A new sports complex will soon amp up the athletic department at Bradenton Christian School and bring a new amateur facility online in the region.

Bradenton City Council members last week approved the plans to build a two-story complex on the school’s 24-acre 43rd Street campus. The structure will house four courts with locker rooms, a weight room, offices and significant flex space.

"This project is really a blessing from God and a gift of time to our families at BCS," says superintendent Dan Vande Pol. "No longer will we have to start practice as early as 6am and finish practices late into the night as teams struggle to find gym time. This facility allows multiple teams to practice at once, allowing student athletes to then go home and have dinner with their families, prepare for class and just be kids."

And funding for the $19-million facility is well underway, thanks largely to a single donation of $17 million donation, which includes $15 million from the Pentecost Family Foundation plus a $2 million match. The foundation is named for retired coach Mark Pentecost, who stressed the importance a Christian coach can have in athletes’ lives.

Melanie Rosen, communications director for Bradenton Christian, says the school is well on the way to finishing a fundraising effort for the other $2 million. The plan is for construction to start in September and for students to take the court around in the 2020-‘21 school year.

BCS boasts some 32 teams that practice and play on the campus now. But the facilities could prove to be an asset for more than the 862 students at Bradenton Christian. While the complex will exist first for Bradenton Christian, Rosen says there have already been conversations about renting the facilities out. As the region’s reputation as an amateur sports capitol grows, this complex could be one more piece of infrastructure.

The modern complex will boast an air-conditioned skybox-style second-floor viewing area where spectators can view indoor basketball and volleyball games and matches along with outdoor football, baseball and soccer events. The school unveiled renderings from Fawley Bryant Architecture, the firm behind structures at IMG Academy and the renovation of LECOM Park, where the Pittsburgh Pirates hold spring training. Oden Hardy COnstruction and ZNS Engineering will be part of construction. 

Girl power took over the Hyatt Regency Sarasota this past Friday, as SRQ Media Group hosted its annual SMARTgirl Luncheon, inviting students from area schools and young women from local organizations like Girls Inc., the Girl Scouts, the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Clubs to meet and engage with volunteer mentors from organizations and businesses all across the region, for a day of women empowering women.

The half-day program began with attendees choosing which three mentors they would be spending the first part of the day with in the Dream Career Incubator. Nearly 30 volunteer mentors came from a wide range of professions, including Leymis Bolanos Wilmott of Sarasota Contemporary Dance and The Players’ Morgan Gerhart, Paige LeMay of Coastal Orthopedics and Jeannie Perales from Selby Gardens, entrepreneurs like Lee-En Chung of Ivy Ventures and nonprofit leaders like Kameron Hodgens of the Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center. “They are here today because they believe in the power of girls working together,” said SRQ Media CEO Lisl Liang. “They believe in you and in your dreams.”

And after a pair of workshops to flex attendees’ creative muscles and break the ice at the same time, the SMARTgirls entered the next room for a set of rotating mini-workshops, spending the next hour hopping from table to table to meet with their mentors and learn about the possibilities ahead of them.

It wouldn’t be a luncheon with lunch, and it wouldn’t be a SMARTgirl luncheon without inspiring speakers. While the mentors and mentees recharged and refilled, they heard from supporting sponsors like Mark Smith of The Ringling Museum and Roxie Jerde of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. “I’m looking at a room of young leaders,” said Jerde. “Everyone in this room has the potential to impact a cause, another person and our community.” Britney Guertin of Visit Sarasota County took the podium next, further encouraging the young women of the audience to take their futures into their hands. “It’s not just about finding your career,” she said, “it’s about finding your passion.”

The luncheon ended with a special presentation from Bradenton’s own Blair Bloomston of Game On Nation, where she is considered a leading expert on the use of Game Dynamics and Game Theory to improve communications and team-building. With a focus on anti-bullying, she led the assembly through an interactive workshop, before reminding each in attendance of their own power, and responsibility, to be a leader in their community. “If you can see one,” Bloomston said, “you can be one.” 

Pictured: Blair Bloomston onstage at SMARTgirl 2019. Image by Wyatt Kostygan.

Coming Together Against Cancer (CTAC) has announced the expansion of its physician/researcher/donor engagement model by adding four new pioneering physicians to the upcoming CTAC 2019 event being held on Saturday, April 13 from 9am to 11:30am at Eloise Werlin Park. Coming Together Against Cancer (CTAC) is a donor-driven community-uniting donors with pioneering physicians, researchers and institutions as ‘Partners in Discovery’ with the common goal of eradicating cancer.

Joining CTAC 2019 as Pioneering Physicians are Paul Chomiak, MD, Director of Thoracic Surgical Oncology at the Cancer Institute of the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Health Care System; Paul Crispen, MD, Research Leader GU Disease Site Group, UF Health Cancer Center at the University of Florida College of Medicine; Douglas Evans, MD, the Donald C. Ausman Family Foundation Professor & Chair, Department of Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin; and Susan J. Hoover, MD; Associate Professor of Surgery, Breast Surgical Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center. Attendees at this year’s free event will be treated to presentations by the physicians about their research, their progress and a look ahead at the treatments for cancer by the people most in the know. 

Participants in the inaugural 2018 CTAC event collectively donated $750,000 and 100% of the funds went to directly benefit 35 cancer programs from coast to coast. 

Coming Together Against Cancer

The Women’s Resource Center, the Cross College Alliance and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) present “Know Your Worth: Conversations about Gender Advocacy in the Workplace,” on March 30, 9:30am–1pm, in the Alfred R. Goldstein Library at Ringling College of Art and Design. The first portion of the event features a salary negotiation workshop aimed to help participants gain the skills and confidence they need to successfully negotiate a salary and benefits package. In the second portion of the event, a group of local leaders will participate in an intergenerational conversation about how women and men can successfully navigate in today’s workplace. Dr. Willa Bernhard, a psychotherapist, educator, and former WRC board member, will moderate the discussion. Participating panelists include Dr. George Schofield, Felice Schulaner, Janice Zarro, Nick Owens and Madeline Ross.There will be light bites, refreshments and door prizes. The event is free; seating is limited. Registration is required at the website below. 

Know Your Worth: Conversations about Gender Advocacy in the Workplace

For the third year, the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange (GCBX), a not-for-profit construction industry trade organization, introduced hundreds of high school students to the career opportunities available in construction through its educational Construction Rodeo event. During the four-hour assembly, more than 400 students learned about the various industry-related occupations, including carpentry, masonry, plumbing and electrical occupations, among other construction-based careers.

More than 35 local businesses participated with speakers and hands-on demonstrations at the Manatee Technical College in Bradenton. In partnership with the Suncoast Technical College and Manatee Technical College, the students were bused to the event from 12 high schools throughout Manatee and Sarasota Counties. The event attracted more than 350 high school students looking to pursue jobs in the trades last year, and at its inaugural introduction, more than 20 students were given apprenticeship opportunities or jobs as a result. 

Gulf Coast Builders Exchange