On Pine Island, mangoes are the universal language. Each type of mango delivers a sweet taste with its own special flare, and thrives in the island’s soil, which is said to be perfect for the fruit.
There is nowhere better to show all that the exotic fruit is and does than at the annual MangoMania event.
This year the event held it's 28th annual celebration and, after some years in other Southwest Florida locations, it was set up for the third straight year on Pine Island.
"It's very exciting that there's so many mango farms and other tropical fruit farms out here that we like to showcase each summer," Cynthia Welch, with the Pine Island Greater Chamber of Commerce, said.
The event's festivities focused on education and community with seminars on topics surrounding mangoes throughout the day, including cooking with mango, and the care of the fruit's trees.
Welch feels that MangoMania is an opportunity to showcase the Island's king fruit, and celebrate a major part of Pine Island's culture.
"Everyone thinks we all close down when the snowbirds go home, well, we actually get going for round two, and we're very excited that we can do that," she said.
Other festival activities made the day fun for the whole family, and included a Mr. Mango Head competition for kids and a contest to weigh the heaviest locally grown mango. That contest featured a mango that weighed in at a sweet 5.6 pounds.
Seventy-eight local businesses had a presence at the event, but the main beneficiary of MangoMania was Samaritan Health and Wellness Center, a non-profit dedicated to providing affordable physical and mental health care for southwest Floridians.
Samaritan, with a satellite clinic on the Island, arrived in the wake of Hurricane Ian to help with the island's storm victims. Samaritan’s founder Sue Hook says she does it for the people who work the island’s horticulture scene.
"There are a lot of people that are working uninsured. They work in the palm tree farms, the mango farms, they're all these people that are out there working really hard every day," Hook said. "So we make it affordable, professional health care that people can trust."
Local mango grower Steve Cucura says hurricanes have historically been very hard on local groves. Though they're more protected than on the East Coast, as shown by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the damage requires intensive recovery measures.
After weathering recent hurricanes, Cucura maintains that Ian will be his last major storm as a farmer, but not without doing his due diligence to keep the Pine Island mango grower spirit alive.
"I went through Charley and I went through Ian, and after Ian destroyed me, I barely had enough energy to recover," Cucura said. "We have the fighting spirit in us, but then you hit a limit. I'm just going to let the next generation rebuild, and I'm going to let them learn from my experience."
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