SARASOTA/SIESTA KEY
Local wish lists for Santa
Observer
PAGE 1B
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2024
VOLUME 20, NO. 45
YOUR TOWN
New look, brick-by-brick City sees new vision for Main Street, with wider sidewalks, less parking. SEE PAGE 3A
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Culverhouse Jr. contributes $250K to church Hugh Culverhouse Jr. has donated $250,000 to the Church of the Redeemer, the church announced Friday. The donation follows another donation by Culverhouse of $500,000 earlier this year, which was the largest noncapital campaign gift in the church’s 139-year history and led to an additional $1.5 million in contributions through a challenge match. The latest contribution, also structured as a matching challenge, is intended to expand every area of the church’s ministry and outreach, a news release said.
‘Wicked’ cool boat parade Courtesy image
Christmas lights dazzle against the waters of Sarasota Bay. SEE PAGE 9A
Troop members’ tribute For more than three years, Nikhil Patel, 13, has been senior patrol leader during the restart of Boy Scouts Troop 14, and this year led the troop’s first Eagle Scout project. Patel chose to install the bench and lending library at First Presbyterian Church in memory of his friend and troop member Jonathon Keisacker, who died last year. Keisacker had a love of reading. Over three to four days, the boys dug a space, installed the library, poured concrete, and secured the bench, with 40 people attending the Nov. 18 ribbon cutting. “(Jonathon) was one of the original three people that started from first grade – me, my friend (Philip Wilson), and him, and we all wanted to be Eagle Scouts; that was all of our dreams, but it’s really nice to memorialize him,” said Patel, who is pictured with Eagle Scout Advisor JP Donoghue.
Ian Swaby
Sienna Kohlbrecker and her friend, Emily Cintron, were Glinda and Elphaba on the “Defying Gravity” boat that took inspiration from “Wicked.”
A+E ‘Illuminate’ the season INSIDE
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A group of students enjoys the Holiday House experience.
A holiday purpose Nonprofit gives children the gift of giving. SEE PAGE 14A