This Saturday, Wekiva Island will be closed until 5:00 p.m. for our annual Fall Egg Fest. We’d love for you to join the fun—grab your ticket and be part of the festivities. After 5:00 p.m., the Island will reopen and welcome guests as usual.
Whenever you walk on to the grounds of Wekiva Island, you are met with signs. Signs that greet you, explain the rules and give you the lay of the land. You may think, “Wow, how many signs does one place need?” And yes, it is a lot. We really care about the river, our business and the people visiting. However, as you move further into our beautiful Island, you will find signs that go beyond just statements and directives. These signs are filled with knowledge, with research and most importantly, with a purpose.
My name is Sammy Weinaug, and I am the education coordinator at Wekiva Island. I am a former high school chemistry teacher and the wife of Billy, general manager, bartender and jack of all trades at the Island. I have been in the family for eight years now, and after having our first child, Sydney, the Island princess, I have really gotten an opportunity to be more involved.
Our education journey at Wekiva Island started with my father-in-law, Bill’s, desire to educate the public while they’re having a good time. You can see that when you first enter the property with the signs by the old marina talking about how nitrates affect the Wekiva River. In the Solar Array, we have an exhibit showing trash that has been collected from the river. Then of course, we have a recycling bin attached to all of our trash cans, as a little reminder to our guests to make good choices.
On our social media pages and website, we always try to express our three pillars of sustainability, art and education by posting information that shares not only how fun and beautiful the Island is, but also how we are trying to help our environment and community. Education is woven into all we are.
This leads me to early 2020, where we had the idea to create educational programming. We planned to work with the state park and local homeschool groups to provide outdoor enhancement opportunities. Of course, we all know what happened in 2020, so that idea faded into the background for a bit.
Enter me. I moved from Texas with Billy in 2022 and found myself looking to help with the educational goals of the Island. I was presented with an opportunity to create a summer camp that ran one week in June with Lenore McHugh, owner of TLC Tutoring & Learning Services. We have now offered the camp for three years, and it has grown and blossomed—literally. For our 2024 camp, our campers helped create a pollinator garden, which now greets our guests and beautifies a once-plain parking lot planter with local native plants. It also adds to our Island educational signage!
Additionally, throughout the year, we try to plan kids programming themed to important holidays. The most recent example was our Earth Day celebration, where we offered a story time and kids craft. It was a huge hit and a great way to bring the theme down to the level of the little ones. During our Winter Wonderland month, we also have Storytime with Mrs. Claus, which is a personal favorite of mine.
It doesn’t end there. In the future, through requests of our guests, we would like to add more kid crafting and story time opportunities that keep the focus on environmental awareness and the natural world. We would also like to add in some kid-based art activities through Gallery CERO, with the help of our new gallerist, Lexi.
Education is truly woven into everything you see at the Island—just like our signage. We hope next time you join us, you learn something and take away the mission to be better for the beautiful natural world we all enjoy. And I hope to build on our educational mission in the years to come as part of the Weinaug family.
This Saturday, Wekiva Island will be closed until 5:00 p.m. for our annual Fall Egg Fest. We’d love for you to join the fun—grab your ticket and be part of the festivities. After 5:00 p.m., the Island will reopen and welcome guests as usual.
Join Wekiva Island and 3 Daughters Brewing this Saturday for a seafood feast benefiting the Central Florida Zoo. Enjoy a pound of jumbo shrimp, clams, corn, potatoes, sausage, and three pours of beer, all for $45!