Volunteers

In 2021, Monica Amo, her husband Todd and her two boxers moved to Naples from the Jersey Shore, “trading one slice of paradise for another.”

Monica started volunteering for the Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF), founders of the Naples Winter Wine Festival (NWWF) in December 2024, and even though it has only been six months since she started, she has already volunteered over 147 hours! She was recruited by two of our wonderful volunteers, Kelli and Rod Baxter, while volunteering at a local golf tournament for the American Red Cross.

Monica vividly recalls her first time under the tent this January and says she still has chills thinking about it and seeing how all the hard work during pre-Festival activities came together to create this exciting event.

Monica’s background is in marketing in the pharmaceutical industry, where she has also worked as a pharmacist, giving her an outstanding customer service approach which is beneficial when volunteering. If she could have any superpower, she would like it to be the power of analgesia—to take away peoples’ pain.

When she is not volunteering and relaxing at home, she enjoys listening to Todd play the piano, drums and guitar. Monica’s only experience with musical instruments was the French horn a very long time ago.

When thinking about her bucket list, Monica says she still has a lot of traveling to do, including seeing the Northern Lights. She also would like to start a business or nonprofit with a group of her friends—they have talked about for years.

Two of her favorite quotes are: “Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.” -Dali Lama and “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou