New business program aims to empower leaders for economic and ecological success.
Our first-ever Preserving Paradise cohort kicked off on Tuesday in Fort Myers with an eager group!
This immersive program, executed in collaboration with The Everglades Foundation, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, and the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce, is designed to engage the business community towards a common goal: restore and protect water quality to safeguard Southwest Florida’s economic and ecological future.
Over the next two months, 23 local business leaders will dive headfirst into south Florida’s water-quality issues through field excursions and classroom sessions that empower them to become stronger environmental stewards.
From the program, cohorts will take away a deeper level of advocacy that they can share with their peers and business teammates to facilitate more widespread understanding of the role our water quality plays in the health of our economy.
“If we can use education to empower leaders in these different spaces, those leaders can then use that education and knowledge to empower others around them to become advocates themselves,” says Capt. Chris Wittman, CFCW Co-Founder.
The inaugural cohort consists of leaders from a variety of businesses and industries, ranging in size and scope. Among others, the tourism, real estate, hospitality, restaurant, and small business sectors are all represented, including folks like Matt Johnson of the IMAG History & Science Center in Fort Myers.
“My job is to tell a story of Southwest Florida. You can’t tell the story without talking about water,” says Johnson. “It’s such an important piece that we need to understand and we need to know. The better I can understand it, the better we can tell that story to the hundred-thousand-plus people we’re able to reach every year to hopefully get that spread further.”
Cohorts will experience Everglades Restoration up close and personal, tour the Caloosahatchee River Estuary, forge powerful connections with like-minded executives, and learn how to be a positive driving force for Florida’s clean-water-driven economy.
“There’s a lot of good that’s going to come out of this,” says David Lowden of Bank of the Islands. “This is an opportunity to actually get out there and work with […] the other great people that are here and bring some momentum and some synergy to get this to the next level, where it needs to go.”
By more deeply engaging the business community in water-quality advocacy through programs like this, we can forge a stronger force for advocacy to expedite Everglades Restoration, ultimately protecting our ecosystems, our communities, and our economies for generations to come.
“I want to be a part of a conversation where people say, ‘I remember when this group of individuals started advocating and changed the tide of things, changed the course and we turned things around,’” says Tim Collier of Tim Collier-State Farm and Big Nick’s BBQ. “So, I’m hoping that my generation and my children’s generation will be a part of that conversation.”
New business program aims to empower leaders for economic and ecological success.
Our first-ever Preserving Paradise cohort kicked off on Tuesday in Fort Myers with an eager group!
This immersive program, executed in collaboration with The Everglades Foundation, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, and the Sanibel-Captiva Chamber of Commerce, is designed to engage the business community towards a common goal: restore and protect water quality to safeguard Southwest Florida’s economic and ecological future.
Over the next two months, 23 local business leaders will dive headfirst into south Florida’s water-quality issues through field excursions and classroom sessions that empower them to become stronger environmental stewards.
From the program, cohorts will take away a deeper level of advocacy that they can share with their peers and business teammates to facilitate more widespread understanding of the role our water quality plays in the health of our economy.
“If we can use education to empower leaders in these different spaces, those leaders can then use that education and knowledge to empower others around them to become advocates themselves,” says Capt. Chris Wittman, CFCW Co-Founder.
The inaugural cohort consists of leaders from a variety of businesses and industries, ranging in size and scope. Among others, the tourism, real estate, hospitality, restaurant, and small business sectors are all represented, including folks like Matt Johnson of the IMAG History & Science Center in Fort Myers.
“My job is to tell a story of Southwest Florida. You can’t tell the story without talking about water,” says Johnson. “It’s such an important piece that we need to understand and we need to know. The better I can understand it, the better we can tell that story to the hundred-thousand-plus people we’re able to reach every year to hopefully get that spread further.”
Cohorts will experience Everglades Restoration up close and personal, tour the Caloosahatchee River Estuary, forge powerful connections with like-minded executives, and learn how to be a positive driving force for Florida’s clean-water-driven economy.
“There’s a lot of good that’s going to come out of this,” says David Lowden of Bank of the Islands. “This is an opportunity to actually get out there and work with […] the other great people that are here and bring some momentum and some synergy to get this to the next level, where it needs to go.”
By more deeply engaging the business community in water-quality advocacy through programs like this, we can forge a stronger force for advocacy to expedite Everglades Restoration, ultimately protecting our ecosystems, our communities, and our economies for generations to come.
“I want to be a part of a conversation where people say, ‘I remember when this group of individuals started advocating and changed the tide of things, changed the course and we turned things around,’” says Tim Collier of Tim Collier-State Farm and Big Nick’s BBQ. “So, I’m hoping that my generation and my children’s generation will be a part of that conversation.”