Plant City Times &
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016
CONTEST
NEXT WEEK
Did you bring us along with you on Christmas vacation?
Don’t forget to enter the I Love P.C. photo contest.
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Who will be the next Strawberry Queen? See the competitors.
SNAPSHOT
OUR TOWN + Don’t miss Baby Parade registration You already know you have the cutest baby ever — shouldn’t the rest of the world know too? Registration for the Florida Strawberry Festival’s Annual Baby Parade will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, in the Badcock & More Media and Sponsor Center at the festival fairgrounds. This is the first year that registration for the event, which is presented by the Plant City Junior Woman’s Club and sponsored by South Florida Baptist Hospital, has been held at the fairgrounds. “Our Baby Parade committee felt as though we would like to work more closely with the festival this year to make this a more exciting event for the children, parents and spectators,” Baby Parade chair Kendelle Jimenez said in a statement. Parents of children between the ages of one and four can sign up in age groups on registration day. Registration for 1-year-olds and 2-yearolds will be held from 9 to 10 a.m. Registration for 3-year-olds and 4-yearolds will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Spaces are limited to the first 50 children in each age group. Contestants will be judged and awarded for Most Beautiful Girl, Most Handsome Boy, Most Personality, Best Costume and Best Float. The event has been a staple of the Florida Strawberry Festival since the 1930s. This year, the Florida Strawberry Festival will be held from Thursday, March 3, through Sunday, March 13.
FINISHING THE JOB
by Justin Kline | Sports Editor
Volunteers to host day of service CareFest and the Improvement League have teamed up to lend a hand to those in need Jan. 18.
Emily Topper
Mildred Hightower and Timothy Knighten linked up last year to help find Carefest volunteers to repair her home.
CareFest, a well-known service project in the Tampa Bay area, has been helping those in need in Plant City for several years. But a new partnership with the Improvement League of Plant City will soon bring more service to the area. The two groups have joined forces to create the Martin Luther King Day of Service, which will be held Friday, Jan. 18. The day will be a onetime extension of CareFest’s services, which are typically held in September. For one day, CareFest unites churches, nonprofits and individual volunteers to complete housing and maintenance projects
from referrals from the city’s Code Enforcement department or other entities. “We wanted to keep the fires burning, so to speak,” Improvement League volunteer C.L. Townsend said.
PLANNING PROCESS
The seeds for this team-up were actually sown in September 2015, when the Improvement League was first approached by CareFest representatives. The two groups, which have overlapping members in the Plant City Democrats Club, painted a home on Laura Street. “It turned out to be a real
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good thing,” Townsend said. “I think all the members enjoyed it.” The partnership resurfaced later, as the Improvement League was in the middle of planning the city’s annual MLK Festival. There were several projects that were not adopted during the CareFest in September — which isn’t unusual — and the groups sought to find a way to knock some of those projects out without having to wait a full year. That’s when the idea for the
SEE SERVICE / PAGE 2
GLAM GIRLS
by Emily Topper | Staff Writer
STORIES
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PEOPLE & ISSUES TO WATCH IN 2016
+ Club donates to Meals on Wheels Plant City Republican Women’s Club President Judy Wise presented a check for $250 dollars to Eben “Mac” McKendrick, the president of Meals on Wheels, Monday, Dec. 28. The Plant City Republican Women’s Club raised the funds for Meals on Wheels at the club’s annual Christmas party and Chinese auction. “It is part of my responsibilities to spread the word that we are not just about politics, but about caring for America,” Wise said in a statement. “And Mr. McKendrick is hoping that our efforts might inspire other organizations to do the same.”
FREE
Emily Topper
Melanie Blue’s book follows an adventurous girl around the streets of New York.
Resident debuts her first novel Melanie Blue’s book is all about glamour. It’s a hot, summer day in New York when 8-year-old Madison is told that her family members are too busy to spend time with her. Bursting with energy and ready for some fun, the spunky girl takes to the streets of the Big Apple with her dog, Coco Chanel. The rest of the adventure plays out on the pages of “Glamorous Madison,” a debut novel from Plant City resident Melanie Blue. Many of Blue’s ideas for the book, which is set to hit shelves Jan. 16, came out of “girly gab” chat sessions with her daughters, Melania, 8, and Melia, 5. “Really, my girls are the inspiration for the book,” Blue, a former model, said. “I’ve always wanted to write a book.
SEE NOVEL / PAGE 2
INDEX
Vol. 3, No. 22 | One section Crossword....................15
Weather.......................15
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