Our core belief at the Education Foundation of Sarasota County is that education changes lives—from the early years to high school graduation and beyond.

We are fortunate that our work affords us rare and valuable opportunities to see bookends of the K-12 educational journey up close and personal.

Recently, I was privileged to witness the pride, joy, awe and excitement experienced by kindergarteners and high school seniors at starting and closing chapters of their respective educational journeys.   

I was at Wilkinson Elementary School when the discovery was made that a “meteor” had landed and created a crater on campus, and NASA “scientists” (university science professors in real life) were at the site analyzing the impact.

The simulation kicked off a weeklong schoolwide immersive learning experience funded by the Education Foundation and responsive to the school’s principal and staff who requested the interactive project to help students engage safely while following pandemic-related limitations on campus activities.  

Comprehensive preparation for the science-based scenario included professional development for faculty, cross-curricular sample lessons, and lessons designed to develop scientific inquiry.

But to the elementary age students on that first day of discovery, particularly the kindergarteners, there was pure wonder. I was inspired and filled with optimism as I witnessed their innocent, inquisitive, imaginative, and often humorous engagement with and reactions to the exciting mystery.

“I knew that was a meteor. I heard it while I was sleeping last night.”

“I saw a shooting star last night. It could have been this meteor!”

“My fish tank was shaking last night. That must have been when the meteor landed.”

Leaving the site to science professors to show elementary school students how to quarantine the meteor, process the site, and make scientific observations, my team and I prepared to celebrate the achievements of high school seniors who have been selected as STRIVE award recipients.

The Education Foundation’s STRIVE award recognizes high school seniors, from each of the seven district schools, who have overcome significant obstacles and challenges to improve their lives and are pursuing a purposeful postsecondary pathway.

Their personal stories are bold testimonials about how the power of education really has changed the trajectory of their lives and helped them to realize success in their own defined ways.

While kindergarteners show wide-eyed wonder, the seniors display hard-earned resilience and determination. Their personal stories are inspiring, moving, and often profound. They can restore the souls and hopes of fortunate witnesses.

There is the story of a young woman who refused to allow a lifelong stutter to define her and instead helps younger children who stutter, sings in chorus, and appeared in a televised documentary about stuttering. She plans to be a speech pathologist.

There’s the young man who struggled to be fluent in English when his family moved back and forth between countries. He mastered his classes, started clubs and programs at his school to help other students facing the same challenge, and served on the superintendent’s advisory council. He plans to get a doctorate in engineering.

STRIVE recipients often work 20 or more hours per week at part-time jobs, earn 4.0 and higher GPAs in honors classes, and are leaders in school and community volunteer efforts. Their ability to overcome challenges and surpass expectations truly is awe-inspiring.

In coming weeks, we will be sharing more STRIVE recipients’ stories in local media and through our Education Foundation social media and website.

And everyone can help celebrate them by joining a virtual STRIVE celebration event on April 23. There is no cost to participate but many rewards to be gained by witnessing their successes. I invite you to come and help us celebrate our STRIVE award recipients and all graduating seniors by following this link.

Jennifer Vigne is president and CEO of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County. 

What defines an artistic masterpiece? Some point to technique, others admiration. While the beauty of a piece will always remain in the eye of the beholder, a year of instability across all stages and galleries has underscored another vital aspect to consider: arts’ ability to connect, heal and replenish our spirits. Our local arts community is now fully viewed for how closely tied it is to our physical, emotional and mental health, far exceeding the “enrichment” factor that the arts and cultural sector is most often lauded for. Fortunately, much-needed healing — for us, our community, and our cultural institutions — is underway.

In addition to dispensing medicine and crucial statistics, robots at Sarasota Memorial Hospital are connecting patients with the world beyond. This innovative approach to bridging patient health with emotional connection taken by The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in partnership with Sarasota Memorial Hospital transports patients, many of whom have endured months of isolation and longing for connection, into the museum’s collections with their own personal, mechanical tour guide. Doctors and nurses also partake in social-emotional training led by the cultural institution’s education team in sessions focused on honing observation skills, building teamwork, and cultivating empathy to see each other — patient and health care professional — in a new light.

As this program vividly illustrates, an artful approach to healing is essential to our community’s recovery both during and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. The Community Foundation of Sarasota County cast this idea as the topic during a recent conversation with donors, community members and local arts and cultural nonprofits providing arts-focused wellness efforts across generations.

Leaders from The Ringing, The Sarasota Ballet, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, and Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe guided the discussion that, as you can imagine from a community built around the arts, touched every aspect of our lives – children and families, education, health, culture, even age and connectivity. Common threads and intersections emerged.

While our session was held on-screen, each panelist expressed their relationship with Zoom as love-hate at best, which I think we can all relate to. However, everyone noted that digital access set the stage for levels of engagement and inclusivity previously unseen among audiences and patrons. The Sarasota Ballet’s Dance - The Next Generation leapt into the digital world by supplying every student — especially those who are most at risk of dropping out of school — with a tablet at no cost and providing enrichment opportunities for building self-esteem and lifelong success. The Van Wezel completely shifted its educational curriculum and school-time performances onto an online platform, aptly called “Arts Anywhere,” which has served 38,000 students, parents and teachers to date— 8,000 more than pre-pandemic audiences. Along those same lines, WBTT conducted its Stage of Discovery summer program and high school tours all via video conferencing.

Barriers to access for all ages this year were alleviated by charitable support, including for individuals living with disabilities or aging in place. You can see this unfolding through The Ringling’s Reflections Program serving people with dementia and The Sarasota Ballet’s efforts to empower those with Parkinson’s disease through dance, where long commutes for caretakers have transformed with the click of a button. Another example is the Van Wezel’s partnership with Oak Park School, which adapts drama workshops to engage over 300 students with disabilities. Zoom has also offered ways to support hard-of-hearing populations, such as WBTT’s work to include closed captioning on all its performances.

Of course, our national reckoning with racial injustice and calls for greater equity also took center stage at all these institutions. Recognizing their shared responsibility, each speaker outlined ways to ensure the arts become and remain culturally relevant, sensitive, and inviting to artists and audiences of all backgrounds. As Julie Leach, Executive Director of WBTT, shared: “Arts and storytelling are ideal for helping people build those empathetic skills and understand history in new ways.”

Which brings me back to the beginning of this conversation (which can be viewed here). Each speaker was asked to share one word that they felt encapsulated the last year within the arts community. What was chosen? Ever- Inspiring. Resilient. changing. Essential. I believe our arts community is all the above and a whole encore’s worth more. Because, as Steefel-Moore, head of Educational Programs at The Ringling, so astutely put: “Art reminds us that humanity endures and from tragedy comes things of great beauty and joy.”

Roxie Jerde is President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. 

It’s been over a year since our Emergency Operations Center was activated in response to COVID-19, an activation that continues in 2021.

Those first days and weeks of COVID-19 were daunting. Each day, sometimes each hour, we were presented with new challenges that required county staff to think quickly and strategically, all while facing a threat that was largely unknown.

Their efforts were key, because like the rest of the nation, if not all nations, we had to ask ourselves how to strike a balance between continuing to serve the community, while protecting the health and safety of those we serve.  

After all, the world class service we provide to our residents could not suddenly stop. Even as Governor DeSantis issued an executive order for a month-long lock-down last April, we still had to keep the water flowing, the streetlights working, and our permitting offices open, to name a few.

We worked to make the necessary adjustments during that time. As preventative measures we issued upgraded Personal Protective Equipment to our emergency services personnel, temporarily closed beaches and playgrounds, and canceled events we knew would draw large crowds. This allowed us the opportunity to devise a plan to keep moving forward.

Our public libraries, for instance, were a challenge. They are so vital as community hubs and play a pivotal role in the daily lives of many. We had to figure out ways to allow the public to access our library services while still focusing on safety. 

So, we started with offering curb-side pickup for materials, which allowed patrons to still have access to physical copies of their favorite authors and educational information. We emphasized our online resources, utilized social media to provide story-time and other programs, and even used our Creation Stations to sew masks to help protect folks from COVID-19.

This is the approach we took with all of our departments. Each time county staff was challenged to find alternative and unique solutions to this unprecedented position we found ourselves in, they rose to the occasion. Our entire county can be proud of their efforts. 

Yet, as we worked through those challenges, others arose last year; Sarasota County helped to dispense federal CARES Act funds, faced the threat of Hurricane Eta, and began assisting the Florida Department of Health – Sarasota with the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines; 2020 was busy, to say the least.

We were not perfect in dealing with new and unknown challenges but at every corner of the county our employees stepped up. When something did not work, they made changes so it would be better.

As time has passed, we have looked at many of our changes and realized that even post COVID many of these adjustments will allow us to better serve our community in the future. Many things have changed, no doubt. But I also believe that the one thing that has not changed is the ways in which county staff demonstrates the true meaning of public service.

What I have seen is a commitment to helping those who need it the most. I have also seen a commitment to keeping us moving. Our road and utility crews are hard at work, our emergency personnel are hurrying to potentially save lives, our solid waste crews keep our landfills open and operating, and our parks team helps keep our open spaces open while supporting health and safety. It has truly been inspiring. I have seen our communications team endlessly working on how they can better inform our community in a time of the unknown, and our health and human services department focusing on how they can help support our neighbors. Plus, so many more.

As of this writing, it is unknown how long our EOC will be activated for these events. But I have confidence we will keep finding that balance we first sought a year ago.

It has been challenging; but as we continue to follow the leadership of our county commissioners, and guidance from our state and federal partners, we’ll continue to chart a course that, while still filled with unknowns, allows us to keep moving forward as an organization and a community.

Jonathan Lewis is Sarasota County Administrator.