Something for Everyone at Shell Expo 

Marco Island Shell Club president Becky Miller couldn’t have been more pleased Friday morning, March 13, as she watched her army of volunteers servicing the seemingly insatiable appetite of the capacity crowd at the club’s annual Shell Expo at the New Life Christian Church on Marco Island.

A crowd of over 50 collectors assembled before the doors even opened Friday morning.

“That’s very usual,” Miller said of the early birds. "Our customers love to be first in line. But there's always plenty available throughout the day. It’s a fantastic crowd of shoppers who are very interested in our show art. And we're very grateful that they are here and supporting our efforts from this sale, which will fund our scholarship programs."

The shell club helped their cause by providing attendees with shell shopping baskets that are twice as large as they previously provided. Their customers didn’t appear shy at all about filling up their baskets with shell creations, homemade by members of the club.

"Everybody seems to be finding something that they like,” Miller said proudly. "We have specimen shells. We have holiday shells. We have flowers. We have jewelry. But most importantly, we also have our expo displays of artistic items which were made by our club. Beautiful shell creations. And then we also have scientific items which are shells that were found and organized into interesting displays. So there's something to buy, but there's also something to learn."

The Shell Expo is the big event of the year for the Shell Club.

"This is our big show,” Miller said. "We have another show the day after Thanksgiving, which we call our holiday sale. And that sale is outside in the front of the church. So it's a nice chance to be outside and shop for some gorgeous holiday things. It's a very festive start to the holiday season."

There are two trophies presented at the Shell Expo, voted on by attendees.

"We offer two trophies and they are by the People's Choice awards. So when people come in, they get two tickets, one white ticket and one blue ticket. And when they look at the displays, they can vote for the one that they think is their favorite. And then at the end of our expo the beautiful trophies are presented. We also have some great raffle items, which are donated by some of our businesses on the island and also things that some of our club members have put together. People can buy a ticket or some tickets and we draw for these raffle prizes. I think there are 12 of them this year. Those are awarded at 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday. But importantly, this year, we also have the beloved Junonia as one of the raffle items. So someone might be able to take home a Junonia if they're lucky for a $1 ticket.”

Perhaps what customers like most of all is the uniqueness of the shell creations that are available at the Marco show.

"All of the shell art that's here today is made by the members of the Marco Island Shell Club,” Miller said. "We meet January, February, and March, one day a week, and we put together all of this beautiful shell art. Flowers, holiday decorator items, jewelry. Everybody's busy working on something, but it all includes shells of some sort, many of which are found on our island."