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PROFILE: Terry Hoffman, new Island School art teacher

Written by Sheila Evans on . Posted in Education, Profiles.

The Island School has not only found an art teacher with pizazz, they found one with a sense of humor and a sense of purpose. The new art teacher is Terry Hoffman, and she loves bringing out the artistic creativity she believes is present in everyone, especially children.

Monday, Aug. 14 was her first day with her new students. “It was a great first day!” she reported. 

The bright orange sundress she wore was a great ice- breaker, as children noticed the drawings of pineapples on the dress. “I love pineapples,” one student told her. “I break out when I eat pineapple,” another offered. Everyone had something to say about the dress or the jewelry or the artwork … and Terry knew that is how it would work.

An agnostic view of Boca Grande’s alien visits over the years

Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in News.

In the wake of the recent explosive hearings in the U.S. Congress on UFOs, now called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the sole report of a 1999 UFO hovering near the causeway to Boca Grande still remains a mystery.

The report was from Dec. 18, 1999, when an unknown couple is alleged to have come onto the island and seen a “football-field-sized saucer with blinking white lights, that made no sound as it traveled across the sky.”

The report is one of over 8,000 sightings of mysterious things in the air over Florida, according to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).

Celebrate National Golf Month by warming up and cooling down

Written by Boca Grande Health Clinic on . Posted in Health & Wellness, Sports & Outdoors.

Back in 1993, the Professional Golf Association deemed August National Golf Month. For the golf obsessed, this is a great excuse to get out and play a round with family and friends. The month-long celebration is a way to promote the game and introduce new people to the sport. 

Tiger Woods was 17 in 1993 and had won the last of his three straight U.S. junior amateur championships. For the majority of the golfing world and certainly for those in the mainstream, not much was known about this 17-year-old from California, but golf insiders thought he could be golf’s next great champion. Fast forward to April 1997. “Tiger Mania” was about to explode, and the “win for the ages” at The Masters cemented him as golf’s best player and changed how golf was perceived as a sport.

Florida real estate prices stable, but fewer sales going on lately

Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in Community, News.

In spite of interest rate increases, the Florida real estate market this June remains stable, with the average house selling for $420,000, the same as June 2022, and the average condo selling for $325,000, also the same as 2022.
However, statewide there has been a decrease in closed sales of existing houses, down 7.9 percent year over year. Condo and townhouse sales were down 11 percent, to 10,494. Florida Realtors Chief Economist Brad O’Connor said in a national press release that a 7.9 percent year-over-year decline in closed single-family home sales is understandable due to interest rates. 
Today, the 30-year fixed rate is in the 7-7.375 percent range, according to Terese Dulge, vice president and residential lender for Englewood Bank and Trust, now Crews Bank and Trust. She said that rates, coupled with today’s property prices, are making it more and more difficult for many borrowers to qualify for a new mortgage.

New airlines make for breezier visits, fewer stopovers

Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in News.

In the last few years, new airlines serving Southwest Florida have meant hundreds of new direct flights and cheaper fares – as cheap as a Greyhound bus fare in the 1980s.  For Boca Grande residents like Anne Honey, one can now take a direct flight – at a discount and in a new plane – […]

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Lee County remains in top five for Florida recycling

Written by Boca Beacon Reader on . Posted in Letters to the Editor.

To the Editor: Lee County has been named as one of Florida’s top five recycling counties by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). Strong participation by both residents and businesses has enabled Lee County to earn the fourth spot out of 67 counties.  Lee County received credit for recycling 1.5 million tons of the […]

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: John Garland Pollard

Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Profiles.

There are few Southern gentlemen left, but by outward appearances, so far, John Garland Pollard IV might be one of them. He is our new staff writer at the Boca Beacon and Gasparilla Island Magazine, and knowing how crazy you have to be to write for a living, we might want to check his crawl space and backyard to see if there are any bodies hidden there.

Blazing hot weather doesn’t deter tourists who long for a quieter ‘season’

Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in News.

Julie Blakeslee and her sister-in-law Karen Blakeslee were visiting Boca Grande this week after the Fourth of July for one reason: to enjoy Gasparilla Island during the quiet season.

“We don’t like it to be so crowded,” said Karen Blakeslee.

The extended Blakeslee family of six from Springfield, Mo. included three children. While here, they swam, fished for snapper and shot videos of the Fourth of July parade. The day after the Fourth, they were out on Park Avenue in front of Hudson’s, bringing home takeout for the family from Tortuga Mexican Street Cuisine, one of a steady stream of lunchgoers unfazed by the temperature.

ECOWATCH: The wellbeing of the oceans needs sea turtles

Written by Delores Savas on . Posted in Boca Beacon Back Pages, Columns, Opinion.

As a keystone species, these ancient mariners have a positive influence out of the water as well as in it. According to Oceana, a publication of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ), “nesting sea turtles help beaches by depositing their eggs in the sand. Eggshells and unhatched eggs left behind provide important nutrients that nourish the dune vegetation such as beach grasses which stabilize dunes and help prevent coastal erosions.                                                                                                              

“Major changes have occurred in the oceans because sea turtles have been virtually eliminated from many areas of the globe. Commercial fishing, loss of nesting habitat and climate change are among the human-caused threats pushing sea turtles toward extinction. As sea turtle populations decline, so does their ability to fulfill vital functions in ocean [habitats].”