For information, contact:
Carolyn Masten
SunStream Hotels & Resorts
(239) 765-4111 (office)
@SunStreampr (Twitter)
CarolynM@SunStream.com
www.SunStream.com

SUNSTREAM HOTELS & RESORTS INVITES GUESTS TO THE
23RD ANNUAL AMERICAN SAND SCULPTING CHAMPIONSHIP FESTIVAL

FORT MYERS BEACH, FL – October 7, 2009 – November 3 – 8, 2009 marks the time of the 23rd Annual American Sand Sculpting Championship Festival, where master and amateur artists and enthusiasts alike converge on Fort Myers Beach to be a part of this Southwest Florida annual spectacular. This year marks a major milestone in the competition with the announcement of the “dream team” list of sculptors who share 37 World Championship titles between them. They will have the opportunity to show some of the best sand sculpting skills in the United States, and for the first time ever, this year’s event will be directly tied in with the world championships for sand sculpting. As a qualifying contest, the First Place winner this year will automatically advance to compete for the world title in Seattle next summer.

“The inclusion of the Fort Myers Beach event was done after careful scrutiny of the organization of your contest, your hospitality standards, your longevity, and that the assurance of quality we recommend was accepted” says Doc Reiss, The World Championship of Sand Sculpture. “Your competition is the only one in the southeastern United States to have achieved this recognition. Our goal is to recognize those events that mirror our desire for excellence and further the presentation of sand sculpting as a viable art and sport competition.”

While sand castles are lined up along the beach, guests at SunStream’s GullWing Beach Resort and Pointe Estero Beach Resort – located at the south end of Fort Myers Beach – can also enjoy direct access to the festival’s Sand Magic Village, where they can take advantage of beach side shopping from festival vendors just outside their door. SunStream’s other beach property, DiamondHead Beach Resort, the only full-service all-suite luxury resort right on Fort Myers Beach, also offers and additional array of options for guests to enjoy.

Fort Myers Beach’s down-home image and reputation as “the safest beach in the world” have let to its increasing popularity as a great family vacation spot. The annual festival adds to its appeal, giving travelers a reason to take a quick trip to what Family Fun magazine named “Best Family-Friendly Beach in the Southeast U.S.”

The sand sculpting competition continues to be a favorite, attracting over 80,000 spectators each year. For a great vacation getaway, coupled by some great spectator fun, take advantage of SunStream’s special promotional rates today. For reservations or more information on finding where you belong on Fort Myers Beach, call 800-625-4111 or visit SunStream.com. Visit SandSculptingFestival.com for information on the sand sculpting festival.

Headquartered in Fort Myers Beach, SunStream Hotels & Resorts has become a name synonymous with luxury hotels and condominium resorts throughout Southwest Florida, having specialized in property development and hospitality management since 1986. SunStream’s distinctive collection of properties in Southwest Florida now includes the DiamondHead Beach Resort, GullWing Beach Resort, Pointe Estero Beach Resort, Bellasera Hotel, Park Shore Resort, Port of the Islands Resort & Marina and opening in November 2009, the Resort at MarinaVillage – a luxurious full-service condominium resort located at Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral with 19 stories of sweeping views of the Caloosahatchee River, San Carlos Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

For more information on SunStream Hotels & Resorts or to book a reservation, please call 800-625-4111 or visit www.sunstream.com.

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Pointe Estero Beach Resort, located at 6640 Estero Boulevard, has “freshened up” its tropical landscaping with many colorful and native Florida plants. When the resorts’ prodigious property sign was removed and replaced with two monument signs, it took the opportunity – working with the resort landscaper – to beautify the grounds, lake and waterfall areas. Pointe Estero’s board members and owners have always been very generous in doing what is needed to keep the property in tip-top shape which can be seen throughout the grounds from Estero Boulevard to the white sand of Fort Myers Beach. Several varieties of palm trees – Foxtail, Areca, Coconut, Queen and Needle – fill out the resort grounds mixed in with Mexican Blue Bells, Hybiscus, Beach Sunflower, Lantana and Plumbago. Pointe Estero has selected mostly native plant species that are adapted to the Florida heat, humidity, drought, flooding and frosts.

For information, contact:
Carolyn Masten
SunStream Hotels & Resorts
(239) 765-4111 (office)
@SunStreampr (Twitter)
CarolynM@SunStream.com
www.SunStream.com

GULLWING AND POINTE ESTERO BEACH RESORTS PROVIDE EXCLUSIVE
CHECK-IN SITES FOR 2009 INTERNATIONAL COASTAL CLEANUP

Fort Myers Beach, FL – August 24, 2009 – Each year, volunteers from around the world spend a few hours removing trash and debris from beaches, lakes, rivers and other waterways keeping track of every piece of trash they find. The Ocean Conservancy (www.oceanconservancy.org) uses that information to produce the world’s only annual country-by-country, state-by-state index of the problem of marine debris. Last year, nearly 400,000 world-wide volunteers removed and tallied 6.8 million pounds of debris, from 6,485 sites in 100 countries and 42 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

On Saturday, September 19, 2009 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, local volunteers in conjunction with Keep Lee County Beautiful will be scouring the beaches and waterways of Lee County to collect debris and record the findings. There are seven official Check in Sites with an additional location being added at the GullWing and Pointe Estero Beach Resorts on Fort Myers Beach. This meeting site will be the exclusive location for Cub Scout Pack 11 and Girl Scout Troops 353, 373, 405 and 406 from Lehigh Acres. Together with group organizers and parents, girls and boys from Kindergarten through 10th grade will hit the beach armed with data cards and pencils, latex gloves, trash bags and cold beverages. “This is the groups first time participating in the Coastal Cleanup and they are very excited to be able to help keep a portion of Fort Myers Beach clean,” states Trish Fancher, Program Director of Keep Lee County Beautiful, Inc.

The two goals of the cleanup are to remove unsightly and environmentally harmful debris from Florida’s coastlines and raise awareness about this preventable litter problem. Litter poses a threat to wildlife – plastic bags are mistaken for jellyfish and eaten by sea turtles. Lost and discarded fishing tackle is eaten by birds and becomes an entangling trap to many types of animal life. “The ocean is our life support system yet marine debris continues to threaten its health. We know that trash travels. Wherever we live, each of us has a responsibility to prevent litter from trashing our beaches and hurting coastal economies, injuring and killing marine wildlife, and choking an already threatened ocean ecosystem,” said Vikki Spruill President and CEO of Ocean Conservancy. “Trash in the ocean is one of the most widespread pollution problems threatening our ocean and waterways and it’s entirely preventable.”

The annual cleanup is organized by The Ocean Conservancy, and is coordinated locally by Keep Lee County Beautiful, Inc. In 2008, more than 950 volunteers, including divers, turned out to clean up Lee County beaches and thanks to their efforts, approximately 4,500 pounds of trash and monofilament fishing line was collected from the area’s coastline and waterways. For further information on The International Coastal Cleanup as well as other special projects and programs, please visit the Keep Lee County Beautiful website at www.klcb.org.

SunStream Hotels & Resorts vision has made it the largest and most successful independent, locally-owned and operated resort company in Southwest Florida. Headquartered in Fort Myers Beach, SunStream Hotels & Resorts has specialized in property development and hospitality management since 1986. SunStream’s distinctive collection of properties in Southwest Florida now includes the Bellasera Hotel, Park Shore Resort, Port of the Islands Resort & Marina, DiamondHead Beach Resort, GullWing Beach Resort, Pointe Estero Beach Resort and opening in November 2009, the Resort at MarinaVillage – a luxurious full-service condominium resort located at Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral with 19 stories of sweeping views of the Caloosahatchee River, San Carlos Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

For more information on SunStream Hotels & Resorts or to book a reservation, please call 800-625-4111 or visit www.sunstream.com.

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The signing event will take place at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille in Fort Myers Beach. Dead Silence is the 16th in the series of Doc Ford novels and quite possibly the most chilling one yet. Here’s your chance to meet the author and get the latest scoop.

Marion “Doc” Ford is the hero and main character in several best-selling novels written by Randy Wayne White. Doc Ford is a marine biologist and ex-government agent who yearns for the quiet, contemplative life of a scientist. He’s also “a baseball-loving, tropical adventurer who – not so surprisingly – has spent a lot of time in the same far-flung places that I wrote about when I was a monthly columnist for Outside Magazine: Places such a Cuba, Cambodia, South Africa, Australia, Vietnam, Borneo, and all over South and Central America,” says White. Before writing his novels, White used to be a light tackle fishing guide right here in Southwest Florida at the Tarpon Bay Marina on Sanibel Island. He worked more than 3,000 charters and spent 300 days a year boating in the Southwest Florida waters. And just as his novels are inspired by these local barrier islands, his days on the water, and the people he came to know, the spirit of Doc Ford’s fine sports bars was inspired by the marine biologist who is the main character of those novels. 

For more information, please call 239-765-9660 or visit docfords.com. Doc Ford’s Fort Myers Beach Rum Bar & Grille is located at 708 Fisherman’s Wharf Drive (last right before the Fort Myers Beach bridge).