Find Good. Share Good. Celebrate Good.
Issue #014 · Monday, September 21, 2026
Morning, Fleming Island 👋
Put Saturday the 26th on your calendar and leave it there.
Three separate things are happening on the island that day, and you can reasonably make all three. More on that below. 🌴
🌦️
89° / 74°
HIGH / LOW
TODAY AROUND THE ISLAND
Partly sunny, with showers around on and off.
A fifty percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, some of it before noon, and a northeast breeze gusting to around 17. Not a washout, just a day to keep something over your head handy.
📅 Keep Saturday the 26th clear
Three things, on the island, and you will not have to cross the bridge for any of them.
We have had good Saturdays before. We have not had one where a market, a working blacksmith, and a live band all land on the same day within a few minutes of each other.
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM · Fleming Island Vendor Village
2349 Village Square Parkway. First Coast Vendor Village runs a circuit around the First Coast, and Fleming Island is one of its regular stops.
1:00 to 4:00 PM · America 250: Blacksmith Demonstration
Fleming Island Library, outdoors. Jacob Underhill of Underhill's Forge will be there for three hours, and you can drop by anytime. It includes a live demonstration forging items out of railroad spikes. All ages.
6:00 to 9:00 PM · Concert on the Green
The FIP Gazebo, 2327 Market Drive, on the green behind the shops. North of 40 Band, food trucks, and, in their words, "bring your trusty lawn chair or blanket for seating."
The market and the blacksmith overlap by an hour, which is fine, because they are ten minutes apart and both are drop-in.
Friday's issue will have the full plan, including the things happening off the island that day, and a few of those are worth the drive.
📅 This week
Tonight, Monday, September 21
⛳ Mulligan Mondays at Top of the Tee
All day · 2260 Town Center Blvd
$25 bays all day. It is the Toptracer driving range at the golf club, and anyone can book a bay.
🧠 General Knowledge Trivia at Hibernia Pub
6:30 to 8:30 PM · same address, 2260 Town Center Blvd
Every Monday. Turns out Monday has more going on around here than you'd think.
🏈 Monday Night Football: Giants at Rams
Kickoff 8:15 PM on ESPN · both Hibernia Pub and Top of the Tee, same address
Their words: "Big game. Big specials. Two locations." They show every Monday and Thursday night game all season. $1 domestic drafts until the first score, and $1 wings.
Trivia ends at 8:30, and kickoff is 8:15, so you can do both without leaving the building.
Wednesday, September 23
📚 Preschool Storytime: Letter G
10:30 to 11:30 AM · Fleming Island Library, Children's Activity Room
Stories, songs, rhymes, and a craft. Built for ages 3 to 5.
🎤 Ladies Night and Karaoke at Top of the Tee
Karaoke 7:00 to 10:00 PM, specials from 5:00 · 2260 Town Center Blvd
$25 bays for the ladies.
Thursday, September 24
🧸 Kaleidoscope Play & Learn
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM · Fleming Island Library, Children's Activity Room
A playgroup for children from birth to age 5 and the adults who bring them. It does not run every Thursday, so check the library's calendar before you build a routine around it.
Friday, September 25
🎤 Spot On Comedy
7:00 PM · Spotlight Events Center, 1809 East-West Parkway
Staged in the round, run by TAPS, a local theatre company.
🎭 Blithe Spirit
7:30 PM · The Island Theater, 1860 Town Hall Circle #54 · $18, students $10
Saturday, September 26
🌴 The three above. Market at 11, blacksmith at 1, band at 6.
🎭 Blithe Spirit · 7:30 PM · The Island Theater
Sunday, September 27
🎭 Blithe Spirit
2:00 PM · The Island Theater. This is the last performance of the run.
🐾 Nine kittens, and five are named after pizza places
Pizza Hut. Photo: Safe Animal Shelter
Safe Animal Shelter in Middleburg has nine kittens on its adoption list right now, all of them around three months old.
Five of them came in as a litter named Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Little Caesars, Vitos, and Five Star. The last two are the local ones, which is the part that makes it.
Pizza Hut is a brown shorthair, and the shelter has her down as affectionate, confident, curious, and easy to handle.
Vitos is a grey shorthair, litter box trained, and described as a cuddler who is very interested in food.
Papa Johns, Little Caesars, and Five Star have no write-up on their listings at all. We are not going to invent one. Ask at the shelter, and they will tell you what each one is like.
The other four are Chirp and Chat, both black; Hiss, a calico; and Brown Sugar, listed as a cuddler with zoomies.
Safe Animal Shelter, 1754 Cider Cove, Middleburg. Open every day, 11 AM to 6 PM. 904-375-9122.
Not in a position to adopt? They always need foster homes. A foster spot frees up a kennel, which is the thing that lets a shelter say yes to the next animal.
🎣 Whitey's is closed until Thursday
Whitey's Fish Camp is closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week for routine maintenance. They reopen Thursday.
Their words: "We'll be closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week for a little routine maintenance, and will reopen Thursday. See you then!"
Sixty-three years in and they still tell you before you drive out there. Worth knowing if CR 220 was the plan tonight.
🏠 Your flood zone may have changed, and you have until November 18
FEMA is redrawing Clay County's flood maps. The ones in use now are from 2014. The new ones use better data, and the county says most properties will not move at all.
Some will. For a property with a federally backed mortgage, moving into a high-risk zone can trigger a flood insurance requirement, and moving out of one can change it. On an island with water on three sides, that is worth two minutes of your time either way.
The comment and appeal window closes November 18. The county has an interactive map you can put your address into, and questions go to [email protected].
One thing worth knowing before you write. A formal appeal has to come with technical data behind it, like a survey or a study, and the county says appeals without data will be denied. Plain errors are different. FEMA will also take comments on things like wrong street names, typos, and omissions, and those do not need a study attached.
🎓 One more good thing: five seniors run the county tomorrow
Five Clay County high school seniors are scheduled to spend tomorrow shadowing a county commissioner for a full workday.
It is the county's Commissioner for a Day program. To get picked, they had to answer one question on video: "What is your definition of leadership? What does great leadership look like in action?"
They will spend Tuesday with District 1 Commissioner John Sgromolo, sitting in on meetings with county leaders and going out on site visits across public safety, emergency management, animal services, and public works.
We don't yet know whether any of the five are from Fleming Island High. If one of them is yours, tell me. I would like to run the rest of that story.
Before you go... tell me something good 💛
See a new business opening? Know of an event we should add to the calendar? Got a neighbor doing something wonderful, a local team having a big season, or just something good happening around Fleming Island?
Send it our way. This only gets better when all of us help find the good stuff.
❤️ Tell Us Something Good: A neighbor doing something kind. A kid doing something awesome. Something new going in or on around town. Anything that makes you think, "people around here should know about this."
📅 Submit an Event: Live music at a local restaurant, a fundraiser, a festival, a market, a school activity. Anything locals can put on their calendar.
⭐ Get Featured: Own a local business? Tell us your story through a short interview and give the community a chance to meet the people behind it.
Have a good week,
Shelly 🌴
Find Good. Share Good. Celebrate Good.