Thank You All for making the 2008
Lake Apopka clean-up a success!
I wanted to thank you all for your time this past Saturday in helping clean up the lake. I really appreciate all of you taking time out of your weekend to spend time helping with this cause. I think Lake Apopka is a beautiful lake and feel it has gotten a bad rap. As you can probably tell, I’m very passionate about the lake and doing what I can to help preserve its beauty and its wildlife. I have to say; about 2 months out I was a little worried we were going to be able to pull off this clean up. Although we had a lot of people expressing interest, most of them did not have airboats or shallow water boats that are needed for Lake Apopka during the dry season. Since access to the shoreline is limited, I was worried we wouldn’t have enough boats to make an impact and keep the volunteers on the ground busy. I would like to thank the Kissimmee River Valley Sportsman Association (Danny Brantley President) and the Florida Airboat Association (especially Dawn and Charity) for pulling together some last minute boats for us as well as SJRWMD and FWC for providing boats and crews. I would also like to thank Jenifer Brantley for her support and encouragement to do this project. I think we had a good balance of boats to ground volunteers to make our first attempt at this a success. I would also like to thank all the ground volunteers; we absolutely couldn’t have pulled it off without you. Robin was very pleased that there were no “whiners” on the ground. Everyone kept a great attitude, was patient with waiting for the boats to come in, and jumped in to help as soon as they did. We really appreciate you spending your morning with us and Great Job everybody! Nicole Valentino and Gina Ovinnio also went above and beyond in knocking on doors trying to drum up support and sponsorship. Nicole also joined her Valencia Community College students to help out with the clean up. In addition, we would like to thank the media for their support. I know there are probably many that provided media support that we are not aware of; however, several of the volunteers had mentioned that they read about the clean up in the West Orange Times and The Apopka Chief, and in Mayor Scott Vandergrift’s Community Gazette. We also appreciate Channel 6 News coming out and filming the clean up and providing coverage on the 6pm and 11pm broadcasts. And special thanks to Airboating Magazine for printing the “Keeping Lake Apopka Beautiful” article in their July/August issue and also Southern Airboat.com for helping us reach the airboating community. Thanks to both Jim Peterson and John Deam for tackling the grocery and supply list for the event. And thanks again to John Deam for doing the grilling to feed all of us after working up an appetite.
I also want to thank the sponsors that provided their financial and organizational support for this effort:
Friends of Lake Apopka www.fola.org
St. John’s River Water Management District ... Jim Peterson http://sjr.state.fl.us/
Oakland Nature Preserve ... Tom Rodriguez ... www.oaklandnaturepreserve.org
Magnolia Park provided the lake side pavilion and outstanding assistance from the Park Staff including:
Ginger Bickett- Recreation Specialist
Michael Dudley- Park Specialist
Ronnie Cochrane- Park Specialist
Donna Peeples- Recreation Leader
Jimmy Olsen- Park Specialist
Fred Wilson-site supervisor
City of Winter Garden (in particular Jay Conn) http://www.cwgdn.com/
State Representative Bryan Nelson http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=4362
Best Buy – Ocoee – Dana Boldizsar Store Manager www.bestbuy.com
Garden Theatre – Winter Garden
Bo with Wright’s Roll Off’s provided the dumpster at Magnolia Park (407-889-0018)
Again, I do really appreciate everyone’s efforts and support and look forward to working with you all again next year!!
Sincerely,
Mike Brinkley
mbrinkley@mikebrinkleyphotography.com
(407)310-3545