An island luminary. PHOTO PROVIDED<\/p>\n
This Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2,000 luminaries will light up the streets of Matlacha. This 40-year tradition began in 1985, thanks to Yvonne Roach who organized the event. <\/p>\n
At 2 p.m., neighborhood Santa elves gather at the Green lot at 11681 Island Avenue to assemble the luminaries. Elves wishing to volunteer 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. <\/p>\n
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 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 special 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 Committee did not solicit the years of Hurricanes Ian and Milton and its funds are low. This weekends, 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. Reportedly needing attention, they were placed in storage. They eventually reappeared in 2014, thanks to Mike Gordon, Bobby McKnight and Jim Young, who refinished the four remaining dolphins. <\/p>\n
In 2022 Hurricane Ian 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
The holiday festivities also include a \u201clive\u201d nativity setting hosted by CW Fudge Factory at 4548 Pine Island Road, N.W., with 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. showings.<\/p>\n
For more information, please call the Luminary Committee chairperson at (814) 404-0378.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An island luminary. PHOTO PROVIDED This Christmas Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2,000 luminaries will light up the streets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-85485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85485","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=85485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}