Floridatoday.com A local builder, as well as the mayor of Cocoa Beach, each pledged Sunday to help a small Cocoa church whose members were left holding useless gift certificates after a local restaurant closed earlier this month.

On May 9, three days before Mother’s Day, members of the New Hope Deliverance Church in Cocoa pooled together $150 to buy 10 gift certificates for its “Mothers of the Church,” a group of women aged 70 to 80 who have been long-time members of the church.

They intended to eat at Corky Bell’s on May 19, the Sunday after Mother’s Day, so they could avoid the Mother’s Day crowd. Then they read in FLORIDA TODAY about the restaurant’s closing on May 14 and realized they were out the money they had spent. Continue