Ruth and Dan Healy
It was the friendliness of the people they met during a short stay in 2007 that convinced retired investment bankers Ruth and Dan Healy from Newbury, Massachusetts to spend their winters at Sun-N-Fun.
The Healys had been tent campers, graduated to a pop-up before quitting their jobs, purchasing a 26-foot travel trailer in 2003 and setting out to see the country. Over the next year they traveled more than 26,000 miles, driving the entire circumference of the United States.
The couple fell in love with life on the road, sold their home and properties in Massachusetts and moved up to a 40-foot motor home. It was a trip to visit Dan’s best friend on Anna Maria Island that first brought them to Sun-N-Fun.
They applied for jobs as work campers in the office and began in November of 2007. The couple is part of a large contingent of seasonal folks who live in their RVs and work at Sun-N-Fun during the season. They are now the second shift supervisors at the Welcome Center. Starting this year, the Healys will make Sun-N-Fun their full-time residence.
“We love working here. We get to meet a lot of really terrific people – both the residents and our teammates. We try to put a smile on everyone’s face and they usually manage to put a smile on ours.”
But life for Ruth and Dan certainly isn’t all work and no play. “We really enjoy the nearby beaches; Lido is our favorite. And we really enjoy getting out and hiking the resort’s 17 miles of trails and roads,” Ruth tells us. It’s also been good training for the Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and the Breast Cancer walks the couple has participated in.
The Healys also like to get out into the community. “We love Sarasota’s thriving cultural scene: we’ve been to the Asolo Rep, the Opera and the Van Wezel.”
Much of the Healys free time is devoted to Lucky, an Apricot Poodle the couple found abandoned on Fruitville Road, adopted and now dote on, which makes Lucky one very lucky dog, indeed.
Pat and Dave Wenzel
Pat Wenzel describes herself as a “thriftoholic” who enjoys scouring thrift stores looking for things friends ask her to find or that she can sell on eBay. “It’s kind of like being on a treasure hunt,” Pat says “and Sarasota is just a treasure trove for someone like me.” Pat feels the biggest treasure she and husband Dave found here are the friends they’ve made at Sun-N-Fun.
The Wenzels had been to several other RV parks on visits to Dave’s aunt, who was in a nursing home, when they discovered Sun-N-Fun seven years ago. They stayed a month their first year and liked it enough to come back the next for three months. By their third year, they’d decided there was nowhere else they ever wanted to spend their winters and so they bought a Park Model vacation home.
Dave, a retired professor of anatomy and physiology in Michigan, faithfully rides his bike about eight or ten miles every morning; then he’s off to the gym for a workout before meeting with a group of tennis friends. When he isn’t keeping his body in shape, he’s working on his mind. An avid reader, he devours mysteries and military books. He also sings baritone in the chorus at Sun-N-Fun and at their Lutheran church, where they’re both very involved in helping to build a new center nearby on Fruitville Road.
When she isn’t exploring thrift shops, Pat spends her time doing arts and crafts, particularly sewing, crocheting and knitting for craft shows. When we spoke to her she was preparing for a show at a local Mennonite church. Pat also enjoys hanging out poolside, where she and a group of friends play a game called “Greedy Dice.”
“We call Sun-N-Fun ‘The Bubble’ because everything you need is right here. People are active and fun loving and you always feel protected and safe. We’ve made so many good friends here that have become like family. We go to the concerts here together, see the entertainers that come, go to dinner with them. It’s especially wonderful on holidays.
“We like to say, ‘Life is good in The Bubble’ and we can’t wait to get back here every winter.” We can’t wait to have them.
