The Boca Grande Garden Club will hold its annual Christmas Luncheon on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 11:30 a.m. at the Gasparilla Inn private dining room.

BY LIZA STROUT - Research usually doesn’t get people as excited as it does Lew Hastings. When he was given the opportunity to help Bonefish Tarpon Trust measure, tag and take samples from juvenile tarpon in the Wildflower Preserve, he jumped on the chance like a tiger on a roosting hen.

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - Two days after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast, Mary Anne Hastings got a call that raised the hair on the back of her neck. Jeanne Mikkelson, her best friend who lives in Fort Myers, said that her parents were missing from their Staten Island home. Walter Colborne, 89 and his wife, Marie, 66, were nowhere to be found. Their car was found near their home with the keys in the ignition, still in drive. But there was no sign of Walter and Marie.

BY LIZA STROUT - The Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority announced at a special meeting on Thursday, Nov. 15 that traffic would be taken down to one lane in mid-January, and would continue to be one lane until mid-February.