MangoMania celebrates 20 years
People began arriving before the gates opened at this year’s MangoMania Tropical Fruit Fair Saturday morning.
“MangoMania celebrates the harvest of Pine Island’s mangoes and other tropical fruit,” Greater Pine Island Chamber of Commerce director Jennifer Jennings said. “We’ve spent the last several months planning and getting ready for these two days. This year we doubled the number of vendors we had last year. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of people to put this together and of course I’d like to thank all of our volunteers for helping to make this happen.”
The two-day festival that is “all about the mango,” was held on the grounds for the German American Club on Pine Island Road.
Pine Island Boy Scout Troop #20 officially opened the 20th annual event with the presentation of the colors and leading the Pledge of Allegiance. Trailer Park Barbie followed with the national anthem.
“I’ve been kicking off MangoMania for four years now,” Trailer Park Barbie said. “I am always honored to do this as well as the fishing derby. It’s a very difficult song to sing and it all depends on how low you start because it’s so hard to reach the high notes. But it is a beautiful song and I’m honored to open MangoMania every year.”
Greeting people as they entered the park was Mango Queen Summer Dooley. The Dooley family are native Pine Islanders for several generations and Summer has been a teacher at Pine Island Elementary for 8 years.
“I was a kindergarten teacher for 3 years and I taught 3rd grade last year,” Dooley said “This year I am excited to be teaching fourth grade.”
“Being mango queen has been a whirlwind and so much fun,” Dooley said. “I was crowned in April and all of the teachers at Pine Island Elementary, and all my friends, had so much fun with it I got mango soda, mango Chapstick, mango candles. Every time someone spotted something mango, it would become a gift. I was also excited to meet with the Lee County Commissioners and representing Pine Island as mango queen.”
“My husband and I come almost every year,” Brenda King said. “We live in Fort Myers and try to get to Pine Island at least a couple of times a year usually for dinner but Mango-Mania we seldom miss. I always buy a MangoMania shirt I think I have five or six of these shirts. I have to say there seems to be more vendors this year because there’s a lot more walking.”
Donald Ware, owner of Fish Wear Outfitters on Matlacha, has rented a booth at several MangoMania events.
“This is our 3rd year at Mango Mania,” Ware said. “It’s pretty amazing that people come to MangoMania from all over. Just this morning I’ve spoken to people from Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda and Bonita Beach, so this is a big Southwest Florida event that has proven successful for our business.”
The Greater Pine Island Chamber of Com-merce and the Mango-Mania Committee have issued a public huge “thank you” to the sponsors of this year’s event: The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel, LCEC (Lee County Electric Company), Tarpon Lodge (Restaurant and Lodg-ing), Budweiser (adult beverages), The News-Press (Newspaper), Ad&PrintCraft (Printing, Website Development, Event Organizing & Marketing), Hole In One (Golf Cart Sales and Rentals, Pine Island Eagle and Cape Coral Breeze (Newspapers), Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Honc Industries (Construction, Seawalls, Demolition and more).
Contest results will be announced next week.