“Growing up here? You don’t know what to
compare it to. We didn’t lock our doors; you could
let your kids run wild here. You don’t necessarily
think it’s the best thing in the world when you’re
growing up here … until you’re all grown up. I’ve.
always thought it was an ideal place to raise your
children, and we loved it until we had to leave the
island and go to Port Charlotte for school
eventually, because there was no school here then.”
Jennifer has been in retail on this island for 40
years after having moved back full-time in 1977. She
started working at Fugate’s at a young age and
always had a strong sense that she would one day
like to own a store. In 1997 Jennifer and her
husband, Ken, started a conversation about opening
an island store, right about the same time that Greg
and Dorothy McGratten, owners of Ariel, Ltd. were
deciding to sell. At that time their store was in the
Railroad Depot building, and Jennifer struck a deal
with them for potential ownership after working for
them for a year to get acquainted with how it ran.
Eventually a purchase was finalized, and a year after
that she purchased Ltl. Ariel,which was originally the
children’s side of Ariel, Ltd. The Palm on Park store
was born from one rack of Lilly Pulitzer clothing inside
Ariel, Ltd., and has since grown to be an entity
of its own.
In a family full of strong women, the tradition still
continues. Melynda has two girls and a boy, Nici,
Sarah and J.R Read; Jennifer has a daughter, Becca
and a son, Todd; Donette (Todd) Gonia has a son,
Hugh, and a daughter, Jamie; Ruth has two daughters,
Cara and Hannah.
“Every daughter has had a daughter, or more than
one,” Jennifer said. “I know my mom was extremely
proud of us, she thought God sent her the most
amazing babies ever made. We hope we can
continue to live and thrive in the most wonderful
place in the world for many generations to come.”
G
M
74 GASPARILLA ISLAND January/February 2018
Left to right: Melynda Read,
Jennifer Burch, Ruth Amen and
Donette Gonia – members of the
fourth generation of an island
family.