{"id":341013,"date":"2026-07-15T15:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/341013\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:40:11","slug":"wink-listens-brings-community-voices-to-the-forefront-in-fort-myers-wink-listens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/341013\/","title":{"rendered":"WINK Listens brings community voices to the forefront in Fort Myers | WINK Listens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Not every concern is life-changing. Not every story makes headlines.\u00a0But every story matters to the person living it.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the idea behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/wink_listens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WINK Listens<\/a>,\u00a0 a community\u00a0initiative that takes WINK News beyond the newsroom and into neighborhoods across Southwest Florida to hear directly from the people who live here.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"WL - 1\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1200\" height=\"620\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes those conversations lead to remarkable moments.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Olympia Lynch came to WINK Listens at FSW with an unusual request. She had discovered a box of decades-old family photographs on Sanibel in 2004 and hoped to reunite them with their rightful owner.<\/p>\n<p>WINK News tracked down Anne Sheridan, who still lives in Southwest Florida. She immediately recognized one of its treasures, &#8220;This is my mother&#8217;s wedding album! No way!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The emotional reunion showed that even a single conversation can make a lasting impact.<\/p>\n<p>Not every issue that comes to WINK Listens is as extraordinary. Some people want to share concerns about their neighborhoods. Others have questions they haven&#8217;t been able to get answered. Some simply want someone to listen.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s exactly what WINK News will do Wednesday evening at the <a href=\"https:\/\/fortmyers.gov\/1587\/Riverside-Community-Center\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Riverside Community Center in Fort Myers<\/a>\u00a0from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Riverside Community Center\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Riverside Community Center, Fort Myers<\/p>\n<p>                                    Bob Eidem<\/p>\n<p>Against the backdrop of the Caloosahatchee, we hope you will stop by and speak with our reporters, producers, and members of the WINK News team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Come share concerns or personal stories, or let us know which topics deserve more attention.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"WL corey.JPEG\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1662\" height=\"1247\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>Because whether it&#8217;s reuniting a family with priceless memories or shining a light on a local issue, every conversation has the potential to make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not every concern is life-changing. Not every story makes headlines.\u00a0But every story matters to the person living it.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,4250,1917,325,115,4326],"class_list":["post-341013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-charlotte","tag-consumer","tag-lee","tag-news","tag-wink_listens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}