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Thursday, may 5, 2011
SPORTS
SCHOOLS
Bashaw Bobcats Lady Pirates present 25th best Lakewood annual art festival. in semifinals. PAGE 14-15.
ONLINE FRIDAY: + Gov. Scott’s interview with The Observer
Out-of-Door Academy enjoys 2011 Prom. PAGE 12.
PAGE 25.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
paving the way
By Pam Eubanks | News Editor
beauty and the feet
By Pam Eubanks | News Editor
Sarasota begins Cattlemen extension
Florida Gov. Rick Scott assesses his first legislative session. Read the interview Friday on YourObserver. com.
The construction also marks the course for the lake at Nathan Benderson Park to accommodate a new rowing course.
OUR TOWN
+ Lakewood grad takes to the skies Kyle Rademaker, a member of Lakewood Ranch High School’s Class of 2006, recently was selected and commissioned to the U.S. Navy’s Flight School in Pensacola. Rademaker graduates this week with an electrical engineering degree from the University of South Florida. Rademaker will spend several years in intense training as he prepares to serve his country as a naval aviator. Rademaker was a founding member of Lakewood’s lacrosse team.
+ Disney star visits Imagine Children at Imagine School at Lakewood Ranch collected 500 bars of soap to donate to the Bill Galvano One Stop Resource Center for homelessness. And for their efforts, children on Monday afternoon were awarded with a surprise visit from Disney Channel singer and songwriter Shane Harper. Harper plays Spencer Walsh on the Disney show, “Good Luck Charlie.”
SEE MOMS / PAGE 10
Pam Eubanks
As next-door neighbors with 4-month-old daughters, Nadia Wood and Olivia Macey and their babies, Haven and Ava, have grown close. “(Olivia’s) husband wants them to be tennis doubles,” Nadia says with a grin. “He’s determined they’ll be doubles champions.”
MIRROR-IMAGE
MOTHERS
In January, next-door neighbors Olivia Macey and Nadia Wood both celebrated the births of their baby girls, Ava Marianne Macey and Haven Makayla Wood, just two hours apart. This Sunday, they both will enjoy Mother’s Day with their new little ones.
HERITAGE HARBOUR — Olivia Macey and Nadia Wood and their husbands had joked they may have to carpool to the hospital when it came time to deliver their babies. But with due dates a few weeks apart, the next-door neighbors never dreamed how close they would come to fulfilling it. On Jan. 6, Olivia gave birth to Ava Marianne Macey at 3:06 p.m. at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. Less than two hours later, Wood delivered her daughter Haven Makayla Wood into the world at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. “I was shocked,” Olivia says. “It’s coincidental we both went
(into labor) early and went on the same day. It was very surprising.” Although the women will celebrate this Mother’s Day with their own families, this year, the occasion also is a reminder for both of a hope for a child come true and a friendship few moms experience.
NEW FRIENDS, NEW FAMILY
Olivia and Nadia have been friends since Olivia and her family moved in next door in July 2009. Together, Nadia and her husband, Sean, and Olivia and her husband, Rich, enjoyed barbecues and watching their older children — Hannah and Braden
— swim in the pool. The women, along with another friend, even walked several miles together each morning until Olivia went back to work in November 2009. “We were both a little busy,” Olivia says, noting the friends didn’t see each other much while she was working. Olivia learned she was pregnant on Mother’s Day 2010, and Nadia discovered she also was carrying a child a few weeks later, just three days before her 40th birthday. Nadia’s pregnancy was considered high risk, so she kept quiet with the news until a few months later.
SEE MOMS / PAGE 10
SARASOTA COUNTY — What once was deemed a simple borrow pit for the construction of Interstate 75 soon will be a world-class 2,000-meter rowing course. Just before student athletes hit the water for the Florida Scholastic Rowing Association State Championship April 30 at Nathan Benderson Park, Sarasota and Manatee officials broke ground on the extension of Cattlemen Road north to University Parkway. As part of the project, construction crews will lengthen the park’s lake by about 500 meters, making it suitable for international rowing competition. “This is a win for the entire area,” Sarasota County Commission Chairman Nora Patterson said. “Soon, we will see people not (just from) all over the country here (at the park) but from all over the world.” Sarasota County is using $14 million in federal stimulus dollars to fund most of the $20 million project. “This road has been on the Sarasota books for ages as
SEE EXTENSION / PAGE 10
Pam Eubanks
ESPN sports commentator Dick Vitale spoke as part of the festivities.
INDEX Briefs......................4 Classifieds ...........28
Cops Corner............5 Crossword.............27
Opinion...................6 Real Estate...........21
Sports...................23 Weather................27
Vol. 12, No. 13 | One section YourObserver.com