It promises to be a fun weekend for Marco Islanders, Neapolitans, visitors and just about anybody else looking for a variety of good music entertainment, playtime for the children and grand children and last but not least, delicious food.
The first Marco Island Seafood Festival was a tremendous success. Visitors agreed that the seafood vendors delivered a wide variety and excellent quality food. Most of those vendors will return this year plus a few new seafood specialists, who promised to keep the same high standard we so much enjoyed last year!
For those who want other snacks and deserts, there will again be a lot of alternatives to choose from ranging from hotdogs, hamburgers to ice cream, kettle corn and much more.
Marco Islander entertainer and musician, JRobert of Mangrove Music, (mangrovemusic.com) has contracted an impressive list of artists for the Marco Island Seafood Festival. “The Lely Jazz Band” is scheduled to kick off festivities. Raiford Starke.” Local favorites include ”The GladeZmen,” Jeff Hilt,” “Lords of Cool,” Jim Long,” “Jezebelle & the Sunset Bay Band,” “Myles Loud,” “Marco Island Strummers” and “Frank Carroll.”
Once again the Marco Island Seafood Festival has teamed up with long time Arts & Crafts organizer, Pam Patullo, (karftfairs.com) to manage arts and craft vendors and offer even more variety.
Your support will benefit the humanitarian programs of the Sunrise Rotary, Noon Time Rotary & Kiwanis Foundation of Marco Island.
How it all got started
Last year, Stan Niemczyk, Sunrise Rotary President at the time, thought of a way to booster the many local and worldwide humanitarian projects the club is involved in. One of those programs is the “Gift of Life.” Children with life threatening medical problems unsolvable in their home country are brought to Florida for state-of-the-art treatment in cooperation with doctors at Miami’s Jo DiMaggio’s Hospital, or St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa. “It is hart warming to see a child that arrived unable to walk, and leave running and skipping,” Stan said.
“Instead of continually asking for money, we wanted to give our community a yearly venue everyone could look forward to.” And he did just that. Not only did he involve Sunrise Rotarians; he also knocked on the doors of the Noontime Rotary and the Kiwanis Club to get on board and share the monies collected, as well as soliciting volunteers. This cooperation was a first in the history of these clubs.
The Noontime Rotary Club will continue with their “Avoidable Blindness Project in San Carlos, Mexico, “Cure Clubfoot” and locally, the “Joy of Giving.” The Kiwanis help improving the quality of life for children worldwide. Locally they provide scholarships for qualifying high school students
Stan and a small core group of Rotarians and Kiwanis, consisting of Al Diaz, Stef Stefanides, Dennis Pidherney and Ewout de Vries went to work and the Marco Island Seafood Festival was born.
Stan and Ewout visited several other festivals and noted what they wanted and what they could give a miss. They soon discovered that the quality of seafood was not the same everywhere and they vowed to only get top quality on Marco Island.
“As we know from last year’s event, that certainly worked out well,” Stan said. One of the local vendors, Scott Young, owner of Paradise Seafood on Marco Island commented: “We look forward to participate again not only this year, but in the years to come. It was a great event last year and certainly good for us and for the island.” Local restaurant owners, Kurt and Jacquie Koon of CJ’s are also looking forward to participate.
The group decided they did not want huge carnival rides. However, from last year’s experience they learned that if children could be entertained, parents would stay longer. This year, there will be several venues especially for the kids, including a small train ride.
“Entertainment was excellent, but we could have had more local talent,” Stan commented. This March there is a continuous music program on both days that is put together by none other than well known local entertainer and fiddler, J. Robert.
“We did not like it that people had to cross a road with their food – even though the road was closed,” said Stan. So we moved the food vendors closer to the entertainment on the main field. Officials of the City of Marco Island were very impressed by the organization and success and commented that the Marco Island Seafood Festival was just the kind of event they envisioned for Marco Island on an annual basis. They further helped by taking the road in question away and creating an undivided park. “It is just another sign of the great cooperation we have received from the city,” Stan mentioned. In many ways the Marco Island Chamber of Commerce has become the office for the festival, as nothing is too much for their staff in helping to continue the success of the festival.
So make sure to come and join the fun and support the local and international programs of the three service clubs on the island.
IF YOU GO
Marco Island Seafood Festival
Veterans’ Park, 403 Elkcam Circle
Gates open at 10:45 a.m., and continues
until 6:45 p.m., March 20, 21
$6 admission
Seating is limited, bring your own folding chairs; no coolers or pets
marcoislandseafoodfestival.com
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