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PLANT CITY
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AULD LANG SYNE
Best wishes from the Observer in the new year!
OUR TOWN
+ Redskins float wins parade contest The Antioch Redskins youth football and cheerleading program took top float honors at this year’s Christmas Parade, the parade committee announced Dec. 18, at McCall Park. It was the first year the committee gave an award for the top float. The winners were given a trophy and a check presentation of $100. “We wanted to try to increase the quality of the entries this year, and by having a winner, we thought that our participants would kick it up a notch, and they did,” said Davy Miles, the president of the parade committee. According to committee member Dodie White, the floats were judged by out-oftown judges to ensure impartiality. The Antioch Redskins’ float carried a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” theme, complete with cheerleaders dressed as the Whos and Redskins Vice President Lisa DeLong as the Grinch.
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FREE • thursday, DECEMBER 27, 2012
SPORTS
/ The 2
Year
Memorable moments from 2012.
inPictures hometown hero
RISING
PAGE 11
by Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
SON
Last year, the school’s Future Innovative Robotics Engineers made it to the state finals. They have the same goal this year.
Amber Jurgensen
Members of Hope Lutheran Church and its Spanish Mission gathered Dec. 16, for a joint Christmas worship celebration that combined members of both communities for a special presentation of the “Not So Silent Night.” The worship was performed in both English and Spanish and was led by the Rev. Dean Pfeffer, with assistance from the Rev. Miguel Sanabria and Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Florida Georgia District President the Rev. Gregory Walton. For more information about Hope Lutheran Church, call (813) 752-4622 or visit hope. ctsmemberconnect.net.
At just 17 years old, Plant City’s Daniel Taylor left home to begin his service in the U.S. Navy. Now 23, he returned home last month after four years in Japan. The last time U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel S. Taylor saw some of his friends from Plant City High School, they were just 15 or 16 years old. It was early 2007, and they were just boys. Taylor’s love for his country had inspired him to graduate from high school one semester early — in December 2006 — and promptly enlist for a six-
by Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
Marshall team does the robot to regionals
Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel S. Taylor completed six years in the U.S. Navy. Top: Taylor was stationed on the USS John S. McCain destroyer.
+ Hope church hosts ‘Not So Silent Night’
domo arigato
year commitment. He followed in the footsteps of his grandfathers, who both served in the Navy. He left home in February 2007 for boot camp in Great Lakes, Mich., graduated just days before his 18th birthday and transferred to San Diego to train to be a sonar technician. In December 2008, he left for Yokosuka, Japan, where he has spent the last four years
aboard the USS John S. McCain. He never celebrated his high school graduation with his classmates, and when he finally came home last month, it was to a different Plant City. He left as a 17-year-old high school kid. He returned as a man of 23. “It’s really weird to be back,”
SEE TAYLOR / PAGE 2
HOMETOWN HEROES
Hometown Heroes is a recurring feature in the Plant City Observer in which we profile veterans from Plant City. If you have a loved one currently serving or who has served in the past, please contact Managing Editor Michael Eng by email at meng@plantcityobserver.com or by phone at (813) 704-6850.
Marshall Middle School’s robotics team, Future Innovative Robotics Engineers, or F.I.R.E., brought the heat during the regional qualifier of the Florida First LEGO League Dec. 8, at Sleepy Hill Middle School, in Lakeland. F.I.R.E. placed as the overall winner out of 15 teams. “We were ecstatic,” teacher and coach Penny Reeves said. “I’m very proud of the kids. We worked very well together.” The competition required team members to complete a variety of maneuvers with their robots, Wo b b l e s and WadTEAM dles. In MEMBERS addition, Robbie Burdette they had to Destiny Cox complete Russell Espinal a quesAnthony Johnson tion-andFrank Mohedano answer Hannah Prophet portion Hannah Spivey and devise Emilee Vue a project that would help solve a problem senior citizens face. After talking with a senior citizen, who mentioned problems with picking things up off the ground, the team built the “The Cripper,” a cane/gripper hybrid. Each student made a prototype of “The Cripper” and then collaborated on which design they liked best. F.I.R.E. also competed in a core values challenge, during which teams were given balloons, straws, paper and a bag and had to make the tallest item they could in three minutes. They couldn’t touch the items themselves and instead had to tell their coaches, Reeves and Jessica Wallen, how to stack the items. The coaches could not talk.
SEE ROBOTICS / PAGE 2
INDEX Crossword..................... 14
Vol. 1, No. 26 | One section
Year in Pictures................3
Sports........................... 11
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