Toxic algae and red tide have darkened the summer of 2018 for many, but some are working to bring a brighter shade of green to the area’s hard-hit workers.

As locals and visitors stayed away from frighteningly foul waters, businesses took a staggering blow. But now, residents are mounting a social media counter-punch: "Help Bring the Green Back to Sanibel & Captiva" and pledging to spend their money at local establishments.

Meanwhile, the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau is kicking off the #OneLee movement, designed to tempt visitors back to area eateries, attractions and lodging with deals and freebies. Enticements include free parking on Sanibel Island now through Sept. 30, $6 weekend admissions to Bonita Springs’ Everglades Wonder Gardens, buy-one-get-one deals at The Shell Factory’s Capt'n Fishbones in North Fort Myers and more.

Saturday morning, some of the famous dollar bills lining Cantina Captiva's walls were pulled off for island workers in need. Owner Sandra Stillwell posted on Facebook, “We are harvesting dollars off the walls of my Cantina Captiva to help feed the hungry … whenever you come to Cantina and staple on a dollar, know it goes for good causes such as this! Right now the servers and waitstaff on the island need our help after the red tide that is now gone. Beautiful beaches again, but they still have rent to pay and car payments and they need to eat.”

More:Lee County asks locals to spend more in areas hard-hit from red tide, algae crisis

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By noon, she and her crew had gathered more than $1,700, which the Harry Chapin Food Bank can leverage to provide many times that in meals, she said.

The help is much-needed in a county where it's estimated 1 in every 5 workers make a living in tourism and hospitality. Last month, Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane told the Lee County commission that hotel occupancies on Sanibel dropped by 70 percent in August, as Sanibel and Captiva Chamber of Commerce surveys estimated the lost business revenue at more than $19 million for July and August.

On Fort Myers Beach, the chamber of commerce estimates income losses around $500,000 to $600,000 weekly for its 5,000-member workforce at some 360 businesses, which have been losing about $2.6 million weekly, according to chamber surveys.

The coming together started with an idea friends Marc Collins and Stephen Blancett (plus many hundreds of their closest Facebook pals) are now promoting on social media: Locals should get out, enjoy the beauty and cuisine the region offers and put some cash back into the hands of those who’ve suffered this summer’s twin ecological disasters: red tide and toxic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria).

"We were talking about what we could do to help, and came up with the idea of calling it 'Bring back the green' — as long as we say it's not the algae; just the cash," Collins said. Once Collins and Blancett started hash-tagging the campaign on Facebook, things took off, with hundreds of shares. "We're also using #EatItForward and #TipTheBill," he said.

"Then Tamara (Pigott) of the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau called and said they were in, too, which is great ... I think the real story here is it's a community grass-roots effort to help our neighbors."