Junior Achievement honors 2023 Business Hall of Fame Laureates Event raises $213,000 for youth education program

FORT MYERS, Fla. (May 10, 2023) – Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida (JA) recently celebrated 35 years of honoring and recognizing business leaders in Southwest Florida with a record-breaking gala at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples. On Tuesday, April 18, over 400 business leaders gathered to induct 2023 Laureates JoAnn Elardo, founder of Cape Spirits Inc., Thomas M. Moran AIF® Chairman, CEO, and CIO of Moran Wealth Management®, and Mark Stevens, President of Stevens Construction, into the JA Business Hall of Fame.

This year’s event, chaired by Stacey Herring of Morgan Stanley Private Bank and Laureate Chair Michael Wynn of Sunshine Ace Hardware, raised $213,000 to support local JA programs that teach students the importance of financial literacy, career and work readiness and entrepreneurship.

JA is the world’s largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA programs are delivered by corporate and community volunteers, and provide relevant, hands-on experiences that give students from kindergarten through high school knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. To help support Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida and our future workforce, please visit www.JASWFL.org or call 239-225-2590.

About Junior Achievement USA®

Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA programs are delivered by corporate and community volunteers, and provide relevant, hands-on experiences that give students from kindergarten through high school knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. Today, JA reaches more than 2.5 million students per year in 104 markets across the United States, with an additional 5.2 million students served by operations in 100 other countries worldwide. Junior Achievement USA is a member of JA Worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org.

Locally, Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida partnered with classroom business volunteers during the 2021-2022 school year to provide nearly 135,000 hours of instruction to nearly 14,800 students in 589 classes throughout Collier, Lee, and Charlotte counties. For more information on Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida, visit www.JASWFL.org, call (239) 225-2590 or email [email protected].