Recreation couture instant hits with islanders seeking gifts, fashionable in Sanibel
They’re always popular but this year’s offering of fun shirts at the Sanibel Recreation Center blew off the shelf.
And the Lifeguard in Training shirt for infants and toddlers was an instant hit, particularly with grandparents, the department’s director said. The office quickly re-ordered after the first batch sold in a few hours. A second batch of 15 also sold quickly, Andrea Miller said. A waiting list was created to handle the demands for the latest in toddler fashion.
Adult shirts denoting Sanibel’s 40th anniversary also sold like the proverbial hotcakes, with 100 shipped in three days, Miller said. A second batch of the gray T-shirts arrived Dec. 31, with those on a waiting list and Recreation Center visitors scooping the fresh order as workers got them displayed.
This isn’t the first time fun shirts have captured the community’s attention, Miller said: Other shirts denoting Sanibel as a top tourist designation were popular, as was a shirt picturing a brown bear captured and relocated from the island in 2012. A 1960s throwback shirt also caught fire with islanders.
But recreation staff this year were “shipping furiously,” especially when the toddler/baby editions were displayed and posted on the city’s website, Miller said. “We were surprised.”
Sale proceeds from the shirts are used in augmenting recreation programs.