Traveling companions

I always reach for the travel section first. No matter what city I am in or which newspaper I am consuming, I always go straight for the same stories. I know I am aging myself by admitting I still get my news via print. But it has been one of life’s rituals to be up close and personal with the ink version of the news.

I particularly love the first-hand accounts of travel journalists’ adventures to all corners of the world. Even if I never have the chance to visit the subject of the story, it is still wonderful to see it through the eyes of someone who made the trip.

In this week’s edition of Florida Weekly — whether you consume it digitally or via newsprint — the foundation’s fall newsletter takes you on a virtual tour of our journey this summer highlighting some of the work we have been doing traveling the corners of the SWFL region.

I realize many of you have been enjoying cooler days in your summer homes and many full-time residents have been traveling or busy with summer plans. But just like the travel journalists I enjoy, we have tried to give you a glimpse of some local activities you may want to discover on your own in the future.

You may not have had the chance to go to the new Full STEAM Ahead camps held in Naples that enriches young students in the areas of science, technology, engineering, arts and math, but the story will give you a great glimpse of what went on there this summer.

Or you may have missed the up-close and very personal dialogue we had in neighborhoods throughout the region to discover the voices of women and children in our community. This work is guiding our Women’s Legacy Fund grant process taking place now.

We also spent some time at a few local attractions keeping up with our communications interns, our first group of Florida Fellows, that we placed in the Naples Botanical Garden and at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel, and we worked alongside the city of Fort Myers’ nonprofit leaders and boards to envision a more robust plan for the Imaginarium and the Southwest Florida Museum of History.

We also enjoyed a well-traveled road of generosity and outreach to those in need throughout these past summer months.

I hope you will reach for our newsletter in the same way I reach for the travel section and discover just a small sampling of the potential for doing good right here in Southwest Florida. I would love to have you as a traveling companion on our journey. If you want to join me, just let me know at iamlistening@floridacommunity.com.

— As leaders, conveners, grant makers and concierges of philanthropy, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation is a foundation built on community leadership with an inspired history of fostering regional change for the common good in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. The Community Foundation, founded in 1976, connects donors and their philanthropic aspirations with evolving community needs. With assets of more than $93 million, the Community Foundation has provided $61.2 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves. Last year, it granted more than $2.9 million to nonprofit organizations supporting education, animal welfare, arts, health care and human services. It granted $782,000 in nonprofit grants including more than $551,000 in regional community impact grants and additional $450,000 in scholarship grants.