Business owners, residents celebrate success of Captiva Holiday Village 2010
Though the concept was officially set in motion only two months ago, island business owners and residents have cause to congratulate each other for making the first annual Captiva Holiday Village a complete success.
“It was excellent and I think it exceeded everyone’s expectations,” said Paul McCarthy of McCarthy’s Marina and Captiva Cruises, one of the lead organizers of the Captiva Holiday Village. “It was four weeks of very different, very fun community oriented events. The Christmas tree lighting at ‘Tween Waters was wonderful, the golf cart parade was fantastic, the boat parade was exceptional and the opera on the beach and the firedancers were just incredible.”
Other Captiva Holiday Village events included a carol sing at the Chapel By-The-Sea, seafood and wine tastings, lots of live entertainment, holiday programs at the Captiva Memorial Library, a holiday marketplace and a skimboarding competition and art show.
“I thought it was inspirational that everyone joined this common effort and pitched in. Everyone participated, everyone worked hard, everyone had good ideas and everyone was enthusiastic about it,” McCarthy said. “I’ve been on Captiva 25 years and this is the first time I’ve seen the community join forces for a common goal.”
There will be a special Captiva Holiday Village wrap-up meeting on Thursday, Jan. 6, at 1 p.m. in the Alphabet Cone Room at South Seas Island Resort for business owners and island residents.
“This meeting will be an opportunity to review what happened over the last five weeks and talk about the things we liked and what could have been better. It will also be a time to congratulate people and thank everyone for all the hard work they did, and to think of ideas for next year,” McCarthy said.
For more information and photographs from this year’s events, go to www.CaptivaHolidayVillage.com‘>www.CaptivaHolidayVillage.com.