Palm Coast Observer 1-5-23

Recognizing excellence

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

Welcome to the Observer’s annual “Standing O” edition.

Our first edition of each year features a series of profiles recognizing our Standing O awardees — people who are making a positive impact in our community — and the Teacher of the Year nominees from each local public school.

Each Standing O awardee is selected by a previous year’s awardee or by Observer editors.

We hope the series of stories about this year’s Standing O awardees, as well as Flagler County’s local Teacher of the Year nominees, will remind readers of the excellence in our community and inspire you to contribute to it.

YOUR TOWN

Standing O awards

Seniors Kendall Duckett and

made the Varsity Spirit All-American team at their annual cheer camp in July at EmbryRiddle University. Several girls from the camp were chosen, but only Duckett and Bogdanov chose to raise the money and make the trip to England.

They were among Varsity Spirit All-American cheerleaders from around the country who participated in the parade. More than 8,000 performers in 70 performance groups, including marching bands, cheerleaders and dancers, participated in the parade.

Duckett and Bogdanov flew to London with the other All-American cheerleaders on Dec. 26. During the week leading up to the parade they visited London sites and toured Windsor Castle.

They performed in the Jan. 1 parade along London’s streets past iconic sites such as Berkeley Square, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and the Ritz Hotel. They departed for home on Jan. 2.

Photo

Two varsity cheerleaders from Matanzas High School traveled to London to perform in London’s New Year’s Day Parade.

Julianna Bogdanov

Al Krier, advocate for Cimmaron safety, dies at 86

Krier became a regular at Palm Coast City Council meetings, pressing the city government to make Cimmaron Drive safer for pedestrians.

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

Al Krier, the community activist leading an initiative to add sidewalks and other pedestrian safety features on Palm Coast’s Cimmaron Drive, died on Dec. 24 at age 86.

“Al was my friend and a champion of his beloved Palm Coast,” Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin said in a statement released by the city government. “He was passionate, persistent, and dedicated to the safety and welfare of everyone. Al is the very definition of good governance from the public side, promoting and advocating for good and thoughtful action by local government. It is my hope that we all take this moment to remember our ‘champion’ and learn a lesson from Mr. Krier to work together and make our community

the very best it can be.”

Krier and other Safety on Cimmaron volunteers spoke at Palm Coast City Council meetings dozens of times during the council meetings’ public comment periods, urging the council to add sidewalks or consider traffic calming measures.

“I think it speaks to the person that he was: He was purposeful and he wanted to make an impact,” Joe Krier, Al Krier’s son, said when asked about his father’s drive to organize the Cimmaron movement. “And he knew he was getting closer to the end, and he wanted to be productive to his community right up to the end.”

It wasn’t Al Krier’s first time helping lead a community initiative.

“Even when he was young, in 1964, he raised money for a Hiawatha statute when we lived in northern Michigan, to try to give people a reason to stop in the little town we were living in, “Joe Krier said. “It’s still standing today, 52 feet tall.”

That effort had taken a couple years of organizing and fundraising. Al Krier had also been a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, organizing walkathons, Joe Krier said.

Al Krier believed in trying to unify differing sides, Joe Krier said. “Our motto was, ‘I love all Democrats AND I love all Republicans,’ and he lived by that,” Joe Krier said.

Al Krier had been a business owner, and knew how to run things: He’d founded his own business, A&D

Animal Control, in 1990, focusing on humane animal relocation.

Krier moved to Florida full time in 2019, and wrote regular letters to the Palm Coast Observer about the Cimmaron cause.

In the most recent, published on Dec. 22, Krier thanked everyone who’d supported the Safety on Cimmaron initiative, writing, “In keeping with the spirit of the holidays, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to all who support our goal of making Palm Coast a more walkable, bicycle-friendly community. ... Our Christmas wish is that one day soon, an increasingly high-traffic Cimmaron will become a model for our city’s collector road improvements, featuring sidewalks and other safety features.”

Krier also took part in community events, sporting brightly colored costumes designed to make people smile.

“This all started when I was in college: I was rooming with a guy that was a professional clown, and I was the pickup guy,” Krier — wearing giant sequined red, white and blue bow tie with matching hat and sunglasses — had said in a city of Palm Coast video about his golf league at a city golf course. “The pickup guy is the guy that follows the horses and everything else. And I just kept [the costume] on. I try to be Uncle Sam, I try to be Abraham Lincoln, St. Paddy, all that stuff.”

Before COVID-19 led to restricted visitation policies, Krier went to hospitals and nursing homes in costume to cheer people up.

He was a member of the men’s golf league at the Palm Harbor Golf Club, volunteered as an usher at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church and took part in the Palm Coast Yacht Club’s annual Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade.

The 2023 Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade will be named in Krier’s honor, according to parade organizer Sarah Ulis.

To view Krier’s obituary and for information on services, go to clymerfuneralhome.com/obituary/ alois-al-krier.

YOUR TOWN

BARTENDER WINS LIFESAVING AWARD AFTER FIGHTING OFF SHOOTER

When a patron at Smiles Nite Club in Palm Coast placed a woman in a headlock and then put a gun to her head on Nov. 20, one of the bartenders jumped over the bar to fight the man off, and patrons joined in to help. The man with the gun fired several times, but didn’t hit anyone.

the

BRIEFS

FCSO arrests man in connection with gas station robbery

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a 21-year-old Volusia County man in connection with an armed robbery at a Palm Coast gas station.

Collin Calvert, of Volusia County, was arrested Dec. 29 in connection with the Dec. 19 armed robbery of the Mobil gas station on the 200 block of Pine Lakes Parkway in Palm Coast, according to a press release from FCSO. A man wearing a face shield and baseball cap had entered the store at about 8:40 p.m., demanded the cash in the register, then fled when the cashier handed it over.

Calvert was initially arrested by the Port Orange Police Department on unrelated charges, but through an investigation, the FCSO was able to connect Calvert to the robbery, the release said.

He is being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $250,000 bond.

“Thank you to the anonymous tipsters who led our detectives to the Volusia County area to search for this suspect,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said, “and a special thank you to all of the agencies that assisted and helped us quickly solve

bartender, David Ghiloni, with an FCSO Lifesaving Award on Dec. 19, according to an FCSO news release.

“This courageous act of protecting the female and fighting off this shooter without a doubt saved lives that night,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “I’m honored to be able to recognize David, who so selflessly helped those in need and put his own life in harm’s way to protect others.”

Deputies arrested a suspect in the parking lot soon after the shooting.

More Lifesaving Awards related to the response to the shooting will be presented at the FCSO’s next Awards Ceremony scheduled for Jan. 26, according to the news release. Staly presented Ghiloni’s award early because Ghiloni is moving to New York.

this case in less than two weeks.”

The Sheriff’s Office had posted about the incident on social media and received a tip that an AR-15 had been stolen from someone in Volusia County.

The FCSO worked in conjunction with the Port Orange Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Calvert was identified as a suspect.

FCSO detectives interviewed him and found that he had sold the gun used in the Mobil robbery and other stolen firearms shortly after the robbery, the press release said.

Calvert will be extradited to Flagler County to face charges.

DEATH NOTICE

Christian T. Whitaker

Sept. 12, 1994/Dec. 31, 2022

Christian passed away from injuries caused by a drunk driver in Jacksonville, Florida. He was a good son, brother and friend. He was truly loved and will be greatly missed.

Jeffery Lynd Hayes

Aug. 30, 1943/Dec. 24, 2022

Jeffery Lynd Hayes of Hi Hat, Kentucky, died in Bunnell, Florida, on Dec. 24. Cremation at Clymer Funeral Home. Pics or comments are welcome at legacy.com.

Sheriff Rick Staly presented

Courtesy photos

Al Krier

FRIDAY, JAN. 6

FIRST FRIDAY GARDEN WALK

When: 10-11 a.m.

Where: Washington Oaks Gardens State Park,6400 N. Oceanshore Blvd., Palm Coast

Details: Come out the first Friday of the month to learn more about the gardens and history of Washington Oaks. No registration necessary; the walk is included with the park’s entry fees. Meet at the garden parking lot at 10 a.m. and wear comfortable walking shoes. Tours last one hour.

PALM COAST MAYOR’S 30/30

CHALLENGE KICK-OFF WALK

When: 5-6 p.m.

Where: Central Park in Town Center, 975 Central Ave., Palm Coast

Details: Join the Mayor’s 30/30 Health and Wellness Challenge, where Palm Mayor David Alfin is challenging residents to commit to 30 minutes of daily activity with the goal of improving overall mental, physical or emotional health. Visit bit.ly/3GdIFOj.

FREE FAMILY ART NIGHT

When: 5:30-7 p.m.

Where: Ormond Memorial Art Museum, 78 E. Granada Blvd.

Details: Make a woven bowl using yarn, paper plates and your imagination during OMAM’s Free Family Art Night. Adults may drop in to the museum with their children to create this art project together under the direction of Linda King. All art supplies provided. This monthly program is sponsored in part by the Women United Volusia Chapter. Learn more at bit.ly/omam-ffan.

MOVIES ON THE HALIFAX

When: 6 p.m.

Where: Rockefeller Gardens, 26 Riverside Drive, Ormond Beach

Details: Bring a chair or blanket and enjoy a showing of “Encanto,”rated PG. Movies are weather-sensitive. Call 386-6763216 for rainout information.

ALWAYS ... PATSY CLINE

When: 7-9:30 p.m.

Where: Flagler Auditorium, 5500 State Road 100, Palm Coast

Details: See this show based on the true story of Patsy Cline’s friendship with Houston housewife Louise Seger, set to many of Cline’s hits such as “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” “Sweet Dreams” and “Walking After Midnight.” Tickets cost $40-$50. Visit flaglerauditorium.org.

SATURDAY, JAN. 7

TREE RECYCLING

CHRISTMAS

When: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Palm Coast Fuel Depot, 22 Utility Drive, Palm Coast

Details: Recycle your Christmas tree and receive a free 3-gallon tree or shrub in exchange, while supplies last, at the city of Palm Coast’s 16th annual Christmas tree recycling event. There will also be a free paper-shredding service offered. All trees donated for recycling will be ground and used as mulch for the city’s parks and trails. Please remove all decorations prior to donation. Call Community Development Urban Forester Carol Mini at 386-986-3722.

ART WALK

When: 3-7 p.m.

Where: Ormond Beach MainStreet Arts District, 128 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach

Details: Join Ocean Art Gallery, Frame of Mind, Art Spotlight, The Studio by Artist Angel Lowden, the Ormond Memorial Art Museum and more on the first Saturday of each month for art openings and art events.

SIGNING

ARTIST TALK AND BOOK

When: 5-6 p.m. Where: Ormond Memorial Art Museum, 78 E. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach

Details: Join plein air landscape oil painter Frank Ferrante for a gallery talk. Ferrante will also sign copies of his new book, “Inspired by Nature: Plein Air Painting and The Prismatic Palette.” Seven pieces of his work will be on display and for sale inside the museum’s reception gallery through Jan. 8. Program is free, but advance registration is encouraged. Visit ormondartmuseum.org for more information.

MONDAY, JAN. 9 GARDEN CLUB AT PALM COAST MONTHLY MEETING

When: 1 p.m.

Where: VFW Post 8696, 47 Old Kings Road N., Palm Coast Details: The Garden Club at Palm Coast’s monthly meeting will feature guest speaker Teresa Watkins, an author, plant radio personality and landscape designer. She will discuss her favorite plants for a new year. There will also be a raffle for floral design and door prizes. Lunch can be purchased starting at 11:30 a.m. A plant sale will begin in the pavilion at noon, meeting signup begins at 12:30 p.m. and the meeting will begin at 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome one time to preview the club. For more club information, contact info@gardenclubatpalmcoast.org or go to The Garden Club at Palm Coast, Inc. Facebook page.

CIVIL DISCOURSE/COMMON

GROUND

When: 5:30 p.m. Where: Ormond Beach Regional Library auditorium, 30 S. Beach St., Ormond Beach Details: Join Civil Discourse/Common Ground for its next meeting, either in person or on Zoom. The group is asking for any and all feedback and discussion regarding the reorganization of this civic minded group. One emerging idea is to help each city zone set up regular neigh-

borhood meetings to discuss upcoming issues. Email billdenny105@ gmail.com for a Zoom invitation. The public is invited to send feedback or suggestions to linda@bluegreenalgae.com.

beachdems.org. The club meets on the second Thursday of each month.

ONGOING

EXERCISES FOR THE MATURING BODY

TUESDAY, JAN.

10 DAYTONA BEACH CHORAL SOCIETY REHEARSAL

When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Ormond Beach Presbyterian Church, 105 Amsden Road, Ormond Beach

Details: Come sing with Daytona Beach Choral Society every Tuesday night. No auditions required. Bass and tenors are especially needed. Come try out a few rehearsals before committing. Email info@daytonabeachchoralsociety.com.

THURSDAY, JAN. 12 ORMOND BEACH AREA DEMOCRATIC CLUB MEETING

When: 7 p.m. Where: 56 N. Halifax Drive, Ormond Beach Details: The January meeting of the Ormond Beach Area Democratic Club will be held in person and on Zoom. Social visiting will be from 6:30-7 p.m. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Precinct captains will at the meeting for comments, questions and answers. Like-minded nonmembers are welcome to attend as guests. The Zoom link and club information are available at ormond-

When: 10:30 a.m. Mondays and Thursdays Where: First Baptist Church of Palm Coast, 6050 Palm Coast Parkway, Palm Coast Details: Presented by Synergy Senior Fitness, attend upbeat classes with Senior Fitness Specialist Artie Gardella. Classes are ongoing. Insurances that cover fitness accepted, or a donation for those with no coverage. Visit Synergyseniorfitness.com.

MOAS EXHIBITIONS

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday Where: Museum of Arts and Sciences, 352 S. Nova Road, Daytona Beach

Details: Want to spend a day looking at fine art? The Museum of Arts and Sciences has the following shows on display: “Every Girl Deserves Flowers”; ”Minor Masterpieces: Porcelain Painted Scenes from the Collection”; “Magical: The Art of Susan Zukowsky”; “Selections from the MOAS Contemporary Art Collection”; “A Beautiful Mess: Weavers & Knotters of the Vanguard”; and “Pacific Exotics: The Woodblock Prints of Paul Jacoulet”.

Joe Golan provides wheels for those who need transportation

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

In mid-November, Joe Golan sat in the tiny office area at his Bunnell shop anticipating the busy Christmas season ahead for the Bike Men of Flagler County.

Christmas Come True needed about 275 new bicycles. The used bike operation was in full swing. The Bike Men repair and rebuild about 2,200 donated bicycles a year.

The nonprofit’s list of partners has grown to about two dozen organizations. The Bike Men provide bikes to homeless people through the The Sheltering Tree. They also provide bikes to recently released county inmates who have a job but no transportation.

They make biweekly trips to The Sheltering Tree, the Family Life Center and St. Augustine Youth Services to repair bikes.

“They have 60 bikes up there,” Golan said of SAYS. “They have four dormitories, and the boys rip up the bikes. We’re there every two weeks, repairing what they rip up.”

Sue Bickings, The Sheltering Tree’s board chair, said Golan is very busy on the first and third Tuesday of each month when he sets up his portable shop in the parking lot at First United Methodist Church of Bunnell.

“People on the streets constantly need bike repair,” Bickings said. “Joe is well-known and well-liked by people whose only transportation is a bicycle. Joe will get us specific bikes we need. He finds them. He just goes above and beyond. He reconditions bikes for people who desperately

MICHELE SEYFERT

need a mode of transportation other than walking.”

Golan got his start as “The Bike Man” in 2014 when he heard Christmas Come True founder Nadine King announce on the radio that the organization was short some bikes that year.

“I said, ‘I’ll go buy four bikes,’” Golan recalled. “I brought them down to her, and they were still in the boxes. They had to be assembled. She said, ‘Who’s going to assemble these? I said, ‘I’ll assemble them for you.’ She said, ’By the way, we have a few others that came in boxes. Do you mind sticking around?’ Well, that first year we did 87 bikes for them.”

Christmas Come True now provides Golan a list right after Thanksgiving, and Golan begins seeking donations.

The repair side of the nonprofit had a similar beginning. Golan saw in an ad that The Sheltering Tree was looking for a bike. One of Golan’s neighbors happened to ask him if knew anybody who could use a used bicycle.

“I said, ‘Give it to me and I’ll repair it, and I’ll bring it down to them,’” Golan said. “When I got there, they said, ‘We’ve got a few others in storage. Do you mind sticking around and fixing a few more?’

“So, I bought some specialized tools, and I started buying parts and

I was working out of my car and my garage at home.”

Eventually, Michele Seyfert, who runs the Our Father’s Table program through Palm Coast United Methodist Church, shared warehouse space with Golan, so he could set up a permanent shop with repair stands and pressers and a wide selection of tools. Seyfert nominated Golan for Standing O recognition.

“Joe is such an inspiration,” she wrote. “He works tirelessly in his bicycle ministry seven days a week. He’s always there helping somebody. Saturday, Sunday, it doesn’t matter. He genuinely just enjoys helping.”

Golan, who was in the electrical trade in New York City for 41 years before retiring to Palm Coast in 2010, said his wife feels he puts in too many hours.

“We’re basically here five days

a week, and maybe a sixth day if something warrants, maybe putting in six, seven hours a day,” he said. “So, I guess it’s a full-time job. I love it, especially when I’m working with the kids, seeing their faces light up when they get a bicycle or we repaired a bicycle.”

Golan has about a dozen volunteers helping him out, including mechanics, assemblers and transporters. Nobody gets paid, he said.

John Carbone, who is retired, has been working with Golan for two years.

“I dropped a bike off one day, and I liked what he was doing, giving to people in need, so I stayed, like a stray cat,” Carbone said. “I’m here three or four days a week, sometimes five. I like being busy.”

The Bike Men won’t give bikes out directly to people. They have to have

a recommendation through a recognized organization, Golan said.

“If someone calls me, I tell them I need a referral,” he said. “I don’t have the facilities to vet people.”

Golan would like to expand his space so he can teach kids how to repair their bikes.

“Our dream is we’d like to get a 4,000-square-foot building where we cannot just run the bike shop, but also provide to the community what’s called a bike co-op to actually have work stands for them to come in and work on their own bikes, and we can teach the kids bike mechanics,” Golan said. “We’re trying to work with the county and Flagler Schools to find us a space.”

For more information on The Bike Men, visit http://thebikemenofflaglercounty.com/index.html.

John Carbone and Joe Golan work on a bike at Golan’s shop in Bunnell.

Golan spends his days repairing and assembling bicycles so children and adults can get to school and their jobs.

“Joe is such an inspiration. He works tirelessly in his bicycle ministry seven days a week. He’s always there helping somebody. Saturday, Sunday, it doesn’t matter. He genuinely just enjoys helping.”

xxx

Photo by Brent Woronoff

Khanh-Lien Banko was the unseen force behind the half-cent tax renewal

For Khanh-Lien Banko, serving the community is a core value in her family. Last year, that passion was key in the half-cent tax renewal’s success, her peers said.

SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

A few years ago, Khanh-Lien Banko helped lead an initiative to pass a half-cent tax to support schools in Alachua County. This past year, she did the same in Flagler, working to convince the community to renew a half-penny tax that will fund instructional technology, classroom-to-careers initiatives and enhanced security.

If you ask Joe Wright, president-elect of the Flagler County Education Foundation Board of Directors, Banko certainly deserves recognition.

“There’s very few people I know that deserve it more than Khanh-Lien,” Wright said.

Banko, 46, is the Education Foundation board’s treasurer, the chief financial officer of her family’s business, Pierson Fern & Greens, a wife and a mother of four.

Banko moved to Palm Coast in 2021 to be closer to family and the family business in Volusia County — a much easier commute than coming from Alachua County. On top of that, she said, she had encouraged her sister to move to Flagler County for its innovative school system.

But also in 2021, Joe Rizzo, the executive director of the Flagler Education Foundation who died in the spring of 2022, asked her to take on the job of pushing the half-cent tax initiative for Flagler’s schools.

Wright met Banko through Rizzo. He said Banko is an unassuming and kind person.

“If I tried to describe her,” he said, “she’s just the kind of person who gets in there and gets to work, gets her hands dirty with everybody else.”

Banko has 20 years of experience advocating for kids in the classroom. She became involved with her local school system once her kids entered it, she said.

But her drive to support both her kids and the kids sitting next to them in class stems from her family’s values, she said.

“For our family,” Banko said, “service to the community is important.”

In Alachua County, she was president of the Alachua County Council of PTAs and spearheaded the county’s “Half-Cent for Schools” initiative in 2018.

Her successful work on that initiative is why Rizzo asked her to work on Flagler’s halfcent tax renewal in 2021, she said.

The problem was that most of that work is based on relationships, Banko said, and she had just moved to Flagler County that summer and didn’t have those relationships here yet, like she did in Alachua County.

“Joe said, ‘Let me handle that,’” Banko said.

So the two of them got to work. Banko began to organize the campaign as the two of them gathered volunteers.

They planned to work as a team, but Rizzo died in March 2022. Banko and Rizzo’s wife, Teresa Rizzo, scrambled after his death to continue pushing the initiative, Banko said.

The two, who had become close friends, spent many hours working on it together, Teresa Rizzo said.

“She really took the lead and

worked diligently,” Rizzo said.

Wright said Banko took charge of the initiative from the beginning, organizing the people already working on it so that everyone was running more efficiently and getting the work done.

“She was put in charge of pulling this whole thing together,” Wright said. “And she ran this like a machine.”

Wright and Rizzo, as well as Flagler Schools Chief of Technology and Innovation Ryan Deising, said Banko deserves a lot of credit for the success of the half-cent initiative.

“I think she just did an outstanding job supporting our community,” said Deising, a

former Standing O awardee who nominated Banko for this year’s recognition. But Banko said supporting her community is important to her. She wants her children to learn the value of service to the community, too, she said.

“It is just as important for me that the child sitting next

to my child has what they need,” she said.

Rizzo said Banko has a true philanthropic heart. Banko, she said, naturally considers other people first, where many have to work at that.

“She cares so much about her community,” Rizzo said. “I just admire her.”

Photo by Sierra Williams

“If I tried to describe her, she’s just the kind of person who gets in there and gets to work, gets her hands dirty with everybody else.”

JOE WRIGHT, president-elect of the Flagler County Education Foundation Board of Directors

Khanh-Lien Banko

Crista Rainey is fulfilling her dream as a detective

Rainey has dreamed of being a police officer since she was a girl. She graduated from the academy in 2012 at 40.

SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

For Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Master Detective Crista Rainey, the path to law enforcement success was not a straight one.

Rainey moved to Palm Coast from New Jersey in 2012 specifically to become a law enforcement officer, since New Jersey had an age limit for joining. She joined the Flagler Beach Police Department first, at 41, and then transferred to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in 2015.

Now, having turned 50 in December, Rainey has begun the new leg of her law enforcement career as a detective, with 10 years of experience and several awards.

“I’ve always felt that I’m living my dream,” Rainey said. “It’s been a very, very good year for me. I’m very, very happy.”

Being an offficer was always her dream, Rainey said. Her family has photos and stories of her as a child in a cop costume, “arresting” her family, she said. But she ended up taking a circuitous route — getting a degree in exercise physiology, working a stint at a Cheesecake Factory.

It wasn’t until she was dating an FBI agent, she said, that she remembered her dream of going into law enforcement and started down that path. New Jersey has an age limit of 36 for law enforcement academy graduates, so Rainey followed her passion to Palm Coast.

She has earned several awards for her service.

Most prominently, in 2022, she was named the Florida Sheriff’s Association’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year after her two successful rescues of a teenager attempting to jump from an overpass in 2021 and for the successful capture of a fugitive suspected of murder in 2021.

Rainey said she’s never had a situation on the same level as rescuing the teenage girl on the overpass. The first rescue, she said, took an hour and a half from start to finish; the whole time, she was just focused on keeping the girl from jumping.

“Immediately after was a huge decompression moment for all of us,” she said.

“People I work with, they’re like, ‘deputy of the universe,’’ she said. “They’re always making jokes about it … [but] I go back and rethink, and it’s still not real to me. It really isn’t.”

The recognition is a nice balance, Rainey said, to the negative said of law enforcement.

“I think that there’s a lot of people who do stuff like this, you know,” Rainey said. “But the things that I’ve done, I don’t consider myself special. But again, it’s still just nice to be recognized.”

Deputy Bryan Carter would disagree that Rainey, his first partner on the force, isn’t special.

Rainey is selfless, Carter said.

“Crista — she’s a go-getter,” Carter said. “That girl won’t say no to anything.”

Carter joined FCSO five years ago, and Rainey was his zone partner from the start. He said she mentored him and guided him on calls, telling him: When in doubt, abide by policy.

“She got me on the right track right out the gate,” he said.

The two of them routinely critiqued calls with each other after the fact, always looking to improve. Carter said they wouldn’t pull any punches, both for their own safety and their residents’.

“She never wants to take the cheap way out,” Carter said. “She taught me there’s no breaks in law enforcement.”

Carter said Rainey helped mold him into the deputy he is today. And even now, as they go their separate ways at FCSO, he said, they’re still

close.

“She’s a dear friend of mine,” he said. “She’ll always be my friend.”

Michele Ficocello, a victim advocate and 2021 Standing O awardee, had worked with Rainey when Rainey was a Flagler Beach police officer.

“Courageous, passionate, authentic, generous are all words I would use to describe her,” said Ficocello. “She wears her hero’s heart on her sleeve. Detective Rainey is a shining beacon for our law enforcement community and the definition of their commitment to the citizens they serve and protect.”

And it isn’t just her peers whose recognize her skills.

“She is a dedicated and committed law enforcement officer,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said. “She is a great representative of the Sheriff’s Office and the many men and women that serve our community.”

Now, at an age when most people are considering winding down, Rainey is settling into her new position as a detective.

“I needed the change,” Rainey said.

She’d always wanted to be a detective, she said.

Even at the start of her dream career 10 years ago, Rainey said, her

age has never been a problem for her, or even a consideration.

“I never think about it,” she said. “I was more concerned about being a female in the field.”

And even that hasn’t been an issue over the years, she said. Instead, Rainey said, the things that stick out to her are the recovery stories — people she has helped on their worst day, she said, who are now clean or healthy or saved.

“The things I did this year mean a lot to me,” she said. “But that kind of stuff — when you hear good stories … that’s why we do this. We do this to help people.”

Friedrich Hayek

“Road to Serfdom,” 1944

Publisher John Walsh, jwalsh@palmcoastobserver.com

Managing Editor Jonathan Simmons, jonathan@palmcoastobserver.com

Senior Editor Jarleene Almenas, jarleene@ormondbeachobserver.com

Associate Editor Brent Woronoff, brent@palmcoastobserver.com

Staff Writer Sierra Williams, sierra@palmcoastobserver.com

Design Editor Hailey McMillan, hailey@palmcoastobserver.com

Media Director Holly Oliveri, holly@ormondbeachobserver.com

Senior Media Specialist Susan Moore, susan@palmcoastobserver.com

Advertising Coordinator Jessica Boone, jessica@palmcoastobserver.com

Office Coordinator Bonnie Hamilton, bonnie@palmcoastobserver.com

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VETERAN OF THE

Carlos Garcia Menocal

Branch of military: U.S. Marine Corps

Dates of service: 1974-1978

Rank/occupation: Staff Sergeant/Rifleman

Hometown: Miami, Florida Carlos Garcia Menocal enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 17. His military deployments took him to many of the countries of our NATO allies, and the Southeast Asia locations of Okinawa, Japan, Philippines and a tour in the South China Sea. He earned the Rifle Expert Badge, Pistol Expert Badge, Good Conduct Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. Upon honorably separating from active duty, Menocal went into retail sales, and later became a real estate broker in South Florida. He simultaneously served in the Marine Corps Reserve until 1986 and attained the rank of staff sergeant. He relocated to Palm Coast in 2017 and resides with his loyal companion, a 100-pound Belgian Malinois named Cooper. Of Garcia Menocal’s seven siblings, five served honorably in the U.S. military.

“I’ve always felt that I’m living my dream. It’s been a very, very good year for me.

CRISTA RAINEY

“She never wants to take the cheap way out. She taught me there’s no breaks in law enforcement.”

BRYAN CARTER, FCSO deputy

“If we are to build a better world, we must remember that the guiding principle is this — a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy.”

Crista Rainey won the Florida Sheriff’s Association’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year award in 2022.

Photo by Sierra Williams

Jessica DeFord looks out for Belle Terre Elementary

As principal, DeFord advocates for students and staff members, her colleagues said.

SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

For Jessica DeFord, principal of Belle Terre Elementary School, her job has one main focus: looking out for the students, teachers and staff at Belle Terre.

“This is my dream school,” she said. “I love the teachers and the students here, and the staff.”

It is easy to see, especially where “her” kids are involved. She makes sure to greet students in the mornings with the other teachers and staff, and then see them off in the afternoon when they leave, always with a smile. When she’s having a hard day, she said, a visit with her “kiddos” during cafeteria duty brightens it.

DeFord joined Belle Terre seven years ago, first as assistant principal, then interim principal before finally taking over that position in full in 2019.

Being principal doesn’t give her as much one-on-one time with her students as being a teacher did, DeFord said.

But the tradeoff for an administration position, she said, is that she can have a bigger impact.

As principal, she can help more kids than the 20-25 that would sit in her classroom as a teacher.

“Everything starts with the students,” DeFord said. “I love them, and they know that. They make me happy.”

And DeFord takes her job seriously. The school functions as a support team for the kids.

Her part, she said, is making sure the best people are on that team.

“I am hoping that our kids when they leave here every day know that they are wanted, loved, cared about,” DeFord said.

That love and care for the kids and staff at her school is what makes DeFord stand out to her staff, too.

Jean Jarre has worked with DeFord as her secretary for two years, but has been at Belle Terre for 16.

DeFord’s first focus is the students, Jarre said, but she is equally supportive of teachers and staff.

Jarre said DeFord is always speaking up for her staff members’ needs.

“She’s definitely always very vocal, even to bring it up to her higher-ups,” Jarre said. “She’s always trying to get more for her teachers.”

DeFord works so hard, Jarre said, that sometimes Jarre has to remind her that she has Jarre and the assistant principals to help.

She’s organized, planning out

“I find that if you love the people first, the rest of it kind of takes care of itself.”

every detail, Jarre said.

“She takes care of everything in her own way,” Jarre said.

For Natalie Muldoon, an ESOL resource teacher at Belle Terre this year, DeFord was the principal many teachers chose three years ago when the position became available.

They sent emails on her behalf to the School Board, Muldoon said, to make it known she was their choice.

“We really wanted her to become our leader, our principal, “ Muldoon said, “because of the way she treated us and listened [to us].”

Since then, DeFord has supported and advocated for staff members to administrators and parents.

She listens, Muldoon said, and has not lost perspective during the dayto-day administrative side of the job.

Muldoon had been on the committee interviewing DeFord for the assistant principal position seven years prior, and asked her why she wanted the job.

“She said she wanted to be that principal that she always wanted as a teacher, that person who is in it for the right reasons — for the teachers and for the students,” Muldoon said. “She work[s] hard to keep that perspective.”

But for DeFord, balancing the administrative work of being a prin-

cipal with caring for her students and staff just means getting to know them individually, she said.

When you do that, she said, it’s easy to empathize and put in the sup-

port a particular student or teacher needs.

“I find that if you love the people first,” DeFord said, “the rest of it kind of takes care of itself.”

Woman dies on I-95 after sedan rear-ends semitruck

A 53-year-old Port Orange woman died the morning of Dec. 28 when her sedan rear-ended a semitruck on Interstate 95.

The woman was driving directly behind the semitrailer in the center northbound lane of I-95 when the crash happened, according to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol.

The semitruck was slowing down for traffic ahead but the sedan failed to slow, the report said.

The front of the sedan hit the back of the trailer and became lodged underneath it as the two vehicles continued forward, the report said.

Eventually, both vehicles came to a stop in the center lane, with the sedan still lodged underneath the semitruck.

The truck driver was not injured in the crash.

Man killed in I-95 crash as vehicle runs off roadway

A man was killed in a single-car crash on Interstate 95 on Sunday, Jan. 1.

The crash happened in the northbound lanes at mile marker 292, just south of the Matanzas Woods Parkway exit in Flagler County.

The driver, a 30-year-old man from North Carolina, was died at the scene, according to a press release from the Florida Highway Patrol.

The North Carolina man had been driving an SUV northbound on I-95 at 8:30 a.m. in the left lane when the vehicle, for unknown reasons, veered from the left lane to the right lane before leaving the roadway.

The SUV rotated counterclockwise and overturned into a tree, coming to a stop on its right side, the report said.

No one else was in the car, according to the report.

Palm Coast motorcyclist dies after hitting guardrail

A 21-year-old Palm Coast man died on the Interstate 4 exit ramp in Volusia County on Dec. 29 when his motorcycle struck a guardrail, throwing him from the vehicle.

The man was riding behind a semitruck in the right lane of the eastbound I-4 exit to northbound I-95 when the crash happened, according to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol.

The 21-year-old tried to pass the truck on the outside shoulder, the report said, when the motorcycle suddenly lost control and hit the guardrail.

The rider came to rest on the outside shoulder.

The man’s motorcycle then veered into the roadway and hit the side of a Chrysler van carrying four people from Jacksonville, the report said.

No one in the van was injured.

The motorcyclist died at the scene, according to the report, and the crash remains under investigation.

Belle Terre Elementary School Principal Jessica DeFord

JESSICA DEFORD, Belle Terre Elementary principal

Photo by Sierra Williams

Principal Jessica DeFord takes the time to help her students to their cars, saying goodbye with a smile.

Mary Louk is a problem-solving volunteer

Louk, a vice president of the Flagler Woman’s Club and board member of Flagler Strong, is always ready to help, fellow volunteers said.

SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

Mary Louk — whose husband, she says, claims she’s a full-time volunteer — doesn’t volunteer for the recognition: Louk would prefer the attention go to any one of the many organizations she helps.

She’s directly involved in two volunteer organizations: She is one of two vice presidents for Flagler Woman’s Club, and a board member of Flagler Strong. She also works part time at Crystal Vaults and volunteers as president of her condo association at Aliki Gold Coast Condos in Flagler Beach.

“I need to be out doing something,” Louk said. “I want to be out helping somebody, changing somebody’s life for that day.”

Louk began her volunteering career a year after she retired from the grocery industry.

But retirement without things to fill her day drove her stir-crazy, she said.

Then, in 2006, the Flagler Woman’s Club entered her life.

The club was hosting yoga sessions at her condos and had organized a book drive for libraries in New Orleans that were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

It turned out that the libraries didn’t need the books, she said, so the club had to find a home for all of

the books it had received.

That’s where Louk came in.

“That’s what I like to do, I like to problem-solve,” Louk said.

She found a place for them at Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard County and found someone to transport them.

Louk said she joined the Woman’s Club after that, and hasn’t stopped volunteering.

Since then, Louk has helped the club expand its volunteer services, using her connections in Flagler Beach to find solutions to problems.

After Hurricanes Matthew and Irma, Louk became an original member of Flagler Strong. A decade after she began, she volunteers most of her free time.

But it’s a team effort, she said; the women in the club support each other.

“It’s like a sisterhood,” Louk said.

“I get very touched up when I talk about them because they do really good things for people.”

Barbara Macready, president of the Flagler Woman’s Club, said that she and Louk do everything together, including dressing up for the annual Flagler Beach Holiday Parade — though that takes some cajoling, Macready said.

“She’s like my sister,” Macready said. “Everybody in this whole community knows Mary.”

Louk, Macready said, does everything behind the scenes — all the contacting and publicity for the Flagler Woman’s Club — and is always ready to jump on the next thing.

“I can give her anything and know she’s on board,” Macready said.

Penny Bennett, a fellow Woman’s Club member and former Standing O awardee who’d nominated Louk for

MARY LOUK

the award, said Louk is the definition of volunteerism.

“Mary is the ultimate volunteer,” Bennett said. “She works tirelessly behind the scenes as an organizer of charitable events. You don’t see her name or picture in the newspapers because she is in the background, in the trenches, always working.”

Louk attributes her desire to help people with her father’s naval service in World War II and watching her eldest brother spend most of his young-adult life in Vietnam in the Marines and then the Army.

She was about 7 during the Vietnam War, she said, and saw firsthand the sacrifices men in service made.

“I just think [this is] my contribution,” Louk said.

Louk is always ready to help someone in need, Macready said.

“There’s a lightning bolt that hits her when somebody is in need,” Macready said.

PENNY

The Woman’s Club has a purpose, Louk said, that exemplifies the organizations she’s involved in — people can make a bigger difference together than they can by themselves. Being part of a positive influence in her community is what she wants to do, Louk said.

“There’s so much negativity in the world … and I just don’t have time for that,” she said. “I just want to leave it a little bit better than when there.”

“There’s so much negativity in the world … and I just don’t have time for that. I just want to leave it a little bit better than when there.”

Photo by Sierra Williams

“She works tirelessly behind the scenes as an organizer of charitable events.”

BENNETT

Mary Louk

Barbara Macready and Mary Louk dress up each year for the Flagler Beach Holiday Parade.

Jan Sutton finds volunteering is a worthwhile full-time job

Sutton has many roles at Flagler Volunteer Services, primarily handling logistics for the Giving Store and the rummage sales that fund it.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Jan Sutton likes to listen in on the conversations between the children and the volunteers at the annual Giving Store at the Flagler County Fairgrounds.

The event, conducted by Flagler Volunteers Services, “teaches children the joy of giving during the holiday season,” according to Flaglervolunteer.org. Children who qualify sign up to select gifts for every member of their household.

“The whole idea is different, because when the children come to shop, if they have a sibling that’s eligible to shop, they’re buying gifts for each other. They don’t buy any gifts for themselves,” Sutton said.

During the past few years, Sutton has been the lead volunteer for the Giving Store and the biannual rummage sales that fund it.

“We would not be able to do this or the rummage sales without Jan’s help, directing the volunteers, working out the logistics,” said Judy Mazzella, coordinator of volunteers with Flagler Volunteer Services.

Mazzella and Sutton were making sure everything was running smoothly at the Giving Store event on Dec. 10.

It’s Sutton’s favorite day of the year.

“This is my favorite event,” she said. “If you look at the kids, they’re all dressed up for the holiday; they’re so excited to come.”

Over 100 volunteers at Cattleman’s Hall helped 427 children in kindergarten through fifth grade select gifts and wrap them for their

family members.

“If you listen in to some of the conversations the children have with the escorts, that is what I like the best,” Sutton said. “I had a boy some years ago who wanted an emerald ring for his mom. I had to tell him that we don’t do rings because we don’t know what size his mom’s fingers are, so I said, ‘Let me see if I have a necklace.’ I found a necklace with a green stone. He was the happiest little boy. He said, ‘My mom wants this emerald.’ He had this idea when he came.”

Seeing smiles on children’s faces is what makes it all worthwhile for Sutton, who was a kindergarten paraprofessional in Connecticut before she and her husband retired to Palm Coast in 2017.

“I lasted about three months before I had to find something to do,” she said. “So, I joined Flagler Volunteer Services, and it just started to mushroom.”

Mazzella said Sutton basically volunteers full time for the organization. She collects donations yearround for the rummage sales. She meets people at the storage units where the donations are stored. Sutton puts price tags on the items and separates them in bins. Each rummage sale takes in about $4,000 to $5,000, she said.

Sutton also works in the Flagler Volunteer Services office. She orders monthly books for the Reading Pals program. When she’s not volunteering for Flagler Volunteer Services, she volunteers in a kindergarten classroom at Old Kings Elementary School.

Sutton works with two volunteer shoppers who purchase the Giving Store gifts.

“Over the years we found what is good and what isn’t good,” Sutton said. “What we have to keep in mind is the kids are giving the gifts, so it might be something we think is a good gift, but the child might look at it and say, ‘I don’t like that.’”

JUDY MAZZELLA, Flagler Volunteers Services’

“Jan

single item we have here,” Mazzella said, pointing to the many long tables of gifts.

“It’s a lot of work to put together,” Sutton said. “But it’s so worthwhile.”

The shoppers’ motto is never pay full price, Sutton said. They buy a good portion of the gifts at afterChristmas sales for the following year’s event. They buy gifts for every age group, from infants to adults.

The volunteers keep a variety of gifts out all day for the Giving Store, so that kids who come later in the day have as many choices as the kids who come early, Sutton said.

keeps an inventory of every

Jan Sutton holds up gift choices at the Giving Store on Dec. 1.

“We would not be able to do this or the rummage sales without Jan’s help, directing the volunteers, working out the logistics.”

coordinator of volunteers

Photo by Brent Woronoff

Lucy Noble is driven to succeed

Noble, a swimmer and a lifeguard, loves to be in the water; she will swim at Eastern Michigan University next year.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

A half-hour conversation with Flagler Palm Coast senior Lucy Noble touched on her job as a Volusia County lifeguard, but she would leave out a detail or two, like how she saved a family of four in her first summer on the tower.

“She didn’t tell you that?” her mom, Maegen Noble, asked.

A rip current dragged a husband and wife and their two young children into deep water. None of them could swim, Maegen said. When Lucy, 16 at the time, swam out with her lifesaving buoy, the father was attempting to hold his 2-year-old out of the water.

Noble managed to swim the family back to safety, pulling the buoy by herself. Afterward, she climbed back up to her tower.

“The father walked up to her and said, ‘Thank you so much. You just saved four lives.’” Maegen said. “Lucy told him, ‘No problem, I’m just doing my job.’”

Lucy Noble’s humility might only be surpassed by her dedication and drive to succeed.

She has been a competitive swimmer since she was 7. Once she reached high school, she was determined to do what it takes to swim in college.

At that point, there was no looking back, her mom said.

“She’s very self-driven with everything she does, especially swimming,” Maegen Noble said. “She set that goal and worked with her coaches to achieve it. We are certainly not the ones forcing her

to get up at the crack of dawn and train, sometimes twice a day. That’s all her.”

When they go on a family vacation, they have to schedule time for Lucy to go to the local YMCA to get some training in, Maegen said.

The hard work has paid off. Noble will swim next year for Eastern Michigan University, where coach Derek Perkins recruited her to be a sprint freestyler.

“As soon as I walked on campus and met all the girls, it felt like a family and something I wanted to be a part of,” Noble said. “Also, it was cool to see one of the other girls who’s swimming there is also from Florida, and she’s also a beach lifeguard. I knew if she could survive the cold weather, I could.”

Noble finished her outstanding high school swim career in November with two top-10 finishes at the Class 4A state championships — 10th in the 50-yard freestyle (24.27 seconds) and ninth in the 100-yard backstroke, with a personal record 48.08 seconds.

She trains and competes yearround with the Hydro4 swim team out of Ormond Beach. As much time as she puts into swimming and her job as a lifeguard, Noble is also a member of the Flagler Palm Coast National Honor Society; she is president of the FPC-TV club; she has been involved in Future Problem Solvers since sixth grade, advancing to state competition each year and international competition once; and she competes in national lifeguard competitions.

Noble serves the community as a member of the Flagler Board Riders Club through beach cleanups and volunteering at events. She also puts in community service hours for the National Honor Society. She’s volunteered at Grace Community Food Pantry, and she helped the Rotary Club set up and take down the holiday Fantasy Lights at Central Park at

Town Center.

father walked up to her and said, ‘Thank you so much. You just saved four lives.’ Lucy told him, ‘No problem, I’m just doing my job.’”

MAEGAN NOBLE

“She likes helping the community,” her mom said. “Saving lives is an amazing responsibility for a 16- to 18-year-old to have.”

Noble plans to major in communication and media studies at Eastern Michigan. She is involved in television production with FPC-TV. The club films events and reports on school news. She said she prefers to be behind the camera but has stepped in as a news anchor this year, with last year’s top anchors graduating.

“I’ve been training the underclassmen a lot this year, so that when I leave next year, they’ll be able to carry it on,” she said.

Noble enjoys filming sporting

events and would like to eventually work for a sports broadcasting company. Besides swimming, she has participated in just about every individual and team sport. Her favorite competition, though, is surf lifesaving events, which are based on beach lifeguard skills.

“It’s really cool that the community of people who are committed to saving lives get to go out on the beach and showcase their individual talents,” she said.

Two years ago, at the United States Lifesaving Association’s Lifeguard Nationals at South Padre Island Island, Texas, Noble won six Under-19 events. Last year, she defended her “run-swim-run” title

Ben Kopach stops shots and makes swaps

Kopach has been a champion on the soccer field and in Future Problem Solvers competitions.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

It’s not easy getting a ball past goalkeeper Ben Kopach. But if you want to hand him a soccer ball, he’ll be glad to swap it out for you.

The Matanzas senior’s favorite extracurricular activities are soccer and Future Problem Solvers, and he’s a champion in both.

The Pirates’ boys soccer team won district titles each of the past two seasons. Last year, Matanzas won a regional quarterfinal for the first time, with Kopach recording a shutout.

In Future Problem Solvers, Kopach’s Community Problem Solvers teams have won four state championships and two international championships. His ninth grade project — Flagler County Sports SWAP — continues to be an asset to the community.

“I told my husband, we’re going to be doing that in our retirement years,” said Amy Kopach, Ben’s mom. “I hope I’m doing that for the community when I’m old and have grandkids, because it’s such a great community service.”

Kopach, Matanzas junior Aiden White and Flagler Palm Coast seniors Tommy Sturman and Jake Blumengarten created Flagler County Sports SWAP three years ago to help families obtain sports equipment. SWAP stands for Students Wanting Athletic Participation. The Sports SWAP is housed in a back room at Shepherd of the Coast Lutheran Church and is open every Monday evening from 5:30 to 7.

The four friends continue to collect donations of sports equipment

and hand them out or swap them out to those in need. Cleats can run upwards of $100, Kopach said. If your child has a pair of size 5 cleats he is outgrowing, you can trade those in for a larger size, he said. They’ve collected equipment for just about every sport or sports-related activity over the years.

tary School.

“I would see these kids staying after school to work on these Future Problem Solvers projects,” he said. “So I had been around it for years before I was able to join. And then I got into fifth grade, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Kopach’s Community Problem

at Hermosa Beach, California.

“There’s tons of different events, and I do as many as I can. It’s just so much fun,” she said.

While Tom Gillin, her high school swim coach and Flagler Beach’s ocean rescue and recreation director, said Noble’s competitive drive makes her a perfect relay anchor, she focuses on competing against herself.

“I’m a 50 freestyler, so my whole race is under 30 seconds, rather than a soccer game being an hour and a half,” she said. “I just like how you can see that progress. It’s you against the clock. Yeah, it’s nice to win, but really, you’re racing the clock, you’re racing yourself. I care more about my own times than winning a race.”

him at a young age, he's always been focused and coachable. He's always picked up details right away. This year, he's been crucial for us."

BETO AGUILAR, Matanzas boys soccer coach

grand championships two years in a row: the Sport SWAP in 2020 and “Be Yourself, Brand Yourself” in 2021, showing students how they can position themselves in social media and brand themselves for colleges. Last year, he competed as an individual and won first place at internationals (grand championships are there’s never been a thought to play anywhere besides in goal.”

He has been playing for the highlevel Florida Elite Soccer Academy in Jacksonville since he was in eighth grade. He has been Matanzas’ goalkeeper since he was a freshman.

“I had worked with him in club before he got to high school,” said Matanzas boys soccer coach Beto Auilar. “Watching him at a young age, he’s always been focused and coachable. He’s always picked up details right away. This year, he’s been crucial for us.”

Kopach has allowed just five goals in the Pirates’ last eight games. He’s recorded three shutouts in a row.

“If you have a solid goalkeeper, he’ll keep you in the game,” Aguilar said. “He’s one of our captains. I think the players respect him and want to play for Ben.”

Kopach plans to play soccer in college. He has offers from Nova Southeastern, Florida Atlantic and Embry-Riddle. He is looking for a school where his academic and athletic pursuits align. Kopach is dualenrolled at Matanzas and Daytona State College and has completed the AICE program. He plans to major in engineering.

First, he hopes to help lead the Pirates to another district title.

“Last year we had a really big crowd (at the regional quarterfinal),” he said. “The stands were full. There was music going on, and drums and horns and everything. It was like a football game for us. And then we ended up pulling out the win. That was big for us, because we showed we could do something. That was my favorite game I’ve ever played.”

Photo by Brent Woronoff

Flagler Palm Coast High School senior Lucy Noble at the Flagler Beach pier.

“The

"Watching

Teachers of the year

DANA LIQUE

JENNIFER HALSEY

JULIE SHEFFIELD

JOAN SOLDANO

JUDY WHITE

CARRIE SCHELL

KEN RUCKER

LAURA SHANLEY

ROBYN MCANANY

BRICE LEE WINFREE

STACY JOHNSON

LAURA HIBBARD

EACHERS OF THE YEAR

LAURA SHANLEY

Indian Trails Middle

Shanley knows the middle school years are often the toughest for students. ‘I want to make sure that they know that there’s somebody there that supports them even when life seems crazy,’ she wrote.

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

Indian Trails Middle School art teacher and Teacher of the Year Laura Shanley always says that she doesn’t teach art; she teaches kids.

“I teach them how to feel better about themselves. To understand that everybody is not good at everything, but if you want something and you’re willing to work hard, you can achieve it,” she wrote in her Teacher of the Year application.

As a child, Shanley had trouble with reading and spelling.

“Standing up trying to read in front of the class made me sweat and shake,” she wrote. “... Others around me did not understand. My parents didn’t understand. I didn’t understand.”

After high school, she worked as a waitress for 13 years, sometimes working two jobs as she put her husband through law school. He insisted that she go to college. She laughed at the idea. But she went, and did well. And in a college psychology class, she read about dyslexia.

“It was like reading my story,” she wrote. “I found a way to study and I learned what worked for me.”

She graduated with a fine arts degree and an education minor.

“I loved art and felt like it was the only thing that got me through high school and life,” she wrote. “I was determined to find those students who felt like me growing up and make sure they knew that there were more than one way to be smart.”

Mikala Hansen, one of Shanley’s former students and now a ninth grader at Matanzas High School, wrote in a letter of support for Shanley’s Teacher of the Year application that Shanley was always there for her students.

“If a student came into her class crying or upset, she would always take time aside to make sure they were really OK,” Hansen wrote. “In drawing, she always went in depth with the tutorials to ensure the students would not be stuck or confused.”

Since Shanley began teach-

“As

ing in 1997, she’s worked mostly in middle schools.

“That’s the perfect place for me,” she wrote. “It’s one of the hardest times students will ever have, and I want to make sure that they know that there’s somebody there that supports them even when life seems crazy or when they don’t always make the perfect decision.”

She’s taught at Indian Trails since 2008.

Her classroom is covered floor to ceiling with paintings, drawings, sculptures and crafts from former students, Indian Trails Principal Ryan Andrews wrote in a letter of recommendation for Shanley’s Teacher of the Year application.

“Ms. Shanley makes art come to life in her classroom and inspires so many students

and families with her creativity,” Andrews wrote. “As you enter her room you are immediately immersed in engaging personal and student artifacts from years worth of activities.”

The artwork, he wrote, shows a legacy of the lives Shanley has impacted.

She’s also quick to volunteer for community activities, Andrews wrote, and created a monthly “Family Art Night” at the school, teaching guests a new skill and giving kids and their families an opportunity to bond over art.

Shanley’s after school ITMS Art Club creates scenery for dances and plays, wrote Indian Trails civics and history teacher Teresa Smith.

Shanley has helped Smith integrate art into U.S. history classes, Smith wrote.

“Laura has assisted me in bringing art into my classes by suggesting activities that allow students to analyze and understand paintings that reflect key events in history and American culture, such as Salvador Dali’s ‘The Discovery of America,’ Emmanuel Leutz’s ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’ and Howard Chandler ‘Christy’s Signing of the Constitution,’” Smith wrote. “... She is a collaborator, mentor and a creative and passionate educator of children whose vision for education extends beyond the classroom.”

LAURA HIBBARD

Buddy Taylor Middle

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

Laura Hibbard teaches as if her own three children were in her classroom, she wrote in a statement for her 2022 Teacher of the Year application.

Hibbard, a language arts teacher, began her teaching career at Buddy Taylor Middle School in October 2015 and has been the school’s language arts department head for three school years, including the current one.

The daughter of a school teacher, Hibbard worked in the corporate world for a decade, most recently as a banker, before earning a teaching license.

“This background is the strongest driving force behind how I hold my students accountable, what curriculum I support, and the real-world application I insist upon,” she wrote. “ ... I believe teachers are always learning, and I’ve surely put that motto into practice.”

Hibbard is a certified clinical educator with a master’s in literacy and holds teaching certifications the topics of reading, ESOL and gifted.

“When I think of the qualities that make someone worthy of the title of Teacher of the Year, the first person that comes to mind is Laura Hibbard,” wrote Cara Disken, a former Buddy Taylor teacher and current assistant principal of Suwannee Middle School. “... It was apparent during our first meeting that she had a zeal and love for teaching middle schoolers and making their experience in her classroom one they will remember far beyond seventh and eighth grade.”

One of the quotes posted in

CARA DISKEN

Hibbard’s classroom states: “The future of the world is in my classroom today.”

“One core belief of Laura’s is that each child is more than a test score,” Disken wrote.

“This belief is evident in her classroom each day. She encourages her students to work toward mastery of each standard, but also connects her lessons to a student’s life beyond middle school. Laura wants her students to learn thinking skills that will help them no matter what path in

life they choose.”

And Hibbard’s students also test well.

In 2018 and 2019, 68% of them increased their Florida Standards Assessments reading scores students increased their FSA Reading score; in 2019, two of them earned perfect FSA scores and 10 earned perfect writing scores.

“These scores may earn scholarships, but students still have to keep putting in the work when tests are over,” Hibbard wrote. “All levels of achievement matter, whether they are ever measured by data.”

Hibbard also helped create the Buddyworth Mentor Readers Program in 2018, placing advanced readers from her seventh and eighth grade classes in the role of reading mentors for kindergarteners at Wadsworth Elementary School.

Hubbard invites students to connect her lessons to their lives outside the classroom.

In a recent classroom discussion of Yeats’ “Song of Wandering Aengus,” in which a man wandering in the woods uses a berry to catches a fish that transforms into a woman before running away, one of Hibbard’s lower-tier readers discussed the science of fishing lures.

She noted that although the poem was relevant in academia for student success, the information the student was providing could put food on the table.

“I create relevance in my classroom, acknowledging there are many important lessons in their lives,” Hibbard wrote.

"She is a collaborator, mentor and a creative and passionate educator of children whose vision for education extends beyond the classroom."

TERESA SMITH, history teacher, Indian Trails Middle School

Photos courtesy of Flagler Schools

Laura Shanley

you enter her room you are immediately immersed in engaging personal and student artifacts from years worth of activities.”

RYAN ANDREWS, principal, Indian Trails Middle School

Hibbard encourages students to connect classroom lessons to the outside world and learn from mistakes.

BTMS Teacher of the Year Laura Hibbard with Principal Cara Cronk and Rookie Teacher of the Year Teagan Arcieri

“Laura’s classroom environment is one that encourages learning from mistakes, approaching problems in unique ways, and reminds each child they can be successful.”

Photos courtesy of Flagler Schools

Laura Hibbard

LEE WINFREE

Matanzas High

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Early in his career, Matanzas High School Teacher of the Year Lee Winfree re-evaulated his teaching style.

While students in his advanced-placement math courses were thriving, a comment from a former student made him realize that he was pushing his students too hard.

“A former student told me that some (students) had decided to change from math related majors because of my class,” Winfree wrote in the writing prompts for his Teacher of the Year application. “While these students excelled in class and were some of the smartest kids I ever taught, this affected me greatly.”

Winfree realized it was not enough to reach his students, he also needed to give them confidence that they could succeed, not just in his class, but in the more rigorous courses in college.

Now, his AP math classes are popular.

“The relationships he builds in his classroom are evident,” first-year Matanzas Principal Kristin Bozeman wrote in her Teacher of the Year recommendation. “Students are willing to sign up

for the most challenging math classes in our school and work hard because his reputation as a teacher is so legendary. Their hard work pays off too, because Mr. Winfree’s pass rates on his AP calculus and AP statistics exams are excellent — regularly exceeding the national average for these subjects.”

Winfree is in his 22nd year as a teacher. He is in his 10th year at Matanzas. He also taught one year at Flagler Palm Coast (2012-2013). In addition to AP calculus and statistics, he also teaches probability and statistics, which is an honors course, and two dual-enrollment college courses — algebra and trigonometry — through Daytona State College.

Winfree completed a master’s degree in education in 2005. In 2016, he decided to work toward a second master’s degree in mathematical sciences so that he could teach dual-enrollment college courses at Matanzas. He earned his master’s in math in 2018.

“By getting my degree, we opened a way for students who cannot drive or travel to have an opportunity to take dual enrollment classes,” Winfree wrote. “This is becoming ever more important alongside the AICE program, where the college algebra and college trigonometry classes are key to students earning their AA in conjunction with their AICE diploma.”

Last year, 21 of his 22 AP statistics students passed the

“The relationships he builds in his classroom are evident. Students are willing to sign up for the most challenging math classes in our school and work hard because his reputation as a teacher is so legendary.”

KRISTIN BOZEMAN, Matanzas principal

exams with a 3 or higher, with 55% earning the highest grade of 5.

“This accomplishment is a great personal achievement because many of these students are in their final year of high school, and some have been with me for two or three years,” Winfree wrote. “This says a lot about the success I am having with students in my classroom. They come back year after year knowing that the rigor and expectations are high, but they know they will be given opportunities to succeed and any assistance they need when they are struggling.”

Winfree is also an afterschool math tutor, working with students who are not in his advanced classes. He also is the sponsor for Matanzas’ Mu Alpha Theta math club. He is an AP reader for the statistics exam, scoring students’ responses. He has served as a school representative for the district’s curriculum mapping, and he is a new teacher mentor. He also helps out with the school’s cross country and track teams.

“His passion for students and creating a positive culture goes beyond his classroom,” former Matanzas Principal Jeff Reaves, who is now the district’s director of teaching and learning, wrote in his recommendation for Winfree. “He is truly a team player and always tries his best to foster positive relationships.”

JENNIFER HALSEY

Jennifer

SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

Jennifer Halsey’s teaching style revolves around one word: relationships.

“Jennifer Halsey is someone who truly understands the importance of relationships. She goes above and beyond to establish relationships with her colleagues, students, parents and mentees,” Lauren White, an Ormond Beach Elementary teacher who worked with Halsey for 10 years at Wadsworth, wrote in a letter of support for Halsey’s Teacher of the Year application.

Halsey is Wadsworth Elementary’s Teacher of the Year, and for White, she is a model teacher who cultivates relationships with both her students and her peers.

White said Halsey motivates students academically and socially, and isn’t afraid to welcome students with significant classroom needs.

In fact, White wrote, Halsey will seek those students out because she knows how support and guidance will help them grow confidence to succeed, even beyond the classroom.

“This combination of high expectations and relationships is a winning recipe for student growth and success,” White wrote. “Ms. Halsey deserves the greatest level of recognition as she truly is the

heart of Wadsworth Elementary School.”

Halsey teaches third grade at Wadsworth and has been teaching since 2005. Her goal, she wrote in her Teacher of the Year application, is to make a difference in each of her students’ lives and to cultivate a passion for learning.

“I am continuously motivated by the relationships I have built with my students, parents and colleagues,” Halsey wrote.

Halsey became a teacher because of her own third grade teacher. Halsey used to struggle in school. Her teacher pushed her beyond her limits, she wrote — setting high expectations while maintaining a loving and safe environment for Halsey.

Now, Halsey strives to create that environment for her students. When she sees her students’ efforts, she wrote, she is reminded how she felt in that third grade classroom with a teacher who believed in her.

“As a third-grade teacher myself, I am now inspired by my own students when I see them struggle and persevere,” she wrote.

And, in turn, her students are inspired by her.

Victoria Pindell sat in Halsey’s third grade classroom in the 2012-2013 school year. Ten years later, she is in college studying early childhood education — because of Halsey, Pindell wrote.

“Ms. Halsey takes the time to get to know each of her students, and instead of pointing out improvements they can make, she finds and brings out the strength in them,” Pindell

said.

That compassion extends to her peers, too, White wrote.

Halsey advocates for new and student teachers, building up new teachers so that they, too, can be successful, White wrote.

Chris Tincher, Wadsworth Elementary’s assistant principal, wrote that Halsey is one of those true great teachers whom students will remember for the rest of their lives.

Halsey loves every student in her class, Tincher said.

“A student who struggled to be loved by some teachers never has to worry, because Ms. Halsey loves them unconditionally simply because they are hers,” Tincher said.

Pindell wrote that Halsey has shown up for her on many occasions, long after she left Halsey’s classroom.

Halsey is her inspiration for being a teacher, Pindell wrote, and Pindell hopes to be a positive, motivating and compassionate influence on her future students, just like Halsey is.

“She’s not just the teacher of the year,” Pindell wrote. “She’s been the teacher of my lifetime.”

CARRIE SCHELL

Flagler

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

Flagler Palm Coast High School Teacher of the Year Carrie Schell knows that each student has a story. “While some students immediately open up, others need time and trust to tell their stories,” she wrote in her Teacher of the Year application. “With time, I listen to them, show kindness and grace, display discipline yet fairness, and compassion and encouragement so that each student begins to feel they are valued.”

Schell, a biology teacher, has taught in Florida for 24 years and at FPC for eight; she also taught for 10 years at Florida Virtual School.

Local parent and 2021 Indian Trails Middle School Teacher of the Year Beth Blumengarten’s three children have all

taken Schell’s International Baccalaureate biology class. Blumengarten believes Schell was instrumental in Blumengarten’s eldest child’s decision to enter the medical field.

“Going beyond the classroom, Carrie takes building relationships to another level with her students,” Blumengarten wrote in a letter of recommendation for Schell’s Teacher of the Year application. “She is able to connect with them and treats each one as her own each and every day. Now that our oldest is in college, she has continued to support him. She will ask our family about him and when seeing him as he visits, she still connects to make sure he is moving academically in the right direction.”

Schell teaches the rigorous IB program biology classes, but also works with students who need remedial instruction.

“She has taught remedial courses and summer school all the way up through Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate level courses,” wrote Jackie McKeown, FPC’s IB diploma and AP coordinator. “In all of her courses, she treats her students with the same high level of respect and caring. She offers uncondi -

tional support and stays after school with students on most days.”

With a group of other teachers, Schell worked over the summers to build common unit remediation folders in Schoology. She also tutors biology students — from any classroom, not just hers — after school each week.

“This allows me an opportunity to reach more students than just those in my classroom,” she wrote.

“Mrs. Schell is well known not just for her hands-on approach to teaching but for her willingness to meet students where they are and ensure they are meeting their full potential,” FPC Principal Bobby Bossardet wrote in a letter supporting Schell’s Teacher of the Year application. “She has been able to connect with students who struggle with academics as well as students who strive for academic excellence.”

Schell has also mentored a new biology teacher each year after her first year at FPC, and hosted a college intern.

In 2020, as teachers struggled to shift to remote instruction, Schell taught a Zoom professional development class on strategies for remote teaching, sharing what she’d learned in her 10 years as a Florida Virtual School teacher, McKeown wrote.

“At a time when many teachers were feeling overwhelmed, Carrie provided straightforward, practical and useful information,” McKeown wrote. “To this day, it was probably one of the most useful trainings I have attended.”

STACY JOHNSON

If you had asked Old Kings Elementary School teacher Stacy Johnson a few years ago what kind of educator she aspired to be, she would have told you that she was motivated to be the kind of teacher she’d want for her own children.

When Johnson transitioned three years ago from teaching a general first grade class

to becoming an ESE support facilitator working with striving readers, she realized these students required a different kind of teacher.

“They require a teacher who specializes in effective intervention instruction, has strong literacy knowledge and is mixed with love, patience and encouragement,” Johnson wrote in her essay for the Teacher of the Year award.

Johnson is from South Daytona. She graduated from Spruce Creek High School and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in in Emotional Disturbances/Learning Disabilities from Florida State University.

She has been a teacher for 23 years, the last six years at OKES. Since 2019, she has worked with students from prekindergarten through first grade who require reading intervention.

“She assesses students’ needs and provides individual and small group instruction. Her passion to reach every student at any cost is what makes her stand out,” OKES Principal Nicole Critcher wrote in her Teacher of the Year recommendation for Johnson.

Since 2019, Johnson has taken several courses and earned several certificates in reading intervention.

“I am humbled with the knowledge that my job can change the trajectory of a student’s life, as being able to read gives students opportunities to be successful in school and beyond,” she wrote.

She shares what she learned with other teachers.

“I began seeing more

STACY

growth with my students, as did their teachers,” she wrote.

“They became interested in what I was doing and wanted to see what they could do in their classrooms to help their students.”

In the past year, she enrolled in UF’s graduate level dyslexia certificate program as a stepping stone to earn a doctorate degree.

“Nothing brings me more joy than witnessing my students progress,” she wrote.

“My goal is for my students to no longer need sustained, intensive intervention after first grade, because research shows that it can take four times longer to remediate a struggling reader in fourth grade compared to a student receiving early intervention in kindergarten or first grade.”

Critcher said Johnson “tutors students before and after school and even outside of school. Her drive to better understand reading disabilities is what drives her to discover strategies that work

for each student.”

Halsey has high expectations for her students, and her passion and compassion inspire.

Wadsworth Elementary

Jennifer Halsey Photo courtesy of Flagler Schools BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

best

Johnson is an ESE support facilitator who provides intensive reading intervention to pre-K through first grade students.

Old Kings Elementary

“I am humbled with the knowledge that my job can change the trajectory of a student’s life, as being able to read gives students opportunities to be successful in school and beyond.”

JOHNSON

Photo courtesy of Flagler Schools

Stacy Johnson

Winfree fosters relationships as an AP math and statistics teacher.

Photo courtesy of Flagler Schools Lee Winfree

Schell teaches biology classes from remedial to IB, showing the same high level of respect and caring for all students, according to colleagues.

Palm Coast High

Carrie Schell

“Mrs. Schell consistently and tirelessly works to not only better her own craft, but the craft of those around her.”

BOBBY

BOSSARDET, principal, Flagler Palm Coast High School

Photo courtesy of Flagler Schools

EACHERS OF THE YEAR

ROBYN MCANANY

Belle Terre Elementary

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

When kindergarten students first arrive in Belle Terre Elementary School teacher Robert McAnany’s class, some are a bit nervous, she wrote in her Teacher of the Year application statement.

But, she wrote, they’re also excited to learn.

“One of my favorite challenges is to share content in a way that keeps students engaged and excited all day, throughout every lesson,” she wrote.

McAnany has been teaching since 1994, and teaching kindergarten at Belle Terre Elementary since 2005.

Teachers in older grades often have background information on students from the students’ earlier years in school, but kindergarten teachers may not have that.

“Students’ skill sets vary from student to student, and it is our job as kindergarten teachers to have all students master the preset kindergarten learning outcomes by the end of the year, regardless of how they started the year,” McAnany wrote.

McAnany “is one of those special individuals who is able to build relationships with the toughest of students and find a way to get along with the most difficult of colleagues,”

Belle Terre Elementary Principal Jessica DeFord wrote in a letter of recommendation for McAnany’s Teacher of the Year application.

McAnany knows that extracurriculars help students grow, so she created a kindergarten engineer club.

“Some of the students’ favorite projects were building bridges for the gingerbread man, creating catapults and designing homes for the three little pigs that could withstand hurricane winds or a blow dryer on the highest setting!” she wrote in her Teacher of the Year statement.

The club stopped meeting because of COVID-19, but she hopes to restart it.

McAnany also serves as a mentor for newer teachers.

“Learning to navigate a new school or new career can be difficult, but having a go-to person makes the transition much smoother,” she wrote.

“This opportunity provides me the ability to encourage

new teachers on how important it is to have an open mind, courage, flexibility, and to make sure they have a true passion for learning.”

Retired Flagler Schools assistant principal Barry Wills noted that McAnany has served as a department head and on committees.

“It is not uncommon to find her working in her classroom early in the morning, or late in the afternoon, often leaving school to attend one of her students’ extra curricular activities,” he wrote. “This true educator is cooperative, exhibits fairness among colleagues, and is a true role model for other staff members.”

JUDY WHITE

Rymfire Elementary

vidualized education program students and 504-plan students in her classroom.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Rymfire Elementary School Teacher of the Year Judy White was hired in 2006 as an Exceptional Student Education inclusion teacher. That position helped change her career path.

White moved to Palm Coast with her husband and their two children in 2005. The following year, when Rymfire Elementary School opened, Principal Paula St. Francis hired White to be a first-to fourth-grade ESE inclusion teacher. After two years, she moved to a general education classroom.

Previously, White had taught self-contained specific learning disabilities classes and varying exceptionalities classes in Pinellas County.

“It was a great experience for me to be an inclusion teacher and have the opportunity to work with so many amazing general education teachers,” she wrote in her Teacher of the Year application. “This experience motivated me to be a general education teacher who serviced ESE students.”

White taught second grade for seven years at Rymfire and is now in her seventh year teaching third grade.

Because she is a certified ESE teacher and an EnglishLanguage Learner Endorsed teacher, she often has indi-

“I am proud to say that I am a general education teacher who works purposefully to make sure I am inspiring, motivating, and educating every student in my room to be the best they can be,” she wrote.

In the 2021-22 school year, 94% of her students met typical growth on the iReady English Language Arts diagnostic assessment which was 19 percentage points above the district average for third grade teachers.

All of her ELL students and students classified with disabilities met typical growth in English Language Arts, Rymfire Principal Travis Lee wrote in his Teacher of the Year recommendation for White.

“This is a testament to her ability to impact all subgroups of students positively,” Lee wrote.

Rymfire Assistant Principal Jamie Pedro wrote that White “welcomes students at the door and continues building their capacity in her crafted morning meetings, a quick 10-minute relationship building activity where students share how they feel and/or resolve peer conflicts.”

White has made countless contributions to Rymfire Elementary and to the school district, Lee wrote.

She is a 2022 mentor teacher, helping new teachers transition into the school.

She also taught other teachers on her grade level how to use Schoology to provide questions read individually to each child at their own pace.

She has led professional learning for the school’s fac-

JUDY WHITE

ulty, integrating technology into instruction. And she has created videos for the district’s technology department to use in teacher training.

“Mrs. White truly personifies what an exceptional teacher should be on any campus in our school, district and state,” Lee wrote.

White has also been a Future Problem Solvers coach for the past eight years.

Her Community Problem Solvers groups have provided books and learning games for teachers and students.

Her 2015-2016 Community Problem Solvers group, “A Playground for Everyone,” helped get a sidewalk paved along the playgrounds, allowing wheelchairs access to the playground areas for the first time.

Her 2021-2022 group, Team BEST (Butterfly Environmental Sustainability Team) created a butterfly garden at the school, providing milkweed, which is necessary for butterflies’ survival.

The team “learned the butterfly population has decreased by 80% in the past 20 years, so they passed out milkweed seeds to the Rymfire community,” White wrote.

Team BEST won state competition and finished second in international competition.

“During my career at Rymfire,” White wrote, “I have been blessed to work with some of the most incredible students, educators, coaches and administrators. I am lucky to have had the chance to learn from all of them.”

McAnany loves the challenge of sharing content in a way that keeps kindergarteners engaged.

Robyn McAnany

Photo courtesy of Flagler Schools

“Mrs. McAnany has an amazing ability of ensuring that both the parent and the child have a successful transition into the academic world. She has open, honest communication and is compassionate to the feelings of all involved.”

ASHLEY

DEMAIO, media aide, Belle Terre Elementary School

File photo by Anastasia Pagello

Flagler County substitute Katherine Ciardi, BTES first grade teacher Stephanie Diguglielmo, BTES kindergarten teacher Robyn McAnany and Lucy McAnany in the BTES 5K in 2016.

White’s ESE training and experience helps her impact all students in her general education classes.

Judy White

“I am proud to say that I am a general education teacher who works purposefully to make sure I am inspiring, motivating and educating every student in my room to be the best they can be.”

Photo courtesy of Flagler Schools

“Mrs. White truly personifies what an exceptional teacher should be on any campus in our school, district and state.”

TRAVIS LEE, Rymfire Elementary School principal

*Other providers are available in the CarePlus network. Provider may also contract with other Plans/Part D sponsors. Flagler County. CarePlus is an HMO plan with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in CarePlus depends on contract renewal. Important: At CarePlus, it is important you are treated fairly. CarePlus Health Plans, Inc. complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, age, marital status, religion, or language in their programs and activities, including in admission or access to, or treatment or employment in, their programs and activities. The following department has been designated to handle inquiries regarding CarePlus’ non-discrimination policies: Member Services, PO Box 277810, Miramar, FL 33027, 1-800-794-5907 (TTY: 711). Auxiliary aids and services, free of charge, are available to you. 1-800-794-5907 (TTY: 711). CarePlus provides free auxiliary aids and services, such as qualified sign language interpreters, video remote interpretation, and written information in other formats to people with disabilities when such auxiliary aids and services are necessary to ensure an equal opportunity to participate. This information is available for free in other languages. Please call our Member Services number at 1-800-7945907. Hours of operation: October 1 - March 31, 7 days a week, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 1 - September 30, Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. You may leave a voicemail after hours, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays and we will return your call within one business day. Español (Spanish): Esta información está disponible de forma gratuita en otros idiomas. Favor de llamar a Servicios para Afiliados al número que aparece anteriormente. Kreyòl Ayisyen (French Creole):

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EACHERS OF THE YEAR

JULIE SHEFFIELD

Bunnell Elementary

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

Julie Sheffield teaches students who have disabilities or are significantly behind grade level, and some arrive in her class feeling defeated. But Sheffield, Bunnell Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year, makes sure they don’t leave that way.

“They lack confidence and feel cast aside for their difficulties or disabilities,” she wrote in her Teacher of the Year application. “... Others have been labeled as a lost cause, and that they won’t amount to anything. This breaks my heart, so I make it my mission to lift them up, to help them find their superpowers and meet their fullest potential. ... I refuse to be another person who gives up on them, lets them down or someone who doesn’t put the effort in to understand them.”

Sheffield has taught at Bunnell Elementary School for the last 14 years, and has worked with students with disabilities for the last six years.

Her background as a high school cheerleader has served her well, she wrote.

“These students need a champion, they need a cheerleader, someone to point out their abilities and the amazing things that make them so special,” she wrote. “I want to be

that person, so I have become an integral part of the High Support model piloted by an amazing admin team.”

None of Sheffield’s students start the year on grade level. But this last school year, 63% of them ended on grade level.

“Mrs. Sheffield’s data always demonstrates impressive growth, helping students close gaps and catch up with their grade level peers,” Bunnell Elementary Assistant Principal Cari Hankerd wrote in a letter in support for Sheffield’s Teacher of the Year application. “Students from her class commonly come away with a favorite teacher, warm memories, and on-

grade-level with (or much closer to) their peers.”

Students in Sheffield’s class feel safe to take intellectual risks and make mistakes to grow, Hankerd wrote.

“Her enthusiasm in instruction is inspiring, her positivity is contagious, and her attentiveness and responsiveness to student data is meticulous,” Hankerd wrote.

Rymfire Elementary Assistant Principal Abra Seay’s grandson entered Sheffield’s class for third grade.

“Having him in Julie’s class was the best decision we ever made,” she wrote in a letter of recommendation for Sheffield. His reading assessments rapidly improved.

“His confidence also improved, and he loved school for the first time!” Seay wrote.

Sheffield came up with a new approach to teaching phonics and word patterns, using “pop it” fidget toys and having students pop the number of sounds they’re hearing in a new word when Sheffield presents it to them, wrote ESE Staffing Specialist Rosemarie Alfano.

The process, she wrote, keeps students engaged in the activity and makes it clear if they aren’t hearing the sounds.

The children then use magnetic letters to form the word, “building the letter-sound relationship,” Alfano wrote.

“Students love Julie because she is kind, loving, fun, and cares about them,” Alfano wrote. “Julie gets to know every student in her class as a whole person.”

DANA LIQUE

iFlagler

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

The green, leaf-shaped insect rested still on the back of iFlagler teacher Dana Lique’s hand as he narrated a one minute and 40 second video about the creature for his students.

The katydid’s leaflike shape and color, he explained, evolved because ancestors with more leaflike qualities would have been less susceptible to predation.

“This adaptation likely started as a simple mutation for a variation of color, meaning within a population of its ancestors, some of them are green, so they blended in, they survived more, they reproduced more, and then of course they passed on that trait to their offspring,” he said.

Other leaflike traits would have been passed on similarly, he said, as he reached toward to a vine to let the insect step off.

Lique, iFlagler’s 2022 Teacher of the Year, has long been fascinated by the natural world.

A kayaker and angler with a degree in marine science and a captain’s license, he’d created a fishing charter and eco-tour business in Ponce Inlet before becoming a teacher at University High School in 2010. He came to Flagler Palm Coast High School in 2014, then to iFlagler in 2020.

“I loved the teaching aspect of the eco-tours so much that I felt the need to get inside a classroom to share my love for science and the outdoors to the local community,” he wrote in a statement for his

JOSE SANTIAGO-BUEDO, iFlagler math, Spanish and science teacher

Teacher of the Year application. “I spent 10 years in the classroom with a very handson approach to teaching, and then COVID hit. I then volunteered with iFlagler and loved it so much I decided to stay.”

At iFlagler, he created his own “Lique Vision’’ YouTube Channel for videos like the katydid one.

“These videos he creates are incredibly engaging, whether exploring a local ecosystem, creating a quick lesson on the planets using time lapse video or simply using other teachers as guinea pigs for demonstrations,” fellow iFlagler teacher Jose Santiago-Buedo wrote in a letter of recommendation for Lique’s Teacher of the Year application.

Lique works to connect with students despite the distance inherent in virtual

ERIN QUINN, principal, iFlagler Virtual Programs

instruction, wrote Flagler Virtual Programs Principal Erin Quinn.

“As a virtual instructor, it can be difficult to build relationships with students and families,” Quinn wrote. “This is not an issue for Mr. Lique. ... Dana Lique is responsible for numerous activities that expand beyond the classroom. Not only is he an amazing teacher, he is able to bring live instruction to the virtual classroom.”

He also helps students connect with each other: Lique created an iFlagler Gaming and Social Club and an appbased social platform as a venue for students to socialize with their peers.

“I am continuing to develop this club and constantly thinking of other ways to bring students together,” he wrote. “On top of the benefits of student interaction and socialization, this platform has provided another means to get in touch with students whom, due to the nature of virtual learning, may be difficult to get in touch with.”

Students in Sheffield’s class feel safe to take intellectual risks and make mistakes to grow.

Julie Sheffield

"Julie is one of those teachers you come across once in a great while. She is popular with students, families, and colleagues."

ROSEMARIE

ALFANO, Bunnell Elementary School ESE staffing specialist

Photos courtesy of Flagler Schools

“Students from her class commonly come away with a favorite teacher, warm memories, and on-grade-level with (or much closer to) their peers.”

CARI HANKERD, assistant principal, Bunnell Elementary School

Lique, a former ecotour guide, brings his love of the outdoors to the virtual classroom.

Dana Lique

"He yields high results from his students because of the high expectations he sets and the relationships he builds with his students."

Photos courtesy of Flagler Schools

“As a coworker, he is available to help or assist any faculty member with technical problems with our equipment or to contribute ideas in generating new teaching methods or approaches with students.”

EACHERS OF THE YEAR

KEN RUCKER

Flagler Technical College

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

Ken Rucker, Flagler Technical College’s Teacher of the Year and the school’s heavy equipment construction instructor, can fix just about anything with wheels, CDL instructor Tom Worthington wrote in a letter of recommendation for Rucker’s Teacher of the Year application.

“Just the other day, I had to call him and tell him we had a bad air leak, and that the brakes were on fire,” Worthington wrote. “Ken came to our rescue right away,” saving the school hundreds of dollars.

And Rucker is inspired to teach those skills with heavy equipment to his students.

“I enjoy seeing their faces light up and the satisfaction they feel when they realize that they have obtained the ability to run a piece of

equipment such as a backhoe, front end loader or excavator,” Rucker wrote in his Teacher of the Year application. “The same with driving a semitruck as they learn to shift the gears without stalling or grinding the gears, or to back up safely. I also receive a sense of pride when I see them offered employment using the skills that they have learned through my instruction.”

Rucker, born in Palatka, has worked in construction, fixed paper mill equipment and driven semitrucks around the country.

He came to Palm Coast after marrying his wife, a St. Augustine school teacher, and worked as a mechanic for private businesses, and for a stint at the St. Johns County School District’s transportation department, before becoming heavy equipment construction instructor at FTC in 2020.

“Ken is innovative and a problem solver,” FTC Director Renee Kirkland wrote in a letter of recommendation for Rucker’s Teacher of the Year application. “He does whatever it takes to keep his program running efficiently.”

Rucker worked out an agreement with the city of Palm Coast to train city staff members on heavy equipment, Kirkland wrote, and volunteers for FTC and for the Florida Agricultural Museum — which houses FTC’s heavy equipment program lab — in his spare time.

Over the past several years, Rucker and his students have built a drainage system, horse pastures and roads for the

“He has taken a fledgling [Heavy Equipment Operations Technician] program and transformed it into a flagship program at Flagler

BRUCE WINTERS,

museum, and added places for wildflowers and gopher tortoises, Rucker wrote.

“Currently, we have been spreading dirt from the swales brought in from the city of Palm Coast,” he wrote. “The dirt is being used to fill in a low area that will be used for future museum development, thus helping out both the city and the museum.”

Rucker also has an advisory committee that meets twice annually, Kirkland wrote. Its members, local business stakeholders who hire FTC grads, advise Rucker on textbooks and curricula, she wrote.

Rucker works well with both adult students and with high school students taking dual enrollment classes at FTC, wrote Bruce Winters, FTC’s Commercial Vehicle Driving Program facilitator.

“He has taken a fledgling [Heavy Equipment Operations Technician] program and transformed it into a flagship program at Flagler Technical College,” Winters wrote. “... He handles both adult and dual enrollment students with energy and skill, inspiring personal growth and success in every one of them.”

JOAN SOLDANO

Imagine School

JONATHAN SIMMONS MANAGING EDITOR

Imagine School at Town Center Teacher of the Year Joan Soldano shares her love of science with the school’s seventh grade students.

Soldano had retired from teaching in New York — where she was a 2010 state Teacher of the Year finalist and the 2014 New York State Air Force Association’s Teacher of the Year — before coming to Florida.

“After moving to Florida, she determined that her heart and passion for students and education was still alive,” Town Center Principal James Menard wrote in an email about Soldano’s nomination for Teacher of the Year.

Soldano, who holds a master’s degree in special education and teaching and is a state-certified exceptional

student education teacher, has served in multiple roles at Imagine School, teaching eighth grade English language arts and ESE support in addition to her current role as seventh grade science teacher.

“In addition to working with students, Soldano also serves as a peer coach, help ing share her passion for edu cation with our middle school teachers,” Menard wrote.

Rucker takes pride in seeing students enter the workplace using skills he taught them.

Ken Rucker

Photo courtesy of Flagler Schools

Technical College.”

FTC Commercial Vehicle Driving Program facilitator

Soldano shares her love of science with students.

at Town Center

Joan Soldano

Photo courtesy of Imagine School at Town Center

Oceanfront condo sells for

in Hammock Dunes was the top real estate transaction for the week of Nov. 24-30 in Flagler County in the Multiple Listing Service. Jane Edwards, individually and as trustee, sold 20 Porto Mar, Unit 203, to Craig Uttley, as trustee, for $1.18 million. Built in 2004, the condo is a 3/3 and has 2,700 square feet.

WAYNE GRANT REAL ESTATE EDITOR

Condo

Robert Pedrigi III sold 200 Ocean Crest Drive, Unit 931, to Margaret Mitchell and Arthur Larson, of York Beach, Maine, for $310,000. Built in 2003, the condo is a 1/1 and has 678 square feet. It sold in 2019 for $172,500.

Bernard Meadows

Katrina King, of Palm Coast, sold 4 Blakeview Court to David and Jean Thompson, of Palm Coast, for $355,000. Built in 1980, the house is a 3/2 and has a swimming pool and 1,781 square feet. It sold in 2013 for $132,000.

Country Club Harbor

MIA Properties LLC, of Palm Coast, sold 32 Country Club Harbor Circle to The Robert G. Kassebaum Revo-

cable Trust for $710,000. Built in 2016, the house is a 4/2 and has a swimming pool, boat dock, boathouse and 1,801 square feet. It sold in 2016 for $302,800.

Cypress Knoll Henry and Sandra Hughes, of Murphy, North Carolina, sold 20 Evanston Lane to Richard and Cynthia Bradley, of Palm Coast, for $620,000. Built in 2007, the house is a 4/3 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 2,528 square feet. It sold in 2020 for $433,000.

Easthampton

Antonio and Maria Soares sold 131 Eric Drive to Samsorn and Lisa Ly, of Palm Coast, for $470,000. Built in 2005, the house is a 3/2.5 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 2,073 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $325,000.

Fuquay

Michael and Elissa Garrett, of Flagler Beach, sold 2000 S. Daytona Ave. to Alan Frackowiak and Courtney Hill-Frackowiak, of Flagler Beach, for $825,000. Built in 2013, the house is a 3/3 and has a swimming pool and 1,875 square feet. It sold in 2017 for $422,000.

Grand Haven

Boris Shvarts and Olga Naroditskaya, of Daytona Beach, sold 36 Eastlake Drive to Juan Gomez Jr., of Palm Coast, for $829,900. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/3 and has 2,665 square feet.

Grand Reserve and Golf Club

D.R. Horton Inc. Jacksonville, of St. Johns, sold 44 Pinnacle Place to Alessandra Gartner, of Bunnell, for $338,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/2 and has 1,934 square feet.

D.R. Horton Inc. Jacksonville, of St. Johns, sold 36 Pinnacle Place to Marissa Virola, of Bunnell, for $312,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/2 and has 1,934 square feet.

Indian Trails

David and Diane Halibozek, of Doral, sold 51 Bannerwood Lane to Jerry and Tonya Elam, of Palm Coast, for $462,000. Built in 2006, the house is a 4/2 and has a swimming pool and 2,443 square feet. It sold in 2016 for $271,000.

Lehigh Woods

Santos and Haydee Cruz, of Meriden, Connecticut, sold 40 Ramblewood Drive to Steven Aia and Christine Castelli, of Palm Coast, for $306,000. Built in 2005, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,414 square feet. It sold in August for $306,000.

LGI Homes Florida LLC, of The Woodlands, Texas, sold 83 Randolph Drive to Jonathan and Nikki Velazquez, of Palm Coast, for $294,900. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,270 square feet.

Model Land Donald and Melissa Wollin, of Flagler Beach, sold 1317 N. Central Ave. to Clendon and Deana Hartshorn, of Flagler Beach, for $725,000. Built in 1992, the house is a 3/3.5 and has 1,971 square feet.

Not in Subdivision Will and Donna Dodenhoff, of Parrish, sold 3 Birchfield Place to Cody and Amber Schouten, of Palm Coast, for $497,000. Built in 2020, the house is a 4/3 and has 2,306 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $350,000.

Ernest and Donna Littlefield sold 37 Fallwood Lane to Timothy Laufer, of Mount Dora, for $390,000. Built in 1996, the house is a 3/2 and has a swimming pool and 1,654 square feet.

Florida Home Exchange LLC, of Apollo Beach, sold 99 Beacon Mill Lane to Angkana Sheer, as trustee, for $335,000. Built in 1989, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,704 square feet. It sold in April for $237,500.

Holiday Builders Inc., of Melbourne, sold 11 Russkin Lane to Frank Basso, of Palm Coast, for $301,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,552 square feet.

Holiday Builders Inc., of Melbourne, sold 14 Seven Wonders Trail to Lisa Parr, of Palm Coast, for $292,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,284 square feet.

Sylvia Hamilton, of Sheffield, United Kingdom, sold 145 Wynnfield Drive to Lourdes Devito, of Palm Coast, for $254,000. Built in 1990, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,256 square feet. It sold in 1991 for $103,400.

Palm Harbor

Carol Gaetaniello, individually and as trustee, sold 51 Fortune Lane to Janine Donovan, of Palm Coast, for $420,000. Built in 2003, the house is a 4/2 and has 2,136 square feet.

Pine Grove

Kenneth Kirby and Samantha Kirby, of Palm Coast, sold 83 Pine Circle Drive to Stephanie Brown, of Antioch, Illinois, for $385,000. Built in 2002, the house is a 3/2 and has a swimming pool and 1,825 square feet. It sold in 2019 for $279,900.

Quail Hollow

$470,000.

Gary and Mary Masdin sold 16 Raintree Circle to Escolastica Clark, of Palm Coast, for $339,900. Built in 2005, it is a 2/2 and has 1,647 square feet. It sold in 2016 for $170,000.

Philip Heatley sold 31 Piedmont Drive to Angel and Carmen Rivera, of Palm Coast, for $375,000. Built in 2005, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,651 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $340,000.

INB Fund 1 LLC, of Orlando, sold 85 Zephyr Lily Trail to Paul Toffolon and Lorraine Deegan, of Palm Coast, for $420,000. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/2 and has 1,903 square feet.

Toby Tobin, of gotoby.com, contributed to this report.

Courtesy photo

The top transaction in Flagler County was a condo with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and 2,700 square feet of living space.

STARS by Drew Schmenner, edited by David Steinberg By Luis Campos

Top seller features separate suite connected to courtyard

Ahouse in Ormond-by-the-Sea was the top real estate transaction in Ormond Beach and Ormondby-the-Sea for the week of Nov. 20-26 in the Multiple Listing Service. Gregory Perpetua, individually and as trustee, sold 1175 John Anderson Drive to Stream Holdings LLC, of Miami, for $800,000. Built in 1952, the house is a 4/5 and has a fireplace, separate in-law suite and 4,115 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $340,000.

WAYNE GRANT REAL ESTATE EDITOR

ORMOND BEACH

Northbrook

Reno and Leslie Bottarelli, of Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, sold 11 Woodridge Drive to Jordan and Christina Hoek, of Ormond Beach, for $469,000. Built in 1976, the house is a 3/2 and has a swimming pool and 1,616 square feet. It sold in 2017 for $210,500.

Ormond Terrace

Charlotte and Francis Bell, of Clinton, Montana, sold 279 McIntosh Road to Deborah and Richard Johnson, of DeLand, for $203,000. Built in 1956, the house is a 2/1 and has 1,040 square feet.

Sawtooth Jacquelyn and Michael Neis, of Bedford, New Hampshire, sold 17 Southern Pine Trail to Brian Weston, of Ormond Beach, for $384,900. Built in 1984, the house is a 3/2.5 and has a fireplace and 1,790 square feet. It sold in 2020 for $274,900.

The Trails Margaret Fasano, of Palm Bay, sold 41 River Ridge Trail to Veronica Burke and Mark Warrilow, of Ormond Beach, for $475,000. Built in 1976, the house is a 4/2.5 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 2,726 square feet. It sold in 2015 for $235,000.

Constance Mellon sold 30 Lake Walden Trail to Josephine Biondi, of

Ormond Beach, for $350,000. Built in 1997, the house is a 2/2 and has 1,676 square feet. It sold in 2017 for $230,000.

Winding Woods Jordan and Hope Hargrave, of Brandon, sold 5 Winding Woods Trail to Dawn Guynn, of Ormond Beach, for $325,000. Built in 1985, the house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace and 1,557 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $187,000.

ORMOND-BY-THE-SEA

Steven and Heather Filipetti, of Brush Creek, Tennessee, sold 3565 John Anderson Drive to Stream Holdings LLC, of Miami, for $680,000. Built in 1979, the house is a 4/2.5 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 3,048 square feet. It sold in April for $565,000.

$670,000. Built in 1982, the house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 1,974 square feet.

AC42 LLC sold 126 Driftwood Ave. to Noah Turley, of Ormond Beach, for $585,000. Built in 1959, the house is a 2/2 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 1,430 square feet. It sold in March for $319,000.

Harrison and Heather Foster, of Port Orange, sold 3 Seabridge Drive to Abelardo Castillo Jr., of Ormond Beach, for $550,000. Built in 1996, the house is a 3/2 and has a swimming pool and 2,029 square feet.

Montie and Angela Blunn sold 2294 Ocean Shore Blvd., Unit 2030, to Evelyn Gardner, of Ormond Beach, for $415,000. Built in 1985, the condo is a 2/2 and has 1,121 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $271,000.

Douglas and Helene Beatty, of Palm Coast, sold 71 River Drive to Lisa and Christopher Blackwood, of Clarksburg, Maryland, for $345,000. Built in 1952, the house is a 2/2 and has 968 square feet. It sold in 2018 for $185,000.

of Adams, Cameron & Co. Realtors, contributed to this report.

Sea-N-Sand LLC sold 14 S. Sea Island Drive to Thomas and Amanda Grey, of Ormond Beach, for

John Adams,

Courtesy photos

The top transaction was built in 1952. The main house has four bedrooms, five bathrooms and a fireplace.

The house at 126 Driftwood Ave. sold for $585,000.

The house at 30 Lake Walden Trail sold for $350,000.

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PUBLIC NOTICES

Additional Public Notices may be accessed on PalmCoastObserver.com and the statewide legal notice website, FloridaPublicNotices.com

FLAGLER COUNTY LEGAL NOTICES

FIRST INSERTION

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING PLANTATION BAY WATER TREATENT PLANT IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT

The Florida Governmental Utility Authority (FGUA) gives notice that a public meeting will be held with the FGUA on Monday, January 30, 2023 commencing at 6:00 PM to provide for public participation in evaluation of the planning, design and construction of treatment plant improvements prepared by Wade Trim, Inc. The planning document outlines the alternatives considered, the financial impacts of the project and the recommendation to proceed with the project design and construction.

All interested parties are invited to attend the public meeting at Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast NE, Palm Coast, Florida 32137 at the time identified for this meeting. All persons wishing to speak will be given an opportunity to do so following a brief presentation.

Copies of the planning and final design documents are available for review beginning January 9, 2023 at the FGUA Operations Office located at 280 Wekiva Springs Road, Suite 2070, Longwood, Florida 32779 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. or by visiting the FGUA website at http://fgua.com/about-us/meetings-and-hearings/public-hearings/ For additional information, or copies of meeting materials, contact Teresa Irby-Butler, PE, CGC, FGUA Capital Project Manager at tirbybutler@govmserv.com or by calling (407) 629-6900. Any person requiring special accommodations at either meeting due to a disability or physical impairment should contact Lauren Duckworth, Board Clerk at (407) 629-6900 at least five (5) days prior to the meeting. January 5, 2023

FIRST INSERTION

GRAND HAVEN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT NOTICE OF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS REGULAR MEETING

22-00263F

Notice is hereby given that a regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Grand Haven Community Development District (the “District”) will be held on Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. at the Grand Haven Village Center, Grand Haven Room, 2001 Waterside Parkway, Palm Coast, Florida 32137. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss any topics presented to the board for consideration.

Copies of the agenda may be obtained from the District Manager, DPFG Management & Consulting LLC, 250 International Parkway, Suite 208, Lake Mary, Florida 32746, Telephone (321) 263-0132, Ext. 193.

The meeting is open to the public and will be conducted in accordance with the provisions of Florida law for community development districts. The meeting may be continued in progress without additional notice to a date, time, and place to be specified on the record at the meeting. There may be occasions when Staff and/or Supervisors may participate by speaker telephone.

Pursuant to provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person requiring special accommodations to participate in the meeting is asked to advise the District Manager’s office at least forty-eight (48) hours before the meeting by contacting the District Manager at (321) 263-0132, Ext. 193. If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact the Florida Relay Service at 711, for assistance in contacting the District Manager’s office.

A person who decides to appeal any decision made at the meeting, with respect to any matter considered at the meeting, is advised that a record of the proceedings is needed and that accordingly, the person may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, including the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based.

(321) 263-0132, Ext. 193

January 5, 2023

FIRST INSERTION NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA PROBATE DIVISION File No. 2022 CP 000754 IN RE: ESTATE OF DONALD LLOYD MAXAM, Deceased.

The administration of the estate of DONALD LLOYD MAXAM, deceased, whose date of death was November 29, 2021, is pending in the Circuit Court for Flagler County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is 1769 E. Moody Blvd. Bldg., Bunnell, FL 32110. The names and addresses of the personal representative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below.

All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate, on whom a copy of this notice is required to be served, must file their claims with this court ON OR BEFORE THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AFTER THE TIME OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 733.702 WILL BE FOREVER BARRED. NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PERIOD SET FORTH ABOVE, ANY CLAIM FILED TWO (2) YEARS OR MORE AFTER THE DECEDENT’S DATE OF DEATH IS BARRED. The date of first publication of this notice is: January 5, 2023. Signed on this day of, 1/3/2023.

22-00264F

FIRST INSERTION NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA PROBATE DIVISION

File No. 2022 CP 797 Division: Probate IN RE: ESTATE OF SANDRA CALDERON TEXEIRA a/k/a SANDRA TEXEIRA Deceased.

The administration of the Estate of Sandra Calderon Texeira a/k/a Sandra Texeira, deceased, whose date of death was September 26, 2022, is pending in the Circuit Court for Flagler County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 1, Bunnell, FL 32110. The names and addresses of the personal representative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below. All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate on whom a copy of this notice is required to be served must file their claims with this court ON OR BEFORE THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AFTER THE TIME OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 733.702 WILL BE FOREVER BARRED. NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH ABOVE,

FIRST INSERTION

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE

Notice is hereby given that on 1/20/2023 at 10:30 am, the following mobile home will be sold at public auction pursuant to F.S. 715.109. 1990 SKYL HS 23630188AZ & 23630188BZ . Last Tenants: CAROLYN L DAVIS AND DARLENE LASH and all unknown parties beneficiaries heirs . Sale to be at MHC PICKWICK LLC, DBA PICKWICK VILLAGE, 4500 S CLYDE MORRIS BLVD, PORT ORANGE, FL 32129. 813-282-5925.

January 5, 12, 2023 22-00131V

FIRST INSERTION NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA PROBATE DIVISION File No. 2022-12832-PRDL IN RE: ESTATE OF FARNUM C. SHASTEEN AKA FARNUM CHARLES SHASTEEN Deceased.

The administration of the estate of FARNUM C. SHASTEEN AKA FARNUM CHARLES SHASTEEN, deceased, whose date of death was September 12, 2022, is pending in the Circuit Court for Volusia County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is 101 North Alabama Avenue, Deland, Florida 32724. The names and addresses of the personal representative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below.

All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate on whom a copy of this notice is required to be served must file their claims with this court ON OR BEFORE THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AFTER THE TIME OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 733.702 WILL BE FOREVER BARRED.

NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH ABOVE, ANY CLAIM FILED TWO (2) YEARS OR MORE AFTER THE DECEDENT’S DATE OF DEATH IS BARRED. The date of first publication of this notice is: January 5, 2023.

Personal Representative: /s/ BEVERLY ANN SMITH 712 Pelican Bay Drive Daytona Beach, FL 32119

Attorney for Personal Representative: /s/ Nicholas J. Grimaudo NICHOLAS J. GRIMAUDO Florida Bar Number: 71893

JOHNSON, POPE, BOKOR, RUPPEL & BURNS, LLP 911 Chestnut Street Clearwater, FL 33756 Telephone: (727) 461-1818 Fax: (727) 462-0365

E-Mail: nicholasg@jpfirm.com

Secondary E-Mail: ssigner@jpfirm.com January 5, 12, 2023 23-00001I

FIRST INSERTION

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE

Notice is hereby given that on 1/20/2023 at 10:30 am, the following mobile home will be sold at public auction pursuant to F.S. 715.109. 1981 LIBE HS 10L13204 . Last Tenants: JENNIFER BERNADETTE MC GOURAN and all unknown parties beneficiaries heirs . Sale to be at MHC LIGHTHOUSE POINTE LLC AND MHC OPERATING LIMITED PARTNERSHIP DBA LIGHTHOUSE POINTE AT DAYTONA BEACH, 155 SPRING DRIVE, PORT ORANGE, FL 32129. 813-2825925.

January 5, 12, 2023 22-00132V

FIRST INSERTION NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION IN THE CIRCUIT COURT, SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA CASE NO.: 2022-11603-PRDL IN RE: ESTATE OF:

MICHAEL HAROLD CHILDRESS, Deceased.

The administration of the estate of MICHAEL HAROLD CHILDRESS, deceased, File Number 2022-11603-PRDL, is pending in the Circuit Court for Volusia County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is Post Office Box 6043, DeLand, FL 32721. The names and addresses of the personal representative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below.

ALL INTERESTED PERSONS ARE NOTIFIED THAT:

All interested persons who have objections that challenge the validity of the will, the qualifications of the personal representative, venue, or jurisdiction of the court are required to file their objections with this court, WITHIN THE LATER OF THREE MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR THIRTY DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this Court WITHIN THE LATER OF THREE MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR THIRTY DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and persons having claims or demands against the decedent’s estate must file their claims with this Court WITHIN THREE MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE.

ALL CLAIMS, DEMANDS AND OBJECTIONS NOT SO FILED WILL BE FOREVER BARRED. Publication of this Notice has begun on January 5, 2023.

ROBERT ROBINS, ESQUIRE P.O. Box 1649 Daytona Beach, FL 32115 (386) 252-5212 RobertRobinsLaw@hotmail.com Fla. Bar #356026 Personal Representative January 5, 12, 2023 23-00002I

FIRST INSERTION

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE

Notice is hereby given that on 1/20/2023 at 10:30 am, the following mobile home will be sold at public auction pursuant to F.S. 715.109. 1980 SHER HS 13003086 . Last Tenants: ROBERT THOMAS CANTONI and all unknown parties beneficiaries heirs Sale to be at MHC LIGHTHOUSE POINTE LLC, 155 SPRING DRIVE, PORT ORANGE, FL 32129. 813-282-5925.

January 5, 12, 2023 22-00133V

FIRST INSERTION NOTICE

TO CREDITORS IN THE CIRCUIT COURT, SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA CASE NO.: 2022-11603-PRDL IN RE: ESTATE OF: MICHAEL HAROLD CHILDRESS, Deceased.

The administration of the estate of MICHAEL HAROLD CHILDRESS, deceased, whose date of death was May 24, 2022, File Number 2022-11603-PRDL, DIVISION 10, is pending in the Circuit Court for Volusia County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is Post Office Box 6043, DeLand, Florida 32721. The names and addresses of the personal representative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below.

All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate, including unmatured, contingent or unliquidated claims, and whom have been served a copy of this notice, must file their claims with the Court WITHIN THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and persons having claims or demands against the decedent’s estate, including unmatured, contingent or unliquidated claims, must file their claim with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN SECTION 733.702 OF THE FLORIDA PROBATE CODE WILL BE FOREVER BARRED.

NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH ABOVE, ANY CLAIM FILED TWO (2) YEARS OR MORE AFTER THE DECEDENT’S DATE OF DEATH IS BARRED.

The date of the first publication of this Notice is: January 5, 2023 ROBERT ROBINS, ESQUIRE P.O. Box 1649 Daytona Beach, FL 32115 (386) 252-5212

RobertRobinsLaw@hotmail.com Fla. Bar #356026

Personal Representative January 5, 12, 2023 23-00003I

FIRST INSERTION

NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE Notice is hereby given that on 1/20/2023 at 10:30 am, the following mobile home will be sold at public auction pursuant to F.S. 715.109. 1972 GREE HS GF1017F . Last Tenants: MICHAEL LEE NOBLE, CHRISTOPHER LEE NORMANDIN and all unknown parties beneficiaries heirs . Sale to be at MHC LIGHTHOUSE POINTE LLC AND MHC OPERATING LIMITED PARTNERSHIP DBA LIGHTHOUSE POINTE AT DAYTONA BEACH, 155 SPRING DRIVE, PORT ORANGE, FL 32129. 813-282-5925.

January 5, 12, 2023 22-00134V

SECOND INSERTION NOTICE TO

CREDITORS

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA PROBATE DIVISION File No. 2022 12970 PRDL Division 10

IN RE: ESTATE OF WILLIAM S. BROWN, aka WILLIAM STEPHEN VAUGHAN BROWN Deceased.

The administration of the estate of WILLIAM S. BROWN, also known as WILLIAM STEPHEN VAUGHAN BROWN, deceased, whose date of death was August 5, 2021, is pending in the Circuit Court for Volusia County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is P.O. Box 6043, Deland, Florida 32721-6043. The names and addresses of the personal representative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below.

All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate, on whom a copy of this notice is required to be served, must file their claims with this court ON OR BEFORE THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AFTER THE TIME OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 733.702 WILL BE FOREVER BARRED.

NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PERIOD SET FORTH ABOVE, ANY CLAIM FILED TWO (2) YEARS OR MORE AFTER THE DECEDENT’S DATE OF DEATH IS BARRED.

The date of first publication of this notice is: December 29, 2022.

Signed on this 2nd day of December, 2022.

WILLIAM ALAN BITHER Personal Representative 8916 Keats Drive Hudson, FL 34667

Wayne R. Coulter Attorney for Personal Representative Florida Bar No. 114585 Delzer, Coulter & Bell, P.A. 7920 U.S. Highway 19 Port Richey, FL 34668

Telephone: (727) 848-3404

Email: info@delzercoulter.com Dec. 29, 2022; Jan. 5, 2023 22-00160I

at 10:30 am, the following mobile home will be sold at public auction pursuant to F.S. 715.109. 1980 TRAV TV 803500V0608 Last Tenants: LESTER LEROY FULLER JR AKA LESTER FULLER AND ANDREAS S MOUMOURIS and all unknown parties beneficiaries heirs . Sale to be at SUN ORANGE CITY LLC DBA ORANGE CITY RV RESORT, 2300 EAST GRAVES AVENUE, ORANGE CITY, FL 32763. 813-241-8269. December 29, 2022, January 5, 2023 22-00129V

Grand Haven Community Development District David McInnes, District Manager