What could be better than fresh strawberry shortcake on a fine spring day? How about a free quilt show? And what if you threw in a Florida-friendly plant sale, some homemade baked goods, food trucks, live music, craft/book booths and fresh local produce? Top it all off with real-deal local history, and I’d say you’d have yourself one excellent day in the country.
My little town of Alva will open up for its big day from From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., March 14, as the Alva Garden Club and the Alva Library Museum pair up for two one-of-a-kind events.
In a rapidly growing region, Alva remains the real rural deal, and its annual Strawberry Festival and quilt show are a great chance to enjoy the town’s charm – and bring some of it home for yourself
Granted, it’s where I live, so I confess a certain partiality to Alva, but I also know this event is food for the soul, though the good people of the Alva Garden Club will make sure the rest of you gets fed too.
Its annual plant sale/strawberry shortcake social is at the historic Methodist church, across the the street from the also historic Alva Library Museum‘s open house and quilt show.
Bake sale workers offer their wares. From left, Jackie Hamblett, Leslie Matkowski, TyAnn Downing, Susan Mahan and Dana Christensen
Beyond the festival’s headliner – that amazing homemade strawberry shortcake – hundreds of budget-friendly plants will be on sale.
Owl Creek Landscape Nursery, Natives of Corkscrew Nursery, Elata Natives, Maree Farms and Keepsake Plants will all be there. Plus, club members will be selling cuttings from their own plants.
Hundreds of plants from local nurseries and garden club members are offered for sale.
Proceeds fund the maintenance of two community gardens in Alva and help with activities at The Alva School.
Preserving historic Alva’s culture, connections
Both events highlight what’s precious about small-town Southwest Florida: connections and caring, at a time when both seem to be in increasingly short supply.
And before I continue, please allow me my annual disclosure: When I’m reporting, I practice the strictest objectivity, but in a first-person column, I get a little human leeway. I get to have an opinion, and my opinion is that Alva and its nonprofits, including the Alva Garden Club and the Alva Library Association, where I serve on its all-volunteer board, are doing critical work highlighting our town’s history, culture and connections.
Our museum will be hosting a fascinating show from the Southwest Florida Quilters Guild which includes examples both antique and modern. Both of the museum’s buildings will be open as well, which give visitors a chance to rummage through the town’s proverbial attic, where you never know what you’ll find. One thing I can promise: There are treasures, and I sure hope you’ll find them. And if you can’t make this event, know that we have many others planned, including our celebration of the region’s Cracker cowboy history from May through July, featuring exhibits and events that honor this important part of our heritage.
As Lee county’s oldest platted settlement, Alva was not so sleepy once upon a time. In the late 1800s and early 20th century, it was a happening place, with restaurants, rooming houses, hotels and — most importantly — a river crossing. Fort Myers didn’t have a bridge until the 1920s, but Alva did — a wooden swing bridge that lasted until a barge bound for the Kennedy Space Center crashed into it in 1966.
We got another one — a fine metal drawbridge — but by then, Alva had been overshadowed by Lee County’s other cities. Which is just fine with most Alvanians, I’d venture to guess.
Let Cape Coral have its toll bridges, Fort Myers its high-rises, Estero its malls. Alva’s got farmers and cattlemen, Spanish moss and citrus, kids who say “Yes, ma’am” and garden club members who serve strawberry shortcake from scratch, which is indeed something to celebrate.
Alva Methodist church got a new steeple after Irma toppled its last one. They are thankful for all the donations that helped cover the cost of the deductible so they could replace it. This one has been built and installed with hurricane standards.
One of those connections I’ll miss terribly is Nina Rigby’s with, well, everybody.
The Grande Dame of Alva, Nina was a garden club stalwart who used to send me charming, cursive press releases about the event until she died at home after a fall in 2025. She was 97.
Like clockwork, Nina’s letter would appears each spring.
The woman was a wonder. As fellow garden club member Liz Ingram once told me, Nina was “a persuasive sales person, always with a can-do approach to challenges. She started the strawberry shortcake sales for our club to raise money for our projects, was instrumental in pursuing getting the Alva Library Museum noted as a Lee County Historical Site, and served as the club president for several years.”
The late Nina Rigby was a beloved feature of the Alva Garden Club’s annual strawberry festival and plant sale
Persuasive salesperson is right. Every year in her note, Nina would detail for me the plants, the crafts, the books and the food, including her hefty homemade pies and the strawberry shortcake, with fruit from produce stand Rooster’s on Route 80 just down the road made with Nina’s old family recipe (pro tip: If you want to be sure to get some, arrive earlier in the day; demand is high and sometimes it sells out). Even though I’d heard the same pitch for years, I was always happy to hear it again and pass it to readers.
Because what Nina was selling was the real thing: community.
Sure, the “old Florida” label gets bandied about a lot, but in this region of swelling growth, Alva remains (for the moment) one of the remaining refuges of country life. It’s what late Alva champion Ruby Daniels called “our rural character,” and fought to her dying day to defend. So did Nina, and it’s what she wanted to share with the rest of Southwest Florida
I once asked Nina to tell me what Alva meant to her. “You come here to our little village and it’s just country living. You‘ve got the river, you’ve got all the trees, you’ve got the Alva diner and it’s homey. That’s what it is. You get here and you look around,” she said, letting out a big, contented breath, “And you feel, ‘Oh, I’m finally home.’”
So come on out for a visit. The plant sale is amazing, the food is great, the museum is fascinating and the quilt show will be too. It’s a chance to enjoy a sweet little town and its culture. And to be grateful for Nina and her commitment to preserving and sharing Alva life.
Diana Simmons will play the ukulele at the March 14 festival.
If you go
Both the Alva Garden Club’s plant sale and strawberry shortcake social and the Alva Library Museum’s open house and Florida Quilters Guild show are Saturday, March 14 The garden club event is from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Alva Methodist Church, 21440 Pearl St., and the museum’s is 9-2 at 21420 Pearl St. Admission free; donations welcome.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Come see why Alva is my very favorite little SW Florida town