Julie McEnroe from the Conch Republic joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the independence celebration.
McEnroe has been involved in the celebration since 1995.
She said, “When I was still living in Fort Myers and Finbar, who I’d met in New Zealand in ‘92, he and I had reconnected, and I came down for the festival, and it was pretty amazing. And my background is in events, so once I moved here in ‘97, I ended up helping him from the military side, and just got a little more involved and a little more involved. And when Jim Gilleran took it over in 2016 that’s when I kind of jumped in head first. And it’s been wonderful. We’ve got such a great volunteer group that puts on so many events during the festival, and some of them have been here literally since day one, like the craft fair that’s put on by the sunset celebration, the artists down at Mallory. This was their 42nd year that they’ve been doing. The drag races also go back to the same year they celebrated their 42nd year. And this Saturday, we’ve got the bed races, which is the other traditional, well, that and the great battle. Those are really the four that started from day one, and then since then, we’ve been able to just expand. And we had yesterday the Cow Key Bridge run, which had always been on Sunday of Easter. And they decided that last year after Easter was during the festival they had so much fun participating as one of our events that they literally moved it now to always being the first Sunday of the festival. So that’s kind of fun when we keep attracting new events along the line. Ocean fest is another one that always happens during Earth Week. And we were talking to the coordinator, and it’s the same thing that we’re going to try and see if they aren’t able to always host it during the festival as well, because it’s another event that just really showcases the community’s awareness and concern for the ocean cleanups, the mangroves, taking care of the environment, that sort of thing. And thanks to our Conch Republic marine army, we’ve got the oceans and mangrove cleanups going weekly every Saturday that are open to volunteers of all ages if they want to participate.”
Seventy refrigerators to date alone have been pulled out of the oceans thanks to the Conch Republic Marine Army.
McEnroe said, “It started after Hurricane Irma.”
The Conch Republic is also about giving back all year long.
McEnroe said, “It’s so exciting to be able to coordinate, because the number of nonprofits that are participating with the events that go throughout the festival, any of our ticketed events all benefit nonprofits. And then we also have a cadre of free to the public. For example, the opening ceremony at Mallory, and this Wednesday, we have the actual birthday of the Conc Republic when she turns 44 so we’re having a ceremony at Mallory Square at 4:30 on the 23rd on Thursday, followed by our world’s longest street parade that’s on Duval that goes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and has one heck of a party at Schooner Water Bar afterwards.”
Don’t forget the battle this week.
McEnroe said, “It’s a battle not to be missed at all. I do want to just remind people too, we have a cocktail dinner party at the sunset pier at Ocean Key house tomorrow night, and it’s a kickoff fundraising campaign for the flagship Wolf, which was in limbo for a few years after Finbar passed away, we weren’t sure what her future was. The captain Seth, who literally grew up on the ship, he’s our Admiral of the Conch Republic Navy. He and Donald from 3D Boat Yard, have assumed the stewardship of the ship, and I’m happy to report that she’s not in the battle this year, but if everything goes according to plan, she’ll be able to lead the battle again next year. Tickets are available online now or we will have based on availability, you can come to the door too, if you want to just bypass the registration at this point and just show up. Registration starts at six o’clock and it’s open to the public. It’s going to be a beautiful event with the color guard presentation, 21 conch shell salute, we have a toast at sunset to long live the Conch Republic and great music and a few other special guest stars. We just invite the public to come and celebrate their fundependence with us. And just really, I guess the whole concept of the festival is to celebrate our island community and show the world that you can have a lot of fun. And as Finbar would always say, we know how to fight wars. We fight wars with the key lime pies, the Cuban bread and the water balloons and water hoses, that sort of thing. And we just want to share that humor is really what’s needed more in our world at this point.”
For more information, click here: https://conchrepublic.com/