Skip to main content
Search Results for “and

Two of Boca Grande’s favorite speakers featured at first of Friends’ 2023 lecture series – Millard and Amar to return

BY ROGER LEWIS Two favorite speakers from past years, Candice Millard and Akhil Reed Amar, will lead the 2023 programming for Friends of Boca Grande at the Community Center.  Candice Millard will talk about her new book, “River of the Gods: Genius Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile,” on […]

Island birds, animals starting to peek their heads out post-Ian

People have started noticing a change in the air. It is not only the cold fronts that have started bringing lower temperatures and lower humidity, but the air is full of birds. Recovery from Hurricane Ian is starting to happen among wildlife, as it is doing to many of the human species. Dr. Robin Bast, […]

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Maritime Museum thanks all for support and post-hurricane help

To the Editor: The Gasparilla Island Maritime Museum and Whidden’s Marina would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and happy holiday season. A special thank you to Sandy Melvin and Boca Grande Charities for their generous donation from the recent G.I.F.T. Tournament for assistance in cleaning up hurricane debris as we are working […]

T’was the Night Before Christmas on Don Pedro Island

T’was the night before Christmas and all around No noses were frozen, no snow fluttered down. No children in flannels were tucked into bed, They all wore their shorty pajamas instead! To find wreaths of holly was not very hard, For holly trees grow in everyone’s yard. In front of the houses were daddies and […]

Island chef arrested for DUI, driving while suspended and more 

The actions of one local man erratically driving drunk last Friday, Dec. 9, could have had a much worse outcome than it did.  According to witnesses, that day at approximately 7:30 a.m. Timmie Carroll Spain, 49, of Port Charlotte was northbound on Gasparilla Road and allegedly ran several people off the road in the Lee […]

3 p.m. on Thursday: The Grande Lady was back in business

Jon Reecher was cool as a cucumber on Tuesday, sitting in his office at The Gasparilla Inn & Club. All around him was a frenzy of activity – carpets were being cleaned, brass was being polished, fixtures were being dusted and maintained. The time until their grand opening on December 15 could be counted in […]

Events far and wide this Christmastide!

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church will hold a Christmas celebration beginning Christmas Eve at 4 p.m. with a special family service. At 7:30 p.m. a musical prelude will be featured, with stringed instruments and guest vocalists. At 8 p.m. the candlelight service will be held. On Christmas Day a Holy Eucharist ceremony will be held at […]

Swayze is back for her 33rd annual studio party in a brand-new location

Carroll Swayze will hold her 33rd Annual Studio Party on Saturday, Dec. 17 from 2 to 10 p.m. at 201 Greencove Rd., Venice. Everyone is invited.  This is Carroll’s annual holiday extravaganza and “once a year” art sale, but this year the location of the party is at the new Carroll Swayze Studio There will […]

Meet the balloon girls, Hollie and Gladys

Sometimes, those grade school projects can turn into something very special. For Gladys Stiness of Englewood and Hollie Tomko, of Napanee, Indiana, it became an unlikely friendship that has already lasted 40 years. Hollie was eight years old, learning to write a formal letter. To add interest to the lesson, the teacher had the students […]