The Island School kids showed off their many and varied talents on Tuesday, May 21 at the first annual TIS Talent Show.

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - Four tassels were turned on Thursday, May 23, as Luke Crosser, Dafne Garcia, Abigail Turner and Jake Van Atten graduated from fifth grade and from The Island School.

Prior to their commencement ceremony the four, with the help of others, did a “dramatic statues” and chant performance. Afterward, the third, fourth and fifth graders all participated in a song called “Flip Flop,” written and produced by TIS music teacher Diana Donlon.

 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has completed its report on the two-boat accident in Bull Bay on April 12, and the FWC is holding both Jesse Smith and Capt. Steve Ahlers at fault.

Smith, of Port Charlotte, was travelling southwest in a gray 18’ open motorboat. He turned to the south to enter a blind, narrow passage between two mangrove islands when he spotted Ahlers’ yellow boat heading in the opposite direction.

Ahlers, of Boca Grande, was traveling northwest towards the same passage, with three passengers on board his 20-foot yellow boat.

The Boca Grande Invitational Art Festival has an exciting slate of 60 amazing artists in a wide variety of mediums.

Organizer Carroll Swayze is excited and filled with anticipation for the event.

“(We) have some amazing work this year,” she said. “The festival is near and dear to my heart because Boca Grande is home to me. The people on the island have supported me for my whole life and I am proud to be able to hand-pick a Fine Art Festival to present to the island. I have spent the past year trying to choose artists who fit the theme and the ideals of the World’s Richest Tarpon Tournament of conservation, education and sportsmanship. I have world-class marine wildlife artists coming as well as some of the finest Florida landscape painters the state has to offer. I hope that everyone will come out, enjoy the festival and meet the artists who work so hard to create their beautiful original artwork.”

BY LIZA STROUT - Serendipity brought Grant Quirk to Gill’s Grocery, and a decade later it led his successors, the Kaplans, to the store.

Ten years ago, Grant Quirk was discussing the end of his clamming business with a friend. The one-two punch of red tide and “rolling moss” had ruined his clam beds, and he was looking for something new to do.

Boca Grande has been the location for an awful lot of photo shoots, so many we usually don’t report on them. But, a couple of months ago a very high-profile fashion magazine – Vogue, to be exact – turned up in town with an interesting model.

Her name is Dree Hemingway, and she is the great-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway.