Angie Humbarger

Angie Humbarger was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, the middle of five children. Her father worked for Ford Motor Company and her mother raised children and poodles. Angie has a love of the water, which comes from her father, who was a fan of boating, water skiing, and fishing.

Angie went to nursing school in Cincinnati. She met her future husband, Jeff, when they were both students doing pediatric rotations. When asked how they had had time to actually get to know each other,

Angie laughed and said, “I have no idea how we managed it.”  
Their first date was at a baseball game, since they are both Reds fans. One of their conversations that day centered on her not wanting to have kids.

Angie became a registered nurse who specialized in critical care, and her first job was working in the ICU at Cincinnati General Hospital. Jeff finished medical school on a Friday, and by the next Monday, they had married at St. George’s Catholic Church. They honeymooned in Nova Scotia, returned to Cincinnati for Jeff’s graduation, and moved to Santa Barbara, CA, where he began his residency.

Preview Angie went to work in the Intensive Care Unit at Cottage Hospital, but she quickly realized that there were very few older ICU nurses, and that she needed a backup plan. She had always been interested in being an art major, but she was also interested in eating, and the intersection of the two is not guaranteed. When the chance to go to Brook’s Institute of Photography came, she was ecstatic. Three years later she graduated with a second degree, this one a BA in Photography.

She and Jeff moved to San Diego, where she worked in the Intensive Care Unit of Scripps Mercy Hospital while starting Humbarger Portraiture. She ran the company for a few years, until she decided that she wanted children. It was a huge shift, considering her previous thoughts on the matter.

She and Jeff had three children in the years after her change of heart, two daughters and a son. Their first born child, Kate, recently graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Writing and Editing in the Media. Olivia, the middle child, is studying Neuroscience at Brown University, and is planning to follow in her father’s footsteps by studying medicine. Peter, their youngest, is a senior at Lemon Bay High School. He plans to study biology or architecture. He is also a musician, and has played violin for the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.

Other members of the family include Eloise,a possible mix of lab and collie, and Pico, a calico cat. who left home to explore the wider world a little while back. It is assumed that she hopped a ride on a work truck in the neighborhood.

Unknown to Angie, who had mentioned her missing cat to a neighbor, Pico had only made it as far as downtown. Angie was discussing her Boca Grande Bible Study project at St. Andrew’s when Cappy Warner asked her about Pico. It seems that the runaway calico had developed a little following on Facebook. Angie was a bit surprised.

“I don’t even use Facebook and my cat is on there?” she laughed.

Word spread and Pico sightings were reported. Bowls of kibble went out all over Boca Bay, where Pico was enjoying her time away from home. In fact, Angie was afraid that the fuzzy beast would never want to come home.

Eventually they got the call. Pico was a bit worse for wear from her adventure, but at last she was home. Angie thanks everyone who kept an eye out on the cat, “We are all very pleased to be a part of this BG family. It's awesome.”

Before Boca Grande, Angie and Jeff lived in Ponte Vedra Beach, on the northeast coast of Florida. Jeff was the Director of executive and internal medicine at Mayo Clinic, and Angie raised their children. She was also very involved in the community. She was President of the Mayo Auxiliary, a member of a book club, the bridge club, helped with party planning for charity events, and of course was involved with her children’s schools.

While living at Ponte Vedra Beach, Angie was also asked to join the board of directors at Mission House. The Mission House is a homeless shelter that also provides daily meals, showers, and medical and mental health care for the homeless community of Ponte Vedra Beach. They also help prepare people who are homeless to return to mainstream society.

Eight years ago, Angie started a weekly gospel service at the shelter. It quickly became clear that the service was as important to some of the clients of the shelter as it’s other, more tangible services. Some of them did not feel comfortable in a church setting, and some had even been turned away from services because they were not dressed “appropriately.”

The experience was life-changing for Angie. Having left her childhood denomination and having spent time looking for a new church home of her own, she knew how it felt to want to find a place of worship where you feel like family, where you belong.

She and Jeff came to Gasparilla Island in August of 2011. He became the new clinic doctor, and Angie began the task of cataloguing and researching the artwork there. As Angie says, “There is a lot of traffic through that clinic, it’s great that they value their artwork.”

She has just started the project, and is enjoying meeting the artists and getting more background information on their work.

Gasparilla Island is the perfect place for someone with Angie’s hobbies: Photography, bridge, cooking, boating, fishing, and travel. She has joined a number of clubs, though she has not yet found a fishing club.

Travel recently led to another epiphany for Angie. She was in the Bahamas with friends, spending time on a boat. She realized after a few days that many of the conversations that she and her friends were having were filled with the same questions that she had heard for years at the homeless shelter.

“Why am I here?” “What am I doing?” “What does it all mean?” Wheels started turning in Angie’s head, and over a few evenings she came to the conclusion that socio-economic status, education, race, and age are all background information for the same concerns, the same thoughts, the same hopes.

What eventually evolved from the vacation was the idea that while we don’t all fit into a particular religious mold, the sense of community is important. So why not come together and study the Bible, with some really good music to go with it?

When she got home, she started planning. She has consulted with the local faith community, spoken with people who might be interested, and come up with a plan.

She has the place (Louise DuPont Crowninshield Community House), the time (9 a.m. on Saturdays), and even the music (Becca Davis, who performed for the Bush family during their recent visit). What she needs from Boca Grande is a teacher, someone to lead the group each week. While she has the support of the local priests, pastors, and preachers, they have their own flocks to lead. And of course, she needs people who want to learn together. You can contact her at BGBS@comcast.net, or call her at 855-9089 if you want more information.

Now that Angie and her family have settled down on the island, she has discovered that even though much of the population here is part-time it is a true community. And that around here, cats can become famous.

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