YOUR PIE OF BRANDON HELPS A LOCAL LITTLE GIRL CELEBRATE A MILESTONE ACHIEVEMENT

Selah Feely of Riverview is like most kids because she loves pizza. She especially loves Your Pie of Brandon’s pizza, and why wouldn’t she love it? Your Pie has won the Brandon Community award and the franchise’s Customer Relationship award.

It’s the customer service, relationship building and of course the pizza that brought the Feely family to Your Pie.

Selah celebrated her bell ringing after party at Your Pie this past November. Selah has been battling a bilateral Wilms tumor since she was 4 years old. “My family — Selah; Asher; her brother, John; her dad; and myself — live in Riverview, about 15 minutes from Your Pie,” said Selah’s mom, Christina. “We live on a little farm with a horse, a donkey, a pig and chickens. Selah’s cancer journey started in 2019. At 4 years old, she was diagnosed with bilateral Wilms tumor, a pediatric kidney cancer. She had several tumors taking over both her kidneys and a small lesion on her lung. We immediately began chemotherapy treatment here in Florida at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital. After 12 weeks of chemo, we traveled to St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee for surgery to remove the tumors. The surgery was a success, sparing 75 percent of her right kidney and 85 percent of her left kidney.”

The family returned home, and Selah completed 12 more weeks of chemothera-

By Libby Hopkins

py. “She rang the bell in April of 2020. Almost two years later, March 2022, during one of her routine scans, it was discovered that a new tumor was growing in her left kidney,” Christina said. “We were devastated. We traveled to St. Jude again, where it was confirmed with another CT scan that the cancer had in fact returned. She had immediate surgery to remove the new tumor and then traveled back home to begin chemotherapy treatment again. After 28 weeks of treatment, Selah rang the bell again on November 17, just in time for Thanksgiving — so much to be grateful for.”

Since Your Pie is Selah’s favorite place to eat, she wanted to have her bell-ringing after-party at the restaurant. “We were so delighted to host a very special party for a very special little girl, Selah, who has beaten cancer twice,” said Your Pie co-owner Theresa Smith.

The Feely family loves Your Pie for a number of reasons. “The food is delicious,” Christina said. “The people that work there are so kind and fun to be around, and the kids love the dough that they get to play with when they make their pizza. It’s the little things. Being able to have her bell-ringing after-party at Your Pie was great. It’s such a great space to accommodate large groups, and the space is so kid friendly.”

Visit her Facebook page at www.facebook. com/profile.php?id=100063151933119.

Southshore Charter Academy Has High Hopes For Enrollment In The New Year

Southshore Charter Academy is a tuition-free charter school that appreciates and celebrates each student’s potential and individuality.

“We strive to create a nurturing and positive school environment to empower a student’s growth academically and socially,” said Principal Amy Sams. “Using data-driven, individualized instruction and 1:1 technology devices, students are supported to reach their potential. We create a powerful foundation that enables our students to succeed in school, family, extracurricular and beyond.”

The academy’s Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum is aligned to specific Florida Standards and is the framework of what is taught at each grade level. This ensures high expectations with a focus on college and career readiness from primary grades through high school. “Enrollment is important because it gives us the ability to plan more precisely for the next school year,” Sams said. “Because we are a charter school, we are chosen by parents and not assigned. Enrollment is the time for them to choose us.”

Southshore Charter Academy is a tuition-free charter school that appreciates and celebrates each student’s potential and individuality. Te academy’s principal, Amy Sams, hopes that parents from the Riverview community and beyond will consider Southshore Charter Academy as an option for their children’s education and enroll them at the academy.

By Libby Hopkins

is an international studies program that builds skills, knowledge and understanding by integrating English, mathematics and science. The curriculum is designed to meet the needs of the most advanced learners with an emphasis on creativity, innovation and discourse. Sams and her staf hope parents from the Riverview community and beyond will consider Southshore Charter Academy as an option for their children’s education and enroll them at the academy.

“Our focus each year is to continue to recruit new families, especially for kindergarten, who want to embed their student in a school like ours where they can be in one place for all grades K-8,” Sams said. “This is what contributes to our family atmosphere — by having multiple siblings of various grades and families being with us for several years in a row.”

The academy’s Middle School Cambridge

If you would like to learn more about Southshore Charter Academy and the different programs it ofers, you can visit its website at www.southshorecharter.org or contact Sams at 813-769-1209. The academy is located at 11667 Big Bend Rd. in Riverview.