Since Sept. 28, when Southwest Florida’s first responders and dispatchers took thousands of heartbreaking 911 calls, there has been a big focus on those first responders’ mental well-being.
In a survey from No Kid Hungry Florida, 26% of moms and dads said they are worried that everyone in their households won’t have enough to eat. Even in Southwest Florida’s rural communities like Immokalee, communities that grow and harvest a lot of the produce we eat, people say they can’t get that nutritious food […]
One homeowner living in Estero’s Stoneybrook community found a pair of huge rattlesnakes this week, and a married duo of snake wranglers had to take them away. Taylor and Rhett Stanberry, who in December caught an albino boa constrictor in Naples, went out to remove the eastern diamondbacks, a species of rattlesnake not uncommon […]
After the devastation left behind by Hurricane Ian, many in Southwest Florida were faced with the difficult decision of packing up and leaving or staying behind to rebuild. It was a dramatic fork in the road from a simple this-or-that choice, no matter how old you are. When WINK News first walked into Paul Riederer […]
Throughout 2022, WINK News featured nearly two dozen adoptable pets during its Pet Pals segment during morning broadcasts, and many found their forever homes shortly after. WINK caught up with the new families of two such dogs who will be spending their first Christmas together. Nine-year-old dog Bear was featured on Pet Pals in […]
Most of Sanibel is still unrecognizable one month after Hurricane Ian. The former vacation destination once filled with tourists and snowbirds is now awash with workers, like the firefighters who have been busy there since the first evacuations. Sanibel firefighters tried to return later the same night they evacuated the island for the storm, but […]
Hospitals in Southwest Florida are finally getting back to normal operations after Hurricane Ian, including a group of disabled interns with Project SEARCH, who returned to work on Monday. Project SEARCH is a collaboration between Southwest Florida school districts, hospital systems and the Center for Independent Living Gulf Coast. It’s a year-long program that gives […]
A group of young adults started an Instagram page to get volunteers into hard-hit communities to help clean up after Hurricane Ian, rebuilding Southwest Florida one neighborhood at a time. The group Rebuild SWFL posts clean-up sites, dates and times on its Instagram page, then people just show up. WINK News volunteers at Corky Condon’s […]
More than a week after Hurricane Ian washed away swaths of Southwest Florida, search and rescue teams from all over the U.S. are still combing through the ruins in places like Fort Myers Beach to find anyone who may have been left behind. “You know, the debris is phenomenal,” said Randy Sanders of Missouri Task […]
One of Gulfshore Business’ 40 Under 40 nominees for 2022 is a woman whose goal goes beyond Southwest Florida, as she works to keep families together and out of the foster care system. Megan Rose, a mother of four and CEO of Better Together, knows it takes a village to raise a child “My family […]