Cape Coral's art festival funds vital community support initiatives

Hundreds of artists and craftsmen from around the world are expected to gather in Cape Coral this weekend for the Cape Coral Art Festival. The event not only showcases art but also supports the Rotary Club of Cape Coral, a nonprofit organization.

The festival serves as the club's biggest fundraiser of the year, with all proceeds going toward community initiatives. 

The funds raised helped the Guiding Grace Family Support Network.

"We are Guiding Grace Family Support Network, and our mission is to dismantle the barriers that keep families from stability," said Meghan DeLuca, the executive director.

The organization provides resources to families in need, like food, clothing, hygiene products, and affordable housing. But to do so, they need money. 

That's when the Rotary Club stepped up.

"We are so very grateful to the Rotary Club, through its foundation," said DeLuca. "The idea that they believed in what we do here, so much that they offered us a grant as an organization, was over and above and beyond anything that I truly imagined."

The Rotary Club Foundation trustee, Amy Rouskey, emphasized the importance of the festival.

"The art festival is our biggest fundraiser of the entire year," said Rouskey. "All the money that we raise at that festival goes directly back into the community."

The funds have supported various projects, including the installation of 200 benches at bus stops across Cape Coral, providing dictionaries to every third-grader in Lee County, and donating over 1,000 books and bibs to Cape Coral Hospital for newborns.

"Every year we give to the Cape Coral Caring Center, to Rotary Park," said Rouskey. "We give scholarships to Cape Coral residents, to the students, to FGCU, FSW, and soon they'll be giving a lot of scholarships to the trade schools. We also help out Cape Coral High School. We built a garden for them. We also have the Rotary Community Garden. The art festival funds pretty much everything that we do," Rouskey said.

The festival raises more than $100,000 annually, thanks to the participating artists. It's all given back to the community by the club.

"It's the principle of Rotary," said Rouskey.

DeLuca shared how the Rotary Club inspired her work.

"I joined the Rotary Club of Cape Coral as a personal mission because our motto is service above self, and it gave me an outlet for me to serve," said DeLuca. "We are deeply, deeply grateful to Rotary for believing in our mission and in the families we serve right here in our community."

The Rotary Club of Cape Coral is preparing for what they anticipate to be a successful year at their biggest fundraiser this weekend.