Community Caretakers

Two of this year’s honorees, Doris Reynolds and Lois Bolin, are working to preserve Naples’ history. Honoree Karen Rollins has made a career of helping Southwest Floridians deal with loss and grief.

The event is a major fundraiser for the Neapolitan ABWA, which provides ongoing education and support for its 50 area members, as well as educational opportunities for local youth. This year’s ceremony is themed "Keys to Success" and will take place March 14 at the Hilton Naples.

"There are a lot of women in South-west Florida who are making history," says Gloria Kennedy, chairperson for the 2008 awards and a member of the honoree selection committee. "I think we came up with an excellent, diverse group."

Karen Rollins
Though she’s a self-professed "fix-it person," Rollins’ career path in healthcare has led her to a place where it would seem she can’t fix anything. As president and CEO of Avow Hospice in Collier County, Rollins is faced every day with the pain and grief of bereavement.

Yet Rollins deliberately sought a job in hospice after 25 years working in home healthcare, as part of her conscious effort to work with patients on a deeper, more intimate level.

"I think the most interesting and meaningful way to work is when you know that what you’ve done on any given day has made someone’s life more peaceful, more comforted, easier in some way," says 53-year-old Rollins. "Hospice is a place where that happens all the time."

She frequently speaks to community groups and local businesses about how hospice can help their members and employees. She also talks to nursing students at Edison College and Florida Gulf Coast University about patient care. At Avow, she helps oversee such programs as bereavement services, support groups, funeral and memorial services, and individual counseling, all available to the general public.

"The things that people do here really give you hope in your fellow man and how they can change a person’s life for the better," Rollins says.

Doris Reynolds
Familiar to many Neapolitans for her food and travel columns in the Naples Daily News, Reynolds is also the author of the history/culinary book When Peacocks Were Roasted and Mullet Was Fried, a look back at early Naples.

Her avocation earned her another title about a year ago, after she presented a series of popular lectures on Naples’ development: "official city historian," anointed by the mayor himself.

"You just can’t forget the past and live in the present without realizing where we came from and who made it possible for us," says Reynolds, 77, who has lived in Naples since 1952. She befriended many founding families, collected historical photos, documents and data and kept "very scrupulous journals" about the growth and development of her adopted hometown.

Reynolds has also made Naples history. She created the area’s first magazine, launched a weekly newspaper, ran her own public relations firm and opened a restaurant, among other pursuits. She recently produced a series of four DVDs about the area’s history, which she plans to use in her continuing efforts to bring the past alive for the community.

"People always ask me if I was born in Naples," she says. "My favorite thing to say is, ‘No, but I was born again.’"

Lois Bolin
Bolin has made a career of helping other people create and improve theirs. Through her company, Success Fulfillment Inc., Bolin has been coaching local entrepreneurs and other businesspeople to meet their personal and professional goals since her arrival in Naples in the mid-’80s.

"Strategy is really my gift," says Bolin, 57, who has a Ph.D. in administrative management from Walden University in Minneapolis.

Her varied professional and charitable pursuits have earned her an array of local business and humanitarian awards. Her latest passion: Naples Back Yard History, a nonprofit organization that helps preserve Naples’ legacy and teach it to future generations.

She works full time with Naples Back Yard History, which is partnering with several area schools to assemble and catalog old pictures, stories and documents about our area, and preserves them as digital files. The organization’s goal is to create, within seven years, the first Naples history book for Collier County schoolchildren, Bolin says.

"It’s not just saving our history, but also connecting our children so they’ll have a connection to the community," she says. "We’re hoping it’ll [create] a little revival of patriotism."