One of the holiday dolphins. PHOTO PROVIDED<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2,000 luminaries will light up the streets of Matlacha. This is an exciting, long-lasting 40-year event, thanks to Yvonne Roach, who started this tradition in 1985. <\/p>\n
At 2 p.m, neighborhood Santa elves gather at the Green lot, 11681 Island Avenue, to assemble the luminaries. Volunteer elves should bring a chair to fold the white bags or bring a stool and a garden shovel to fill the bag with sand and a candle. The luminaries will be delivered throughout the streets by volunteers. At dusk, neighbors will be lighting the candles. For further merriment, please turn Christmas music 106.3 FM on your outside radio.<\/p>\n
The Luminary Committee will also have a 7-ft Christmas tree placed mid-Island Avenue to enhance celebrating the 40 years.<\/p>\n
This is a neighborhood effort and folks come from all over to see the streets lit with the luminaries and to celebrate the tradition of \u201cLet\u2019s Light up Matlacha.\u201d<\/p>\n
This Christmas Eve celebration is a success with the help of all that have contributed toward the purchasing of materials, making and delivering the luminaries. The Luminary Committee extends a thank you to John and Cheryl Honc for the donation of sand and to Mr. Green for the use of his lot.<\/p>\n
The Luminary Com-mittee did not solicit the years of Hurricanes Ian and Milton and its funds are low. The next two weekends in December, volunteers will be canvasing their neighbors of Matlacha, asking for donations for the costs of the luminaries.<\/p>\n
In 1992, six colorful dolphins were hung on the old Matlacha Bridge with the help of the local fire department. The dolphins were ordered by Marie Cahill, president of the Matlacha Civic Association. Evidently they needed attention and were placed in storage. The reappeared in 2014, thanks to Mike Gordon, Bobby McKnight and Jim Young who refinished the four remaining dolphins. For years, LCEC crews would hang the dolphins on the bridge. Admired and appreciated, they were the trademark for Matlacha Christmas. <\/p>\n
Hurricane Ian, in 2022, swept away two dolphins, leaving two dolphins. One of the dolphins is making a grand appearance on a home in Matlacha, look for it, along with many houses that are decorated with colorful lights.<\/p>\n
Furthering the Christmas festivities, a \u201clive\u201d nativity setting is hosted by CW Fudge Factory at 4548 Pine Island Road, N.W., with 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. showings.<\/p>\n
For information, call the Luminary Committee chairperson at 814-404-0378.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the holiday dolphins. PHOTO PROVIDED On Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2,000 luminaries will light up the streets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-78173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78173","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=78173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}