Written by Guest Columnist on . Posted in Featured News, News, Sports & Outdoors.
BY CAPT. WILL WATERHOUSE This year we have a back to back champion with Tina Sexton taking home the trophy with her two combined redfish measuring 52.5 inches. Congratulations to Tina and Capt. Danny Latham for their outstanding performances the last two years in the Gasparilla Island Fly Fishing tournament, also known as G.I.F.T. Second […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Featured News, Obituaries.
Sarah Sharp Farish passed away on November 24, 2025 at home in Boca Grande, Florida, surrounded by her family. Raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Sarah was the daughter of Mary and Bayard Sharp. In 1961, she married the love of her life, Will Farish, owner of Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky and former U.S. Ambassador […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Community, News.
The blue barrels to gather non-perishable food for the Englewood Helping Hand program are now out in downtown Boca Grande. The barrels are located in front of Crews Bank, the Post Office and both entrances of the Lighthouse United Methodist Church. The barrels have become a tradition in Boca Grande ever since COVID-19. On Dec. […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Obituaries.
On the 18th of November, Cheryl Midyett of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Boca Grande, passed on to the realm of peace and eternal love. On Easter Sunday of 1944, the daughter of Albert Gustav and Janice Sollberger was born and grew up in Houston, to a “Texas Three Hundred” family whose Hunter and Allen roots predate […]
Written by Angela McPhillips on . Posted in Profiles.
From tennis court to animal habitat Mark Horan’s path to conservation work in Boca Grande and Cape Haze began long before he ever paddled out to collect water samples or walked the edges of a burrowing owl colony. His roots stretch back to rural Vermont, where he grew up on his parents’ cattle farm and […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Community History.
FIVE YEARS AGO The Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association announced that work had begun to refurbish the 3.5-mile walking path with 30 loads of coarse sand. TEN YEARS AGO Barbara Anne’s Jewelry & Repair celebrated its 25-year Anniversary on Gasparilla Island. The Boca Grande Club celebrated the opening of the season with a “Farm-to-Table” […]
Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in Events, Sports & Outdoors, Uncategorized.
The Boca Beacon’s Gasparilla Island Tennis Classic opens on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. The annual all-island tournament will be held at the Boca Bay Pass Club, The Gasparilla Inn Tennis Club and the Boca Grande Club. The matches will begin on Saturday, Jan. 17 and will end on Saturday, Feb. 7. Everyone is welcome to […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Breaking News, News, Sports & Outdoors.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board voted Tuesday, Nov. 18 to declare a Phase I Water Shortage due to dry conditions throughout the region. This includes the Gasparilla Island Water Association. “Just a reminder that both Lee and Charlotte County residents are restricted to irrigating twice per week and that any watering by […]
Written by Guest Columnist on . Posted in Columns, Community History.
“One of the docents in a history museum was trying out some role playing and visualization techniques. After looking at the clothing exhibit, she asked a group of third graders to imagine that they were riding around our small town at the turn of the century on top of the elaborate hat in the exhibit. […]
Written by Anna Ridilla on . Posted in News, Police & Fire.
Leah Lendel, the then nine-year-old girl who got bit by a shark in Boca Grande in June, was featured on an Inside Edition interview Monday night. In her first interview since surviving the shark bite earlier this year that nearly severed her hand, Lendel recalled the moment the shark clamped onto her wrist. “I thought, […]