‘Three Amigos’ Who Shepherded Flagler Through Covid Return as Vigilante Philanthropists. But Don’t Tell Anyone.

The “Three Amigos” are back, this time as the Vigilante Philanthropists.

“We’re just three guys, three amigos that love the community and want to do good things for people, without going through all the bull crap of committees and board of directors and anybody else influencing things,” says David Ayres, president of Flagler Broadcasting.

He was referring to himself, Dr. Stephen Bickel, the medical director at the Flagler Health Department, and Bob Snyder, recently retired from the top job at the department. “So we’re not a 501-c-3. We’re not asking anybody for anything. We’re not competing with anybody or any other charities. If anything, we can help other charities. But it’s really just three guys looking for the right opportunity to do things and make a better difference in the community.”




From the earliest days of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, the trio would be on the air at least weekly, at times more often, on WNZF’s Free For All Friday, which Ayres still hosts. They were a constant of factual, level-headed information free of ideological noise, a rarity back then. With a revolving cast of other guests that included local government and hospital officials, they would dispense troves of information, cautions, best practices, the occasional advice to local officials, and from Bickel, lucid explanations in plain English of the latest science, which was changing–mutating, really–rapidly from week to week. Even in the grimmest days, and there were many of those (even as some of them went through their own health challenges), they kept up their cheer and kept down the doom.

Bickel and Snyder were the architects of Flagler County’s response to the pandemic, a response that kept the county’s tally of Covid deaths per 100,000 population among the three or four lowest of Florida’s 67 counties. Ayres frequently managed to push other guests and officials to reveal more than they probably wanted to, if still less than what the public deserved.

The pandemic waned, as did Bickel’s and Snyder’s appearances on the air, until the updates stopped. The trio stayed in touch–Bickel and Ayres used to be on the golf course together regularly until Bickel got married and moved a few miles west–informally getting involved in different philanthropic ventures. The idea of the Vigilante Philanthropists was  rattling around, and taking shape even before it had a name. The name is from Bickel’s wife Gayle, a philanthropist in Memphis. She had no problem letting the trio borrow it. The idea took wing. (Rich Savidge‘s design of the philanthropists’ logo is a winged, masked soul.)




Bickel, the county’s single-most generous philanthropist who for the past two years was also among the largest donors to Flagler Broadcasting’s Food-a-Thon, is seeding the effort with a considerable amount of money, Snyder is also contributing his share, and Ayres, the closet thing–the only thing–Flagler has to an impresario, is finding worthy causes and organizing some of them into community events, like the March 23 Spring Break Bash at Joann B. King Park in Bunnell. That event will kick off fund-raising for Grace Community Food Pantry, the beneficiary of the annual Food-a-Thon. This year’s Food-a-Thon kicks off with a Food Truck Palooza at Flagler Palm Coast High School on March 16, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with over 40 food trucks, live bands and plenty more.)

If you look closely at the flyer for the March 23 event at the park, you’ll notice the vigilantes’ logo down at the bottom, though the three are not big on publicity. Their intentions seem to follow the admonition in Matthew about not showing off one’s piety. It’s rarely heeded these days, but they’d rather heed it and let their work speak for itself, in the background.

“It’s a naturally evolving collaboration between David Ayers, Bob Snyder and myself that kind of got its start with the Food-a-Thon a year and a half ago,” Bickel said. “David’s been kind of transforming his events, like the Creekside Festival last fall and some other things into things that can raise money or raise awareness, provide a community service, or all of the above. So I just agreed to provide a little seed money to help some of these projects along. It’s mostly David’s work and ideas and energy and promotional skill that are going to be driving this. Bob Snyder and I are just kind of supporting him.”




They hold their strategy sessions together, decide what to earmark for what. It is intentionally informal and intent on rapid responses that skip bureaucratic hurdles. Bickel gives most of the credit to Ayres. “This is just a little side project,” he said. “I love what he’s doing and I’m going to give a little money to it and Bob Snyder and David and I have fun just kind of strategizing. And that’s kind of the extent of it. It might grow a fair bit, it might just end up being kind of smallish. But it’s going to be something and we’re going to basically be leveraging his ability to promote events.”

Snyder described it as three friends “committed to doing good for others in the community, especially reaching out to individuals who have an urgent need,” each using the skills each possesses, quietly and behind the scenes. “Think of it as like maybe random acts of kindness, hoping to be invisible. Maybe a little mystery about it all, like helping someone and it’s like–where did that help come from? Well, vigilante philanthropists.” Snyder and Bickel insisted that there’s no competition with any non-profits. They’ll work with non-profits, a couple of which they’ve identified.

Recalling the friendship forged through the Covid years with his two colleagues, Snyder described Vigilante Philanthropy as “a continuation of three friends still wanting to do good things for the community, just to keep that spirit going.”