Palm Coast Observer Online

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PALM COAST

Observer

BRAYDEN’S ARMY

Thousands came out to support Brayden Lane.

YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

FREE

VOLUME 6, NO. 20

BUDGET SEASON

Flagler County takes a look at the budget for the coming year.

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BIZ BUZZ

INSIDE •

THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015

BEST THINGS IN LIFE The Flagler County Free Clinic is expanding and Jonathan Raney wants to help.

ARE FREE

BRIAN MCMILLAN EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Courtesy photo

Monica Lao, Bill McGuire, Cindy Dalecki and Lisa Schenone Ekinci

IT’S SOCIAL MEDIA DAY IN PALM COAST The city of Palm Coast has officially proclaimed June 30 as Social Media Day. Office Divvy’s Lisa Ekinci and Cindy Dalecki, of Marketing2Go, received the proclamation on behalf of the socially savvy residents and business owners in Palm Coast. “Social media is the gateway for Palm Coast and Flagler County to the rest of the United States and the world,” Dalecki said. Monica Lao, a junior digital associate at Office Divvy, spearheaded the effort for the proclamation. The Hashtag for the local event is #SMDayPC, and, for the worldwide event is #SMDay2015. The event will be celebrated at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30, at COWORK, 389 Palm Coast Parkway SW, Unit 4. RSVP are required at: EntrepreneurNight.com/ smdaypc/.

Jonathan Raney was desperate. His wife had left him, he was deeply in debt, and the best work he could find consisted of two part-time jobs — one delivering auto parts, the other delivering pizza. In March 2014, while walking on a kitchen floor at the pizza restaurant that he didn’t realize was still wet from a recent mopping, he slipped and fell on his back. Hard. The injury complicated an old motorcycle injury, but that was the least of his problems. Further tests revealed a growth on his right kidney. “I thank God every day for that fall,” Raney said while sitting at the dining room table in his immaculately clean home in Palm Coast. “I might have gone years without knowing I had cancer.” Raney is a tall, stout man with an apostolic beard, a bald forehead and a high-pitched, contagious laugh. He has been through three marriages, a cocaine addiction and financial ruin, but he is always positive as he looks to the next phase of his life. And that next phase is to tell his story to

Brian McMillan

Patient Ruth Lee, of Bunnell, gets treatment from Dr. Shrinivas Waingankar and nurse Hazel DeVeaux, at the Flagler Free Clinic.

the community, in hopes of raising awareness and funds for the people who helped him. ‘THIS IS CANCER’

After his diagnosis of cancer, Raney got a call from a woman he knew from church, First Methodist Church of Bunnell, where he

sings in the choir and volunteers at the homeless shelter. Her name was Faith Coleman. “She said, ‘We’ve got to meet,’” Raney recalled. Coleman was the co-founder of the Flagler County Free Clinic, which offers medical help to those who qualify in the county. She helped impress upon him that he had to act fast.

“I said, ‘I can’t do it today. How about Friday?’ She said, ‘No, you come in now. This is cancer.’ She just shepherded me through the process of getting started on treatment.” As a former stockbroker, Raney was comfortable making phone SEE CLINIC PAGE 3

SPORTS

PAW POOL PARTY!

3V3 SOCCER

Shanna Fortier

BUILDING UP PC4

Volunteers and businesses come together to build the town at a Palm Coast preschool.

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Jeff Dawsey Shanna Fortier

Kelly Anson, a vet tech at Pine Lakes Animal Hospital, feeds her dogs, Gidget and Giligan, peanut butter during the peanut butter lick contest at the SAFFARI Rescue Pooch Paddle. READ MORE ON PAGE 17

Dakotah Casale connects with Nathan Monsanto on a no-look pass for Swole Team 6.

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