Celebrating Pine Islanders: Erin Lollar-Lambert
Pine Islander Erin Lollar-Lambert said she would describe herself as an islander who has both a love and a passion for this community and the things that make Pine Island so special.
“Those of us on Pine Island that have a passion for this community are able to ban together and when we do, it’s amazing how many miraculous things can happen,” Lollar-Lambert said.
Although she admits the community of Pine Island is one of diversity, she said she also sees an attitude of like-mindedness among fellow islanders that cannot be denied and often generates a collaborative spirit necessary to solve collective issues — a spirit which also fosters the unique qualities that personify the island and all it has to bring.
In her particular family, Lambert said that it was her father, Kevin Lollar, who first came to live on Pine Island, she surmises in the late 1980s.
“My father came here to work as the senior environmental reporter for the (Fort Myers) News-Press — he grew up in Siesta Key and this was the closest he could find that was affordable. My grandmother moved here shortly after and I came about 14 years ago,” Lollar-Lambert said.
After a Canadian blizzard hit her while working and left her temporarily unable to travel, she had to make some big decisions. Having no desire to raise her son in a big city like Chicago, Lollar-Lambert was thrilled to bring him to Pine Island so he could be raised similarly to her own upbringing, on the water and with a sense of community, she said.
“I quit my past life and came to the island and was a Realtor for a while. I started a property management company and I did that prior to the storm,” Lollar-Lambert said about Hurricane Ian.
After the hurricane, she said, all the properties she was managing were gone and that’s when she met Greater Pine Island Alliance co-founder Aaron Bareda as they were both volunteering. One day, after they’d finished hanging drywall, she said, he made a call and told whomever he was talking to (likely fellow GPIA co-founder Jay Sanderson) that they’d found their executive director, which is something Lambert continues to do to this day. In addition to serving on the Pine Island Kiwanis Club board, she has continued to contribute to the community as a Pine Islander, as she has been utilizing her background in business to help run the GPIA. Her time so far in working to build the GPIA, she said, has been very satisfying.
“We had a pretty awesome 2024. We did over 6,000 volunteer hours — 3,000 of those were post Milton and Helene. We did over a million dollars in donation-kind to the island. My staff are survivors themselves and we are still working with a very large case load. It’s been a really beautiful thing to watch grow. My team is outstanding. We’ve got International Orthodox Christian Charities with us on the island right now. They have committed that they will be here with us for 2 years,” Lollar-Lambert said.
She went on to explain that International Orthodox Christian Charities has brought the GPIA skilled laborers to finish houses currently being worked on by the organization. She admits that one of the things that has made her role as GPIA executive director easier, is her experience as a Realtor as well as Pine Island Little League president and her volunteer schedule at Pine Island Elementary School. Nothing compares, she said, to meeting the many amazing islanders who have helped shape her into who she is now.
On how to describe Pine Island to someone who isn’t from here, Lollar-Lambert said it’s very easily done.
“Pine Island is a community inspired by the love of the land as well as the sea. It’s a community of residents who genuinely have a love for their neighbor, and Pine island has an enduring love for preserving the importance of our history,” Lollar-Lambert said.
In thinking of her greatest wish for Pine Island, she said she simply wants us to maintain the ability to continue with our way of life.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email