Good Works

It’s the first week of sea turtle nesting season in Southwest Florida, and this year the thousands of loggerheads and greens that nest on our beaches have a new ally in nine-year-old entrepreneur Naomi Haynam. The Cape Coral pre-teen so loves sea turtles she’s making beach-themed earrings and selling them at home, online, and in parks to raise money to donate to volunteer sea turtle protection groups.

For five years, Michelle and Jeremy Kuntze have been building an excited pool of actors and patrons at Fort Myers Theatre on San Carlos Boulevard. Now, they’re opening a second location. The Fort Myers Dinner Theatre will produce its inaugural play in July.

An Immokalee assistant director has been recognized statewide for helping first-generation students navigate the path to college.

“I’d like to have a chance to go to Broadway and beyond; maybe do movies and other things like that,” said JJ Freitas outside Fort Myers Theatre recently. Freitas has taken two big steps in pursuit of those lofty goals. First, he traveled with Fort Myers Theater to the Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta in January. It’s the Super Bowl of student-driven musical theater.

A pickleball pro who competed in the US Open championships in Naples picked up the game when he was healing from cancer. He loved it so much, he shared it all the way to Papua New Guinea.

There’s a national shortage of Ob/Gyns. But a new program at Lee Health can help.