Celebrating Pine Islanders: Ryan Eaton
Ryan Eaton said the most important thing to know about him is that he is a full-time firefighter who, like most islanders, is always ready and willing to help someone in need. He has been a fire captain for 20 years, but he first came to live on Pine Island in May 2019.
“We had our house built — for me and my two boys,” Eaton said of his two teenage sons.
He described his love for Pine Island as having transpired when he graduated from college in 2005 and bought a Gheenoe boat, which he spent an inordinate amount of time fishing on in the island’s surrounding waters.
“That’s when I said, ‘This place is awesome,’ and that is when I realized how cool this place was,” Eaton said.
Although he is and has always been willing to help, he admitted he also loves letting loose by hanging out and maybe going to local bars with other islanders.
“I’m pretty friendly and outgoing. I like hanging out with people I can call friends,” Eaton said. “But it’s a unique place where you can help one another. It’s such a small community and you need to be willing to help someone else in a time of need.”
He explained that his boat was in Cape Coral during Hurricane Ian, yet he found a way to get to it and got to a fellow islander’s house to help his friend and his friend’s family. He said in a small community like Pine Island, people may not have the resources they might have in larger cities, such as Cape Coral or Fort Myers, but it’s nice to know good people are there.
“Of course, our bridge was blown out, so I was able to get there and I was able to drop supplies off to other friends who were also stuck,” Eaton said.
He talked about Ruth, his redbone coon hound, and starting a business. He does deer recovery as Ruth is bred with an ability to sniff out a deer, if it is indeed dead.
“We do deer recovery for hunters in Florida and Georgia who shoot a deer and they try to track it themselves and can’t find it,” Eaton said.
He began training Ruth for the job when she was only 4 months old. He said at just over 2 years old, she is now excellent at what she’s been trained to do.
In addition to recovering dead deer for hunters, he also has a company called Ruth Outdoors Coffee.
“If you’re local in Pine Island, Cape Coral or Fort Myers and you buy a bag of coffee from us, we deliver and you get to meet Ruth,” Eaton said.
If he were to describe the island to someone who is unfamiliar with it, Eaton would first tell them that it is not an island with a beach.
“It’s nothing like an island that you’re going to see in a magazine, yet it is a thing of beauty. This leaves the mind to imagine what you’re going to see before you actually see it,” he said. “It’s an island of ups and downs, hopes and dreams, and good people.”
Eaton said his greatest wish for Pine Island would be that people treat it with respect.
“Don’t litter, and leave it the way you found it,” he said.
For more information about Ruth Outdoors Coffee, visit Ruthscup.com.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email