Snook Inn Fishing Tournament Raises Money for Police Scholarship Fund

September is one of the slowest months for businesses on the island, but on Saturday, the Snook Inn saw a full house, as dozens of fishers and their families showed up to support the Marco Island Police Department.

28 teams in all got up before the crack of dawn at 4 a.m. and took off from the docks and into the waterways around the island, all part of the restaurant’s first annual Reel Heroes Fishing Tournament, a tourney that raises funds for the Marco Police Foundation.

The tourney raised $24,500 for the MPF this year, which will support the MPF’s scholarship program, an incentive for local officers to remain in the community by giving them and their family members opportunities to complete their education. Over the last five years alone, MPF has awarded officers around $400,000 in scholarships through this initiative.

The tourney also awarded $4,000 to the winning team, who called themselves Blackjack, for catching the largest fish, with a combined total of 84 inches. Kids who also participated in the tournament received a reward, with the top three places receiving a plaque and upwards of $150 in gift certificates to Sweet Annie’s Ice Cream.

Although this was the first time organizers at the Snook Inn hosted a fishing tournament, they hope it will become a yearly event, having been taken aback by the rallying community support, even in the off-season.

“The Carvelli Restaurant Group and the Snook Inn family feel very blessed to have been supported by this beautiful community, Marco Island, throughout the years, and we feel responsible, and have some of the responsibility, to give back to this beautiful community,” said Snook Inn Owner Luigi Carvelli, when presenting the money to Police Chief Joseph Belardo and MPF President Michael Hook.

“Your work is done sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes it's done very quietly, and sometimes you don't get the full recognition you deserve. But one thing we want to tell you, on behalf of all these amazing people here and the Marco Island community, is that you have our full support today, tomorrow, and always.”

Hook thanked Carvelli and Katy Feury, manager of the Snook Inn, who helped organize the event, and said he was impressed by how the community came together for a good cause.

“It was outstanding. So many people, starting with Luigi Carvelli and Katy Feury, came together and put this fishing tournament together and recognized heroes in our community,” Hook said. “Because of the support of the community and the generosity of the community, we've been able to provide pretty significant scholarships for students . . . I think this event has been a huge success. If you look at all the fishing teams that participated, not only did they have a great competition, but they raised a lot of money for a good charity. And I think that's what being at Marco is all about.”Hook explained that the scholarship began in 2007 with modest endowments of upwards of $2,000, now reaching up to $5,000 per semester and $2,000 during the summer months. The scholarships are available to both officers and their families and serve as an incentive to retain talent in the area. He said that, as one of the lower-paying departments in the area, it was a point of pride to offer one of the best-paying scholarships, keeping officers in the community rather than having them move to other departments that might offer higher base pay. Feury, who played a major role in organizing the competition, said she received help from Naples Captain Chris Broome, a US Coast Guard-licensed captain and tournament angler, who consulted free of charge when they came to him with the idea of putting together a tournament. She said it was a spur-of-the-moment idea that evolved the more they planned, settling on the catch-and-release competition between three species of fish - snook, redfish, and trout.Feury said many teams came within inches of each other, which gave the tourney a fierce, friendly edge on the water, especially with the kids involved. Most of the money came from banners hung along the Marco Island River for two weeks ahead of the tournament, which counted as a fully tax-deductible donation. After the winners were announced, a raffle was also held to recoup some of the expenses for the tourney, offering off items like a portable fire pit, a minifridge, a cooler, and several fishing rods. Feury said she was thrilled by how many showed up on Saturday for the event. “I'm feeling very good. I'm glad that for our first tournament we had a great turnout,” Feury said. “I'm really proud of the community and the amount of money that they were able to raise. In just three days, I was overwhelmed with how quickly everyone responded. And as far as the fishermen coming in, I'm thrilled that we were able to get so many teams, and we had such a great turnout for our first time." She added that, for the month of September, all Collier County residents have a 25% discount at the Snook Inn.