WEEk Of MARCH 6, 2024
VOLUME 62, NUMBER 16
School district adds programs with state grant By MEGHAN BRADBURY
news@breezenewspapers.com
The School District of Lee County has been able to add two career programs, as well as expand two programs, thanks to a $1.2 million Workforce Development Grant from the state of Florida. The district chose what schools would benefit from the grant by working with its community partners — Florida Gulf University, Futuremakers Coast Coalition, CareerSource and local employers. District spokesperson Rob Spicker said they identified career clusters with the greatest potential for growth. “We can better meet the current student demand for the programs already in place by expanding them,” he said. Spicker said as far as the new programs, they collaborated with their public schools and charter schools to identify needs and capacity to implement programs in the clusters identified as indicated. The grant will add the first See PROGRAMS, page 21
Shell museum reopens Living Gallery of Aquariums
T
he Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium on Sanibel reopened its Living Gallery of Aquariums to the public on March 1. The aquariums house a mix of mollusks, corals, fish and other marine life species as they did pre-hurricane. Species on exhibit include two-spot octopus, flamingo tongue, disco clam, giant clam, queen conch and more. Other species, such as the giant Pacific octopus, will be added in the near future.
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In addition, the surrounding exhibits have been expanded to dive deeper into the biology and behavior of mollusks, dynamics of their ecosystems, and challenges and successes of their conservation. “The goals of this undertaking were to grow the educationSee SHELL MUSEUM, page 21 Costasiella kuroshimae LYNN WU
Award-winning anti-plastic activist to speak at refuge From Texas shrimp boat captain to anti-microplastic activist, author and environmentalist Diane Wilson fought a mega-corporation and won multiple awards for her work saving Gulf of Mexico waters. She will speak about “One Woman's Fight to Save Our Waters from Microplastic Pollution” at her free lectures on March 7 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the J.N. “Ding”
Diane Wilson
Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel. When Wilson learned in 1989 that the waters she fished as a fourth-generation shrimper led the nation for toxic waste, she set off a series of actions against a multibillion-dollar corporation that had been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and dumping lethal
ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along the Gulf coast of Texas. Wilson took her fight to the courts, to the gates of the chemical plant and to the halls of power in Austin. Along the way, she met scorn, bribery, character assassination and death threats as she resorted to nonviolent disobedience, direct action and hunger strikes. Wilson wrote about her struggles in her book, “An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas,” and was the See ACTIVIST, page 21
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