Mary Jelks devotes time, money, energy to the Myakka
I like to give notice to local people that have devoted their energy to make the Suncoast a better place. As a hiker / backpacker Mary and Allen Jelks are some... Read the SHT article...
In oversized rubber waders and inevitable sunhat, Mary Jelks slogs the soggy mile from the road to her river in nothing flat.
"Jelks Preserve," reads the sign on River Road just south of Snook Haven, and Dr. Jelks, a tiny figure in a Save-Our-Something T-shirt, is in a hurry to show off the view before the sun gets too high.
"Have a look at that," she urges, jerking her head toward the high, fast water as it rounds a curve on a sultry morning in July.
"That's the Myakka as the Indians saw it hundreds of years ago," she says. "No condos here. This is one they aren't going to get."
Six years ago, the Jelks Family Foundation gave Sarasota County $1 million toward the nearly $4 million needed to purchase this typically Florida tangle of wetlands and whatnot, 600 acres that County Commissioner Jon Thaxton once called "flat in-your-face nice."
OK so they are not into affordable housing or education but after a full career in pediatics they are giving a gift to all of the children they have helped and their childrens children... that is a gift that keeps giving. The Myakka is a wonderful place..
