bserver O
PLANT CITY
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
FREE • thursday, MARCH 21, 2013
gang green CLASSIFIEDS
SPORTS
Meet club baseball’s No. 1 fan in Plant City.
O’Brien’s celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with food and fun.
PAGE 10
OUR TOWN
PAGE 4
Need new flooring? Check out our Service Directory. PAGE 14
faith
birthday bash
by Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
DOUBLE by Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
First Baptist takes Easter celebration to the skies
TAKE
The Plant City church will drop 5,000 eggs via helicopter this weekend for its seventh annual celebration.
+ Love blooms in Plant City Call it love at first sight. It took less than a month of dating for Derek Daniel to propose to his fiancee, Summer Smith. According to Smith, the couple met Dec. 27, 2012, and had their first date Jan. 2. Then, on Feb. 1, he popped the big question. “We plan to have a wedding (the) later part of this year,” Smith says.
+ Greater New Hope to host Spring Bazaar Greater New Hope is seeking vendors for its 2013 Spring Bazaar. The event will take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the church, 2104 Mud Lake Road, Plant City. The church is seeking entrepreneurs, business owners and other groups to join the bazaar. Vendor fee is $20 for a 10-foot-by-10foot space. Registration deadline is March 24. For application and more information, call (813) 850-1981 or (813) 7543626.
+ GTE/Verizon plans 2013 reunion The 2013 GTE/Verizon Reunion will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 13, at the home of Sam and Carol Conrad, 3510 E. Keysville Road, Lithia. Guests should bring a favorite dish and drink to share. Paper goods, ice and serving spoons will be furnished. For more information, call (813) 737-1587.
Courtesy photos
Identical twins Kaitlyn and Kourtney Boyette will turn 1 April 10. They were diagnosed with twin-totwin transfusion syndrome during the pregnancy.
Lithia resident Kim Boyette is celebrating her twins’ first birthday with a barbecue dinner. Money raised will benefit the Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome Foundation. A year ago, Kim Boyette faced a mother’s worst nightmare. She was 19 weeks pregnant with her identical twins, Kourtney and Kaitlyn, when she learned they were diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome — a condition in which the shared placenta contains abnormal blood vessels that connect the umbilical cord and circulations of the twins. In most cases, TTTS is fatal to both babies. The diagnosis left Boyette with only three choices: Terminate one of the babies; remove fluid; or undergo high-risk laser surgery in attempt to save both. Just two weeks later, Boyette
lay awake on an operating table at University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital as she watched the laser surgery via a camera feed. Fifteen weeks later — on April 10, 2012 — she welcomed Kourtney and Kaitlyn to the world. “I remember breathing for the first time,” Boyette said. “An overwhelming sigh of relief and a great dose of humility followed.” One year later, the Boyettes will celebrate the twins’ first birthday with a barbecue dinner to benefit the Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome Foun-
SEE TTTS / PAGE 2
BBQ Dinner for TTTS WHEN: 4 to 7 p.m. April 13 WHERE: Hillsborough County Cattlemen’s Building, 6404 C.R. 39, Plant City COST: $8 adults; $4 children. Dinners will only be pre-sold. DONATIONS: Donations also can be made at tttsfoundation.org/ conference/?boyettetwins. CONTACT: Kim, (813) 478-0722
INDEX Classifieds.......... 14
The weekend forecast includes a 100% chance of faithful fun, as Plant City’s First Baptist Church hosts its seventh annual Egg Drop Festival. The church will drop 5,000 eggs via helicopter — much to the delight of Plant City children — during this year’s celebration, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 23, at the church’s South Campus property, 3309 James L. Redman Parkway. The 5,000 airborne ovals will join 45,000 more already on the ground to complete one of the area’s largest Easter egg hunts. “We wanted to bring families to our South Campus, and this seemed like a good way,” Bill Bender, minister of children and preschool, said of the Egg Drop’s origin. Bender had seen news stories about other festivals dropping eggs from a helicopter. “I thought, ‘That just kind of seems like an odd thing,’” he said. Bender was able to find a pilot through a church member. The member’s mother worked at Mosaic, and the company helped connect the church with a willing pilot. In addition to the pilot, it takes about 150 volunteers to organize the festival. Bender orders the eggs from a company that employs special-needs adults, Sunny Bunny Easter Eggs. Once the eggs arrive, two assistants unpack and sort them into garbage bags. Congregation members then take the garbage bags home and fill the eggs with candy, bringing
SEE EASTER / PAGE 2 Vol. 1, No. 37 | One section
Crossword........... 13
Obituaries..............9
Sports................. 10
PlantCityObserver.com