To quell the rumor mill, this project does not include a “hotel” per se, but a “condominium hotel” experience. The units will be privately owned, and if the owners wish to enter their units into the rental management program, they can do so. It will be no different than the condominiums and homes that are rented out by island real estate rental companies. 

While there used to be a noticeable difference immediately after the Easter holiday, this year the week prior to Easter, 28,849 vehicles crossed the bridge. The week after, 28, 614 more cars crossed the bridge. This has been common since the beginning of COVID-19.

The U.S. Census Bureau statistics say that more than 50,000 people have moved to the Sarasota/North Port/Punta Gorda area in the last 18 months, and the state had 221,000 more residents arrive from other U.S. states than leave from July 2020 to July of 2021. This accounted for the biggest population gain for the state since 2005

Planning and organizing such an event would be an exhausting venture for many people. For Camille, it was a rush. “I loved working with Bayard Sharp. He trusted me. He had the most wonderful sense of humor and a sense of adventure, like no one I have ever known in my life. We spent a year-and-a-half planning that party, and we had a wonderful time. It was probably one of the greatest experiences, not just in my career, but also in my personal life.”

Each volunteer is assigned a section of the beach, called a zone, that they patrol by walking every morning. When they see the distinct flipper tracks of a turtle, it is their esteemed task to determine whether the sea turtle has made a successful nesting attempt or a false crawl. A false crawl happens when the turtles come up onto the beach without digging a nest. Once a determination has been made, volunteers then mark the nest and protect it with wood stakes and colored tape.