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Tow Boat US goes pink for breast cancer awareness

By PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com - | Oct 2, 2024

Charlotte Harbor Tow Boat’s pink boat. PHOTO PROVIDED

Charlotte Harbor Tow Boat US owner Kyle Potts said he is actually a Pine Island resident who operates out of Jug Creek Marina, Burnt Store Marina and Pineland Marina as well as Fisherman’s Village in Punta Gorda.

“We are part of the largest marine response network in the nation. We service recreational boaters for marine towing and on the water services like breakdowns and fuel and oil deliveries, groundings and battery jumps and things of that sort,” Potts said.

In addition to covering all of Charlotte Harbor, Potts said they also cover a portion of the Myakka River, for anyone in need of assistance. A few years ago, he said, an initiative was begun by corporate headquarters to bring awareness to Breast Cancer, which he said, currently affects 1 in 8 women.

“We are actually one of five Tow Boat US companies in the nation who have done a pink boat campaign, so we’ve actually wrapped one of our response boats — Tow Boat US Commander is the name of the boat — we’ve wrapped it with Breast Cancer pink, with the ribbons and done a whole pink boat initiative for the month of October,” Potts said.

They are a locally owned company who have been in the Charlotte Harbor area for over 30 years, he said, adding that Tow Boat services are offered 24/7/365. No matter when a breakdown or on the water issue occurs, they are ready to rescue clients with six response boats, Potts said.

The commemorative decal on the side of the Tow Boat US craft. Below left is the QR Code to help the cause. PHOTO PROVIDED

“My wife, Jessica, and I own the local company and we have a team of U.S. Coast Guard-licensed captains all over Southwest Florida who are ready to serve the marine community,” Potts said.

He went on to explain that the pink boat campaign is especially meaningful to him since his own mother battled breast cancer for 15 years and won.

“She’s actually battled the disease and we have a fishing team member — her name is Lauren and she is a good friend of ours — she’s battling the disease now. We are doing this, not only to support her but we’re really trying to generate donations through our own local campaign that we established that will help other women with this disease,” Potts said

He explained that all the donations are based on a QR code that goes directly to a National Breast Cancer Foundation with which Tow Boat US has partnered. So far, he said they have had a very good response to the campaign, in which they have been able to solicit individual sponsorships to friends with local businesses.

“We’ve had an awesome response. We’ve had over 15 local businesses step up. We’re really going to push to generate funds,” Potts said, explaining that customers who might like to donate can simply scan the QR code wrapped on the side of the boat while they are being serviced on the water.

There is also a YETI bucket drive, he said, for which they are selling pink YETI buckets for $50 each with their campaign logo. Donations from the YETI bucket drive also go to their National Cancer Foundation partners.

“We’ve been able to raise north of $6,000 already, in the first two weeks of the campaign locally. We’re very pleased with how it’s going,” Potts said.