SRQ DAILY Feb 26, 2020
Wednesday Philanthropy Edition
"We are humbled that the Bayview House and Citrus House were acknowledged among a strong group of projects by some of our region's best design firms, contractors and industry leaders."
Each year, the Home of the Year Awards Competition recognizes the superior local talent in design and construction along the Gulf Coast. “Since our magazine is devoted to living local, it is only fitting that we celebrate and showcase some of the region’s most jaw-dropping residences,” said SRQ Executive Publisher Wes Roberts. “It is meaningful for the residents of our community – and it adds to the beauty right here in our own backyard.” This year, we received 49 impressive entries. With submitted projects evaluated by a three-judge panel of experts from New York City, Naples and Miami, categories ranged from Best Sustainable/Green Home, Best Bathroom, Best Kitchen, Best Remodel/Renovation, Best Landscape Design, a new category added this year of Best Interior Design, and three culminating categories of Best Overall Home, divided by budget. Each judge received a blind presentation of all the entries and scored them based on design concept, use of space, innovation and integrity of function. “Our panel of judges were thoroughly blown away by the impressive work represented in each submission,” said Roberts.
Results were announced amongst colleagues, friends, admirers and family last night at the 16th annual Home of the Year Awards Ceremony, hosted at SRQ Media’s studio. Leading architects, contractors, interior designers and all their fans showed up for an evening to celebrate each other's most distinguishable and recent work — seeing multiple honors bestowed for local projects from the past year that continue to keep Sarasota on the map with laudable architecture and exemplary design.
When it came to time to reveal award-winners for the Best Overall Home categories, SAWA Design Studio/Leader Design Studio and Nautilus Homes proved the big winners of the ceremony, each taking home trophies in four different categories. Other winners of the night included Borden Landscape Design, Perrone Construction, Seibert Architects, Voigt Brothers Construction, Murray Homes, Josh Wynne Construction, Sweet Sparkman Architects and DSDG Architects.
"It's a true privilege to work with excellent builders, and most of all, wonderful clients," says Principal Architect Chris Leader of Leader Design Studio. "We are humbled that the Bayview House and Citrus House were acknowledged among a strong group of projects by some of our region's best design firms, contractors and industry leaders."
We thank all the participants who submitted their projects in SRQ’s 2020 Home of the Year Competition. To see and read about the homes that made a statement in HOTY, keep an eye out for a special feature coming in the March issue of SRQ Magazine. 
Photo of Punit Patel of SAWA Design and his team, taken by Wyatt Kostygan.
Hollywood and the beautiful faces of its celebrities can seem out of reach for the average person, same for the less visible but equally renowned directors and producers whose work wields outsized influence on the cultures in which they are consumed. But sometimes, a Hollywood figure comes along that closes the gap between creator and consumer, and Ringling College has built a relationship with just such a figure in Kevin Smith. Known for his satirical celebration of outcasts and his humorous commentary on popular culture, Smith has also been a part of Ringling College’s push to gain real-world experience for its students. And on Tuesday night, Smith and the College unveiled the trailer for a film called “Killroy Was Here,” a horror anthology filmed mostly in Sarasota in which Ringling students comprised most of the production crew.
Dressed in jean shorts, skateboard shoes, a baggy blazer and with his Dachshund Shecky in tow, Smith took to the stage of Ringling College’s Morganroth Auditorium to talk about his personal journey to Hollywood and why it’s important for him to give opportunities to “the kids” with collaborations like “Killroy.” “Working with the kids is inspiring as f---,” says Smith, who recalled the magic of his first film, “Clerks,” and the audacity of its critical and commercial success. Humble in spite of his well-respected place in the canon of American filmmakers, his collaboration with Ringling students was in many ways an homage to his 23-year-old self, whose unbridled optimism paved the way for his career. “It was all passion,” he says before pivoting to the joy of working with the students and why good filmmakers should be receptive to the ideas around them.
“Your voice is your currency,” says Smith, “and every creative executive is dreaming about the artists in this room.” Smith assures the film students in attendance that, in spite of the misconception that Hollywood cares only for sequels and reboots, every production company still hungers for something bold and new. It was the perfect anecdote to sum up the lofty goals set forth by Ringling’s president, Dr. Larry Thompson. “We are all about shattering the myth of the starving artist,” says Dr. Thompson. For the film program, the collaboration gives students the sense of agency that comes from working with a professional filmmaker and, of course, it looks great on a resume. So, “Killroy Was Here” provided a win-win scenario for both filmmaker and college. “Investing in students is a good investment,” says Smith, “because somebody in this auditorium is gonna make the next big thing.
Photo taken by Andrew Fabian.
The application deadline is approaching for Gulf Coast Community Foundation’s scholarship program for the 2020-21 school year. Prospective applicants may visit GulfCoastCF.org/scholarships to review scholarship requirements and complete the online application. All applications must be submitted by March 4 to be considered.
Through its annual scholarship program, Gulf Coast Community Foundation assists students of all ages in pursuing higher education at accredited two- and four-year colleges, universities, or technical schools. Applicants must reside in Sarasota County, Charlotte County, or Boca Grande, and they must plan to attend a qualifying postsecondary institution during the 2020-21 academic year.
Last year, the foundation awarded 461 scholarships totaling close to $538,000 to deserving local students. Since establishing its scholarship program in 1997, Gulf Coast has awarded more than $8 million in scholarships to help students pursue their dreams of higher education.
The Food Bank will kick-off the annual Campaign Against Summer Hunger with a walk across the Ringling Bridge. The Walk to End Summer Hunger will be held on March 29 at 8 am at JD Hamel Park. It will launch a six-week dollar for dollar match challenge of $1.4 million from April 1 through May 15 to fund summer food programs to feed 40,000 students and their younger siblings who are at risk of going hungry over the summer. The Campaign Against Summer Hunger has become our community’s strongest line of defense against child hunger. Last year, 228 partners and programs worked together to provide 37,668 children with 3.3 million meals. The walk is open to the public and community members of all ages. A $10 registration fee includes a t-shirt and breakfast. Registration for Walk to End Summer Hunger is open until March 25 at allfaithsfoodbank.org.
While Carol McCloud is an award-winning author and speaker residing in Venice, FL, she is best known as "The Bucket Lady" who has been spreading kindness and positivity to all ages for decades through her twist on the Golden Rule, bucket filling. “We all carry an invisible bucket in which we keep our good thoughts and feelings,” said McCloud. “When our buckets are full, we are happy; when they are empty we are sad. When you fill someone else’s bucket, you fill your own bucket, too. You feel good when you help others feel good, and that is what I call the law of bucket filling.” Before she founded Bucket Fillers and wrote her first book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids, in 2006, McCloud spent 20 years in education as a teacher, counselor, youth mentor and early education director. Her passion is to help others, especially children, make positive choices and strive to be a bucket filler each day.
McCloud is dedicated to helping schools, organizations, families, workplaces and communities practice the act of bucket filling through various publications from children’s books and journals to poster sets and coloring books. McCloud brought bucket filling to thousands of youth at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota County in 2018. She recently presented the organization with a $50,000 gift from Bucket Fillers to name the Reading and Homework Room at the new Louis and Gloria Flanzer Boys & Girls Club in Arcadia. Last Thursday, a groundbreaking ceremony for the Louis and Gloria Flanzer Boys & Girls Club’s expansion project took place. The expansion will also include a multi-purpose gymnasium for youth with designated space for physical activities, project-based learning and enrichment programs that further fosters their personal development. “My bucket is overflowing to be a small part of this wonderful project,” said McCloud.
To learn more, visit bgcsarasota.com.
Continuing to remain on the cutting edge of bio research and cellular therapy, donors who come through the doors of SunCoast BloodBank soon realize that the facility doesn’t just host mobile blood drives around town—it’s what happens to the blood after. A new wave of therapy, called CAR-T, is going to use the patient’s own blood cells to actually fight their cancer. “These are the types of innovative cancer therapies and treatments we’re going to participate in,” shares SunCoast Blood Bank CEO, Scott Bush. “CAR-T is a form of immunotherapy that uses specially altered T cells and holds a lot of promise,” And come March, SunCoast Blood Bank will expand to a brand new 25,000-acre facility in Lakewood Ranch to conduct further bio research, along with all its operations. With the organization having completely run out of space—having to open four smaller facilities spread among four countries— consolidating all its components into one center will ultimately ensure higher efficiency.
“We’re all going to be under one roof again,” shares Bush. “This will consolidate our operation and make us even leaner and more cost effective. We already have one of the most competitive cost structures in the United States, definitely in Florida.” The new headquarters will house product manufacturing and components, the warehouse, as well as a reference lab for patient testing. The lab will allow SCBB to test for patient compatibility and antibody identification at the DNA molecular level. The Lakewood Ranch facility will also encompass one central administration office, as well as a large donor center with state-of-the-art collection and testing instruments that will maximize blood donor and recipient safety and comfort. Upon completion, SCBB will concentrate on a long-needed renovation of its flagship donor center located at 1760 Mound Street in Sarasota.
The Florida Center for Early Childhood is offering early childhood professionals an opportunity to learn how to build healthy brains in children on Wednesday, March 4, at the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. The training, which will take place from 12:30 – 4:30 p.m., focuses on providing evidence-informed strategies to prepare early childhood professionals for their vital role in brain development. Participants will learn: the architecture and neurobiology of brain development in children ages 0-5, how to use skills and strategies to support language, cognition, pro-social behavior and social-emotional development, and how to reduce toxic stress that can negatively influence brain development in very young children.
Presenters include President and CEO, Kathryn Shea, and Director of the state's only Fetal Alcohol Diagnostic Clinic, Tamra Cajo. The event is FREE to interested professionals and supported by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and the Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. Space is limited, so register today at thefloridacenter.org/events. For more information, contact Marketing and Development Manager Merab Favorite at Merab.favorite@thefloridacenter.org or 941-371-8820 ext. 1025
Goodwill Manasota will open its "Boutique" at Cortez, a new space adjacent to its existing Cortez retail store location (3465 Cortez Rd. W, Bradenton). The nearly 4,000-square-foot space will feature upscale clothing, purses, shoes, jewelry and accessories as well as select items for the home – at a fraction of the price shoppers would pay at a traditional retail store. To manage the operations of the Boutique, Goodwill will be adding 6 full-time team members and expects to generate an additional $475,000 in revenue this year. The additional revenue will help to fund Goodwill's job training and educational programs and services for those with barriers to employment, including individuals with disabilities, veterans, seniors, those with criminal records or financial impediments to stability, and more. “When people donate and shop at a Goodwill store, they are directly contributing to our ability to change lives through the power of work,” said Goodwill Manasota President and CEO Bob Rosinsky. "Not only do our boutique operations help to distinguish us from other thrift stores and e-retailers, they also help us to boost the revenue available for programs and services throughout the communities we serve."
For more information or to find a convenient Goodwill retail location, go to experiencegoodwill.org or call 941-355-2721.
The Suncoast Nursing Action Coalition (SNAC) is offering up to $150,000 in scholarships to encourage more nurses and prospective nursing students to earn their bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN) and ensure safe, high-quality nursing care in the Sarasota, Charlotte, Manatee and Desoto counties region. In the midst of a persistent healthcare staffing shortage, nurses play a pivotal role safeguarding patients across all hospital and healthcare settings – inpatient, outpatient and home health care. Encouraging more nurses to remain or return to school and earn bachelor’s degrees better prepares them for the challenges in today’s complex healthcare environment.
This year, the Manatee Community Foundation contributed $100,000 to encourage more nurses and nursing students to earn their BSNs in locally accredited nursing programs, with hopes that they offset the region’s nursing shortage by putting down roots and continue working in the community after they graduate. Since 2016, SNAC has awarded $264,000 in nursing scholarships to 72 local recipients and nursing students pursuing BSN degrees. The deadline to apply for the scholarships is March 1, 2020. To be eligible, applicants must live or work at a medical facility within the SNAC region (Sarasota, Charlotte, Manatee, & Desoto), or be a graduate of a high school from one of those counties. Applicants also must: have submitted an application for acceptance to an accredited nursing bachelor’s program, plan to be a full or part-time student, demonstrate financial need, and obtain at least one recommendation from an employer or faculty/instructor.
Recipients are chosen by the SNAC Selection Committee; scholarships are approved and administered by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Foundations supporting SNAC include: Community Foundation of Sarasota County, The Patterson Foundation, Burruss Foundation, Florida Blue Foundation, Lela D. Jackson Foundation, Janice S. Kelly Memorial Foundation, Rita B. Lamere Memorial Foundation, and Sarah Greer Mayer Fund of the Community Foundation, Manatee Community Foundation, Charlotte Community Foundation, and CareerEdge.
For information about SNAC, visit snac4fl.org. You can apply for the scholarships online at cfsarasota.org/students/scholarship-opportunities
SRQ MEDIA is pleased to announce Sebrena Pawley of Eckerd Connects Workforce Development as the keynote speaker for the SMARTGirl 2020 Mentorship Summit and Luncheon. SMARTGirl is an innovative program designed to engage elementary and middle school girls in 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades in imagining their future careers and creating the tools they will need to succeed through mentorship, soft skills training and hands-on workshops with some of the community’s top women leaders. SMARTGirl attendees will also hear from Interactive Presenter AJ Lee from Game On Nation and Ambassador Speaker Shaneeka Foster on behalf of The Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota County. The summit will take place at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota on Friday, March 13, 2020 from 9:30 am-1:30 pm. A thank you to our 2020 SMARTGirl applicants - we cannot wait to spend our day with you!
Sarasota's Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe returns with a stellar new space and 20th-anniversary season.
Click here to read the full story in our February 2020 Business Edition!
Born and raised in Mexico City, where he spent most of his career, Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Mexican, 1902-2002) was one of the most important figures in 20th century Latin American photography. Although he took art classes at the Academy of San Carlos, his photography was mostly self-taught, but he was savvy to the emerging international artistic avant-garde. Considered to be one of the founders of modern photography, his work extends from the late 1920s to the 1900s. He was a key figure from the period following the Mexican Revolution—often called the Mexican Renaissance—in which arts and literature flourished. This “Renaissance” owed to the happy—though not always tranquil—marriage between a desire for modernization and the search for an authentic national identity with Mexican roots, in which archaeology, history and ethnology played an important role. Support for this exhibition has been provided, in part, by the Ringling Endowment at the Florida State University Foundation. Paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax Revenues.
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota
Concealed and Revealed offers a unique selection of paintings by the artist, along with numerous objects from the Solomon Archive on view for the first time. Syd Solomon (American, 1917-2004) described himself as an “Abstract Impressionist” alluding to the fact that his work infused impressionism into the processes, scale and concepts of Abstract Expressionism. Solomon moved to Sarasota in 1946 with his wife Annie. His was the first work of contemporary art to be collected by The Ringling in 1962. His paintings were greatly influenced by climatic factors and reveal a fascination and concern for Florida’s aquatic environment. Solomon incorporated his experience as a camouflage designer during World War II into his painting. It is not well-known that he was also an accomplished graphic artist, who in his early years designed commercial signage for prominent hotels and businesses in Sarasota. Like his work in camouflage, Solomon’s calligraphic skill was essential to the development of his later gestural abstraction.
Syd Solomon: Concealed and Revealed is presented in partnership with the Estate of Syd Solomon and is accompanied by a 96-page publication with essays by former curator at The Ringling Michael Auping, George S. Bolge, Dr. Gail Levin, and Mike Solomon. The exhibition will include artworks from private collections and The Ringling’s permanent collection.
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota
A young woman from Israel, Ayelet, reluctantly joins her grandmother on a trip to the United States. Circumstances both absurd and tragic bring Ayelet, who has little command of the English language, together with Josh, a young American man who has little command of romance, on Christmas Eve. Is their inevitable love an accident…or is it destiny, generations in the making?
Florida Studio Theatre, 1241 North Palm Avenue Sarasota, FL 34236
Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning (SILL) is preparing for its 49th year of extremely popular global issues lectures and musical conversations. In 2020, these programs will begin in January and continue through the end of March. Speakers of global issues lectures are well-known, highly experienced experts, and guests on musical conversations are internationally renowned musicians, singers, and performers. SILL is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization. In its 49th season, its programs will include 96 lectures and musical conversations presented in Sarasota, Venice, and Lakewood Ranch. SILL audiences mostly consist of highly educated and intellectually curious seniors living on the Suncoast year-round or during winter months. SILL also simulcasts some of its lectures to selected senior communities. Last year, attendance at SILL events exceeded 40,000. Single tickets to SILL events are only $10 at the door when available, and a season ticket for 12 same-day lectures cost just $85, which represents substantial savings. For program schedules, venues, speaker bios, and ordering season tickets visit sillsarasota.org
First United Methodist Church, 104 S. Pineapple Ave.
Guests can “step back in time” to see an in-depth history of both Ferrari and Porsche, and the incredible cars that were released along the way, at Sarasota Classic Car Museum’s upcoming exhibit. The exhibit will showcase over 16 Porsche models, from 1951 to 2004, as well as six classic Ferraris ranging in years from 1965 to 2011. This exhibit is included in the price of admission to the museum.
Sarasota Classic Car Museum, 5500 North Tamiami Trail, Sarasota
SRQ DAILY is produced by SRQ | The Magazine. Note: The views and opinions expressed in the Saturday Perspectives Edition and in the Letters department of SRQ DAILY are those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by SRQ Media. Senior Editor Jacob Ogles edits the Saturday Perspective Edition, Letters and Guest Contributor columns.In the CocoTele department, SRQ DAILY is providing excerpts from news releases as a public service. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by SRQ DAILY. The views expressed by individuals are their own and their appearance in this section does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. For rates on SRQ DAILY banner advertising and sponsored content opportunities, please contact Ashley Ryan Cannon at 941-365-7702 x211 or via email |
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