• The Forgotten Language Tour:  From Saturday, October 21 through Tuesday, October 24, we will host several contemporary writers who will provide readings and workshops both on Sanibel Island and the FGCU campus.  Students will be encouraged to participate in as many events as possible, but especially in the readings and discussions on Saturday, October 21 (on Sanibel Island) and the readings and discussions on Monday, October 23 (on the FGCU campus).  Additional events will occur on Sunday, October 22 and possibly Tuesday, October 24.

“The Orion Society’s Forgotten Language Tour is a national tour of leading writers and poets that offers a series of readings, workshops, and discussions that promote nature literacy – a deeper, more dynamic and creative understanding of our relationship with the natural world – and offers new ways of envisioning community. Now in its eighth year, The Forgotten Language Tour draws on our country’s great barnstorming and storytelling traditions, attempting to bring communities together in the recognition that the health of the human community is inextricably bound with that of the natural world.” (Please see http://www.orionsociety.org/flt.html for more information on the Tour).  

Our leg of the Forgotten Language Tour will bring attention to the destruction of the forgotten Western Everglades. 
  
  

Riverwoods Retreat:  On Saturday, November 18, we will gather at Riverwoods near Lake Okeechobee for an encounter with the environment and for sharing presentations.  Students will be encouraged to spend all day Saturday at Riverwoods and will have the opportunity to spend the evening in their lodge. 

“The Riverwoods Field Laboratory (RFL) is a facility jointly funded by the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Center for Environmental Studies whose main mission is to support research and educational activities related to the restoration of the Kissimmee River and the ecology of Lake Okeechobee. Established in 1994, it coordinates the activities of research scientists, students, and technicians from state and out of state organizations and institutions, including universities, water management agencies and other organizations.  RFL is also a place where Florida educators and students come to learn, through workshops and other indoor and outdoor activities, about some of the pressing aquatic issues that affect the region, such as water quality and pollution, ecosystem health and regeneration, natural vs. manmade wetlands as well as other topics.” (Please see http://riverwoods.ces.fau.edu/ for more information.)