Late artist Meo’s work benefits island organizations Sales profits go to Kiwanis, PILOT program

By PAULETTE LeBLANC pleblanc@breezenewspapers com

At the Pine Island Kiwanis Club meeting Wednesday morning, checks were presented by Mel Meo’s son, Luke Long, from her artwork, sold at the Bokeelia Art Gallery after she died

Meo wanted proceeds from her work to benefit Pine Island Kiwanis, the Pine Island Leaders of Tomorrow (PILOT) program for the youth and the arts on Pine Island

Profits from this first project totaled over $10,000, which was equally dispersed between the PILOT Program and the Pine Island Playhouse Each organizat i o n r e c e i v e d a t o t a l o f $ 5 , 1 6 5 5 0 Another $2,000 of the money was put toward this year’s Kiwanis scholarships in Meo’s name

Local Kiwanian, Carlyn Herring, who attended the meeting, said Meo was a long-time supporter of all three organizations

“Mel was always helping Kiwanis out in any way that she could, whether it was a donation for a fundraiser or actually giving us money,” Herring said

B o k e e l i a A r t G a l l e r y o w n e r C a r o l Garsky, who had been given the Meo prints, had them matted and sold them, giving the net profits back to Meo’s son to give back to the community

“Carol from the Bokeelia Art Gallery contacted Luke and said she was getting a tremendous demand for some of Mel’s artwork because people had lost so much of it in the storm Luke gave her some prints and the deal was that she would give any profits made on these prints back to Luke to give back to the community Next year, Luke’s going to do it again, but he’s going to use a different series of pictures,” Herring said.