CONTRIBUTE!
We need your financial support for
the missions to serve our community

  AN OPEN LETTER TO:  
The Friends and Neighbors of the Marco Island Civil Air Patrol.

The Marco Island Civil Air Patrol Squadron is a group of over 75 volunteers (your neighbors) who give of their time, talents and personal financial resources in dedication to keeping our community, our state, and our nation safe through Marco-based “eyes in the skies.”  

Beyond members’ funds and volunteer hours, the Marco Squadron relies on community donations in excess of $40,000 a year to meet essential annual operating expenses. Your support helps to defray costs associated with our 6000-square-foot hangar (land lease, utilities, insurance) at the Marco Island Executive Airport, to keep our airplane flying, and to sustain our youth Cadet program.

Marco Island’s CAP Squadron is probably best known for its almost daily (weather permitting) coastal patrols of the 10,000 Islands, looking for stranded boaters, lost kayakers, unreported fires and activities which might constitute a breach of homeland security. During these patrols, we monitor Marine Channel 16 and keep in contact with the Coast Guard. You may have heard us on the radio. Each CAP coastal patrol costs approximately $100.00 for fuel and airplane maintenance. Each year, the scope of our air crews’ missions has expanded more and more.

For example, this past year, in addition to coastal patrols and Squadron training flights, we acted as practice “targets” for Alien Aircraft Intercept training missions with the Florida Air National Guard, and Air Defense Certification missions for the Army National Guard. We also flew reconnaissance missions along Florida’s Gulf Coast to track the spread of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. And we successfully tracked an EPIRB distress signal that had deployed near Rookery Bay. Thankfully, the signal proved to be a false alarm rather than a sinking boat.

We also train for other special assignments on a regular basis to maintain our mission-ready status. After hurricanes or other disasters, your local CAP Squadron is prepared to work closely with State of Florida and Collier County Emergency Management to provide support missions, damage assessment and photographic sorties. With decades of communications and operational experience, CAP provides effective airborne assets, all manned by mission-ready volunteer personnel who have the capability to work with federal, military, state and local agencies across the spectrum of Homeland Security.

For almost 30 years, the Marco Island Civil Air Patrol Squadron has provided community service to Southwest Florida. We need your support to help us continue our important missions. CAP is a 501(c)(3) organization, allowing your donation to be tax deductible. Please use the enclosed envelope to send the most generous donation you can.
Thank you.

PS: Take a look at what we do -- MICAP in pictures!