WEEK OF JULY 2, 2025 FLIER INSIDE
Fourth of July fun Independence Day celebrations on the island and around the area
— INSIDE
PINEISLAND-EAGLE.COM
VOLUME 49, NUMBER 8
Celebrating Pine Islanders: Ronnie Lolly By PAULETTE LeBLANC
pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com
Lifetime islander Ronnie Lolly said he would describe himself as a commercial fisherman, who was grandfathered into his trade. “My family goes back over 600-700 years — before Columbus ever thought he found the place. I’ve got grandparents and great grandparents buried over on Cayo Costa,” Lolly said. His paternal grandfather was a Portuguese sponge diver and his paternal grandmother was a Blackfoot Indian, he said. When his mother went into labor with him, he said, his parents were on Cayo Costa and a helicopter picked his mother up and took her to Lee Memorial Hospital,
Ronnie Lolly
where he was born. After his birth, the family lived on Cayo Costa until he was 5 years old. “We moved back over here to Pine Island and my father bought a big plot of land with mango trees and we lived in a two-story house — it was a barn house,” Lolly said. His father died at 99 years old and his father’s mother was 107 when she died, Lolly said.
“She was out chopping wood with a hoe the last time I saw her and she was 103. I was just a little squirt. I laid up in the back of a ’56 Chevy — in the window — I had 3 brothers and a sister. Me and the dog rode in the back window,” Lolly said. The fact that he was born and raised on Pine Island has made it unique enough for him. He said he knows every inch of the water bottom, which is hardly something anyone can say. “If you asked me where you went today — out in the harbor — I could tell you what the bottom was underneath your boat. I know almost every oyster bar that’s risen out here around the harbor from Punta Gorda to See RONNIE LOLLY, page 9
Pine Island kids have summer fun with Lee County Parks and Rec program By PAULETTE LeBLANC
pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com
In light of the damages done by Hurricane Ian, the summer program provided by the Lee County Parks and Recreation on Pine Island has been moved from Matlacha Park to Pine Island Elementary. According to Grayce Smith, who works with the kids in the program, this has worked fine for the summer campers. “We’ve been renting out the school’s cafeteria space. We get to use the playground, we get to go to the pool two times a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays are our pool days and because it’s so close from the pool to the school, we walk the kids to the pool and then walk back. That kind of takes up our whole day, but as counselors we get a week before to pre-plan, so we’ve been planning lots and lots of things to do,” Smith said. A plan has already been made for a field trip and lunch at Lakes Park, she said. She explained as she understands it, the county gets a budget as well as fundraising and also collecting contributions from some of the Pine Island organizations that contribute towards anything that might be needed. “This is my second year. It’s been a blast. It’s just a really fun time,” Smith said. They get new kids every week, she said. Because every week is different, they sign up new kids each week. They are only allowed approximately 30 kids so it fills up pretty fast, she said. Kids at this camp are accepted from first grade to sixth grade. For additional information about the Lee County Parks and Recreation Department’s year-round programs, please visit https://www.leegov.com/parks/programs/summer
CLT: Re-pining of Pine Island a big success Since last fall, over 250 baby native pine trees acquired from the Florida Forestry Service have been under the babysitting care of members of the Calusa Land Trust and the Pine Island Garden Club. With the return of the rainy season, some 40 volunteers on June 21 grabbed their shovels for their planting at four CLT preserves. Also assisting with the effort were Matlacha/Pine Island firefighters demonstrating their water-dousing talents. PHOTOS PROVIDED
INSIDETODAY
Bridge Beat......................10 Dolphin Tales.....................6
Kittens of the Week..........17 Local Tides.......................16
On the Water.....................13 Worship Directory..............6
Classifieds & Obituaries