Please Join Us for the Lecture and Fundraising Celebration!

 Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture
Friday, February 17,2012, 7:30pm
Sanibel Island, Florida

Eighth Annual Fundraising Celebration
Saturday, February 18, 2012, 5:00-8:00pm
Sanibel  Island, Florida 

We would like to remind all of our supporters that the Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture and Annual Fundraising Celebration are just around the corner!  The response has been very positive. Please send your reply card to ensure your place at the Annual Fundraising Celebration and/or the Lecture.

This year's Lecture will be a poetry reading with commentary featuring renowned poet, Mary Oliver.  The Lecture is being held again at Saint Michael and All Angels Church on Sanibel Island on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 7:30 pm.  The Lecture is a signature event of the Center and brings public intellectuals to Southwest Florida to discuss issues such as sustainability, ethics, democracy, and literature.  All are welcome to join us; the Lecture is free and open to the public.  Seats will be reserved for contributors to the Eighth Annual Fundraising Celebration.  Overflow seating will be available in the Parish Hall.

The Eighth Annual Fundraising Celebration will be held on Sanibel Island, Saturday, February 18, 2012, from 5:00-8:00pm at the beachfront home of Peter and Mallory Haffenreffer.  This is the major fundraising event for the Center and helps to further its sustainability initiatives locally and globally.  At the party, guests can enjoy hors d'oeuvres prepared from locally grown produce, a  glorious view of the sunset, and a walk along the beach.

Brief remarks will be given at the party by Center Board of Advisor Co-Chairs, Mary Evelyn Tucker and David Orr, seen together in the photo on the right with Advisor Rick Clugston from a previous Celebration.  Poet and Board of Advisor member Alison Hawthorne Deming will also be giving brief remarks.

For those attending the Fundraising Celebration, a contribution of $50 per person is suggested.  If you are unable to attend the event, but would still like to make a contribution, you may send a check made payable to the following:

CESE/FGCU
Peter Blaze Corcoran, Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education
10501 FGCU Boulevard South
Fort Myers, Florida 33965-6565

For more information, or if you did not receive your invitation, please contact the Center by email at cese@fgcu.edu or by phone at (239) 590-7166. 

Island Women Respond to Mary Oliver’s Upcoming Visit

Photograph Mary Oliver. Copyright 2005 Rachel Giese Brown

The response that Sanibel, Captiva, and Useppa Island residents have had to Mary Oliver visiting Sanibel to do a poetry reading with commentary has been extravagant. Several Island women were quick to respond about their opportunity to see and hear this celebrated American poet.

Center Director and Sanibel resident, Peter Blaze Corcoran, explains, “Many island residents are clearly devoted readers of Mary Oliver. The response from Island women has been especially moving. We look forward to an inspiring reading for both those new to and familiar with her work.”

Rev. Dr. Ellen Sloan, Rector of Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church and Center Host Committee Member said, “I have collected her poetry for many years, and I am ecstatic that Mary Oliver is coming to Sanibel. I am so happy that everyone else will also have the opportunity to enjoy her work.”

Hollie Schmid from the Sanibel Island Bookshop, which will be selling books at the Lecture, said “I am thrilled to have National Book Award winning author Mary Oliver come to Sanibel Island! She writes so beautifully of nature and shows us the extraordinary in everyday life. Being on a sanctuary island and listening to Mary Oliver read her poetry will be the perfect fit!"

Ginny Amsler from Useppa Island shared that, “Mary Oliver’s poem About Angels and About Trees means a great deal to my friends and me. That poem touched us when we had one of our loved ones die. My friends and I want to go to the Lecture to say thank you to Mary Oliver.”

Holly Maiz, Sanibel resident and Center Host Committee Member, wrote to the Center saying, “I am completely thrilled that Mary Oliver is coming to Sanibel for the Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture. I have been reading and sharing her poems for years. She is one of the few people who manage to put the damp smell of earth directly onto the page! I have read her poems for students and clients, and taken her poems as my only reads while trekking in the wilderness. I can't wait for my friends here to see her.”

Captiva Memorial Librarian, Anne Bradley, told us, “Mary Oliver is a poet of stature and vision. To attend a reading by her will be a rare treat.”

The Center’s Annual Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture is being held Friday, February 17, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church on Sanibel Island. The following evening the Center will also be holding their Eighth Annual Fundraising Celebration from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Sanibel Island beachfront home of Peter and Mallory Haffenreffer. The lecture will be free and open to the public. Seats will be reserved for contributors to the Eighth Annual Fundraising Celebration.

Invitations to the Lecture and the Fundraising Celebration have been sent to the Center’s mailing list. If you did not receive your invitation and would like one, or would like more information on the Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture and the Annual Fundraising Celebration, please visit the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education at www.fgcu.edu/cese or contact us at cese@fgcu.edu or (239) 590-7166.

Sanibel Book Lovers Await Mary Oliver’s Arrival

The Sanibel Island Bookshop and the Sanibel Memorial Library have made special preparations for Mary Oliver’s upcoming visit for this year’s Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture. Both have made arrangements to make Mary Oliver’s work readily accessible to Islanders.     

 The staff of the Sanibel Public Library has organized a display of Mary Oliver’s books that are available for borrowing. Hollie Schmid, at the Sanibel Island Bookshop has also created an elaborate display of Mary Oliver’s works. Books available for purchase will include Mary Oliver’s, Pulitzer Prize winner, “American Primitive,” National Book Award winner for Poetry, “New and Selected Poems Volume One,” and many others! Mary Oliver has agreed to sign books after the Lecture. If you have not had a chance to purchase one of Oliver’s books, Hollie will also be selling books at the Lecture.

 Hollie explains that she is "thrilled to have National Book Award winning author Mary Oliver come to Sanibel Island! She writes so beautifully of nature and shows us the extraordinary in everyday life. Being on a sanctuary island and listening to Mary Oliver read her poetry will be the perfect fit!"

2012 Host Committee for the Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture Weekend Prepares for Mary Oliver's Visit

The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education at Florida Gulf Coast University and its Island friends have been busy preparing for poet Mary Oliver’s visit to Sanibel Island for this year's Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture.  The Lecture is an annual event of the Center that furthers our work toward realizing the dream of a sustainable and peaceful future for Earth through scholarship, education, and action.  The Center aims to elevate the environmental mission of FGCU and serve the local community of the Western Everglades and Barrier Islands.

Residents of the Southwest Florida community and Center staff joined to form a 2012 Host Committee to prepare for Mary Oliver’s visit to Sanibel.  The Center is holding Host Committee meetings weekly at The Sanibel Bean in preparation for the Lecture and Fundraising Celebration. Center Director Peter Blaze Corcoran has been working with the group to finalize the Center’s arrangements for the upcoming Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture Weekend.  Host Committee members include

The Lecture will be held Friday, February 17, 2012 at 7:30 PM at Saint Michael and All Angels Church on Sanibel Island.  The Lecture is free and open to the public but seats will be reserved for contributors to the Eighth Annual Fundraising Celebration.

The evening after the lecture, Saturday, February 18, 2012, the Center’s Eighth Annual Fundraising Celebration will be held at the Sanibel Island beachfront home of Peter and Mallory Haffenreffer from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.  This is a major fundraising event for the Center and helps to further its sustainability initiatives locally and globally.

If  have any questions or would like to request an invitation please contact the Center at cese@fgcu.edu or by phone at 239-590-7166.

Center Posts Concept Statement for 2012 Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture

The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education recently finalized and posted its concept statement for this year's Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture featuring poet Mary Oliver.  The Center has chosen to feature Mary Oliver for this year's Lecture because her poetry urges readers to reconsider the role of nature in our everyday lives.  Her poems rekindle what Rachel Carson  calls the "sense of wonder" for the natural world.  The work of Rachel Carson not only inspired the creation of our annual Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture, but is also the inspiration for much of our work at the Center.

After being informed that Mary Oliver would be giving this year's Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture, Poet and Center Board of Advisors Member, Alison Hawthorne Deming remarked:

"How many people carry a Mary Oliver poem around in their pocket, wallet, notebook, or heart?  Her poems have spread like seeds dispersing on the wind, in the paws of animals, the beaks of birds.  Her work and its broad following speaks to the power of poetry to make our lives resonate with the more-than-human world that embraces us.  She is our talismanic poet of ponds and woods, bears and marsh hawks, body and spirit.  Her poems transform the argument between amazement and skepticism into the beauty of song."

To access the complete version of this year's Concept Statement, please visit our Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture Series page.

The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education is a Type Two Research Institute of Florida Gulf Coast University. The Center is comprised of faculty, students and administrators from all Colleges.

The Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education works toward realizing the dream of a sustainable and peaceful future for Earth through scholarship, education, and action. The Center advances understanding and achievement of the goals of environmental and sustainability education through innovative educational research methods, emergent eco-pedagogies, and educational philosophy and practice based on ethics of care and sustainability. The Center seeks to elevate the environmental mission of Florida Gulf Coast University and serve the university community, the local community of the Western Everglades and Barrier Islands, and the wider community of scholars.