
Dwain Naftal, Goodland Resident is like our very own Angel of the Road.
Wikipedia says this about a community: “A community of place is a community of people who are bound together because of where they reside, work, visit, or otherwise spend a continuous portion of their time.” Wikipedia’s definition seems to be missing something. Love, lending a helping hand, offering a smile, an embrace, a kind word, feeling empathy, withholding judgment, having a heart of goodness are just a few qualities which add strength to oneself, to one another, and to the community in which we live.
Maybe it is my age or the wisdom of life’s experiences over the years, but the appreciation of my unbridled fortune in raising three sons on Marco Island, and the addition of friendships beginning 30 years ago, is remarkable. The strength of bond that we all had during cub scouts, “thousands” of baseball and football games, parties, boating, and school functions that began so long ago, seems to become only stronger as I see children who grew up with my sons now visit their parents with children of their own.
Marco Island is a relatively new community and, like

The Gewirtz family enjoys reuniting on Resident’s Beach.
The heart of the matter is that the community is composed of its people—all of us individuals. The vision for well-being and goodness in each one of us, manifested in how we treat one another, is a continuing process and is reflected in the people in our lives, and thus, automatically branches out indefinitely. The community which has grown substantially on this largest of the ten thousand island system is strong in spirit, and the majority of its individuals possess the inner vision for well-being and goodness towards family, friend, and neighbor.
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