THE HIT LIST

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

March brings longer days, increased sunshine, greener grass, and colors abounding as owers start to blossom and bloom – all which lead up to the rst day of Spring on the 20th.

That day, known as the March or vernal equinox, is when the length of day and night is nearly equal (12 hours each) in all parts of the world, hence the literal meaning of the word “equinox,” which comes from the Latin words for “equal night”—aequus (equal) and nox (night).

The vernal equinox marks the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator. This is the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator, from south to north, says nationaldaycalendar.com.

In 2021, March 20 will mark the vernal equinox – or the rst day of spring – and after that, the amount of sunlight will increase incrementally each day until the rst day of Summer.

“With the equinox, enjoy the increasing sunlight hours, with earlier dawns and later sunsets,” says almanac.com.

To welcome spring this year and help mark the occasion, nationaldaycalendar.com is touting a hashtag -- #SpringBegins – for people to use across social media platforms to post pictures of a sunset, your favorite ower at a park or garden or even a sel e mowing your grass for everyone to see, share and bask in.

STILL MAKING WAVES

The Lake County Rowing Association (LCRA) has navigated a major milestone. That’s because 2021 marks its 10-year anniversary of making a di erence for people interested in rowing as sport or hobby. The organization serves all of Lake County but is based in downtown Clermont at a boathouse (dedicated in Feb. 2015), at Victory Pointe Park, 1050 Victory Way, overlooking Lake Minneola – the very entity that serves as its uid training ground.

According to the organization’s website, LCRA was founded in 2011 as a non-pro t with the goal of “promoting rowing in Lake County while also encouraging people from across the Nation to visit our beautiful lakes and waterways.”

LCRA’s mission involves rowing with people across Central Florida of all ages and experience levels.

“Rowing embodies grace, power and symmetry. It develops endurance, discipline, teamwork, and mental and physical toughness that builds relationships between athletes, helping them to learn to work together as a team,” says the website’s homepage.

At LCRA, coaches work with families, children and area teams on achieving their rowing goals.

The City of Clermont, in partnership with LCRA, has invested in a 2,000m Olympic style buoyed racecourse that allows for eight rowing lanes. In 2019, a rst-class AccuDock system for boat launches and rowing regattas was installed.

Keith Young serves as the organization’s team or adult individual trainer, while LCRA’s Coaching Director Justin Knust oversees youth and adult club memberships, and Mike Furukawa is current president.

Justin says that since its formation, the LCRA has given more than 1,000 people the opportunity to try the sport of rowing, and hundreds have become members of the rowing team.

Additionally, the percentage rate for college scholarships awarded to rowing athletes is phenomenally high – 90 percent for females and about 80 percent for males.

Justin says that in 2019, one female and three male athletes with the LCRA all received full ride scholarships to row in college. In 2020, four of ve graduating seniors on the rowing team achieved the same.

Perhaps the coolest thing, however, is that unlike other sports, students can start with rowing later in life and still go far with it, says Justin.

“Your destiny is ordained so early in life with some of these other sports, but with rowing, you can pick it up later and go far. Nobody really rows before middle school,” Justin says. “You don’t have to be this underage superstar to have a lot of success in it.”

For more information about the LCRA, or for a listing of upcoming classes, events and more, visit rowlcra.org or call 407-970-1855.

CLERMONT CONTINUES TO BE A HOT SPOT

Clermont continues to be a magnet. Here’s a few things South Lake residents can look forward to this year:

• Legends Golf Course in Clermont is being restored and is expected to reopen this spring after being closed for nearly three years. The HOA, which bought the golf course for $750,000 dollars last summer, is also committing nearly $2 million dollars to get the golf course in playable shape.

Contact LegendsGolfandCountryClubGolf@ gmail.com for more information about the rebirth of the 18-hole course designed by Lloyd Clifton. Legends Bar & Grill recently opened. • Fast-casual Italian chain Fazoli’s will open a restaurant at 1913 South Highway 27. • A year ago, Costco planned to open a store in Clermont. And then the pandemic hit. Now, a Clermont Costco is a maybe.

Costco has announced only one official new location store in 2021: in Gloucester,

Ontario, Canada, but more than one source reports that a new store could open in

Clermont in 2021 or 2022.

Shannon Clark

EUSTIS EDUCATOR IS TOP TEACHER

Shannon Clark, a fourth-grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Eustis Heights Elementary, is the 2021 Lake County Schools Teacher of the Year. The Mount Dora resident who has been teaching for seven years was named the winner by a panel of judges from outside the district. Shannon also received a 2021 Honda Accord to drive for three years from Jenkins Auto Group. Insight Credit Union donated a $500 gas card and Jostens presented her with an o cial Teacher of the Year ring. Shannon was chosen over nalists Rikki Parisoe, Fruitland Park Elementary School rst-grade teacher, and Joshua Wintersdorf, algebra teacher at Umatilla Middle School.

SAD SONG

The list of famous musicians who died in air crashes is sobering.

Glenn Miller. Buddy Holly. Ritchie Valens. J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. Patsy Cline. Ronnie Van Zant. Stevie Ray Vaughn. Otis Redding. Jim Croce. Ricky Nelson. John Denver. The tragic deaths have occurred all over the country—an Iowa corn eld, a heavily wooded area in southeastern Mississippi, and a bay in California.

Thirty-nine years ago this month, Lake County was the site of a tragedy involving a rising star.

The musician was 25-year-old Randy Rhoads, who enjoyed a successful stint with Quiet Riot before becoming lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne. The band performed in Knoxville on March 18 and hopped aboard a tour bus to Orlando, where Ozzy and his crew would perform a concert the following day.

The tour bus needed repairs, so the driver stopped in Leesburg for the night at the property of Jerry Calhoun, who owned Flying Baron Estates. The following day around noon, Randy, along with the bus driver Andrew Aycock, and Rachel Youngblood, the band’s cook, boarded a single-engine 1955 Beechcraft Bonanza F35. Andrew, who had a pilot license, apparently took the plane without permission. Unbeknownst to anyone, Andrew’s 3rdclass medical certi cate had expired, thus making his pilots license invalid.

While in ight, they decided to play a joke on the other band members still asleep in the bus. Andrew made several low passes to “buzz” the tour bus. On the fourth pass, the plane’s wing clipped the bus, spiraled out of control, and crashed into a garage of a nearby mansion.

All three were killed instantly.

LAKE COUNTY IS WHERE IT’S AT

Word is spreading that Lake County is the place to be, and that means more jobs, more housing options, improved health care, more opportunities!

• A Mount Dora nonprofit organization recently announced it will invest $82.5 million for a major expansion at the Waterman

Village senior-living facility, which currently employs 303 people. • Leesburg will grow by 542 homes after an Orlando-based real estate developer and investor breaks ground for Eagletail Landing, a community that will offer

“oversized, resort-style” amenities.

Eagletail Landings will be built in four phases, with 110 homes slated for the first phase. Homes will range in size from 1,700-3,900 square feet. The community will also include a park and an amenity center.