LEE COUNTY, Fla. — The Cape Coral Together Resilience Rally was created to help bring support to nonprofits that helped the community immediately after Hurricane Ian.

Live bands are performing, and food trucks will be set up behind the German American Social Club from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. Friday.

Those who attend are encouraged to come ready to give back. The city took donations like non-perishable food items and pet supplies.

These items are to support nonprofits that helped us during Ian.

Liz McCauley called the Cape Coral Animal Shelter home for a few weeks after Hurricane Ian. Her priorities were, of course, the dogs and cats but also the community.

“We had so much to do here in the community,” McCauley said. “We were very grateful so many people donated so many supplies to us, more than we could even use.”

They loaded up trucks and delivered extra supplies to outlying areas. They also took in animals.

“Took in a lot of animals after the hurricane, reunited a lot that had been lost,” she said.

Some they took in due to the owners needing to surrender after Ian left them with no home to go to.

As soon as electricity was powered back on, their clinics were open to the community.

“We do everything we possibly could to keep going, to keep the community going with their pets,” she said.

Now a year has gone by, and they need our support.

“Donations have definitely been down across the board, donations of money and donations of supplies,” McCauley said.

She said there is a clear reason for why.

“Simply just because people are still struggling,” she said.

This is part of the reason why the City of Cape Coral is hosting this Resilience Rally 365 days after Ian.

“Now is your chance to, really, since most of us are made whole — it’s time to give back, and it’s time to tell about these organizations that have given their all to us in this time of need,” said Kaitlyn Mullen, spokesperson for the City of Cape Coral. “The organizations that are going to be benefiting are the Cape Coral Animal Shelter, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and the Cape Vineyard Church.”

Each item donated gave residents an extra raffle ticket to win stocked hurricane kits, a TV, or a generator.

The city said this event is a way to commemorate what the community has been through the past year and acknowledge the rebuild that is still to come.

To learn more about future Cape Coral events with live music, visit here.