Years After Hurricane Ian, Wintergarden Presbyterian Church Celebrates a Job Well Done as a PDA Host Site

Three years after Port Charlotte, Florida, was hit by Hurricane Ian, a church that hosted as many as two to three teams of volunteer groups per month is closing the door on that chapter, but leaving room for an epilogue.

The Rev. Devon Andrews, pastor of Wintergarden Presbyterian Church, recently led a poignant service honoring the church’s tenure as a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance volunteer host site.

Thanks to the small-but-mighty 33-member congregation, volunteers from all over the country received a place to stay while helping residents recover from 2022’s Hurricane Ian and subsequent storms that have moved through the Gulf Coast of southwest Florida.

The church opened its property despite having extensive hurricane damage to its sanctuary and property and provided a welcoming presence during a harrowing time for the community in the wake of one of the worst hurricanes to hit the U.S.

The service, with a liturgy of thanksgiving from PDA, was a time to reflect on the host site years and to thank those whose love and partnership helped Wintergarden to provide for the community while it persevered through its own challenges.

“Our church is a church of servants,” Andrews explained in an interview with the Presbyterian News Service. “We serve our community in the best way we know how to.”

After the devastation wrought by Ian, “we started hearing all the stories of all the damage, and the question was, how can we [as a church] help and what do we do?” Andrews said.

Along with becoming a host site, Wintergarden continued serving hundreds of neighbors through its food pantry program and obtained critical funds, including a $100,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, to support the purchase of rebuilding materials to help residents who had sustained significant damage to their homes.

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