WGCU

For starters, don't confuse Southwest Florida's Calendar Girls with that group of women from Britain that caused quite a stir years back, starring in a movie after posing nude in a calendar to raise money for charity. Our local Calendar Girls also raise money for charity, but they keep their clothes on! What the Calendar Girls do is dance. They dance for fun, they dance for exercise, they dance for charity, but what really sets this dance group apart is that when these Calendar Girls dance, they defy the Calendar..

Producer: Rod Clarke

A dramatic restructuring of the American auto industry that once was emblematic of the nations industrial might and boundless optimism may have marked the end of an era. But a devoted corps of collectors and aficionados are determined to preserve those big-blocked, asphalt-eating, thunder-throated high performance muscle cars that in the 1960s began rolling off assembly lines and into the hearts and souls of a car-crazed public

Muscle Car City
http://www.musclecarcity.net/museum.html

Antique and Classic Car Clubs
http://www.hubcapcafe.com/resources/car-clubs.htm

Producer: Rod Clarke

Ed Butler is an intelligent, active, tech-savvy 69-year-old who was a successful engineer and corporate executive before he retired. Nonetheless, he was the victim of a scam. If they can get the Ed Butlers of the world, they can get anyone.

Producer: Rod Clarke

One of the most heart-wrenching kids-in-crisis scenarios is a family of siblings ripped apart – perhaps forever – because, through no fault of their own, they became enmeshed in a system that was ill-equipped to deal with them. Sherry Magness’s “passion” is keeping those families together.

Producer: Shawn Holiday

It has classes, facilities and programs like any other high school. There are tests, a cafeteria and a library. But this school has one thing that makes it unusual. The Lee Adolescent Mother Program in Fort Myers, best known as LAMP, is for girls who get pregnant before finishing high school. With special programs, health and child care, it’s a comprehensive effort to keep them in school while helping them accept a responsibility for which none were prepared.

Producer: Shawn Holiday

When you’re young, you think you have all the time in the world. But for some teens, time is running out. After taking risks and committing crimes, they figured time and the law would be on their side because -- even though they may do some very adult things -- they are just kids. But in the real world, that’s not necessarily the way it works.

Producer: Rod Clarke

Start by untangling what seems like a mile of garden hose. Then, stretch it like a snake on steroids across the parking lot and hook it to a water faucet. Make sure you have plenty of clean rags – hang them on a handy tree to dry, if necessary. Fill your buckets with water. Add soap. Then dispatch the marketing team. A quick prayer circle might help, if you’re so inclined. Then wait for your first customer to roll in. That’s the business plan for an increasingly common entrepreneurial phenomena these days – kids washing cars to raise money for their favorite school projects. On any given weekend, you’ll find legions of teens in countless parking lots, armed with hoses, brushes and rags, scrubbing down Chevys, Toyotas and Hummers.

WGCU Presents—John’s Wish

A young teenage boy from Ft. Myers, Florida, is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.  When the Make-a-Wish Foundation asks him what celebrity he would like to meet or where he would like to take his family on vacation, he responds with a challenging and selfless request. His wish is to build an orphanage in Africa. Together with the help of many volunteers John’s Wish comes true.

Producer: Rod Clarke

OK, you’ve turned 16 and you’re ready to venture out into the world and tackle that first after-school or summer job. But what awaits you out there?

Even in good times, it’s tough for a kid to break into the job market. No track record, no experience, no resume. But these are NOT good times. These are very bad times. Record unemployment and foreclosures. A collapsed housing market. A depressed construction industry. Experienced professionals are collecting unemployment insurance, queuing up at food pantries to feed their families and accepting any job they’re lucky enough to find. Where does this leave that high school student?Dannielle Brun’s (like buns) job is helping youngsters prepare to enter the workforce. She and her co-workers at the Workforce Development Board provide them with work readiness training, occupational and life skills. And Brun warns her young charges that they face a formidable challenge.

There are those who remember the past and those who live it. Reenactors bring families and friends together to live like their ancestors and connect with a simpler way of life. Participants like to step back into the Civil War or pioneer days in Florida as their favorite way to have a good old time.

David Southall

Collier County Museum

3301 E. Tamiami Trail

Naples, FL 34112

Hours:

    •   Monday - Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

    •   Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    •   Closed on National and County Holidays

    •   Accessible to the handicapped

Admission:

    •   Free. Donations accepted.

Contact Information:

    •   Phone: 239-252-8476

www.secondinfantry.com (WWII re-enactors)

Writer/Producer: Kristy Vaughn

It could be the year round warm climate, or it might be the freedom of the open road, but motorcycle culture is fully embraced in Southwest Florida, and the lure of two-wheeled thunder calls out to our spirit of adventure. The city of Fort Myers and Cape Coral have even been snared, and as a result have organized monthly Bike Night events to encourage camaraderie between bikers.  Through the meet-ups, motorcycle clubs, such as Rolling Thunder or Chrome Divas, help to better our community by organizing fundraiser rides for charities, such as Veterans Associations and the March of Dimes.  The charity rides seek to gain awareness for the cause from the general population.  After all, few can resist rubber-necking when a group of bikers roar down our palm tree-lined streets. 

Resources:

http://www.downtownfortmyers.com/Bike_Night/
Fort Myers River District Bike Nights

http://www.chromedivas.com/index.cfm
Chrome Divas National website

http://www.rollingthunderfl2.com/
Rolling Thunder Ch. 2 website

http://www.capecoral.net/Government/ParksRecreation/Events/SpecialEventsDivision/SpecialEventsHome/BikeNight/tabid/1212/Default.aspx
Cape Coral Bike Nights

http://www.bikenightusa.com/events/all/all/FL/date/a
Find Bike Nights across Florida

Writer/Producer/Narrator: Rod Clarke

A visit to one of the region’s dog-friendly parks or beach makes one wonder: Who enjoys them the most; the canines or their owners?

Resources:

Lee County Parks and Recreation Dept.
www.leeparks.org/dog-friendly/index
239-533-7275

Save Our Off-Leash Dog Areas
www.FLSOODA.org

Writer/Producer: Chelle Koster Walton

How do you keep your sanity on a 5-mile-long sandbar a good half-hour boat ride to an island with a bridge that takes you to mainland another half-hour away? It takes a special breed. North Captiva, known also as Upper Captiva or simply North Cap, only recently broke away to become its own island, cleaved from Captiva Island by a hurricane in 1921. Today’s islanders have that same spirit of independence. Sanity? That’s a different issue entirely.

Resources:

North Captiva Island Club Resort, www.northcaptiva.com
Safety Harbor Club, www.safetyharborclub.com  

Writer/Producer: Chelle Koster Walton
 
In the 1930s, Mary Roberts Rinehart, an important mystery novelist of the era and a visitor at Useppa Island’s Izaak Walton Club, bought the nearby 100-acre island of Cabbage Key as a wedding present for her son. Just across the channel from Useppa, Cabbage Key’s historic inn also perches on an Indian shell mound, but there the similarities end. Cabbage Key Inn, built by Rinehart, is all about simplicity and ease with its six simple inn rooms, six cottages, and a beer-guzzling, truth-stretching attitude of fun. What’s there to do on Cabbage Key besides eat, drink, fish, sleep, repeat? Not much -- and that’s how islanders and guests love it.

Resources:

Cabbage Key Inn, www.cabbagekey.com

Writer/Producer: Chelle Koster Walton

 They live on an island with no bridge to the mainland, cut off from the mainstream and -- one could romantically speculate -- all the pressures that come with it. Forget cars and traffic: Boats, golf carts, and feet are their main mode of transportation. Forget typical time schedules: Their islands dictate a way of telling time according to tides, nesting seasons, and sunset. Yet they are faced with their own set of challenges – island fever, for one. They are the unbridged islanders of Useppa, who keep good company with Calusa spirits and the memories of an elite brand of fisherman from the 1910s.

Resources:

Useppa Island Club, www.useppa.com
Captiva Cruises, www.captivacruises.com