2026 event photos

February 28 Burrowing Owl Festival

FOCCL had a booth again this year at the Burrowing Owl Festival in Rotary Park, and it was a busy day. Thank you to the wonderful FGCU student volunteers and to our own members Alessia, Monica, Ying, Barbara and Bonita who helped kids create their entries to our 20th Annual Children's Environmental Art Contest. The theme this time is "Protect our Florida Black Bears," and lots of pictures and materials about this precious species were on hand for the young artists to browse through for inspiration. [Note: all photos of children taken with permission of guardian.]

January, 2026 General Meeting

We had a good turnout of 45 people at our January 17 general meeting that included a dozen guests in attendance. The program for this meeting was an excellent presentation by the Scientists' Society of Southwest Florida that encourages careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Guest speakers included Jacquelin Collins, the current president of the society; Trudy Sampson, liaison for funded programs and scholarship chair; Dave Sampson, science fair judge coordinator; and board of directors member Dick Devlin. In addition, the president of the Cape Coral Solar Car Club, Mason Huffman, spoke about the projects that keep so many local students engaged in the club's fun and educational STEM activities. Special thanks to our Friends of the Cape Coral Library member and publicity director for the scientists' society, Paula Martinez, who recommended this interesting program topic for our first FOCCL general meeting of the new year.