Hi Everyone,
This is the first Friends of Amelia Island blog post! Yippee, and boy this is scary.
I realize that the Friends of Amelia Island website is not nearly complete, and it goes against all my work-related background and experience to launch before it is ready, however, I’m doing it anyway as encouragement to make a regular effort to finish building it out. So this blog post is both exciting and spin-chilling, but hopefully in a good way.
First some background… My wife and I discovered Amelia Island in the late 90’s. We loved it! We soon bought a condo and visited it often. We are now building a house on the island and expect to move our family here within four to six months.
Then two unrelated events became the genesis for Friends of Amelia Island (FoIA). First, we participated in a road clean up with Keep Nassau Beautiful organization, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Then on the ride back to our condo we saw the Friends of Fort Clinch banner. Over the next several days we started kicking around the idea of creating a nonprofit, called, you guessed it, “Friends of Amelia Island”. Our intention for the nonprofit is to help the community to make Amelia Island an even greater place for people to live and enjoy. We want to encourage and organize cleanups and increase the knowledge and enjoyment of the beautiful beaches and parks, and let visitors learn about the great Amelia Island restaurants and events. Additionally, because of my background, I’m a big believer in the principals of living longer and healthier with Blue Zones; live longer, better. Here is a short excerpt describing Blue Zones:
“Blue Zones Project is a community well-being improvement initiative designed to change the way people experience the world around them. By impacting environment, policy, and social networks, Blue Zones Project makes healthy choices easier. As a result, people can live longer, better, and communities can lower healthcare costs, improve productivity, and boost national recognition as a great place to live, work, and play.”
https://www.sharecare.com/pages/blue-zones
Okay, back to FoAI, we have already had some successes:
- Friends of Amelia Island, Inc. is a registered 501(3)(c) and owns the FriendsofAmeliaIsland.com domain.
- The website, bare-bones as it is, has its first restaurant listing, one of our favorites, Leddy’s Porch.
- FoAI adopted a road and organized its first community cleanup.

A small but mighty group that walked and cleaned up Ocean Ave.
I have much more to talk about, but it is late, so I’m going to end this post by welcoming everyone to Friends of Amelia Island. Feel encouraged to participate; learn, share, and act.
Dan
Hello and thank you for this blog is a true inspiration.. Karilynn Craggie Madalena
Very good post! We are linking to this particularly great post on our website. Keep up the great writing. Tandi Dion Heigl