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Sanibel Shell Festival theme announced

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This year's T-shirt design are $15 each.

The Sanibel Shell Festival will celebrate its 80th year March 2, 3 and 4.

“Around the World in 80 Shells” has been chosen as this festival’s theme. There will be a special class of competition in both the Scientific Exhibit Division and the Artistic Exhibit Division of the Sanibel Shell Show that will reflect this theme. Each exhibit entered in these classes must contain exactly 80 shells. This year exhibitors are expected from around the United States, Canada, and even as far away as Japan. The Shell Show is held inside the Sanibel Community House.

The Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club has created a new T-shirt for the 2017 Shell Festival. It features a whimsical cartoon by artist Ken Vinton that highlights the festival’s theme. The ladies v-neck shirts are aqua, or purple. The unisex crewneck T-shirts are black, or forest green. Both are high quality 100 percent cotton T-shirts. They will sell for $15 each. One hundred percent of the profits from the T-shirt sales, like the other income from the Sanibel Shell Show, are given out in the form of grants to marine science-related programs and scholarships to the Marine Science Departments of the University of South Florida and Florida Gulf Coast University.

The Shell Crafters have been diligently working the past nine months at the Sanibel Congregational United Church of Christ making a variety of artistic creations from shells. These works of art will be sold during the Shell Festival. The Crafters have now moved back into their home in the Sanibel Community House, and they welcome anyone who wants to try their hand at shell crafting. All the profits from the Shell Crafters’ sales go to the maintenance of the Sanibel Community House.