The season is on at the Boca Grande Community Center where senior supervisor Bob Green has already allocated blocks of time for dozens of Gasparilla Island groups and hundreds of meetings, events and performances.
"It's a big jigsaw puzzle we're putting together," Green said. "We're always trying to meet everyone's needs. We try not to turn anyone away."
Scheduling pressures fluctuate with different groups increasing or decreasing space reservation requests.
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For example, The Friends of Boca Grande have increased their youth and adult programming this season, he said. The Royal Palm Players have cut their schedule roughly in half.
The 90 reservations, which includes time for set-up, for the Boca Grande Community Center grounds, includes these major draws:
Halloween Carnival, Oct. 25-27;
Boca Grande Historical Society event, Feb. 1-5;
Boca Grande 4-mile run, Feb. 23-24;
Boca Grande United Methodist Women's Strawberry Festival, Feb. 28-March 2;
Woman's Club Fair, March 14-16;
Dog Show, March 21-23;
Egg Hunt, March 28-30;
Friends of Boca Grande Civil War program, April 18-28; and
Summer camp, June 3-28.
The Boca Grande Community Center Auditorium is the most in-demand area on the grounds with 207 event, meeting, production, play, rehearsal, graduation and movie dates.
The Boca Grande Woman's Club is not far behind with 155 reservations.
The biggest change this season is the merging of the Boca Grande Community Center Library with the Johan Fust Community Library, Green said. The exact date of the merger is soft, sometime in spring or summer, he said.
In Green's 14th season at the Boca Grande Community Center, he said the scheduling challenge is still invigorating.
"Oh, yeah," he said. "It's always different. Some things are the same but every day is a little bit different so it never gets boring."
Green operates with a $110,000 budget for Boca Grande roads and rights-of-way budget, which is for Lee County Parks & Recreation exclusive of the Florida Department of Transportation budget. Green said the Boca Grande Community Center budget is $250,000; community park grounds, $100,000; beach access, $31,000; and ballfield, $13,000.
There are still dates available for latecomers, he said.
All groups submitting their meeting information to the Gasparilla Gazette will have it posted weekly in Boca Notes. Please e-mail toconnor@breezenewspapers.com or call 964-2728 for Editor Terry O'Connor.
