Kristin Sweeting has been supervisor of the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez since early December, but started working at the museum in January 2016 in the visitor services area. CARL MARIO NUDI PHOTOS
It was only natural that the Friends of the Florida Maritime Museum would pick Ellenton resident Yvette Little to manage their Folk School program.
Little has been helping local nonprofit organizations for at least two decades.
She moved to Manatee County in 1990 from Pinellas County where she was born and reared.
“I love Manatee County, she said. “It has that hometown feel and is a very heartwarming community.
“The people are very warm and friendly,” Little said.
When she was laid off from her job in 2007, she decided to put her business administration and management degree she earned at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg to use helping nonprofits.
“I thought I could bring the business side and resources to nonprofit groups to help make them more efficient and effective,” she said.
She started her company Simply Green Solutions in June 2008 and has built such a reputation of getting results that a friend recommended her to the board of the Friends of the Florida Maritime Museum (FMM).
Mike Finney, chair of the Friends of the Florida Maritime Museum board, left; Yvette Little, manager of The Folk School; and Kristin Sweeting, supervisor of the museum in Cortez, hold a sample of what students at the Folk School produce during a Gyotaku class.
The FMM contracted with Little for three months to develop The Folk School schedule and infrastructure, and to implement the business plan the museum staff and volunteers wrote through the Patterson Foundation-sponsored No Margin, No Mission program.
The Patterson Foundation, a Sarasota philanthropic organization, has been helping area nonprofit groups since its founding in 1997.
The Folk School evolved from a brainstorming session at the No Margin, No Mission program, which helps nonprofits “build a lasting future through entrepreneurship, innovation, and business strategy,” according to the national consulting practices’ website.
“We went through an 18-month process with No Margin, No Mission, starting in March 2016,” said Kristin Sweeting, supervisor of the Florida Maritime Museum at 4415 119th St. W., Cortez, one of several historic assets of the Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court Historical Resources Department.
“We finished developing a business plan in October 2016 and are now in the implementation stage,” said Sweeting, who became supervisor in early December.
She has worked at the museum since January 2016 in the visitor services area.
Around March, the FMM board extended Little’s contract to manage The Folk School.
“My main focus now is community outreach and to build up class attendance,” Little said.
The Folk School began offering classes in January, and it already has shown to be very successful.
“When we originally started we had anticipated we would reach about 300 members of the community as class participants in 2017 with about one class per week,” said museum supervisor Sweeting.
“In just under six months we have almost reached our goal,” she said.
Since January, 274 students have taken classes.
The school started with one class per week, and they are now holding up to three a week on a variety of subjects.
There have been classes on using plant-based dyes with three different dying techniques; how to write a memoir; learning the Japanese technique of Gyotaku (using a fish to create art); how to tie knots; pine cone quilting; soap making; and the process of fermentation.
Traditional folk skills are home crafts or trades handed down from generation to generation, Sweeting said.
“If the skill or trade ties into early Florida culture, it could be a class we will teach,” she said.
Little said she was looking for community feedback on what kind of classes they would want to have that fit the school’s mission.
“We want to make sure it’s a traditional folk skill and not just crafty,” she said.
The classes at The Folk School are held in the museum auditorium, or on the grounds of the complex, and by the end of August they will also be held in the Burton/Bratton Store building.
The historic building was the original general store for the Cortez fishing village.
It is undergoing interior renovations to provide classroom space for The Folk School.
Funds for the renovations are from the BP Restoration Act. The $225,000 will be used to do the Burton store work, rehabilitate the pond, and expand the historic Pillsbury Boat Shop.
Little also said the museum will take The Folk School into the community.
“We will try to encourage organized groups to hold classes,” she said.
If an organization, such as a homeowners association or mobile home community has an idea of a class they would like to hold, Little said The Folk School can help with the organization as long as it fits the mission of the museum and school.
“Our mission says we’re to preserve and share Florida maritime heritage,” Sweeting said. “Just as museums are tasked to preserve artifacts and records, we want to preserve knowledge.
“And at The Folk School we want to tie in not just Cortez, but all of Florida history and culture,” she said.
Sweeting said it was important for people who take a class at The Folk School to go back and teach the skill to their children and grandchildren.
“We want to perpetuate the skills and knowledge of early Florida settlers,” she said.
Little said she wanted to do more classes with an environmental orientation that will help the larger community.
Manatee County residents love to share the natural environment here with our out-of-town visitors so they will want to take care of our culture and environment, she said.
Mike Finney, chair of the school’s board of directors said Little was doing a “terrific” job in her new position.
“She brought great expertise,” Finney said. “She brought her knowledge of nonprofit operations to the museum.”
And Little has a lot of experience working with nonprofits and private businesses.
She was operations director with Keep Manatee Beautiful from 2004 to 2006.
Fish net repair, a traditional folk skill of Cortez fisherman, is taught at The Folk School at the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez.
This was where her love for community support for nonprofits really kicked, she said, in that she met many wonderful people doing so much good for others.
Prior to working for Keep Manatee Beautiful, much of Little’s experience was through her employment with Environmental Affairs Consultants, Sysco Food Services and the former St. Petersburg Times.
In 2009 she was selected to be one of 40 nationwide TogetherGreen Fellows, a National Audubon initiative.
Little also received the TogetherGreen Community Passport Volunteer Recognition Award for logging the most volunteer hours.
During this time she was building clientele for her Simply Green Solutions company.
As a TogetherGreen Fellow, Little was given a $10,000 grant, which she used to promote the Sarasota Bay Estuary and Tampa Bay Estuary programs’ Pooches for the Planet campaign.
She created marketing and promotional materials for the environmental organizations’ campaign to get dog owners to clean up after their pets and reduce fecal runoff into area waterways.
In 2010 the TogetherGreen program recognized Little’s contributions to others with the organization’s first Mentor Award.
Through her company, Simply Green Solutions, she offers project management, grant writing, marketing, fundraising services and more.
“It depends on what the organization needs,” Little said, who is a Certified Project Manager.
“I think of myself as a ‘resources concierge,’” she said. “I love to help people who help people.”
For more information on The Folk School, call 941-708-6120, or visit its website at www.FloridaFolkSchool.org.
For information about the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez go to the website www.floridamaritimemuseum.org.
And to learn more about Simply Green Solutions, check out www.simplygreen.biz.
