Brixon's First Cover!!!

We were featured in the June issue of Harbor Style! Here is a portion of the article...you can read the rest at www.harborstyle.com!

"40 & Under
These young couples are doing everything they can to make our community a better place.

Story by Liz Rubini
Photography by Mike Hirst
It’s a story we hear too often, yet another Charlotte County youth who graduated from high school and moved away for college, never to return except for the occasional visit to keep mom and dad happy. They leave because they think there’s nothing to do here. They leave because they think it’s boring. They find jobs elsewhere. They raise their children elsewhere. Yes, we hear those stories all the time.

Well here are three different kinds of stories, stories about two hometown boys who chose to stay in Charlotte County and a big city girl who chose to leave the hustle and bustle behind and move to our quiet little community. They chose to start families here, to bring their children up here. They chose to become involved in their community, to help
it grow and reach its full potential. They chose to make a difference.

When Nick Nemec was growing up in Punta Gorda, there was nothing to do except go to the movies. There was very little community involvement for the area’s younger residents. If you wanted to do something, you had to leave town. No one had any real reason to come here. There was no real sense of community.

Now in his late 20’s, Nick and his wife, Casey, are doing what they can to ensure that’s no longer the case. They want
their son, Brixon, 5 months, to grow up in a community where young people want to be involved. Every day they see that sense of community growing, something they attribute to all the young families who are placing their roots here in Charlotte County and doing what they can to make people realize what a wonderful place this is to live.

“A lot of our friends are having children now,” Casey said. “All the kids are about the same age; they’re all going to grow up together. Their parents are all involved in the community, so hopefully they will be too when they grow up.”

In March 2008, Nick and Casey opened Bin 82, a wine bar and retail shop on Marion Avenue. Bin 82 is “something totally different than what downtown Punta Gorda has ever had,” Nick said, but at the same time, “it’s a great complement to River City, the Wyvern, Jacks, everything we have here.”

As they see it, having a variety of shops, restaurants, hotels and bars is the key to Punta Gorda earning the recognition it deserves. “Punta Gorda is becoming a place where people don’t just come for dinner and then go back over the bridge or back to the Isles,” Casey said. “They come for the day or for the whole night now. They go to dinner, and they go to the different bars and restaurants. They come for entertainment.”

Some of that entertainment comes in the form of the Downtown Get Down, a recurring concert event Nick and his
friend Zack Clark dreamed up last year. It started out simple, just a day to celebrate Punta Gorda’s growth with a small concert in Bin 82’s parking lot. A few months later, they did it again, this time blocking off Taylor Street in front of the historic courthouse and getting The Greg Billings Band to headline the event. More than 2,000 people showed up to celebrate Punta Gorda in music, food and fun.

So what’s next for the Downtown Get Down? Blues Traveler. That’s right, Blues Traveler. On October 24, a Platinum-selling, Grammy Award-winning band will be playing in Laishley Park. The Greg Billings Band will also be there along with local band Low Rent.

Blues Traveler in Punta Gorda. “It all goes back to making Punta Gorda a better place and bringing it recognition,” Nick
said. “We want people to come from Sarasota, Fort Myers, Tampa…They come and now they’re downtown after the concert, and then they stay, maybe at the Wyvern or the Sheraton…and now they’re having a good time after the concert, having dinner and drinks. Hopefully it will make them want to come back.”"