, has been damaged due to the storm & power surge. We also lost 500 + gallons of product while we prepared for SWFL season & a distribution partnership that was supposed to be right around the corner. (let's hope we will still see even a small fraction of the business we planned to see here in SWFL). On top of that, our best performing farmers market was on Sanibel Island, which has not even really begun repairs & has experienced so much davastating loss.

Not only our business took a hit, we also have damages to our historic home. & Like many, we do not have flood insurance. Homeowner's insurance alone for our 100 + yr old home is $500/mo. Our home is also under our father in law’s name, who is a German-resident, not US-, and thus is not eligible for FEMA assistance. Because we are seen as “renters” even though no rental contract exists, and we pay the property taxes and homeowner's insurance, we would also not be eligible for FEMA as homeowners. We have been blessed with the support from our family to have this beautiful home which we pay them back for, but because of this family situation, we are unfortunately at a loss when it comes to our home repairs from the flooding we had. We have debated back and forth on opening up this fund, because Thomas and I don’t always know how to accept help. But, we have been told we need to I guess :) So, here we are. We’d be thankful for even a small donation, or if you could share to your networks.

We walked in water that we shouldn’t have walked in just to see the damages to our beloved home finally. We put our rain boots on, gathered resources, and got to work in our community. We scraped & shoved river & sewer mud out of ours and others’ homes, took the furniture that no one really wants to get rid of right to the curb, built so much debris we had to get dumpsters, walked over oil sludge that is sinking into the ground every day from cars that floated away, separated family photos with ink filled fingers to lay them to dry so that those still in shock can have some good old memories to hold on to, cut out dry wall & started with the fans.

We lose so much in these storms. The big tangible super important things that you take for granted like, homes & cars & comfy dry beds, to those little trinkets you’ve been treasuring, to house plants with all that growth you’ve been workin on. Hope, dignity, inhibitions. & I’m not sure why we were spared but we were lucky to not have lost any loved ones. I meditated 3 times before the storm & prayed to my ancestors that they save my family, loved ones, & our homes. I thank my ancestors / guides / God / the Universe every day for that sparing. & I am SO, SO, SO eternally sorry so those that cannot say they were spared the same.

No matter what, we will all push forward as best as we can to RESTORE, REBUILD, REVITALIZE, all that we have lost & all these beautiful treasures now tainted in SWFL.

In addtion to receiving direct help through our Go Fund Me, we want to help our non profits do big things. Please consider donating here, or making a purchase form our website to help FEK recover from damage to our home & brewery equipment. YOU CAN PLACE AN ORDER AT WWW.FLYINGEAGLEKOMBUCHA.COM (WE SHIP ACROSS THE US!)

FEK is getting back to work little by little while assessing the costs of rebuilding the 1st floor of our home (thank GOD our business can pick back up soon; we need the financial boost), and will also be donating 15% of ALL ONLINE SALES through November to the @collaboratory relief fund & @captainsforcleanwaters. Their relief funds will go to non profits or captains, to help SWFL revitalize, or towards clean water efforts. Making sure people have “those big things” we take for granted, or money so our people can buy “those little things”, & something that’s SO dear to my heart: cleaning our waterways up from all of the pollution this storm caused.

We & our beautiful SWFL community would so appreciate your support

Want to know more About FLYING EAGLE KOMBUCHA?

Our mission:

Brewed with Balance & the Highest Intentions, Flying Eagle Kombucha was founded based on a passion to provide a delicious non-alcoholic beverage that supports a number of ailments and helps change the way we see social beverages.

FEK is made using a multi-stage fermentation process for a different kind of kombucha - one that's sip-able, full of healthy microbes, & botanicals as "plant medicine". Each flavor has an energetic description and begins the story of the beneficial ingredients used.

Striving to put quality ingredients & community at the forefront, we educate our customers on the benefits of the ingredients in this holistic beverage, source quality local ingredients when available, or organic, & support Community Gardens while bringing awareness to their own missions.

We're here to uplift you, Mind & Body with a product “for Locals, by Locals” as we strive to keep our Reseller community majority as FL small-chain businesses, and amongst larger businesses, those that make a social impact will be a part of our story.