Why I Traded my Rotary Pin for Trash Bags

A few weeks back was elected to the Board of Directors of the Conch Republic Marine Army.

It's a sentence I’m proud to write, yet a few years ago if you'd ask me where I'd be investing my volunteer time today, I'm not sure this would have been my answer. Not because I didn't believe in the mission, but because I simply didn't see the path that would lead me here.  Looking back now, it seems almost obvious. Like most meaningful things in my life, it started with an introduction and a conversation.

A Friendship I Didn't See Coming

Several years ago, at a weekly Rotary Club lunch meeting, our guest speaker was Brian Vest, Founder of the Conch Republic Marine Army. There was no flashy presentation, polished fundraising pitch, or a hard ask for folks to open their checkbooks. Brian simply showed up, grabbed the mic, and talked about Hurricane Irma in 2017 and how him and a bunch of his neighbors went out on a boat after the hurricane to solve a problem - remove storm debris and trash from local waters. 

What struck me wasn't how much trash they were removing, although that was impressive, too. It was how the organization had come to exist in the first place. The CRMA wasn't built from a business plan or grand proposal. It grew from a handful of people looking at a problem in front of them, grabbing a case of beer, and off to work they went.  They didn’t ask permission, they had no funding or any sort of plan; just a bunch of people that cared enough to solve a big problem. Then they showed up the next day with more people, and the day after that even more, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I've always admired people who build things that way.

At that meeting Brian mentioned one of their biggest obstacles: they had volunteers, boats, and momentum, but no permanent home to operate from in Key West. After that meeting I offered to introduce Brian to a good friend of mine, who happened to be the General Manager at The Perry Marina. I had a good feeling they’d be interested in supporting the cause.

A few conversations later, The Perry Marina donated dockage to CRMA worth nearly $35,000/year at the time.  No strings attached, just a private marina recognizing the need and giving what they could to do their part to support the cause.

At the time I didn't think much of it. It felt good to help, but figured all I really did was connect two people who could benefit from knowing each other. What I didn't realize was that I hadn't just made an introduction but rather helped to lay some of the groundwork for the next major chapter in CRMA’s story…Key West!

Over the next 1-2 years, Brian and I stayed in touch, keeping me up to speed on all the traction CRMA was getting. The organization grew and brought in a full time Executive Director, Carla Burns and began building out a board of directors, which was led by a gentleman named Natalino (Nat, for short).  Fundraising was coming in, a new boat was donated, and the organization really got its footing in a meaningful way.  Every few months Brian or Nat would check in with exciting updates. One time they needed a marketing recommendation, so referred them to Overseas Media Group and Jenny Lorenz (now also a board member of the CRMA). Last year Nat asked for CPA referrals who understood nonprofit accounting. A few months back they asked me to look over their boat insurance to make sure they had the right coverage at a fair price.

None of those calls felt significant on their own, and I was happy to help of course. Yet with each interaction I became more vested in their success. Every new partnership they marketed, every cleanup published, every Instagram photo of a boat coming back loaded with debris felt like a step forward for an organization I'd come to genuinely care about, even from the sidelines.

A Different Kind of Burnout

Around the same time I began to take notice of how much traction the CRMA was getting, another part of my life was starting to shift.

The Rotary Club became an important part of my life after moving to Key West. I volunteered at the annual golf tournament for several years before becoming a member, and along the way I met incredible people, built friendships I still value today, and served alongside an outstanding group of volunteers. I’m especially proud to have helped grow Rotary’s Holiday Lighted Boat Parade, which expanded each year and even grew to include a children’s holiday carnival this past year. Being on the planning committee for Casino Night in 2026 was another highlight. In just three months, an amazing team of volunteers created an event that not only set attendance records but also raised more money for local student scholarships than ever before. Ironically, that same Casino Night would become my final event as a Rotarian.

Over the past 1.5 years I found myself leaving weekly Rotary meetings with a different feeling than years prior. The more involved I became, the more I realized that as volunteer organizations grow, they naturally become more complex. More people, more perspectives, more personalities, and more layers of coordination can sometimes mean it takes 2x-3x the effort to accomplish the same goal. That’s not unique to Rotary though, and I don’t necessarily view it as a flaw. In many ways, it’s simply the reality of scaling an organization.

For me, though, it led to a simple question: Where could I make the greatest impact with the time and energy I had available? I wasn’t looking for a better mission, as Rotary’s mission and what it delivers to our community is incredible. I was looking for an organization where I could spend more of my time doing the service work itself, and less time navigating the politics and the process of getting it done.

The answer had been sitting in front of me the whole time.

An Easy Yes

A few weeks after I stepped away from The Rotary Club, Nat from the CRMA reached out. He heard I was no longer an active member of the club and asked if I'd ever consider serving on CRMA's Board of Directors. Nat had approached the topic earlier in the year as well, but I couldn’t commit back then as I was already fully dedicated to Rotary. This time was different, and his timing couldn’t have been better.

Honestly, Nat’s call to serve didn't feel like an invitation to join something new. It felt like an invitation to formally join the team I'd already been quietly supporting for the past few years.

It was an easy yes.

What started as a few neighbors, a boat, and a case of beer has now mobilized into an army of more than 7,500 volunteers. They’ve removed over 650,000 pounds of marine debris from the Florida Keys, pulled out more than 3.5 million feet of abandoned trap line, and hauled out everything from refrigerators and bicycles to fishing gear and mountains of plastic waste. But what actually inspires me most is the culture behind the effort; an organization built by people who saw a problem and took it upon themselves to solve it. Nearly 9 years later they’ve never once lost sight of why the organization exists.

What are People Really Buying from Me

The longer I work in the yacht brokerage business, the more I realize people aren't really buying yachts. They're buying quiet mornings at anchor in crystal-clear water. They're buying the chance to snorkel a healthy reef with their family followed by a cocktail on anchor in a place that still feels wild and uncharted. They're buying an experience that only exists because someone, somewhere, decided it was worth protecting.

Living in the Florida Keys has made that impossible to ignore. You can't spend real time here without understanding how fragile this ecosystem actually is. The reefs, the mangroves, marine habitats, and everything they support aren't guaranteed; they're still here because enough people decided to care.

The longer I sit with that, the harder it becomes to separate my professional life from it. Helping someone find the right cruising catamaran is genuinely rewarding work. Doing my part to protect the waters they dream about exploring now feels just as important.

Where I Fit in at The CRMA

My role on the board won't involve hauling trap line out of the mangroves; I’ve got far too many physical ailments to do that labor-intensive work. My job will be helping build out strategic partnerships, awareness, fundraising, and long-term strategy that supports our volunteers in making a lasting impact on the waters and marine habitats of the Florida Keys.

When I titled this piece "Why I Traded My Rotary Pin for Trash Bags," I wasn't suggesting one is better than the other. The Rotary pin represents a chapter I'll always be grateful for, and that helped me understand the true meaning of the Rotary motto, Service Above Self. The trash bag represents something different - action, stewardship, leaving a place a little better than I found it. My hope is that I’ve left Rotary with something positive and more beneficial than when it began, and that I can do the same thing as I transition my service work to the CRMA.

I now have the honor of helping guide an organization that lives out action and stewardship every single week in its clean-up efforts. And looking back, it feels like I've finally caught up to a journey that started a few years ago over a conversation with Brian Vest at a Rotary Club lunch meeting.

If you’re already a CRMA supporter, thank you. You’re the reason this organization has grown from a handful of volunteers in Big Pine Key into a powerful force for protecting the Florida Keys. If you haven’t gotten involved yet, I’d encourage you to join us, whether that’s by volunteering at a weekly cleanup or making a donation.

What many people don’t realize is that every cleanup mission costs about $1,100 to put on, and that’s after generous donations of dockage and other in-kind support. From boat maintenance and fuel to captains, equipment, and the countless operating expenses behind the scenes, every dollar is put to work removing marine debris before it can do more damage to our reefs, wildlife, and shoreline. If this mission speaks to you, I’d be honored if you’d click below and join me in supporting the Conch Republic Marine Army.