E A ST COUNTY
Observer
Health Matters OCTOBER 2018
Observer
Fit for family
Lakewood Ranch’s weekly newspaper since 1998
Mommy and me classes provide opportunities to exercise, bond and 2 make friends. PAGE
INSIDE GROUNDED ATHLETES
Change your terrain to train better.
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
PAGE 6
SMART TREATS
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Replace the sweets on Halloween.
PAGE 10
Want to stay fit? Do what you enjoy.
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FREE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2018
VOLUME 20, NO. 48
Can local roads handle growth? Grieving parent asks commissioners to slow growth until roads are safe. PAGE 3A
YOUR TOWN
Cancer survivor answers the bell Greenfield Plantation woman still fighting after 11 rounds of chemo.
Courtesy photo
Neal spreads the love for good At Neal Communities, peanut butter is king. But senior accountant Kris Watts (above) doesn’t mind. She brought a dozen 18-ounce jars of jelly for the employee peanut-butterand-jelly food war to collect donations for All Faiths Food Bank. Peanut butter won 280 to 275. “We collected enough peanut butter and jelly to provide three sandwiches a day to seven people for an entire year,” Watts said.
JAY HEATER MANAGING EDITOR
J
ulie Veith would sit in the treatment room at Florida Cancer Specialists and listen for the sound she wanted to make her own. It was a bell. Each time patients would finish their cancer treatments, they would ring a little bell as they left the room. Only Veith would still be sick. She would still be tired. Her family would still be suffering with her. And she knew she had to come back for more. Veith counted each time she heard that bell ring for someone else. Sixteen times. Then it was her time. It was something that might seem silly to the rest of the world, but not to Veith.
SEE SURVIVOR, PAGE 8A Jay Heater
Bryan and Julie Veith hope to raise money for cancer research so others don’t experience the painful experience Julie endured.
Amelia Hanks
Mobile health returns
How sweet it is Dacie Broshears (above) said the reason Pinchers, a Lakewood Ranch Main Street staple restaurant, won the Exchange Club’s Best Red Sangria in the Sangria Showdown is because of how sweet it is. “We make a strawberry mango sangria, and people just kept coming back for it,” said Broshears, one of the managers at Pinchers. Pinchers announced its big win Oct. 1 on Facebook. “We definitely are getting people who are interested in the sangria,” said Broshears.
Amelia Hanks
RAM volunteer DeWayne Britt adjusts a patient’s eyeglass frames.
Hundreds line up at MTC to take advantage of Remote Area Medical. SEE PAGE 5A
BLACK Key to the Cure. INSIDE
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