Liberty Youth Ranch Man S Dream

Liberty Youth Ranch man’s dream

Contract for land secured; private funds needed

By RYAN HIRAKI, [email protected] Published by news-press.com on July 6, 2004

Alan Dimmitt’s story impressed them.

Dimmitt overcame the death of his parents, abandonment by his stepmother and four days living on the Fort Worth, Texas, streets, all when he was 13.

He gave Bonita Springs residents Sam and Dorothy Crisafulli enough reasons to sell one of their properties.

Dimmitt, 31, wants to build a youth ranch in the northeast area of the city.

“Other people had approached them to see if they would sell, but this is the first time they actually considered it,” said Gail Gonzalez, 54, the Crisafullis’ daughter.

She and her husband, Angel, a real estate agent with Downing-Frye in Bonita, negotiated the $3.12-million contract for her parents’ 156-acre property east of Interstate 75 and west of the city’s Citrus Park neighborhood.

The contract, agreed upon on June 24, gives Dimmitt 150 days to raise the private funding. He has 139 days left. He needs to raise at least $8.9 million for the ranch, which would be completed by 2013. The first phase of the project, which includes two cottages, would be finished by 2007.

If he finds the funding, the Liberty Youth Ranch will become home to 50 abused, neglected, abandoned or orphaned children ages 4 to 17. And Dimmitt stresses that these will be children with no criminal or juvenile record, or drug and alcohol abuse problems.

“Children who, at no fault of their own, have been left without someone to love them and properly care for them,” Dimmitt said.

“We earnestly hope the community, businesses, foundations and churches will match the generosity of the Crisafulli family.”

The Crisafullis are happy to help Dimmitt.

“No better buyer could exist,” Gonzalez said. “My father will always give back if he can.”

Gonzalez calls her 82-year-old father a self-made man. He moved to America from Sicily when he was a teenager, and later owned a bushel basket business in New York. He moved to Bonita in 1961, where he had an excavation business.

The Crisafullis still live in the same two-bedroom house in Old Bonita that they bought more than 40 years ago.

“They set an example,” Dimmitt said. “If Sam and Dorothy can do something this generous, I hope the rest of the community can follow their lead.”

The only long-term residence for children in Southwest Florida is Florida Baptist Children’s Home in Fort Myers.