While most people associate October with Halloween and Ocktoberfest, the Lakewood Ranch Info Center is focusing on Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue. Through Oct. 4, the info center is collecting puppy pads, puppy and kitten food and used sheets and towels, among other items, to donate to Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue through its Furry Friends Donation Drive. The donation drive will culminate in Barktober Fest during Music on Main on Oct. 4. All proceeds from Music on Main will go to Nate’s Honor. Drop off donations at the Lakewood Ranch Information Center, located at 8131 Lakewood Main St.
Main Street Mia
When Mike Briggs saw the rain on Saturday morning, he planned to stay home. His dog Mia had a different plan.
“She badgered me so much, I gave in and here we are,” Briggs said as he sat outside of Starbucks on Lakewood Main Street.
Briggs and Mia, a 7-year-old rescue, regularly walk around Main Street and Waterside Place.
After their walk on Saturday, Mia was content lying on the sidewalk, watching the people come and go from Starbucks. She only stood up to pose for the photo and get a pat on the head.
Manatee is crushed, but most inland areas are largely unaffected.
2A
Even when a hurricane’s fury misses an area, damage can be done through emotional scarring. SEE PAGE 3A
Jay Heater
Tony Olivero of Main Street at Lakewood Ranch cleans up fallen palm fronds, tree limbs and other debris following Hurricane Helene.
HURRICANE HELENE
Glancing blow
Hurricane Helene’s destructive reach falls short of East County.
LESLEY DWYER
STAFF WRITER
The wrath of Hurricane Helene barely brushed up against East County, but the effects of the devastating Category 4 hurricane along the coastal areas have staggered everyone throughout Manatee County.
On Sept. 30, Manatee County
Commissioner George Kruse had spent four straight days visiting heavily affected neighborhoods in the western part of the county. Despite the destruction and personal losses, what stood out to him was the overwhelming positivity he encountered at every turn.
“People are working together,” said Kruse, who lives in GreyHawk Landing.
TALE OF TWO AREAS
While East County residents mostly were dealing with palm fronds, fallen branches and a few downed trees, those along the coast were dealing with severe flooding that in some cases obliterated buildings.
Sand pushed inland from the beaches and buried streets and vehicles.
Workers have descended upon the island areas en masse to begin the recovery, with some businesses bouncing right back.
By Sept. 30, the Swordfish Grill and Tiki Bar reopened in Cortez, and about 15 people were helping get Annie’s Bait and Tackle in Cortez up and running. Slicker’s Eatery was serving free food to all helpers.
In Palma Sola, Kruse saw neighbors help neighbors by dragging
debris to the curb. In Rubonia, Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee was handing out food.
Kruse said the No. 1 request has been, “How can I help?” but there are only so many ways to help right now because access to the islands is limited and the community’s needs are still being determined.
VOLUNTEERS COME FORWARD
Manatee County organized a countywide volunteer effort to help assess human needs. The effort was deployed from the Bradenton Area Convention Center with transportation provided to survey locations. Three hundred volunteers a day were recruited.
Once Manatee County completes its surveying, Kruse said it will have a better overall picture will be formed.
The surveys also are accessible online at MyManatee.org/Storm.
Kruse said a reason those surveys are important is so neighborhoods don’t get overlooked. Everyone expected damage on the islands, but Kruse was surprised to hear about widespread damage at Riviera Dunes in Palmetto.
He said the county is working with every municipality that was affected, and as needs are identified, efforts are pivoting. When residents wanted to start hauling trash themselves, the county quickly passed an administrative order through the state of emergency to waive tipping fees at the landfill.
“We’re listening to people’s needs and concerns, and we’re acting on it,” Kruse said. “All things considered, this is something that’s essentially unprecedented by our lifetime
standards. It’s been going pretty well so far. And a lot of it has to do with so many people in the community who are willing to stop what they’re doing and help everybody.”
A Helene Disaster Recovery Center opened at 1 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Lakewood Ranch Library, 6410 Rangeland Parkway and will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
The Lena Road Landfill will be open for those who wish to dispose of their own hurricane debris. Manatee County residents will need to show proof of residency to waive tipping fees for hurricane-related debris only.
LITTLE EAST COUNTY FLOODING
Commission Chair Mike Rahn said low lying areas along the Myakka River saw some surge, but none of the county’s rivers exceeded any of their crests.
However, some residents along the Braden River near its intersection with the Manatee River did report flooding due to storm surge, which pushed water back up the Manatee
and Braden rivers.
A new software, coincidentally installed by Peregrine Systems Inc. during Hurricane Debby, tracks the river gauges from prior storms and in real time to make surge predictions. The software was used during Hurricane Helene.
“All of our systems did great,” Rahn said. “We knew where the water levels were going to go in the rivers. We were anticipating a surge before the surge was getting here based on the data we were collecting.
“We learned a lot of lessons from Debby,” he said. “We were pumping a lot of water out of stormwater management facilities, so we were ahead of this.”
While the storm did bring some heavy winds to East County, most topping around 60 mph, little damage was reported.
As Manatee County Public Safety Director Jodie Fiske was pleading with residents on Sept. 27 to “stay home and do not go out and be a disaster tourist,” Lakewood Ranch area residents were cleaning up
EARLY DAMAGE ESTIMATE
Manatee County issued an early report on Hurricane Helene damages
downed palm fronds and branches.
It was a blessing for an area that is recovering from Hurricane Debby, a storm that caused widespread flooding on Aug. 4-5.
Tony Olivero, who works for Main Street at Lakewood Ranch, was piling up debris from the storm Sept. 27, and he said it mostly was minor — palm fronds, tree limbs and blowing garbage.
At Fort Hamer Park in East County, the Manatee River had swollen so much that water almost reached the rowing facility. A coach noted that even during Hurricane Debby, which was a far greater rain event, water hadn’t come as close to the facility. It was testament to Hurricane Helene’s incredible storm surge.
The docks already had been ruined by Hurricane Debby, so the county, which owns the facility, will have to make repairs there. It will land on a very long list.
“This is going to be an incredibly long-term recovery operation,” Fiske said. “We already are working to get resources from the state.”
The situation could have been dire in Myakka City on Thursday night, but a string of potential tornadoes never developed as the swirling winds headed directly at Myakka City from the south.
Jay Heater
Volunteers Jim Cox and Dave Bailey move a fallen tree from in front of the Il
Villaggio neighborhood on S.R. 64 in East County after Hurricane Helene’s outer bands caused damage.
HURRICANE HELENE
Back-to-back hurricanes heighten stress
Stacy Greeter, a Lakewood Ranch psychiatrist, said post-traumatic stress disorder gets activated from past negative storm experiences.
LESLEY DWYER STAFF WRITER
Angela Abrams is still “piecemealing” her life back together since Hurricane Debby flooded her home Aug. 5 in Summerfield Bluffs.
While Lakewood Ranch made it through Hurricane Helene relatively unscathed, its arrival less than two months after Hurricane Debby stirred up additional anxiety in many residents and left emotional scars.
“We have a neighborhood group chat, and everybody was checking the river depth and checking this and checking that,” Abrams said. “Everybody was freaking out. There was a lot of panic and stress.”
Various studies show that trauma caused by hurricanes can lead to anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lakewood Ranch psychiatrist
Stacy Greeter said she sees it in her practice, and it’s valid.
“Our brains are wired to hang onto and retain things that are scary,” she said. “It’s a survival mechanism so we avoid that thing in the future, but that can backfire for us in modern life when we get extremely anxious, even when we’re not actually under threat.”
Abrams said she was “glued to the TV” as Hurricane Helene approached. Then, after seeing the devastation, she wanted to help others. She spent hours compiling a list of things that she learned after Hurricane Debby flooded her home.
“Just knowing what they’re about to get into is very traumatic for me to watch,” Abrams said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to survive hurricane season again without some trauma.”
Greeter said media coverage can heighten trauma with sensationalized headlines and coverage “meant to hook you into a place of fear and anxiety.”
She suggested limiting exposure to news media leading into a storm. Instead, think about the basic information you need and focus on that. For example, do you need to evacuate? Focus on that information.
Manatee County maintains an Extreme Weather Dashboard that contains pertinent information for residents at MyManatee.org/Storm.
The National Weather Service suggests learning the local geography and how to track storms because knowing where a storm is and where it’s heading can make severe weather less stressful.
But Abrams now has a new list of concerns when a storm is looming in the gulf. She said all the worst-case scenarios came to mind before Hur-
TIPS FROM A PSYCHIATRIST
Stacy Greeter, M.D. is board certified in adult, child and adolescent psychiatry. She has particular expertise treating trauma related disorders. She offered a few tips for those feeling anxious before a storm.
■ Be prepared.
■ Limit exposure to news media.
■ Hone in on the basic information you need, such as evacuation orders.
■ Focus on what you can control, such as putting gas in your car and following evacuation orders.
■ Practice acceptance for what can’t be controlled.
ricane Helene passed through.
She worried about her house, with its newly rebuilt walls, and flooding all over again. She worried about something happening to the temporary home they’re living in. She worried about friends having to go through what she’s going through and she worried about her children.
“I don’t think people realize how much it affects your kids,” Abrams said. “My friend’s house flooded in Nokomis. I told her not to let her daughter see all her things destroyed. It’s just so overwhelming.”
Abrams has a toddler and two teenagers. She said the whole family was scared as Hurricane Helene approached, but it was particularly hard on her 13-year-old daughter Leah.
The Abrams family is rebuilding and hopes to be home for Christmas, but Abrams said she would probably
leave the house behind if it flooded again. She doesn’t think she could mentally handle the stress a second time around.
READY FOR ANYTHING
Lynn Meder doesn’t worry about her home in Myakka City during hurricanes because it was built “like a bomb shelter,” but she sees the stress escalating in her customers. Meder owns Uniquely Yours, a gift shop next to the Silver Star Restaurant.
She said storm anxiety started escalating after Hurricane Ian hit the area in 2022.
“It was right over us, and it lasted for 20 hours,” Meder said. “People are still weary from that.”
With Hurricane Helene arriving so soon after Hurricane Debby, she said there was no time in between, so people are feeling the drain of living in an almost constant state of preparation.
On the other hand, being constantly prepared is how Meder has managed her storm stress since her home was built off MJ Road 20 years ago.
The property was chosen because it’s in a high spot. The house was built with cement and rebar. There’s a generator for power outages and a pond with a dry hydrant to put out fires.
It was built to “last 100 years” and survive a litany of disasters. The living quarters are on the second floor. The garage downstairs has hurricane proof doors. The only damage left after Hurricane Ian was downed trees.
Meder also keeps a healthy stock of water and canned goods in the house.
“Being prepared definitely helps (ease the stress) because we’re not waiting for something to happen,” she said. “We’re ready for it.”
LESSEN STRESS WITH STORM TRACKING
The National Weather Service not only recommends learning how to track storms as a means to lessening storm-related anxiety, but it offers a free training class to become a weather spotter and learn more about tornadoes and severe storms.
The class is free and covers the fundamentals of storm structure and identifying potential and severe weather features. Visit Weather. gov/TBW/SkyWarn. Not ready to be a storm spotter? Track storms in real time with the MyRadar app. Visit MyRadar.com.
CALL FOR HELP
Not everyone can be as prepared as Meder. Manatee County reported that rescue workers evacuated more than 300 people during Hurricane Helene, and the 3-1-1 call center took a 4,200-plus calls.
Out of those calls for assistance, 3-1-1 Supervisor Marcia Bacon said no one called for help with stormrelated anxiety, but they could have. She remembered a stressed out caller from a few years ago. Bacon couldn’t remember which hurricane it was, but the gentleman asked to talk to someone because he was scared. He didn’t want to go to a shelter, he just wanted someone to help calm him down over the phone.
She gave him the number for what was Manatee Glens at the time. Now, operators refer callers to 9-8-8, a suicide and crisis line.
“It’s not just for suicide,” Bacon said of 9-8-8. “It’s for any kind of crisis or stressful situation you’re going through.”
According to Bacon, most of the 3-1-1 calls received at the start of any storm are about sandbags and evacuation levels.
The afternoon of Sept. 27, she said callers just wanted to get home. The questions coming in were “Is this road flooded,” “Are the bridges open,” and “When will the water and electricity be back on?”
County staff members are citizens, too. They have families and homes to protect, but they have to rotate being locked down in the Emergency Operations Center during hurricane season. The entire staff is cross-trained to perform emergency duties.
The 3-1-1 call center was made up of staff from Development Services, Administration, and Human Resources.
The employees are performing outside their typical roles, and they’re separated from their loved ones during a crisis.
Bacon said stress management is part of the 3-1-1 training.
Chief of Staff Andy Butterfield was a helicopter pilot in the Navy, so he knows about leaving his family for a greater calling.
“You’re doing good for others,” Butterfield said, “But you have to abandon the people who are the closest to you.”
Lesley Dwyer
Staff from various Manatee County departments fill in as 3-1-1 operators during Hurricane Helene.
File photo
Summerfield Bluffs’ Angela Abrams and her 13-year-old daughter, Leah Abrams, sift through belongings following Hurricane Debby. Although they came through Hurricane Helene unscathed, they have had to deal with the heightened stress.
New school’s opening plans unveiled
School District of Manatee County outlines early enrollment for its new K-8 school in Lakewood Ranch.
SENIOR EDITOR
As construction continues on the new K-8 school off Uihlein Road and Academic Avenue in Lakewood Ranch, the School District of Manatee County is planning the school’s future.
The School Board of Manatee County approved the school’s opening plans during a board meeting Sept. 24.
The school will be the first K-8 school the district will construct from the ground up.
“We know there’s a lot of interest and excitement for this project,” said Jason Wysong, superintendent of the school district. “There have been a couple of articles recently in different Florida media outlets about K-8 schools and specifically that more districts are turning to that model because families are saying, ‘We want the convenience of as many of our children as possible on the same campus, on the same bell schedule, with the same communication system.’”
EAST COUNTY K-8 SCHOOL FACTS
■ First K-8 school being
from the
■ Elementary portion opens in August 2025 ■ Middle school portion opens in August 2026 ■ Enrollment for 2025 will be voluntary
Capacity will be 1,620 students ■ Principal: Todd Richardson ■ Budget: $106 million
the middle school in August 2026.
NAMING THE SCHOOL
Wysong said a K-8 model allows the transition from elementary grades to middle school grades to be more meaningful for families and for the school.
The primary need of the East County K-8 school is to alleviate the overcapacity B.D. Gullett Elementary School, which has nearly 1,400 students. The school’s capacity is approximately 927 students.
The new school, which has a construction budget of $106 million, is projected to open the elementary portion in August 2025, followed by
The deadline for submitting names for the K-8 school was Sept. 27, and name nominations were posted on the district’s website Oct. 1.
The school board will then discuss the nominations during its regular meeting Oct. 8, and a list of finalists will be selected.
At its regular meeting Oct. 22, the board will select the name of the K-8 school.
The public will be able to provide comments on the names until the Oct. 22 meeting.
With the School District of Manatee County opening the K-8 school in Lakewood Ranch, as well as a school for grades 4-8 in Parrish in 2025, and more schools the following year, Wysong said the district will not create an attendance zone yet for the Lakewood Ranch K-8 school.
“Our staff believes that if we draw that zone for 2025-2026, we might have to move the lines again for 2026-2027 and then all kinds of details start to become problematic,” Wysong said.
He said the district does not want to fill the school to capacity since it will continue to be a construction site through the 2025-2026 school year, and there is more projected growth in the coming years.
“We have to open with limited enrollment, saving space so that when we draw that attendance zone, we have room for the students who are in that zone, and then for whatever additional capacity we want to save for future growth as we plan out whether we need more beyond this,” Wysong said.
To enroll students in the Lakewood Ranch K-8 school for the elementary grades opening in August 2025, Wysong said the district will ask for voluntary enrollment and consider the families who enroll the “founding families” of the school.
Families who were reassigned to Freedom, Gilbert W. McNeal or Braden River elementary schools due to Gullett Elementary being over capacity, and who live in geographic proximity to the new school, will have an opportunity to voluntarily enroll. Families who voluntarily enroll will have to provide transportation for their students.
These families will be invited to attend an information meeting in October to learn more. The exact date of the meeting has yet to be determined.
Pending acceptances, the initial recruitment for voluntary reassignment will be open to families who live south of State Road 64, east of Lorraine Road, west of Bourneside Boulevard, north of 44th Avenue between Lorraine Road and Uihlein Road and south of 44th Avenue to south of Rangeland Parkway between Uihlein Road and Bourneside Boulevard.
“The reason the geographic proximity is important is that although we don’t know exactly where an attendance boundary line will be drawn because that process has not started, the geographic areas around the school have the highest likelihood of being included in that attendance area,” Wysong said.
Wysong said if the district enrolled students through school choice, the district runs the risk of not achieving a reduction in capacity at Gullett Elementary and not having enough space for families who live in the school’s attendance area.
Any remaining seats, if available, will be allocated for hardship applications.
Wysong said the district has not determined a number of open seats. He wants to see how many families will be interested in voluntarily enrolling first.
In 2025, the school board will determine school zones for all schools.
SCHOOL PROGRAMMING
Todd Richardson, who is the current principal of Gullett Elementary and an executive principal, has been selected as the principal of the K-8 school.
He will be visiting K-8 schools in other school districts to see how
they’ve opened and what has and hasn’t worked for them. His 27 years in education has been at the elementary level.
Richardson said being principal of the K-8 school will give him the unique opportunity to guide students through their formative years as they enter school at 4 or 5 years old and leave at 14 years old.
“That’s a tremendous opportunity for us to make a great impact for kids and their families,” he said.
Richardson would like to implement a leadership program to provide opportunities for middle school students. A potential program could be the Franklin-Covey Leader in Me program, which already is in place at Gilbert W. McNeal Elementary School.
“We want to teach them values, maturity, respect and things where when they are on our campus, they are truly leaders in helping develop the next generation of middle schoolers because those (elementary) students are just a few 100 yards away versus at a different campus,” he said.
Leader in Me is an evidencebased, comprehensive educational leadership and school improvement model. It empowers students to lead in their own education while learning the seven habits of highly effec-
INTRODUCING Emerson Lakes
tive people, which include being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, thinking win-win, seeking first to understand and then be understood, synergizing, and seeking continuous improvement and renewal.
Richardson said the school will be looking for unique community partnerships.
He said a potential partnership is with Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, which is building its new aquarium near University Town Center and Nathan Benderson Park.
The actual layout and design of the school will also be suitable for learning neighborhoods, which are set up throughout the entire campus. The neighborhoods will have offices for deans and school counselors as well as meeting rooms and other spaces.
Richardson said the learning neighborhoods will allow resources to be closer to the students.
“If a problem does come up, if a student needs to speak to a counselor or if there is a disciplinary issue, those people are already in those areas of the building,” he said.
CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES
Design of the school began in August 2023, with construction starting in March 2024.
The school is a two-story proto-
type with 1,620 student stations. Construction on the elementary portion is 13% complete and 6% complete for the middle school.
Building 1 will consist of the administration area and media center. The tie beams of the building are complete and steel is in progress.
Building 2, which will be elementary classrooms, is a hollow core with roof panels being constructed.
Foundation for building 4, which will have the gym, and building 5, which will have the cafeteria, is in progress.
Substantial completion of the buildings necessary to open the school for elementary students in August 2025 is expected in July 2025. Substantial completion of the middle school portion is expected in March 2026.
“We’ve had some challenges dealing with Hurricane Debby, but we have a great construction team, and they’re doing a great job of keeping the project on track,” said Reginald Golf, the project director.
Thinking ahead, the district already has designated an area attached to building 2 for an addition.
Goff said the addition could be one or two stories depending on the need. The addition is not included in the initial construction of the school.
“That’s going to come down to growth projections, competitiveness (through school choice), where the attendance boundaries ultimately fall, and funding. There’s too many variables to know how quickly that will be built,” Wysong said.
As for the design of the school, Richardson said it was “done with a lot of forethought” from the architect, HKS Architects. Every interior design has an aquatic ecosystem theme.
The area for pre-K, kindergarten and first grade is designed to look like salt marshes as they serve as the nursing grounds for young marine life and delicate insects. As students progress through the grades, they will go through various other ecosystems, including wetlands for second and third grades, flatwoods for fourth grade, sand hills for fifth grade, riparian for sixth and seventh grades and finally the coral reef for eighth grade.
Courtesy image
The School District of Manatee County is making progress on its new K-8 school being built in Lakewood Ranch.
Spreading the love
Five Esplanade women will host a fundraiser to support a 10-year-old Sarasota girl battling cancer.
LIZ RAMOS SENIOR EDITOR
What started as five Esplanade residents working together to host social party fundraisers is now focused on supporting a family that includes a 10-year-old girl fighting cancer.
Esplanade’s Kathy Drobny, Natalie Lambert, Anita Boeh, Lisa Caruso and Lynda Solimine formed Party with a Purpose a year ago to promote events that pair social gatherings with charitable causes.
The ladies hosted a bocce ball fundraiser for the Humane Society of Manatee County in January and a small house party for the Food Bank of Manatee over the summer.
Their next mission is hosting a cocktail party Oct. 16 to support Ava Luciano, a 10-year-old Sarasota girl, with the raised funds going through the nonprofit Love McKinley that supports families with children who have pediatric cancer.
At the ladies-only cocktail party, Drobny hopes for at least 100 attendees. At $75 per person, Drobny said “every penny” will go to the Luciano family.
Although the cocktail party only is open to Esplanade residents, Drobny said people can support Ava Luciano, the 10-year-old Sarasota girl who will be benefiting from the fundraiser, by donating on the Love McKinley website.
Luciano was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2015. In February, Luciano relapsed and has returned home after receiving treatment at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
So far, she’s in the clear, but it will be six months before she can have scans conducted to tell if she’s still in remission.
The five Esplanade residents dis-
HOW TO DONATE
If you want to support Ava Luciano and the nonprofit Love McKinley, visit LoveMcKinley. org and click “donate now.”
covered Love McKinley through Boeh, who is friends with the nonprofit’s founder, Mill Creek’s Karen Moore. Moore’s daughter, McKinley, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at 2 years old in 2015. She now is healthy.
In 2016, Moore started the nonprofit to support other families in the Tampa Bay area as well as support programs, research and treatment at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Upon hearing Moore and her daughter’s story, the Esplanade women wanted to help.
Drobny said she knows what the Luciano family is going through as she is a cancer survivor herself. Drobny had a double mastectomy in 2007 after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. She went through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation and is cancer-free.
“I came out the other end with a very positive outlook on life,” Drobny said. “We understand that it’s not just the person (with cancer), it’s the whole family that’s impacted when you’re being treated for cancer.”
Courtesy image Sarasota’s Alyssa Luciano, her children, Kennedy, Ava (center) and Alivia, and her husband, Dustin, will be the benefactors of the Esplanade fundraiser to support the nonprofit, Love McKinley. Ava Luciano, who is 10, is in remission from acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Nov. 5: Road to Serfdom or the Road to Liberty?
Democracy leads to the lousy getting on top; subsidizing and producing more bad behavior; and economic fascism. The November election won’t stop all that, but the right choice can be a start.
Editor’s note: In case you missed the Election 2024 installment last week — “The republic that’s failing” — here is a summary: We recounted how American culture from 1776 to the mid-1960s, was rooted in the early Roman culture. Both shared the virtuous traits of a nuclear family that was self-sufficient, hardworking, honest, courageous, friendly, patriotic and pious.
And when our Founding Fathers began forming the Constitution, the Roman traits, the Romans’ republic and the failure of the Greeks’ democracy led the Founders to reject forming a majority-rule democracy. They knew it would lead to tyranny and despotism. Instead, they chose a democratic republic and a government whose powers were limited and whose foremost purpose was to protect individual rights.
But over 248 years, in spite of warnings, democratic, majority rule has replaced the Founders’ vision of a limited government. Here are the consequences:
Tyranny is upon us. Just as the Founders feared. That is not an exaggeration.
The long, creeping shift to majority-rule democracy and the unabated expansion of our federal government has rendered devastating consequences to your individual liberty and to the United States. Take this one example: how the value and purchasing power of your dollar has declined. Take a look at the graphic above. You should be outraged.
Unfortunately, while most Americans feel the shrunken value of their dollars, they do not realize this decline is taxation at its worst and that they do it to themselves. They elect people to Congress who have no moral qualms about taking
ELECTION ’24
and spending other people’s money.
In this week’s installment, we will show how American democracy predictably and inevitably has led to, in the words of the late F.A. Hayek, “how the worst get on top” in public office; how governmentsanctioned redistribution of wealth increases and speeds up economic and social destruction; how democratic rule has brought on economic fascism; and how the choices voters make in this year’s presidential and congressional candidates can take us further and faster down Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom.”
Oy. What a downer. Who wants to read about all that negativity?
But as the first step of Alcoholics Anonymous states, if you want to fix the problem, you must first see and admit it. Americans must see how and admit that the evils of democracy have taken over.
You are not in control of your life the way our Founders envisioned. Americans are slaves — slaves to their government.
WHY THE WORST GET ON TOP
In Hayek’s 1944 classic, “The Road to Serfdom,” he devoted Chapter 11 to “Why the Worst Get on Top.”
While his focus was on totalitarian states in the 1940s, Hayek’s analysis is just as applicable today in the United States — particularly in relation to our presidential elections.
Hayek provided three main reasons why the best elements of society are not elected. And he wrote that the principles on which the worst and “least worst” are often selected “will be almost entirely negative.”
It starts with “the lowest common denominator, which unites the largest number of people.”
“In general,” Hayek said, “the higher the education and intelligence of individuals become, the more their views and tastes are differentiated and the less likely they are to agree on a particular hierarchy. It is a corollary of this that to find a high degree of uniformity and similarity of outlook, we have to descend to the regions of lower moral and intellectual standards. This does not mean that the majority of people have low moral standards; it merely means that the largest group of people whose values are very similar are the people with low standards.”
‘I believe in the collective’; ‘My values have not changed’
To the Independent and Never Trump Voters who are contemplating voting for Kamala Harris: Do not fall for the classic bait and switch. And that is exactly what Vice President Harris is doing. The same thing Joe Biden did in 2020: Lie through his teeth that he was a unifier and a moderate.
The two Harris quotes printed above say it all. She made the first this summer in front union workers in Detroit. In that moment, by those words, essentially she explicitly declared she believes in communism. That is the “collective.”
She went public with this belief in communism previously in a November 2020 video. Here is the text of that video: “Equality suggests everyone
should get the same amount.
“The problem with that is not everybody is starting out from the same place.
“So if we’re all getting the same amount, but you started out back there, and I started out over here — you could get the same amount, but you’re still going to be that far back behind me.
“It’s about giving people the resources and support they need so that everyone can be on equal footing and then compete on equal footing.
“Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place.”
That is communism.
When she said and says “My values have not changed,” presumably, then, all of her flip-flops are not true. When she says she no longer favors socialized medicine — 100% Medicare for all, she’s lying.
When she says she is not opposed to fracking, she is lying.
Note in both cases how she has not explained her sudden conversions. But Bernie Sanders explained them on a recent episode
HOW INFLATION TAX HAS DESTROYED AMERICANS’ WEALTH
Hayek’s second negative principle is the candidate’s skill of demagoguery. “He will be able to obtain the support of all the docile and gullible, who have no strong convictions … those whose vague and imperfectly formed ideas are easily swayed and whose passions and emotions are readily aroused.”
Rush Limbaugh called these groups “low-information voters” — sheep led to the cliff. Hayek called his third reason for why the lesser elements of society are often elected the most important. “It is almost a law of human nature that it is easier for people to agree on a negative program — on the hatred of an enemy, on the envy of those better off — than on any positive task.
“The contrast between the ‘we’ and the ‘they,’ the common fight against those outside the group, seems to be an essential ingredient in any creed which will solidly knit together a group for common action. It is consequently always employed by those who seek, not merely support of a policy, but the unreserved allegiance of huge masses,” Hayek wrote.
POWER IS THE GOAL
Surely this sounds familiar. It’s the playbook of all Republican and Democrat candidates for the presidency, governorships and Congress — the hatred of an enemy.
The late H.L. Mencken was much more succinct on why we get what we get. As he put it: “Votes are collared under democracy, not by talking sense, but by talking nonsense … The winner will be whoever promises the most … ” Or, also, the
of “Meet the Press.” He said Harris has toned down her progressivism because she is “doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election.”
Bait and switch.
What are other values that haven’t changed? She told some of them to Oprah: abortion; gun control; “access to the ballot box” (presumably no voter ID); and “to be who you are and love who you love openly and with pride.”
But if indeed her values have not changed, then the positions she embraced in 2019 and 2020 have not changed. Here are some of them:
n She said the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions, must be repealed. In other words, she favors federal tax dollars be used to pay for abortions.
n Require states to obtain permission from the Department of Justice before implementing new abortion laws.
n Require insurance companies provide “full reproductive healthcare services.”
n “(P)olicies ensuring that federal prisoners and detainees are able to obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained … I will direct all federal agencies responsible for
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$100 today was …
n $54.70 in 2000 (-45.3% loss of value)
n $15.66 in 1974 (-84.3%)
n $7.66 in 1950 (-92.3%)
n $5.43 in 1924 (-94.67%)
TAX PLANS & PLATFORMS
See what Kamala Harris and Donald Trump say they will do if elected.
Also: The Tax Foundation’s analysis of whose tax plans would be better. Go to YourObserver.com/ Opinion
one who promises not to take away people’s free stuff (welfare, subsidies and redistribution).
Austrian economist HansHermann Hoppe has a much more harsh, cynical view of why we get who we get: “Popular elections make it practically impossible that any good or harmless person could ever rise to the top. Prime ministers and presidents are selected for their proven efficiency as morally uninhibited demagogues.”
You have to admit, Hayek, Mencken and Hoppe have it right.
Of course, there are exceptions. There are some good, moral politicians. But they are a small minority. Otherwise, the national debt — a moral tragedy and just one example — would not be what it is.
There is one more factor Hayek cited that leads to the wrong people being on top. No one ever confesses to it, but it’s the one that often becomes an addiction: power.
“It is a goal in itself,” Hayek wrote. “The desire to organize social life according to a unitary plan springs largely from a desire for power … In order to achieve
providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment.”
n Give middle-class households “basic income” — a monthly cash payment as much as $3,000 per year for single people and $6,000 per year for married couples; and unemployed and underemployed workers up to $8,000 for job training programs. Her proposal was estimated to cost taxpayers about $200 billion in the first year or $2 trillion over 10 years.
Harris recently proposed giving first-time homebuyers up to $25,000, with more going to firstgeneration homeowners.
n Reduce funding for the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and ICE detention centers.
n Gun buybacks.
Finally, when Harris says her values have not changed, that should give you great concern. Stated another way, she has not embraced the value of telling the truth. For three years, she told the American people Joe Biden was better than fine.
“Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong. That cannot be debated,” she told TV anchor Anderson Cooper after the June debate. That, too, was a lie.
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MATT WALSH
their ends, collectivists must create power — power over men wielded by other men — of a magnitude never before known … ”
As noted before, Hayek was speaking of totalitarians. But as all Americans have seen, the lust to hold onto power has consumed the Democratic Party elites ever since Donald Trump came down the Trump Tower escalator in 2016. REDISTRIBUTION DESTROYS
Once the wrong people get into power — and you can say this goes for the right people, too — rather than performing their chief constitutional duty of protecting individual rights, they immediately succumb to the mobs.
In Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose,” he noted that when it comes seeking favors from the government, business is always first in line. We constantly see industries seeking a subsidy or protection at someone else’s expense. And this leads to Friedman’s Law of Laws. An aggrieved group goes to the Capitol and pleads for relief. Lawmakers write a law with the good intention of correcting the aggravation, only to come back the next year to address the unintended consequences. That goes on and on.
This is how our democracy has come to be a machinery for the redistribution of wealth — and ultimately the deterioration of society.
As economist Hoppe notes, it’s a fundamental principle of economics that you will get more of whatever you subsidize.
Subsidizing and redistribution are the taking, or confiscation, from the producers and the “haves” and giving an unearned benefit to the “have-nots.” This lowers the incentive to be a producer, and raises the incentive to be a nonproducer.
“Accordingly,” Hoppe writes, “as a result of subsidizing individuals because they are poor, there will be more poverty. By subsidizing people because they are unemployed, more unemployment will result.”
With Social Security, “in subsidizing retirees out of taxes imposed on current income earners, the institution of the family — the intergenerational bond between parents, grandparents and children — is systematically weakened.”
Hoppe concludes: As a result of “subsidizing the malingerers, the careless, the alcoholics, the drug addicts, there will be more illness, malingering, alcoholism, drug addiction.” And this: “By forcing noncriminals, including the victims of crime, to pay for the imprisonment of criminals (rather than making criminals compensate their victims and pay the full cost of their apprehension and incarceration) crime will increase.”
All of that has occurred and continues. Consider this data point:
From 2020 to 2025, the mandatory spending for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rose 41% to $1.7 trillion, while HHS’ discretionary spending rose 50%, to $130.7 billion. Meanwhile, the combined rates of inflation and population growth in that same period was 22.7% — half the growth of welfare spending.
ECONOMIC FASCISM
As redistribution and subsidizing are destructive socially, so they are economically. These policies and practices have turned our so-called capitalist economy into economic fascism. That is, lawmakers leave ownership in the hands of private individuals, but the leviathan laws and regulations coerce private individuals to cede control of their property to the government.
The United States has never been a pure laissez-faire capitalist economy. It was much closer in the beginning, but now it is a mixed mongrel of part free-market capitalism and a much larger part controlled by government fiat.
The employer is forced to collect and pay his employees’ income tax and a portion of their Social Security and Medicare. An employer is forced to pay a prescribed wage. Farmers are ordered how to grow their crops. Importers pay tariffs and must acquiesce to quotas. Landlords’ rental rates are capped. And now, one presidential candidate wants to mandate the end of gas-powered cars. And on and on.
Ayn Rand best described the consequences of a mixed economy: “A mixed economy has no principles … to limit the power of government. The only principle of a mixed economy is that no one’s interests
On the basis of performance and competence in office, this goes to the litmus test we apply in all elections. It’s simple: If the candidate did a good job as incumbent, reelect him or her. If he or she did a lousy job, don’t.
are safe, everyone’s interests are on a public auction block, and anything goes for anyone who can get away with it.
“Such a system — or, more precisely, anti-system — breaks up a country into an ever-growing number of enemy camps, into economic groups fighting one another for self-preservation in an indeterminate mixture of defense and offense, as the nature of such a jungle demands.
“A mixed economy is rule by pressure groups. It is an amoral, institutionalized civil war of special interests and lobbies, all fighting to seize a momentary control of the legislative machinery, to extort some special privilege at one another’s expense by an act of government — i.e. by force.”
This is economic fascism.
LESSER OF TWO EVILS
So let’s put all this together: The U.S. — with its cultural roots in early Roman virtues, and once the envy of the world as a limitedgovernment, democratic republic — has transmogrified over the past 248 years into a mob-ruled democracy that no longer places individu-
al rights before the collective. As shown, the destructive effects of this are pervasive, spreading and relegating Americans to being slaves of their government.
This is the Road to Serfdom, or the Fall of the American Empire.
But it can be stopped and reversed. And that is clearly the choice for Americans with the November elections.
To be sure, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are flawed in so many ways — proof of Hayek, Mencken and Hoppe’s explanations of why we get who we get.
We’ll add one more to that: “When the worst get on top, it is because there are enough of the worst among us to put them there” — from the late Leonard Read, founder of the Foundation for Economic Education.
Yes, we put them there.
And once again, as it so often is said, voters in the 2024 presidential election are faced with making a choice of the lesser of two evils.
However, if American voters actually assessed these two choices, they might go through this checklist of questions:
n Which of the two is more likely to be honest and truthful to you, and trustworthy to do the right thing the right way for the right reasons?
n Which of the two is more likely to be the more competent leader and executive carrying out the duties of the presidency?
n Which one is likely to be better for the protection of your personal liberty and property?
n Which one is most likely to lead to improvements in your standard of living?
n Which one is less likely to confiscate more of your property and redistribute it in ways that lead to further cultural and economic destruction?
n Which one is less likely to use the force of government to interfere in your daily life choices?
n Which one is less likely to keep you enslaved?
Two ways to reach a conclusion on these questions would be to assess their platforms — what they say they will do — and assess their performance in office.
A comparison of the Harris and
Trump platforms are posted online (YourObserver.com/Opinion). The differences are vivid.
Harris’ platform is all about the usual Democrat Party approach — government force and spending. She would punish success with higher taxes on individuals (the standard “fair share” drivel); establish a police state that punishes businesses; and create laws forcing all taxpayers to foot the cost of higher minimum wages and giving more unearned benefits to millions of Americans by forgiving loans and downpayments on homes. In other words, expand the Welfare State.
She says nothing about immigration, foreign policy, the wars, military or energy.
Trump’s platform isn’t exactly a conservative manifesto. He proposes to use the government to address the issues that have occupied the public square the past three years: to bring down inflation; stop the immigration crisis; ensure freedom of speech and religion; stop the wars in Ukraine and Israel; stop the destructiveness of gender ideology and men in women’s sports; and address two issues he harps on: pump more energy and retool the military.
Of course, neither platform says one word about reducing the national debt; nor does either provide the “how” to their litany of promises. But we know how: more government intervention.
Nevertheless, the question for voters is, if adopted, which approach would cost you less and improve your life more?
To that: Past is prelude.
On the basis of performance and competence in office, this goes to the litmus test we apply in all elections. It’s simple: If the candidate did a good job as incumbent, reelect him or her. If he or she did a lousy job, don’t.
Which of the two did better?
This is the heart of the election. The answer on this and the other questions in the checklist is unequivocal: Donald Trump.
Ministry wants to put this issue to bed
Peace and Justice Ministry at Our Lady of the Angels buys mattresses for women transitioning from prison.
HEATER MANAGING EDITOR
ary Peterson, chaplain at the Bradenton Bridge Female Community Release Center, was trying to provide comfort to a woman who had just learned about the death of her best friend.
While the 100 women residing at the community release center hold regular jobs in the community as they transition out of prison, they still are, in effect, inmates.
Peterson knew the woman didn’t have access to family or friends to talk about her loss, so she approached the woman and sat down on the bed next to her.
“Oh my goodness,” Peterson thought at the time. “This is like sitting on steel.”
The center, which is run entirely through donations (except for food), currently uses 10-year-old, twoinch fiber mattresses.
Peridia’s Peterson wondered how the women could get any sleep.
At the time, Peterson had been working with the Peace and Justice Ministry at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church in Lakewood Ranch. In 2023, Peterson had gone to the ministry about considering some support of the ladies going through the transition from prison back into the community.
The Peace and Justice Ministry selects a charity of the month for every month during the year, and Peterson was so passionate explaining the plight of the women at the community release center, that they were added to the schedule for August 2024.
But after Peterson plopped down on that hard bed, she went to the ministry with another idea. How about using whatever support had been collected to buy mattresses?
“The women had been putting books under the mattresses because they were softer than the steel,” Peterson said. “Now they are going to have seven-inch mattresses. These women are so thankful.”
Ruth Harenchar, who is the leader of the Peace and Justice Ministry, said Peterson’s passion and knowledge made supporting the program a slam dunk.
Harenchar said the Peace and Justice Ministry, which is made up of 14 volunteers, had supported a men’s transitional program out of prison and back into the community, so the women’s program was just an extension of that effort.
“When Mary came to us, we weren’t doing anything to support women,” Harenchar said. “We knew we were getting factual information from Mary, and we knew how well run the organization is, and that the money would not be wasted.”
Women in the program start jobs within two weeks of moving to the center, which is located at 2104 63rd Ave., Bradenton.
“I was thrown into this position by God,” said Peterson, who held a similar role at a Minnesota men’s prison until 18 months ago when she moved to East County.
Anyone who would like to support the program can contact Peterson at MPeterson@BridgesOfFlorida.org or by calling Peterson at 612-4082255. Those interested also can mail or drop off a check at Our Lady of the Angels, 12905 S.R. 70 E., Lakewood Ranch, 34202.
Jay Heater
Our Lady of the Angels parishioners
Theresa Phillips and Ruth Harenchar talk with Chaplain
Mary Peterson about the Bradenton Bridge program.
Venice Home Show
SPOTLIGHT
This club relishes pickleball
The Lakewood Ranch Pickleball Club started in 2017 with 40 members and now has more than 1,700 members.
LESLEY DWYER STAFF WRITER
Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the United States, and the Lakewood Ranch Pickleball Club is right in line with more than 1,700 members.
The nonprofit operates under the umbrella of Lakewood Ranch Community Activities. Club members teach an introductory clinic once a month and organize tournaments, leagues and open play.
“The club itself was designed to get communities playing each other because we had (few) courts,” President Bob Haskin said. “Esplanade was playing River Strand, and the Lakewood Ranch Country Club was just getting started. They only had four courts.”
That was seven years ago. As new communities continued to open up new courts, the club kept growing its membership. Haskin estimates that one in 10 people in Lakewood Ranch play pickleball.
Club members range in skill level from beginner to expert. People who have never picked up a paddle can join the club, too, and there’s no telling where that might lead.
“I had one lady up in River Strand who’s now playing on the pro tour,” Haskin said. “I gave her lessons early on.”
Kelly Stroble is 54 years old and now plays for the Oklahoma City Punishers in the National Pickleball League.
Stroble was already a solid athlete with a background in tennis and softball, but club member Carol Lucas said she wasn’t very good herself at any sport before playing pickleball. And therein lies the draw of the sport
ABOUT THE NONPROFIT
Lakewood Ranch Pickleball Club. Visit LWRpickleballClub. com Mission statement: To be the premier pickleball club in Lakewood Ranch and South West Florida.
— pickleball is easy to learn. Haskin and club member Richard Bianchi teach the clinic at Lakewood Ranch Park once a month. It takes about an hour to teach a beginner.
“Somebody that is less coordinated or hasn’t played racket sports in the past, it may take them two hours,” Haskin said. “They may be very poor at it, but tell the other people on the courts that you’re new, and they’ll help you out.”
Pickleball is as social as it is sporty. Lucas met a 96-year-old man who told her pickleball saved his life.
“His wife died, and he was so lonely that a friend told him, ‘You need to come out to pickleball,’” she said.
Photos by Lesley Dwyer
Carol Lucas is a member, and Bob Haskin is president of the Lakewood Ranch Pickleball Club.
“He started visiting with people, and he loved it. He plays three games a day.”
The pickleball courts at Lakewood Ranch Park include a seating area where players can chat between and after games.
Off-court social gatherings are a membership perk, along with a monthly newsletter and discounted pickleball gear.
For more serious players, joining the club can earn them a Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating. The DUPR league starts in October. Haskin said DUPR is similar to GHIN, a system that provides handicaps to golfers.
“DUPR is either the No. 1 handicap system or it will be in the next few months,” he said. “And you’ll be able to rely on that and go play in a tournament anywhere in the country. When you’ve got that handicap, they know where to put you as far as skill level.”
Players are paired by skill level and age bracket. Over 50, the brackets are spaced every five years. Haskin said club members get competitive in the DUPR league because they’re playing for a published rating.
However, members of the club don’t have to play in the DUPR league to receive a handicap and get matched with similarly skilled players within the club. Haskin has a similar system to DUPR, but it’s exclusive to club members.
The club also hosts the annual Sandhill Classic, a local tournament.
When Haskin started the club, he had no idea how many people would want to join. He quickly realized how much interest there was after attending a “club night” hosted by Lakewood Ranch Community Activities.
Haskin said he didn’t bring candy or a banner like the rest of the clubs, but he did bring a piece of paper that had 40 names on it by the end of the night.
The next step for the club is to start a Lakewood Ranch travel team that will play teams outside of the region. Haskin said some members have shown interest, so a team is “coming soon.”
A membership to the Lakewood Ranch Pickleball Club costs $15 a year.
Members of the Lakewood Ranch Pickleball Club regularly play at Lakewood Ranch Park. The club has more than 1,700 members.
IT’S READ EVERYWHERE
Cardiology
WELCOMES
Dr. Christian Lorenzo brings to Intercoastal Medical Group at the Lakewood Ranch II office a wealth of knowledge and experience in Cardiology.
Medical School: Universidad Central Del Este College of Medicine San Pedro De Macoris, Dominican Republic
Residency: Internal Medicine, Florida State University College of Medicine, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, Sarasota, FL
Fellowship: Cardiovascular Diseases Fellowship, Orlando Health, Orlando, FL; Cardio-Oncology Fellowship Rotation, University of Pennsylvania Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Certification: Board Certified, American Board of Internal Medicine
Hospital Affiliations: Sarasota Memorial Hospital; Lakewood Ranch Medical Center
TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT, PLEASE
Lakewood Ranch II 11715 Rangeland Parkway, Bradenton, FL 34211 www.intercoastalmedical.com
Headed on a trip? Snap a photo of you on vacation holding your Observer, then submit your photo online at YourObserver.com/ ItsReadEverywhere. Stay tuned for this year’s prize, and happy travels!
Gulfside Bank’s new location off Fruitville Road, east of I-75 is
It’s hard to believe that just five short years ago, Gulfside Bank opened its doors to Sarasota’s business community for the first time. We’ve been growing to meet the financial
ever since.
Today, Gulfside can do anything the big banks can do, only faster, with local decision making and a true personal touch you won’t find anywhere else. And we’re just getting started. Come grow with Gulfside.
HOUSE CALL WITH THE OBSERVER: Dr. John Curington stands in front of Kingdom of Buganda in Uganda with the East County Observer while on a teaching trip.
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
From dramas to comedies, don’t miss these extraordinary plays and musicals about ordinary lives. They’re coming soon to a theater near you.
MARTY FUGATE CONTRIBUTOR
The pandemic often felt like the end of the world. Contemporary playwrights noticed — and caught the apocalyptic vibe. Theaters had gone dark, but they didn’t stop writing. Their unproduced scripts often felt like “Twilight Zone” episodes. Or fever dreams. When live theater turned the lights back on, hungry ghosts, plagues and devil dogs filled the stage. But reports of impending apocalypse proved greatly exaggerated. The world didn’t end. Life still goes on.
Contemporary playwrights noticed that, too. You can see it in many of their recent plays. The focus has shifted away from dangerous visions of life’s end. Life itself is the new focus — as it unfolds in the daily lives of everyday people, particularly women.
The five plays I’ve selected for fall 2024 share that quotidian focus. Their characters all seem ordinary. A few hit the big time; most don’t. After you get to know them, you’ll see how extraordinary they really are.
‘The Curious Savage’
When: Oct. 29-Nov. 4
Where: FSU/Asolo Conservatory, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail
Info: Visit AsoloRep.org/conservatory.
Mrs. Ethel Savage, a recent widow, is the “savage” in question. Mr. Savage, her late husband, has just received his heavenly reward. As a result, Mrs. Savage just inherited her earthly reward — her late husband’s vast fortune. (She can’t recall the exact figure, but it’s in the ballpark of $10 million.)
This noble Savage plans to use it for good causes. To her greedy stepchildren, such charity is proof of insanity. They plan to grab their stepmom’s wealth.
To get her out of the way, these rotters commit the kindly old widow to a secluded sanitorium called “The Cloisters.” Scary name, but it’s not such a bad place.
Once inside, Mrs. Savage makes friends with a few quirky and kindhearted inmates. Unlike the smiling villains in her family, their loyalty isn’t an act. These so-called “loonies” really are on the widow’s side.
And they’re not as dumb as they look. It may sound crazy, but they
‘Waitress: The Musical’
When: Nov. 8-Dec. 29
Where: FST’s Gompertz Theatre, 1265 First St.
Info: Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.
This Broadway hit is adapted from Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film. It adds new lyrics and compositions by Grammy winner Sara Bareilles, and a script by Jessie Nelson.
But it tells the same tale — the story of Jenna, a waitress trapped in a loveless marriage. In the game of love, she fumbles and gets bruised and penalized.
When it comes to the art of pie making, Jenna is an Einstein with an oven. A baking contest
hatch a clever scheme to set things right. John Patrick’s lighthearted comedy, directed by Marcus Johnson, mocks the cut-throat logic of hypocrisy, greed and social climbing. The Cloisters’ logic is far gentler.
This nuthouse is more like a sane asylum. It’s the world outside it that’s mad.
(with a big cash prize) gives her a chance to reinvent her life. Spoiler alert: Jenna wins the prize — and finds friendship, romance and the courage to pursue her dreams.
Sound a bit too sugary? The taste of this musical, directed by Kate Alexander, is often sweet. But it’s not all sweetness and light. The show balances humor and engaging relationships with darker notes of domestic abuse and infidelity. But relax. There’s a happy ending. That’s baked into Shelly’s original rom-com. Bareilles and Nelson don’t mess with her warmhearted recipe.
Courtesy images
5 FOR FALL
FROM PAGE 15A
SAT exam tomorrow morning. If Lili’s test score is high, she might escape her dead-end life. But Lili’s father spits on her college dreams — and forces her go to work on the night before the test.
Playwrights find humor in unlikely places. In “Jennifer, Who is Leaving,” Morgan Gould found comedy in a shabby Massachusetts donut shop. His peculiar play is a character study of three overworked women who’d rather be someplace else.
But they’re all in the wrong place — and at the wrong time, too. Here and now. At the donut shop. During the graveyard shift. Behind the counter, Nan is slinging donuts and dealing with incessant cell phone calls from her high-maintenance, retired husband.
Lili’s cramming for her high-stakes
On the customer side, Jennifer’s having an unhappy meal with Joey, her impatient elderly patient. She’s a stressed-out caregiver, and he’s working her last nerve.
Nan, Lili and Jennifer have one thing in common: Taking care of other people is their job — even when they don’t get paid.
These caregivers are all women — and second-class citizens, too. That’s the way it is in the USA. Why?
Gould’s play considers the physical, mental and emotional weight such nurturing women carry. Who cares for these caregivers? After seeing Gould’s poignant comedy directed by Celine Rosenthal, you will.
‘Little Women: The Musical’
When: Dec. 5-15
Where: The Sarasota Players, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 1130
Info: Visit The Players.org.
Amanda Heisey makes her directorial debut with this 2005 song-and-dance adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1868 novel — a coming-of-age story set during America’s Civil War.
Brooding male teenage geniuses were the standard protagonists of such tales back then. Young men came of age; young ladies (or their maids) did the dishes.
Alcott’s story had a rare female focus. She put the magnifying glass on the creative growth of four gifted young women — namely the March sisters (Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy) guided by their mother and aunt while their doctor father is at war.
“Little Women” isn’t just a complicated story — it’s more than one story. Composer Jason Howland and lyricist Mindi Dickstein wisely narrow it down to Jo’s story. She’s the second-oldest sister and an aspiring writer and Alcott’s alter ego. Back in 1868, it was damned hard to become a writer if you were a member of the gentler sex. Jo is surrounded by hostility and indifference and filled with self-doubt. Must she renounce love to pursue her dreams?
Howland’s powerful score and Dickstein’s soaring lyrics put you inside her frustrated, ambitious skin. You feel what Jo feels and see through her eyes. It’s a joyful, triumphant experience. Try not to miss it.
‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’
When: Nov. 13-Jan. 5
Where: Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail
Info: Visit AsoloRep.org
Douglas McGrath’s Broadway blockbuster sings bring the story of the legendary Carole King to the Asolo Rep stage, where she will be played by Julia Knitel, reprising her Broadway role. Calling King a “legend” isn’t hype. The singer/songwriter’s hits include “You’ve Got a Friend,” “I Feel the Earth Move,” “Jazzman” and many more. If James Brown was the hardest working man in show biz, Carole King was (and is) the hardest working woman.
McGrath’s high-energy, jukebox musical delivers King’s chart-topping anthems — along with some cool biographical liner notes. Turns out King married her songwriter partner, Gerry Goffin, had her first child at 18 and moved to the New Jersey burbs.
When did King first decide to create beautiful music? Turns out, she’d wanted to be a songwriter since high school. Her mother told her, “It’s not practical! Girls don’t write music.”
While King loved her mom, she didn’t take her advice. Before her 18th birthday, she’d written hits for Aretha Franklin and The Drifters. After a few more birthdays, King started singing her own songs.
She always sang from the heart — and became the voice of the 1960s generation by her 30th birthday. King’s voice still speaks to the generations that followed. In this musical love letter directed by Rob Melrose, it rings out loud and clear. And beautifully.
Image courtesy of Sorcha Augustine
Trezure B. Coles, Ned Averill-Snell, Summer Dawn Wallace and Suzanne Grodner star in Urbanite Theatre’s “Jennifer, Who Is Leaving.”
THIS WEEK
THURSDAY
‘AGNES OF GOD’
7:30 p.m. at Venice Theatre’s Pinkerton Theatre, 140 Tampa Ave. W., Venice
$15-$35
Visit VeniceTheatre.org.
When a nun is accused of murdering her newborn, the mother superior of the convent tries to prevent the novice from meeting with a court-appointed psychiatrist. The production is one of Venice Theatre’s revivals during its 75th anniversary season. Runs through Oct. 20.
‘THE TORCH BEARERS’
7:30 p.m. at Venice Theatre’s Raymond Center, 140 Tampa Ave. W., Venice
$15-$35
Visit VeniceTheatre.org.
The Venice Theatre celebrates its 75th anniversary by reviving its first show. Written by George Kelly in 1922, “The Torch Bearers” is a play within a play about a community theater. The Venice Theatre’s “origin story” features an ensemble cast including Kevin Fewell, Paul Hutchison, Tan Selby, Nancy Denton, Colette Wheeler and other local thespians. Runs through Oct. 13.
‘THE FOUR C NOTES’
8 p.m. at FST’s Goldstein Cabaret, 1239 N. Palm Ave.
$18-$42
Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.
For fans of Frank Valli and the Four Seasons, the doo-wop sound never
goes out of style. With “The Four C Notes,” Florida Studio Theatre continues its tradition of presenting Four Seasons tribute shows inspired by “Jersey Boys” and starring performers from the Broadway smash hit’s touring production. Runs through Oct. 13.
RINGLING UNDERGROUND
8 p.m. at The Ringling, 5401 Bay Shore Road $15; Students free Visit Ringling.org.
Enjoy live music, art and ambiance in the Museum of Art Courtyard during Ringling Underground, which features an eclectic mix of local and regional music. The headliner is Pinc Louds, the musical project of Puerto Rican artist Claudi. Also on the bill are Tampa pop-rock group Peace Cult, and Now in Color, a rock band from Sarasota.
FRIDAY
‘MUSIC BEHIND BARS’ Noon at Selby Library’s Geldbart Auditorium, 1331 First St. Free with registration Visit SarasotaMusicArchive.org.
Sarasota Music Archive hosts a program highlighting a century of struggle to achieve recognition for Catalan symphonic music. A recital features Myroslav Skoryk’s “Melody in A minor for Violin and Piano” with Gabrielle Chou on piano and Max Tan on violin. Tian Yi Li will play piano and Lukas Stepp violin on” Three Romances for Violin and Piano” by Marc Migó Cortes, who will also deliver a lecture.
‘OFF THE CHARTS’
7:30 p.m. at FST’s Court Cabaret, 1265 First St. $18-$42 Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.
The creative team behind Florida Studio Theatre’s popular cabaret series is at again with “Off the Charts.” Richard and Rebecca Hopkins and Sarah Durham take the audience on a tour of 20th-century pop music with arrangements by Jim Prosser. Take a stroll (or a cruise) down Memory Lane with hits that ruled the Billboard Top 100 rankings, which debuted in 1958. Runs through Feb. 9.
DON’T MISS DISCOVERIES 1 — GERSHWIN’S AMERICAN DREAM
Sarasota Orchestra guest
SATURDAY
WSLR 20TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY
5 p.m. at Fogartyville, 525 Kumquat Court Free Visit WSLR.org.
“Many Voices, One Community,” is the theme of WSLR’s 20th anniversary party and Fogartyville’s annual fall open house. The free evening includes performances by Los Rumberos, flamenco dancer Cristina Gutierrez and The Barker Project. Manning the turntable will be DJ Milo, DJ Nomad and DJ Mondaze. The open house will also include tours of the radio station, food trucks, CD sales and celebration cake.
SUNDAY
‘JUNIE B. JONES: THE MUSICAL’
10 a.m. at FST’s Keating Theatre, 1241 N. Palm Ave. $12 Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org
Who says musical theater is just for old folks? There’s plenty of song and dance on stage for kids at Florida Studio Theatre. FST’s new production, “Junie B. Jones: The Musical,” features book and lyrics by Marcy Heisler and music by Zina Goldrich. Follow the heroine as she embarks upon a new school year, recording all her adventures in her Top-Secret Personal Beeswax Journal. Runs weekends through Oct. 26.
MONDAY
SCF COMMUNITY
PIANO RECITAL
TUESDAY
THE CARIBBEAN CHILLERS: JIMMY BUFFETT TRIBUTE
2 and 7 p.m. at Stone Hall, 502 Third Ave. W., Bradenton $40 Visit FloridaCulturalGroup.org.
It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere — sorry, that’s Alan Jackson, not Jimmy Buffett. Still, that ethos rings true for the Parrothead faithful who flock to Jimmy Buffett tributes. Don’t cruise on back home from your stay in Margaritaville without getting a taste of the Caribbean Chillers.
FRENCH CONNECTION
7:30 p.m. at Church of the Palms, 3224 Bee Ridge Road
$43-$63 Visit ArtistSeriesConcerts.org.
Artist Series Concerts presents French-born violinist Arnaud Sussmann and pianist Michael Stephen Brown, playing a program of French music that includes sonatas by Debussy and SaintSaens. Sussmann and Brown have performed in recitals and with major orchestras across Europe, Israel and the U.S., and have been featured on PBS Live broadcasts as Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
OUR PICK ‘SOUL CROONERS: SOLID GOLD
EDITION’ Created and directed by Nate Jacobs, “The Soul Crooners” returns to Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe’s main stage for the first time since its 2009 premiere. The opening show of WBTT’s 25th anniversary season celebrates the soul music of the 1970s. The “Solid Gold Edition” was a hit at this summer’s International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Runs through Nov. 17.
Conductor David Alan Miller leads the celebration of George Gershwin’s impact on many genres of American music, including jazz, blues and dance songs. The program features pianist Kevin Cole, considered by many to be one of the greatest interpreters of Gershwin.
7 p.m. at 5840 26th St. W., Building 11A, Bradenton Free Visit SCF.edu.
IF YOU GO When: 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5 Where: Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave. Tickets: $35-$79 Info: Visit SarasotaOrchestra.org.
This popular event provides students of all experience levels and ages with a chance to perform. Come see what the community’s future musicians are working on.
“Agnes of God” at the Venice Theatre
Temple Beth Sholom
Sarasota’s Only Conservative Synagogue invites you to our High Holiday services and to join our warm and embracing community.
Soundbox Ventures gives musicians a new place to play
Violinist Max Tan’s music think tank launches the first Suncoast Composer Festival Oct. 4-7.
If you or your spouse are 40 OR UNDER, YOUR WHOLE FAMILY CAN JOIN THE SYNAGOGUE FOR JUST $118, this includes High Holiday tickets. Call or email for details 40 OR this
Who is Max Tan? If you don’t know already, you will by the time the first Suncoast Composer Festival wraps on Oct. 7.
Tan wears many musical hats.
He’s an alum of the Perlman Music Program and has been coming to Sarasota to study and perform since 2007. He’s a violinist with Sarasota Orchestra who is the founder and artistic director of Soundbox Ventures, a music “think tank.”
In 2022, Soundbox founded the Suncoast Composer Fellowship Program to partner emerging composers with mentors and performers.
This year, Soundbox is taking Suncoast public by launching the inaugural Suncoast Composer Festival. With a lineup of ticketed and free lectures and performances, the festival promises to be a worthy addition to Sarasota’s vibrant classical music scene.
Tan and his associates at Suncoast have given a lot of thought to the state of classical music today, including how to
IF YOU GO SUNCOAST COMPOSER FESTIVAL
When: Oct. 4-7
Where: Various locations in Sarasota Tickets: Free to $85 Info: Visit SoundboxVentures. org.
even interactive approach to enjoying music.
“I’m interested in people’s relationship to music and in other existential questions,” Tan says. “How do we attract an audience, especially after Covid?”
In putting together the first Suncoast Composer Festival, Tan has relied on such partners as Sarasota Music Archive, housed in Selby Library, contemporary classical music group ensembleNewSRQ and classical music radio station WSMR. Suncoast fellows will take part in free public seminars hosted by the Sarasota Music Archive. Their compositions will be featured on Tyler Kline’s “Modern Notebook,” airing in November on WSMR.
Tan will speak on Friday, Oct. 4, at Selby Library in a presentation entitled “How Recordings Redefined Music: From Brahms to Today.” That program will include a performance of “Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.
Courtesy image Sarasota
Orchestra
violinist
Max Tan
But that’s just part one of the double header. The second is focused on the 100-year struggle to achieve recognition for Catalan classical music. That program will be led by Suncoast composer faculty member
The festival will culminate in the “Composer Fellows Concert,” presented in collaboration with ensembleNewSRQ on Monday, Oct. 7, at First Congregational Church.
Food & Wine Festival
Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Sarasota Opera House Benefiting Sarasota Youth Opera
The historic Sarasota Opera House
“This event is a signature kickoff to our season and introduces people to the opera who might not otherwise know about our youth program,” said longtime supporter Peter Kretzmer.
Under the direction of General Manager Richard Russell, the Sarasota Opera aims to produce impassioned opera performances true to the vision of the composer, to entertain, enrich, educate and inspire a lifelong love of opera in our diverse and growing communities. — JANET COMBS
Photos by Lori Sax
Martha Collins and Richard Russell, general director of the Sarasota Opera
Becca Towery has a handbag for all occasions, about 80 in all.
But when the fifth annual Designer Bag Bingo comes to the Hyatt Regency in Sarasota on Oct. 10, she is going to need 81.
Towery, who is a co-chair of the event, will need a special, big handbag to carry away the money collected for charity.
Last year’s event earned $43,000 that eventually became part of the $153,036 Sisterhood for Good granted to 40 area nonprofits in June.
The hope is that this year’s event will earn even more, and a few factors have the event trending in that direction.
Towery said the event continues to grow and that made it difficult to continue at the Gold Coast Eagle Distributing venue that graciously was donated for the event the first four years. Last year’s event was sold out at 183, so Sisterhood for Good went looking for a bigger venue.
The Hyatt can host up to 500 for the event and Sisterhood for Good already has sold more than 200 tickets.
Besides having more players, there will be some additional glitz to the event, which includes wine and beer, a buffet dinner and dessert. This edition will include a fashion show — featuring fashions by the Darci boutique — where a “model” will
IF YOU GO
What: Fifth annual Designer Bag Bingo
Theme: Rocks the Runway When: 5:30 p.m. Oct. 10 (Bingo begins at 6:15 p.m.)
Where: Hyatt Regency, 1000 Boulevard of The Arts, Sarasota
Features: Nine bingo games will determine the winner of nine designer handbags; champagne celebration; buffet dinner; fashion show (featuring Darci boutique); silent auction; live auction; 50-50 drawing Cost: $150 includes three bingo game cards, two drink tickets (wine & beer), buffet dinner and dessert.
Information and tickets: SFGFlorida.org or call 730-7900
walk the runway before each game to showcase the designer bag that will correspond to that game.
Also, those who want to walk away with a new purse will have more chances to do so than the nine bingo games. If they don’t win one, they can purchase a selection of gently used designer bags in the silent auction portion of the event, or they can bid on a special Marc Jacobs purse during a live auction.
The theme for this year’s event is “Rocks the Runway.”
The nine designer bags that will be
the actual prizes include the names Prada, Valentino, Ferragamo, Saint Laurent, Burberry, Tory Burch and Marc Jacobs, with values going up to $3,200 for a purse. The bags all were purchased at Saks Fifth Avenue, with Saks’ April Norris contributing her expertise to the effort.
Towery notes the love of handbags has been a lifelong passion for her.
“When I was 3, my grandmother had an old trunk and it was full of handbags, dresses, shoes,” Towery said. “I always was interested in fashion.
“I have handbags for cocktails, for every day, for the beach, for different occasions and different looks. I have a hobo bag. Every look is different.”
She said her favorite bag on the prize list is a fuchsia Valentino bag.
“I am a pink girl!” she said with a big smile. “But I like the design of it, and that it is cross-body. It is small, but it can fit my phone.”
She said she will play extra bingo cards in an attempt to win it.
Maria MacDonald, the advisory board chair for Sisterhood for Good, said she has about 50 handbags and she changes them often depending on her outfit.
“Look at me,” she said, sporting a bright, multicolored outfit. “I carry a lot of bright bags.”
Like Towery, she would love to win the fuchsia Valentino bag. But she expects those expensive handbags to be well-made other than just pretty.
“One time, I had a run-of-themill bag and the strap broke at the grocery store. Everything I owned was going down the aisle.”
Julie Benjamin, the Sisterhood for Good Membership chair, is hoping to win the white Prada bag.
“If I dress up nice, I want a nice bag,” she said. “And this is my year (to win)!”
Samina Morrow, co-chair of the grants committee, said she has about 30 bags, but she also gets rid of them “if it’s not ‘wow’ enough.”
Last year, she actually won a bag at Designer Bag Bingo — a Chloé bag with plenty of wow — that she gave away anyway.
“It was a beautiful bag, but it was a little big for me,” she said. “Just not my style.”
She said she changes up colors and funkiness of bags depending on her mood.
Kathy Collums, the Sisterhood for Good’s finance chair and an original member, said she is concentrating on the white Prada bag because it is a “great summer bag, very contemporary and distinctive ... not too loud.”
She calls herself a “season bag holder” who learned the importance of matching accessories 13 years ago after reading the book “Nice Girls Finish Last.”
She says her home is filled with purses and shoes.
“Our closets and halls look like they are made out of leather,” she said.
She said she even has handbags that she never takes out, but uses as decorative pieces.
Angela Massaro-Fain, the Sisterhood for Good founder, started Designer Bag Bingo after a friend who lived in Pennsylvania told her “the ladies went crazy” at a bingo designer bag fundraising event.
Massaro-Fain has 25 purses of her own, and she tries to buy bags that can have multiple uses. She likes the Marc Jacobs purse in the live auction because she could bring it to an elegant event or a sporty event, just by chang ing to a thick er strap that comes with it. She loves the versatility.
She donated one of her purs es she had cus tom made after a trip to South Africa. She gave the designer pho tos from her trip, and he crafted the canvas and suede bag. How ever, as much as she appreciated he artistic quality, she didn’t feel the bag fit her. It will be on the silent auction shelf.
Last year’s event earned $43,000 that eventually became part of the $153,036 Sisterhood for Good granted to 40 area nonprofits in June.
Photos by Jay Heater
Sisterhood for Good members Kathy Collums, Maria MacDonald, Julie Benjamin, Samina Morrow, Angela Massaro-Fain and Becca Towery stand in front of the designer handbags that will be up for grabs during Designer Bag Bingo on Oct. 10.
Maria MacDonald says she has about 50 handbags, but she would like to win one more at Designer Bag Bingo.
PET PICS
Have
All The Support You’ll Ever Need
This is why Sarasota Memorial designed a state-of-the-art Breast Health Services Program combining accessible screening with the very latest in treatment options, for a groundbreaking approach to cancer care as comprehensive as it is personalized.
With eight locations for 3D mammography, yearly screening is easier and more accessible than ever before, while advanced diagnostics at our breast health centers ensure accuracy is second to none. And for those in our care, dedicated nurse navigators explain and coordinate treatment plans, while an award-winning team of oncologists, radiologists, surgeons and pathologists equipped with the latest in medical technology, leading-edge treatments and clinical trials, ensures they have more options than ever before.
Dr. Kansara
at Coastal Eye Institute, is a leading expert in the field of ophthalmology, specializing in:
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His patient-centric approach ensures personalized treatment plans that cater to your unique eye health needs.
Whether you’re seeking preventative care or battling an eye condition, Dr. Kansara’s expertise and compassionate care can guide you towards improved vision and a healthier lifestyle. He is dedicated to staying at the forefront of ophthalmic advancements, offering the latest treatments and technologies to deliver the best possible outcomes for his patients.
Don’t miss this opportunity to receive compassionate and personalized eye care.
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BIERGARTEN | LIVE
YOUR CALENDAR
COMMUNITY
THURSDAY, OCT. 3 THROUGH
SUNDAY, OCT. 6
LIVE MUSIC AT JIGGS LANDING
Runs from 4-7 p.m. each day at Jiggs Landing, 6106 63rd St. E., Bradenton. The live music lineup at Jiggs Landing includes Steve Arvey (Thursday), Pirate Over 50 (Friday), Al Fuller (Saturday) and Santiago (Sunday). All the concerts are free unless otherwise noted. For more information, go to JiggsLanding.com.
FRIDAY, OCT. 4 AND SATURDAY, OCT. 5
MUSIC AT THE PLAZA
Runs 6-9 p.m. at Waterside Place, 1560 Lakefront Drive, Lakewood Ranch. Country music artist Jesse Daniels will entertain those strolling through Waterside Place on Friday night while acoustic rock/pop entertainer Frankie Lombardi performs on Saturday. For more information about the free music series, go to WatersidePlace.com.
SATURDAY, OCT. 5
FISHING TOURNAMENT
Runs from 8 a.m. to noon at Lake Uihlein, 8175 Lakewood Ranch Blvd. The Youth and Teen Fishing Tournament (for ages 5-19) returns, sponsored by Grace Community Church and the Lakewood Ranch Anglers Club. Whether you are a seasoned angler or a novice, the tournament is geared for you. Entry for residents is $5; nonresidents is $15. To register, visit LakewoodRanch.com/Event/ Youth-Fishing-Seminar-SessionOne.
SAFETY AWARENESS SEMINAR
Runs from 10 a.m. until noon at Living Lord Lutheran Church, 11107 Palmbrush Trail, Lakewood Ranch. A situational awareness seminar, conducted by a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputy, will be offered. Admission is an unopened bag of Halloween candy for the Sheriff Office’s annual Trunk or Treat event.
SATURDAY, OCT. 5 AND SUNDAY, OCT. 6
LINGER LODGE MUSIC
BEST BET
FRIDAY, OCT. 4
MUSIC ON MAIN
Runs 6-9 p.m. at Main Street at Lakewood Ranch. The Alan Grant Band, which plays rock, blues and country, is the featured performer in the monthly free concert, and block party series. The event features local food vendors, beer trucks, sponsor booths, and games and activities for the kids presented by Grace Community Church. Proceeds from the event benefit Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue. For more information, go to MyLWR.com.
SUNDAY, OCT. 6
FARMERS MARKET
Runs Saturday from 6-9 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. at Linger Lodge Restaurant, 7205 85th St. Court E., Bradenton. Live, free music at Linger Lodge restaurant includes STR8 Edge on Saturday and Rich McGuire on Sunday. For more information, call 755-2757
Runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Lakefront Drive in Waterside Place, Lakewood Ranch. The Farmers Market at Lakewood Ranch, which was voted as the top farmers market in Florida for the second year in a row, will run year-round every Sunday. Vendors will be offering seafood, eggs, meats, dairy products, pastas, bakery goods, jams and pickles, among other items. Other features are children’s activities and live music. For more information, visit MyLWR.com.
Kick off the Fall Season with the whole family at the First Annual Oktoberfest, presented by Nathan Benderson Park and Sarasota Crew! Catch the action of the Benderson Chase, a rowing extravaganza, while enjoying cold beer, authentic food, and live German music by Polka Cola all afternoon long.
Come one, come all for a brew-tiful fall day at Nathan Benderson Park. Catch the action of the Benderson Chase, a rowing extravaganza, around Regatta Island while enjoying cold beer, authentic food, and live German music by Polka Cola all afternoon long. With Biergartens and a kinder-zone, there is something for everyone! Bring family and friends out to kick off the fall season at the first annual Sarasota Oktoberfest, presented by Nathan Benderson Park & Sarasota Crew.
SATURDAY
MUSIC AUTHENTIC FOOD | REGATTA PRESENTED IN
Come one, come all for a brew-tiful fall day at Nathan Benderson Park. Catch the action of the Benderson Chase, a rowing extravaganza, around Regatta Island while enjoying cold beer, authentic food, and live German music by Polka Cola all afternoon long. With Biergartens and a kinder-zone, there is something for everyone! Bring family and friends out to kick off the fall season at the first annual Sarasota O presented by Nathan Benderson Park & Sarasota Crew.
Are you a good communicator who enjoys learning and possesses a passion for serving the community? United Way Suncoast needs you to be a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Site Coordinator. Our VITA program provides no-cost tax preparation services to community members, and Site Coordinators bring dynamic leadership to our VITA site operation. Your role will involve ensuring a smooth process at the tax site, managing trained volunteers, and following program guidelines to ensure high-quality service.
OCTOBER12TH
Parking $20 | Noon to Five
File image
The heat doesn’t keep people from enjoying a Friday night on Main Street at Lakewood Ranch during Music on Main.
The Most Wildly Successful New Waterfront Community
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amenities, including the 13-acre Midway Sports Complex, opening in Winter 2025, plus a social clubhouse with indoor and outdoor dining, two pools, a movie theater, fitness center, and a 9-hole premier putting course. Now’s the time to discover Sarasota’s most desirable nature-centric luxury community.
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From University Parkway turn south onto Lorraine Road and follow the signs to Wild Blue at Waterside
Peaceful vision
Heavy rain and the aftermath of a hurricane were not going to stop the unveiling of a new art collection on the Peaceful Path at Peace Presbyterian Church.
Church members spent Sept. 26 after Hurricane Helene picking up fallen branches along the 0.4-mile path to prepare for the gallery’s grand opening Sept. 27.
“The path is an ongoing work of creating and cleaning,” church member Toni Muirhead said. “There’s art all through the path from glass beads and ceramics to natural stuff.”
Despite the rain, about 20 people gathered under the trees on Sept. 28 to celebrate the opening of “The Gallery on the Peaceful Path.”
In May, “Artists on the Path” featured work from local artists for a day, but The Gallery on the Peaceful Path is a permanent installation.
Most of the 11 artists who contributed to the collection live in Manatee County, but there are three other artists from Sarasota, Maine and Arizona.
The collection suits its wooded environment with a theme of nature and wildlife. The work is a mix of paintings and photography.
The artwork was transferred onto aluminum plates that attach to steel stands. There are five stands, and each stand holds two pieces of art.
A separate installation called “The Three Sisters” by Cindy Patterson was also added to the gallery. It’s a trio of flowers made from tin cans.
Patterson lives in Casa Grande, Arizona. She’s never walked the Peaceful Path. She donated the flowers after seeing a photo of the path.
Church member Jamie Reagan said the steel stands that hold the rest of the artwork are heavy and durable enough to withstand the elements.
“These will be up for at least a year and then we’ll rotate our art and have another selection,” she told the crowd.
— LESLEY DWYER
IF YOU GO
The Peaceful Path at Peace Presbyterian Church. 12705 State Road 64 E., Lakewood Ranch. Hours are from dawn to dusk.
Photos by Lesley Dwyer Parrish High School student Skylar Jandula plays the violin at the start of the dedication.
This flower made of tin cans is part of “The Three Sisters.” A set of three flowers were donated by Cindy Patterson, an artist in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Guests gather at the entrance of the Peaceful Path at Peace Presbyterian Church for an art dedication on Sept. 28.
Country Club East home tops sales
ADAM HUGHES RESEARCH EDITOR
Ahome in Country Club East topped all transactions in this week’s real estate. Megan Munafo, trustee, and Jeffrey Paul Munafo, of Bradenton, sold the home at 7429 Seacroft Cove to Steven Durkee, trustee, of Bradenton, for $2,595,000. Built in 2016, it has four bedrooms, four-and-ahalf baths, a pool and 3,955 square feet of living area. It sold for $1,390,300 in 2018.
Jacob and Linda Kammerer, of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, sold their home at 8015 Royal Birkdale Circle to Robert and Katherine Johnstone, of Lakewood Ranch, for $1,225,000. Built in 2000, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 3,174 square feet of living area.
HENLEY
Rick and Rebecca Freedman sold their home at 7015 Lancaster Court to Eugenia Chusid and Gennady Merman, of University Park, for $1.06 million. Built in 2000, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,717 square feet of living area. It sold for $560,000 in 2013.
BRIDGEWATER
Martin and Shelli Maag, of Bradenton, sold their home at 5656 Cloverleaf Run to Purchasing Fund 2023-2 LLC for $943,400. Built in 2015, it has five bedrooms, four baths, a pool and 3,901 square feet of living area. It sold for $583,300 in 2015.
Kenneth Spatola, trustee, of Parrish, sold the home at 13423 Swiftwater Way to Dana Lea Nicklas and Thomas Ziegler Nicklas, of Zelienople, Pennsylvania, for $745,000. Built in 2016, it has four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths and 3,094 square feet of living area. It sold for $485,000 in 2017.
HAMPTON TERRACE AT UNIVERSITY PLACE
Kenilworth Properties LLC sold the home at 7728 Drayton Circle to Tom Patrick Mullett and Amy Ann Mullett, of Cincinnati, for $900,000. Built in 2005, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,410 square feet of living area. It sold for $740,000 in 2023.
LAKEWOOD NATIONAL
Lee Alan Horner and Patricia Mary Horner, of Bradenton, sold their home at 6011 Brandon Run to Timothy and Jayne Healy, of Deerfield Beach, for $795,000. Built in 2021, it has two bedrooms, two-and-ahalf baths and 1,860 square feet of living area. It sold for $506,100 in 2021.
GREYHAWK LANDING
Michael and Jennifer Jensen, of Bradenton, sold their home at 12809 Daisy Place to Joseph and Jamie Lee Fellin, of Bradenton, for $750,000. Built in 2006, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,895 square feet of living area. It sold for $410,000 in 2020.
HERITAGE HARBOUR
David Lozier and Ann Daigle Lozier, of St. Petersburg, sold their home at 6868 Wild Lake Terrace to Southern Property Group Inc. for $725,000. Built in 2016, it has six bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths and 3,948 square feet of living area. It sold for $493,000 in 2018.
Tressa Anne Verna and Delores Ann Dorsey sold their home at 117 Wandering Wetlands Circle to Kevin and Jill O’Neil, of Bradenton, for $625,000. Built in 2016, it has four bedrooms, three baths and 2,006 square feet of living area. It sold for $335,300 in 2016.
at $2,595,000
BRADEN WOODS
Michael and Vanessa Ladzinski, of Sparta, North Carolina, sold their home at 6004 91st St. E. to E. Frances Korn Caulfield, of Bradenton, for $710,000. Built in 1988, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,049 square feet of living area. It sold for $310,000 in 2004.
Duane and Sherri Currey, of Bradenton, sold their home at 5914 99th St. E. to Shannon Pacheco, of Bradenton, for $535,000. Built in 1989, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 1,793 square feet of living area.
RIVERWALK RIDGE
Herbert Lippitz, trustee, of Deerfield, Illinois, sold the home at 6807 Honeysuckle Trail to James Stuart and Suzanne Golden, of Lakewood Ranch, for $710,000. Built in 2002, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,495 square feet of living area. It sold for $374,000 in 2013.
RIVER PARK AT MOTE RANCH
Delores Kramer and Myron Louis Kramer, of Sarasota, sold their home at 6190 Palomino Circle to Marcy Catherine Hueston and Anthony Stephen Hueston IV, of Bradenton, for $695,500. Built in 2004, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,538 square feet of living area. It sold for $377,000 in 2014.
SAPPHIRE POINT
Timothy Koch, of Bradenton, sold his home at 16306 Pine Mist Drive to John William Destefano and Erika Destefano, of Lakewood Ranch, for $625,000. Built in 2021, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,208 square feet of living area. It sold for $483,500 in 2021.
LONGPOND AT MOTE RANCH
Bache Investments LLC sold the home at 6967 Superior St. Circle to Judith Marville and Michael Krempel and Paul Marville, of Sarasota, for $610,000. Built in 1996, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 1,848 square feet of living area. It sold for $425,000 in April.
EDGEWATER
William Thomas Dietrich and Mary Jeanne Dietrich, trustees, of Sycamore, Illinois, sold the home at 8428 Sailing Loop to Knut-Henrik Brouwer and Jordan Brouwer, of Lakewood Ranch, for $600,000. Built in 2002, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,366 square feet of living area. It sold for $330,000 in 2011.
SUMMERFIELD
Kathleen Ordakowski, of Catonsville, Maryland, sold her home at 12615 Tall Pines Way to Jeffrey and Deborah Krause, of Lakewood Ranch, for $585,000. Built in 1998, it has three bedrooms, two-anda-half baths, a pool and 2,034 square feet of living area. It sold for $425,000 in 2021.
CROSSING CREEK
Harold Tabaie and Ashley Tabaie, of Anaheim, California, sold their home at 6810 48th Terrace E. to Scott Nemeth and Diane Volpe, of
Bradenton, for $524,200. Built in 2013, it has three bedrooms, three baths and 2,701 square feet of living area. It sold for $385,000 in 2018.
Lucy Thaliath, of Frisco, Texas, sold the home at 4465 67th St. E. to Susan Cunningham, trustee, of Bradenton, for $440,000. Built in 2008, it has three bedrooms, three baths and 2,254 square feet of living area. It sold for $247,800 in 2008.
EAGLE TRACE
Gary Lecky and Ruth Rogers, trustees, of Bradenton, sold the home at 1707 Lake Verona Circle to JoAnn Rexroad, of Bradenton, for $490,000. Built in 2018, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 1,932
square feet of living area. It sold for $333,500 in 2018.
HARMONY
Ronald and Andrea Curtis sold their home at 11839 Meadowgate Place to Walnir Lucas Oliveira and Miraildes Franca Oliveira, of Sarasota, for $430,000. Built in 2016, it has three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and 1,955 square feet of living area. It sold for $309,000 in 2021.
CLUB VILLAS AT PALM AIRE
Paul and Vivian Legeay, trustees, of Evansville, Indiana, sold the Unit 1A condominium at 5628
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS SEPT. 16-20 SEE REAL ESTATE, PAGE 10B
Photo courtesy of Amy Salzone
This Country Club East home at 7429 Seacroft Cove sold for $2,595,000. It has four bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths, a pool and 3,955 square feet of living area.
Country Club Way to Terrance and Carolyn Hedstrom, of Sarasota, for $395,000. Built in 1993, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 1,872 square feet of living area. It sold for $140,000 in 1998.
MOTE RANCH
Brendon Tan Ngo and Tu Camthi Ngo, of Northville, Michigan, sold their home at 6821 Corral Circle to BNGO LLC for $362,600. Built in 1995, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 1,966 square feet of living area. It sold for $550,000 in March.
TERRACE AT TIDEWATER
PRESERVE
Jordan Corby and Jennifer Gorman, of Thornton, Colorado, sold their Unit 528 condominium at 1020 Tidewater Shores Loop to Juana Almedina, of Bradenton, for $362,000. Built in 2019, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 1,302 square feet of living area. It sold for $232,000 in 2019.
TWELVE OAKS AT TARA
David Earle Davis and Lisa Christine Davis sold their Unit 1301 condominium at 5802 Cottonwood St. to Ruth Hmelnicky and John Hmelnicky, trustees, of Bradenton, for $360,000. Built in 1995, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,517 square feet of living area. It sold for $235,000 in 2021.
BUSY BEE TUTORING
Tutoring Grades K-College General Education & Special Needs
William Shenefelt, of Ellenton, sold the home at 1402 Cypress Road to Jeffrey and Amy McClellan, of Indianapolis, for $352,800. Built in 1981, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,460 square feet of living area. It sold for $390,000 in 2023.
CENTRAL PARK
Marina Sergeyevna Onesti and Vincenzo Onesti, of Bradenton, sold their home at 11223 White Rock Terrace to Theresa and Stephen Rahe, of Bradenton, for $350,000. Built in 2013, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,293 square feet of living area. It sold for $239,000 in 2019.
TERRACE AT RIVER STRAND Gary and June Jorgensen sold their Unit 1918 condominium at 7005 River Hammock Drive to Cynthia and Merlin Tolsma, of Springfield, South Dakota, for $314,000. Built in 2014, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,297 square feet of living area. It sold for $178,500 in 2019.
David Dexter, MD, FACS, Samuel Yelverton, MD, and Alexa Kinder, MSPAP, PA-C — provide individualized care to the Lakewood Ranch community. They currently see both elective and acute care general surgery patients at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. The team’s surgical services include:
• Minimally invasive robotic surgeries, including anti-reflux, hernia, colon/rectum, gallbladder, appendix, spleen, and adrenal glands
• Management of benign and malignant breast disease
• Benign and malignant skin disease
• GI Tract Procedures
• Robotic Weight Loss Surgery
Samuel Yelverton, MD
David Dexter, MD, FACS Alexa Kinder, MSPAP, PA-C
SPORTS
Whistle work
the call. while you
The growth in school sports programs is outpacing the number of officials willing to answer
JIM DELA STAFF WRITER
It’s not a job that garners a lot of recognition.
In fact, it is said that if you do the job well, no one will remember you were there.
Dozens of high school sports officials are on fields and in gyms this school year alongside the players and coaches. They show up early and often stay late, not for the cheering crowds but simply for the love of the game.
“It’s the hobby of it,” said Dave Riedel, who is starting his 25th season as a football official. He was at Riverview High School before the season started with about 30 other officials, getting some preseason work during a scrimmage between the Rams and Manatee High.
Five- and seven-man crews shuffled in and out during the scrimmage, “to work on positioning and philosophy and whatnot,” said Dave Hall, vice president of the Gulf Coast Football Officials Association, which supplies officials for most of the high school and middle school games in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
On any given Friday night, there are anywhere between eight and 10 football games for Hall’s officials to cover. Many games work with fiveman crews, while some schools pay to have a seven-man crew on the field.
“This year, we actually have one week where we have 11 games,” Hall said.
Not only are officials on the field, Hall also must provide clock operators for both the game clock and play clock.
“So you know, if you have a 10-game night, you’ve got 70 guys who are out there,” Hall said.
Hall said so far, his association will have the area’s games covered. But he said the pool of officials might be thinning.
“We’ve got older guys who are getting up there in years,” he said. “I probably have another 10 years left before my body will not be able to take it.”
It’s a statewide problem in all sports, said Justin Harrison, the associate executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association.
While there are enough registered officials to cover games, “when you factor potential injuries, family commitment conflicts, work conflicts … a shortage is created,” he said.
“We have seen fewer associations in baseball over the last few years in the Panhandle. This has led to the remaining associations attempting to cover more schools, which thins out their numbers.”
In sports like lacrosse, “both girls and boys, the growth and interest in the sport with the student-athletes in Florida is outgrowing the interest of those wishing to officiate,” Harrison said. “Both are growing but just not at the same pace.”
RECRUITMENT IS KEY
Both Hall and Harrison are working to recruit the next generation of officials.
After talking with coaches and athletic directors, Hall will be attending local schools’ end-of-year athletic banquets.
“We’d love to come in, spend five minutes just talking with players, talking with parents, players that are graduating,” he said. “They might not be playing (anymore), but they still want to be involved in it.”
“I mean, if you can get to five or six schools and get one person out of that, that’s a crew,” he said.
“We’re all there for the kids, and that’s what I try to preach to our officials and to the coaches.”
Dave Hall, the vice president of the Gulf Coast Football Officials Association
On a statewide level, the FHSAA has partnered with Ref Reps, an online training program that school districts can offer to their high school students, Harrison said.
“We also offer a registration discount for first-year officials to help encourage new people to try it out.”
PREPARATION AND TRAINING
Being an official for any sport means study and preparation. Officials must attend clinics and pass tests on rules. In football, Hall said officiating crews study weekly game film provided by the high schools to improve their performance.
Hall said most officials wishing
to do high school games and beyond start in youth leagues and work their way up.
“You can’t just go on a field on a Friday night and do it,” Hall said. “When I first started, I didn’t see a Friday night game for probably four years, and then I wasn’t on a regular crew.”
Hall said youth rec leagues are a great way for new officials to get experience.
“There’s plenty of youth ball leagues in this area,” Hall said. “We have guys in our association who have connections with groups like that, so they can get games.”
At the recent scrimmage at Riverview High, Ron Varsalone was standing in the middle of the group of officials, watching and listening. He recently relocated to Sarasota from New Jersey and wants to give it a shot.
“I love the game. My kids are grown, my oldest is going to college next week, and I want to give back and stay involved in the game.”
Varsalone said there’s a lot to absorb.
“It’s a little overwhelming,” he said. “It’s a big difference from being a player on the field, as opposed to looking at it from an official’s perspective.”
But he’s been made to feel welcome and is encouraged going forward. “These guys have been great. I think I’m going to start out doing the clock and continue training to work toward getting on the field.”
For veterans like Riedel, it’s a familiar story. He, too, got involved in the game when his sons played.
After they graduated, “it left a hole,” he recalled.
Riedel said officiating helps him deal with his full-time day job.
“It’s a good escape from work,” he said, because you have to focus.
“Your full focus is on the game.”
Hall said, fans, parents and coaches are pretty well behaved here, despite the occasional lapse in civility.
“You have to have thick skin,” Hall said. “You probably have to have a little bit of a sense of humor because of some of the things that are said, whether right in your face or from a distance. I hear it all the time. I deal with the coaches, and they get intense and you know, you let them bark for a bit. But then you say, ‘OK, coach, let’s focus and get back to the game.’”
At the end of the day, the goals are the same.
“We’re all there for the kids, and that’s what I try to preach to our officials and to the coaches,” Hall said.
“I’m officiating the game as best as I can. And you know, we can agree to disagree on certain plays and certain outcomes of things, but at the end of the day, I will shake your hand.”
Anyone interested in learning more about officiating football can visit the local officials’ association website.
To learn more about officiating other sports, visit the FHSAA website.
Photos by Jim Dela
A lineman watches at the line of scrimmage as a play begins during a preseason scrimmage Aug. 10 at Riverview High School in Sarasota.
Football official John Powers lines up behind the defensive line during a preseason scrimmage Aug. 10 at Riverview High School in Sarasota.
Football officials listen to Dave Hall, vice president of the Gulf Coast Football Officials Association, during a break in a preseason scrimmage Aug. 10.
