‘Christmas Day on Pine Island Bay’
Dan Fischer has created a driftwood Christmas tree for the Beacon of H.O.P.E’s Holiday House. The tree will be auctioned off to the highest bidder during the three-day event from Dec. 4-6 at Tarpon Lodge.
“I was originally approached by Elsie Stearns from Stonegate Bank,” Fischer said. “She asked me if I would do one of their vendor trees with hand-carved ornaments to raise money for the Holiday House. That put the idea into my mind that it would be counter-productive to put hand carved ornaments on an artificial tree so I decided to make a tree out of materials from the bay driftwood.
“I like to kayak all around Matlacha Pass and find these pieces of driftwood and have made driftwood fish out of it and thought about making this a drift wood tree – this is the result,” Fischer said. “The carved ornaments are of everything I’ve seen on the bay during this time of year. I spent the whole summer carving the little ornaments: dolphins, osprey, turtles, stingrays, horse-shoe crabs. redfish, snook, spanish mackerel, sea trout, mullet, birds, blue crabs, sea horses, eagles and even sponges.”
The plaque under the tree reads:
Christmas Day on Pine Island Bay
“Through the night and into the morn, creatures all large and small, drawn to the light above the mangrove isle, to gaze upon the star so bright.”
“The tree will be auctioned off at the three -day event at Tarpon Lodge,” Fischer said. “The starting bid is $500 with 50 percent going to the Beacon of H.O.P.E. Hope to see you there!”