EAST COUNTY
Cool running
Observer
PAGE 19
Lakewood Ranch’s weekly newspaper since 1998
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
FREE • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022
VOLUME 24, NO. 12
Roundabout project proceeds Mote Ranch residents’ objections haven’t stopped Manatee County roundabout project. SEE PAGE 3
YOUR TOWN
Sock it to me
With a sock baby assignment, students learn while walking in parents’ shoes. SEE PAGE 8 Courtesy photo
Young in life, old at heart For students at Braden River Elementary School, sometimes sitting in a class can seem like an eternity. So on Jan. 24, students marked the 100th day of the school year by dressing up like they were 100 years old. The school was teeming with kindergarten through fifth-grade students who had some fun pretending they were 100-year-olds. Even the teachers and staff members saw themselves age. Kindergartner Braxton Gallon (shown above) marked the milestone by dressing in his image of a 100-year-old. Braxton sat at his desk in his overalls, plaid vest and newsboy hat with a pipe in hand. He said he was happy to celebrate the school year’s 100th day.
Courtesy photo
Lakewood Ranch High junior Autumn Nix tries to teach her sock baby, Scrump, how to skateboard. Her class’s assignment was to care for the “babies.”
Festival back to offering live event
Photo courtesy of Kirk Weingarten
Pooches pop in at polo club The Sarasota Polo Club was packed with families and their four-legged friends Jan. 23 during the Woofminster Dog Show, an annual event during the season’s polo schedule. Lakewood Ranch’s Kirk Weingarten, his wife, Stacy, and 13-year-old daughter, Brianna, watched their dog Maggie strut her stuff on the polo fields during the event. The Weingartens loved seeing Maggie on the Woofminster podium during halftime. “It was cool,” Kirk Weingarten said of the dog show. “Lakewood Ranch is so dog-friendly. There were cool costumes on big and small dogs.”
Giving Hunger the Blues at Benderson Park raises money for the Mayor’s Feed the Hungry program. SEE PAGE 12 Courtesy photo
Selwyn Birchwood will be returning as a headliner at Giving Hunger the Blues.
A+E Big top’s fever pitch. INSIDE