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Groundhog Day Festivities return to North Fort Myers

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ANDREA GALABINSKI Tuxedoed Inner Circle from 2008 Groundhog Day. From left bottom row, Tamara Pigott, Shell Factory Nature Park groundhog handler Scott Goald with Mona, Sandra Dunmire and Pamela J. Cronin. Top row Sheriff Mike Scott, Tom Cronin, Sr. and Richard Dunmire. (Not pictured Commissioner Tammy Hall and Marietta Mudgett.)
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Many Pennsylvania natives attended the Shell Factory event to hear Mona make her prognostication. Two are pictured with Richard Dunmire, who started the event.

Punxsutawney has Phil, North Fort Myers has Mona.

These special groundhogs will make an appearance in the early hours of Monday, Feb. 2 -Groundhog Day – to make their predictions on the weather.

The Shell Factory & Nature Park hosts a special celebration that day, welcoming many transplanted Pennsylvanians and any who want to join the fun.

“We especially want all the people who are from Punxsy and all the people who’ve ever went to the event there to show up,” said Richard Dunmire, who created the event.

Dunmire is a former Punxsutanian, who even had a groundhog as a pet there.

“I think it’s important that I really brush up on my groundhogease,” he said, about preparing this week. He’ll be the one who will “talk” to Mona about her prediction.

The town of Punxsutawney celebrates their day with on Gobbler’s Knob, the Shell Factory at it’s Nature Park. The ceremony here will be at approximately 7:18 a.m.

During the ceremony, Mona and Phil will emerge from their perspective homes. If they see their shadows and return to their holes, the prediction is six more weeks of winter. If they don’t, the prognostication, as it is called, is that spring will arrive early.

The group that presides over the festivities is called the Inner Circle. Several Lee County celebrities form the North Fort Myers version of the Circle.

“Look forward to seeing Sheriff Mike Scott, Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marietta Mudgett, Lee County Commissioner Tammy Hall, Deputy Director of the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Tamara Pigott and of course local Real Estate Developer and Shell Factory owner Tom Cronin, Sr.,” said Pamela J. Cronin of the Shell Factory event. “They will be in their southern tuxedoes as they anxiously await the prognostication.”

Besides a top hat, the Southern or Florida tuxedo tradition includes shorts. Wearing the garb is fun, said participants of the Circle.

“I’m so honored to again be a part of the Groundhog Day Inner Circle,” said Hall. “This is such a fun event. It’s the only time I get to wear my Florida tuxedo! I’m hoping Mona will give us some good news about the end of the recent cold spell we’ve been experiencing here in Southwest Florida.”

Scott also said he’s really looking forward to the event, which he’s participated in for the last four years.

“I’m very excited about Groundhog Day, it has become quite a tradition in my itinerary, I’m looking forward to seeing Mona and seeing what Mona has to say. She not only has been known to give tips on the weather, but tips on criminal activity. I’ll be there bright and early.”

This event is the pride and joy of local educator Dunmire, who constructed the groundhog habitat and arranged for the Shell Factory and Nature Park to be official members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Fan Club. Dunmire is currently running for the North Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce Honorary Mayor title, and he was recently named as a finalist for the coveted Golden Apple teaching award.

Dunmire said Mona is healthy and ready for this year, the fourth for her. While it is traditionally a male-oriented job per Phil, she’s the more social of the two groundhogs that reside at the Nature Park. “She’s been so successful in her first three years of predictions that’s she’s on a roll, and she’s ready this year.”

Part of the fun of last year was the fact that the North Fort Myers Neighbor story on the day made the front page of the Punxatawny Spirit newspaper, with tens of thousands of the festival gatherers there reading about our local event.

“They reprinted our front page article verbatim with pictures of all the preparations for the fun,” he said.

The Nature Park will open at 6:30 a.m. with the ceremony itself starting at approximately 7 a.m. Located on the southwest corner of The Shell Factory complex, The Nature Park is home to all manner of wildlife. For more information call 995-2141 x 110.