Earlier this week we may have lost a Panama City Beach icon, The Treasure Ship Restaurant. Wednesday afternoon much of the exterior and an unknown portion of the interior was destroyed by fire leaving 100 plus employees unemployed literally in one afternoon. With the quick onset of the tourism season, this leaves many families wondering what they’ll do to make it by this summer.
Click the read more link for how you can help and pictures of the burned Treasure Ship Restaurant.
This is where you come in. If you are a business owner, manager, or have any capability to hire or need anyone to work for you, this is your chance to help. The Treasure Ship employed 100 full time people that grew up to 200 during the season, so there are a lot of people that need good jobs right now.
If you can help or know anyone that can help, here is what you can do.
If you are a business and you want to hire one (or several) of the displaced employees, please contact Ron Sharpe with the United Way at rsharpe (at) unitedwaynwfl (dot) org.
Note: please replace the “at” and the “dot” with the appropriate symbols to send them an email.
If you are an individual that wants to donate money to help the families displaced get by financially until they secure new employment and begin to get a paycheck, you can stop by any Regions Bank and ask to make a donation to The Operation Treasure Ship Fund.
Note again: please tell anyone you talk to that PCBDaily sent you 😉
So far there has been a huge upwelling of support from the community. At the FRLA/United Way-led meeting this morning, several local business entities were in attendance brainstorming ways to help. So far a couple dozen previous Treasure Ship employees have already found jobs through networking.
Again, if there is anything you can do to help, it would be greatly appreciated.
PCBDaily 
Someone down there should look at organizations such as employment outsourcers, employment agencies and even community colleges to help with this as well. They are more
likely to have volume openings, especially any and all agencies that cater to the hospitality
industry to supply workers. This worked for us in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina for THOUSANDS of displaced workers, surely it can be done for a few dozen in Bay County.
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OPERATION TREASURE
Fish fry fundraiser at Captain Anderson’s to benefit employees of the Treasure Ship.
Operation Treasure
Fish fry and community fundraiser
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
11:00am-1:00pm CDST
$10 minimum suggested donation
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On a larger scale I would name the ship the United States of America, and the captain Barrack Hussein Obama.
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I think this post is offensive and should be removed.
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i agree, racist offensive rubbish should be deleted
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..and good job to pcbdaily for trying to help
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captegeobob never posts anything but negativity and sarcasm; why is he even still allowed to post on here? Perhaps he thinks he is cute and humorous, but obviously nobody else agrees…
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Good luck to those employees hunting work, enjoyed our Saturday evening listening to the band, watching the boats come in, and having a great meal.
One of our favorite spots. PLEASE REBUILD. Our thoughts from Texas!
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Is there any way we can organize volunteers to help rebuild this landmark? Surely we have enough community spirit to do this. After work weekdays, on Saturdays. Google the Breitbach’s Country Dining in Balltown, Iowa. Their smaller community rebuilt that restaurant not once, but twice, after a fire. Don’t we have architects and builders who would be willing to volunteer to lead labor volunteers in this effort like is done for Habitat for Humanity houses. I know this is a HUGE undertaking, but we can start with just salvaging and cleaning and see where it leads. Please?
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Volunteers to help rebuild a multi-million dollar enterprise for the owners to benefit? I’m sure they can afford it. That’s what insurance is for. Im sure they were insured
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i agree..
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Ryan obviously does not get it. People drive from all over the country to sit at the ship, listen to the ACOUSTIX and have a good time. What is wrong with people just wanting to help people? If you knew the people that worked there I’m sure you would find there are no multi-millionairs in the crowd. But that is just the way we do it where I’m from, it doesn’t make it right I guess.
GO HOGS!
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What a tragic thing loss for Panama City Beach–and literally thousands of us who grew up there who remember the Treasure Ship as one of Beach’s most unique attractions. I took my family there during a vacation last summer–so glad we stopped by. I feel confident there are legions of folks who, like me and my family and friends, will keep those whose livelihood was there in our prayers, and who hope the ship comes back soon.
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I think the owners of the ship should be the ones doing most of the help, i’m not trying to be bitchy but why didn’t people go and try to raise money for the sallie mae people who lost their jobs. there’s a bunch of folks out of work here in pcb, and the ship hires so many europeans , half the people who work there don’t even speak english so sorry , they willhave jobs before anyone else too their agent will handle it..go collect unemployment and go to the workforce center just like the rest of bay county..really sorry but i just don’t feel that bad for the owners of the ship didn’t they have insurance? whay aren’t they helping their dedicated employees..
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you couldnt have nailed it any better without offending some of the oblivious minded habitual debtors.
a beacon of light waking waves!
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