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CFI’s leadership class off to enthusiastic start

By CHARITABLE FOUNDATION OF THE ISLANDS 2 min read
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CHARITABLE FOUNDATION OF THE ISLANDS The Class of 2024 for the Leadership Sanibel-Captiva Program.
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CHARITABLE FOUNDATION OF THE ISLANDS From left, Chip Roach, Porter and Mariel Goss, Allison and Chauncey Goss, and Jane Majeski.

The 2024 Leadership Sanibel-Captiva Program kicked off on Jan. 18 with the first session, where special guests Porter and Chauncey Goss offered information about the islands.

It is the second class of its kind sponsored by the Charitable Foundation of the Islands.

This year’s 13 participants are people who have already demonstrated leadership qualities. The program provides an immersive course in the way government, healthcare, non-profits, environmental issues and other aspects of island life work and tie together. It aims to give them added leadership skills and a deeper dive into the islands’ DNA. The thinking is that as current leaders of nonprofits retire, there will be knowledgeable passionate volunteers ready to step in and keep the momentum going.

“The remarkable contributions the members of our founding class made in the aftermath of (Hurricane) Ian showed us the effectiveness of the program and the need to continue,” CFI Executive Director Dolly Farrell said. “It’s important to continue building the corps of leaders who will guide the restoration and continued conservation of these islands.”

As a highlight of this year’s opening session, former Central Intelligence Agency Director and first Sanibel Mayor Porter Goss provided historical perspective with help from his son, Chauncey, founding and managing partner of Goss Practical Solutions. Goss disagrees when people say the job of mayor must have been harder for him than today’s mayor.

“You have got challenges ahead of you that are unbelievable, challenges we could never have dreamed of,” he said. “You have fewer tools to use in some ways and some of those tools are under attack.”

Goss cited a few of those as:

– How to manage the massive number of repairs and the amount of restoration still required following Ian without destroying the islands’ unique feel.

– What to do about access with the lone causeway at one end of Sanibel, requiring Captiva residents to make a long drive on a crowded two-lane road to their homes.

– What if there is a movement to build a second bridge, this one connecting Captiva to the mainland.

He said these are issues with which today’s leaders must grapple and they should.

“The desire to keep the dream alive is very, very strong,” Goss said. “It’s still Sanibel. It’s still Captiva. And it’s still worth the fight.”