July 2006
Dear Friends of the Environment:
The Seventh Annual Charlotte Harbor Nature Festival will be held Saturday, October 7, 2006 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Charlotte County Sports Complex located at 2300 El Jobean Rd/SR 776 in Port Charlotte. Please help celebrate the splendor of the natural environment of Southwest Florida by sponsoring, exhibiting, volunteering and promoting this event.
The Festival is a family-friendly event where people can learn about topics affecting the natural environment of Southwest Florida such as estuaries, native plants and animals, fossils, wildlife rehabilitation, water conservation, marine life and much, much more. This is accomplished through a wide variety of activities for both adults and children, including guided walks in Tippecanoe Environmental Park, guest speaker presentations, hands-on activities, exhibitors, music and more. A Children’s Discovery Zone is dedicated to all things children!
This special occasion provides exceptional opportunities for environmental education. We need your help to make it a success. We ask that you become an integral part in helping to build this Festival into an indispensable feature of our region’s community activities. At the Festival in 2005 more than 100 exhibitors participated and more than 4,000 people attended! From one review of the cars we know people traveled from 13 counties in Florida, 17 states and Canada. Unfortunately the festival scheduled for February 4, 2006 was cancelled due to bad weather.
The Festival is a great opportunity to spread your message, advertise your business, demonstrate your accomplishments, build your constituency, and sell your creations! Respond by August 8, 2006 so that you will be included in the early promotional material. Final deadline for exhibitors and sponsors will be September 22, 2006, space permitting.
A committee of volunteers, who represent a diverse group of organizations, is dedicated to making this Festival exciting and informative. The committee has approved the following:
• Free admission and free parking to all.
• Exhibitors receive free exhibitor space; however, we request that all exhibitors donate items for the on-site raffle.
The upcoming Festival will be developed with the help of an event coordinator. If you have a question or would like to volunteer to help, please contact the event coordinator. You can reach Lori Cook North at lori@eventfulinc.com or 239-287-0780.
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: To sign up as a sponsor, complete the online sponsor form.
The Charlotte Harbor Nature Festival is made possible because of the generosity of sponsors and volunteers. In 2004 the Festival added a raffle to help raise funds to cover Festival expenses.
Sponsorship opportunities begin at $100. (Items donated for the raffle are not part of sponsorship.) There are many levels of sponsorship. The Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program is pleased to support the Charlotte Harbor Nature Festival for the seventh year as the event’s Bald Eagle level sponsor.
Respond by August 8, 2006 so that you will be included in the early promotional material. Final deadline for exhibitors will be September 22, 2006, space permitting.
Sponsorship | Sponsor Gift* | Booth, Table & Two Chairs | Name on Event Program | Name on Promo-tional Material | Name Mentioned at Festival | Festival Area Named Promo for Sponsor | Logo on Material |
| EXHIBITOR | $0 | ü |
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| DOLPHIN | $100 | ü | ü |
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| SEA TURTLE | $250 | ü | ü | ü |
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| OSPREY | $500 | ü | ü | ü | ü |
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| FLORIDA PANTHER | $1,000 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ü |
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| BALD EAGLE | $3,500 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ü | ü |
ü Services provided with sponsorship.
* Everyone participating in the festival is asked to donate items for the raffle.
EXHIBITOR: To sign up as an exhibitor, complete the online exhibitor form.
An exhibitor can be of any type of organization – nonprofit organizations, artisans, for-profit organizations – as long as it relates to the natural environment of Southwest Florida. Exhibitors with information on other topics are not invited to participate.
All exhibitors receive free space again this year; however, we request that you please donate item(s) with a $25 minimum value to the Festival raffle. Exhibitors who donate items to the raffle will be acknowledged during the raffle.
We require that exhibitors stay for the entire Festival from 10:00 to 3:00 P.M. Exhibitors may set up between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. All exhibitors must be set up no later than 9:00 a.m. Exhibitors will be placed around the stadium concourse and in tents. Exhibitors may bring their own tables, chairs and tents but tents must comply with county requirements.
VOLUNTEERS
As a volunteer, you can join the planning committee; help promote the Festival or volunteer the day before and day of the event.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We need everyone to help promote the Festival and its goal of educating the public in the conscientious stewardship of our natural resources. Your promotion of the Festival may include coverage in your organization newsletter, website or correspondence – or any way that is available to you. You can access this information on the Internet at www.CHNEP.org. The committee would like to recognize vendors who help promote the Festival so please send details to the event coordinator.
MORE INFORMATION
The website www.CHNEP.org will include this brochure, sample press releases, discount information on nearby hotels and other important information. The most up-to-date information about the Festival will always be available on the website. To ease communication for additional event information, participants are encouraged to provide an email address if available. Please note that there is no rain date. (Updates on the status of the festival due to weather conditions will be available by calling 239-287-0780.)
We hope that you will participate in the Seventh Annual Charlotte Harbor Regional Nature Festival, making it bigger and better than ever.
— Planning Committee Charlotte Harbor Nature Festival October 7, 2006