Fresh Produce, Sanibel Sea School partner for beach cleanup event
A partnership between the Sanibel Sea School and Fresh Produce held a kick off event last week to coincide with the clothing company’s rebrand of “living a simply swell life.”
“The word swell really rises to the top for us,” Fresh Produce Founder Mary Ellen Vernon said. “We want to start creating swell events and swell parties at the store, or through partnerships.”
Fresh Produce looked at each of its local communities and sought out ways to connect a community and do good for each other.
“I think as a human, you just walk better when you know one another’s story and doing good and you feel more connected,” Vernon said.
The partnership between the Sanibel Sea School and Fresh Produce stemmed from Sanibel Sea School’s Development Coordinator Chrissy Basturk working for the company for 18 years.
“It’s that connection that brought us to where we are now,” Vernon said. “We miss her like heck, but proud she is pursing something else of interest. We thought this is a perfect way to begin our swell event.”
Last Thursday a group of individuals gathered at the Sanibel Sea School flagship campus for a beach cleanup event. Before heading to the beach, the participants heard Dr. Bruce Neill, the executive director and co-founder of the Sanibel Sea School, share information about the nonprofit. He said the nonprofit organization, which is a public charity, promotes marine conservation through experiential education.
Afterwards the participants gathered around a long table to write down their troubles and worries on a piece of paper for the “Give Your Troubles to the Sea” ceremony. Once they were jotted down everyone gathered outdoors as Neill created a fire inside a bucket for everyone to throw those worries into the flame. The ceremony then took the participants to the ocean where one by one they took a pinch of the ashes and threw their worries into the sea.
“Every year, participants in our Winter Camp sessions write their worries from their past year on slips of paper,” Basturk said in a prepared statement. “Then we burn them in a bonfire and sprinkle the ashes into the sea.”
A beach cleanup followed as everyone was handed pink gloves and a bag.
“In addition to cleaning up the beach, Fresh Produce is designing a special edition T-shirt for us,” Basturk said. “Proceeds from the shirt will support scholarships for kids in need to attend our programs throughout the year. We are very excited about this new partnership.”
Following the cleanup everyone gathered at the Sanibel Sea School where Vernon presented “Cliff Notes on Life While Building a Business” while also enjoying a catered lunch. Her presentation was about “connectivity,” so everyone knew her a little better.
Vernon said what the Sanibel Sea School represents is more of what Fresh Produce wants to participate in as a company. The women’s clothing store, which has 17 stores, began more than 30 years ago with a theme of “live life and enjoy color.”
One of seven children, Vernon grew up in Kansas. The summer after her seventh grade year, Vernon’s mother said her and her sister were taking sewing lessons.
“We were devastated. You think we were going to sit inside on these great summer days and do sewing lessons,” she said. “To this day I can’t believe she got us in the front door. I have to say not long after that I started realizing I loved handling fabric, I loved print and I always loved color.”
With a degree in fashion design she headed to California with her husband. In 1984, when the Olympics was in L.A., a friend down the hall asked if the Vernon’s wanted to share a booth at the Olympics to sell T-shirts.
“When we got to the Olympics, all of the T-shirts were red, white and blue. Ours were in colors that were not red, white and blue,” she said. “We sold T-shirts for two weeks. In 1984 we sold $40,000 in T-shirts. That was a big wow.”
From there they participated in a few trade shows, and shortly after Fresh Produce began.
“It’s communities like Sanibel. It’s teammates, like teammates. It’s customers like you guys that got us to this point. We don’t take that lightly,” Vernon said.