Rebuilding from Charley
SUN PHOTO BY BILL JONES
Kim and Gerard Campanella take to their bikes at the Bicycle Center of Port Charlotte. They await word on their nomination as a finalist in the annual Southwest Florida Blue Chip Community Business Award competition.
Kim and Gerard Campanella were at a bike show in Wisconsin in 2004 when Hurricane Charley blew away their Bicycle Center business in Port Charlotte.
The business they had grown and nurtured since they started it in 1992 with an inventory of seven bicycles was wiped out. Their rented building was in shambles. Ninety percent of their inventory was destroyed or severely damaged.