The Secret Ingredient
Oysters Rock Hospitality is known for its delicious seafood and coastal vibes, but there’s something else on the menu here. The company’s nonprofit arm…
A Legacy in Motion!
Most people can remember their first car, that moment they sat in the driver’s seat, and their world widened. I can go…anywhere. In 1926, that sense of…
Wonders from the Deep
Our future is bound to our oceans. The ocean supplies most of the oxygen we breathe, much of the food we eat, and the critical resources that underpin ecosystems and economies…
The Women Who Show Up
This is a story about a volunteer force that knows how to get stuff done. If there’s a project that needs to be completed, they’ll show up with supplies before most people have even finished planning it out…
Spotlight on Imagination
You know who are experts in turning ordinary things into the extraordinary? Children. Walk with them into their little worlds, and you’ll find a puddle has become an ocean…
The Ripple Effect
If you believe that everything happens for a reason, then it’s clear that for the past 11 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County’s (BGCMC) CEO, Dawn Stanhope, is exactly where she is meant to be…
Where Learning’s at Play
Across communities, certain places quietly shape the future. Libraries do it through books; parks do it through play. But Soar in 4’s new Soar Lab in west Bradenton brings learning and play together…
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Every community has a pulse, and one of Bradenton’s strongest beats comes from a small building on 14th Street West. Here, an entirely volunteer-run organization called Stillpoint Mission has been meeting…
Perfect Timing
Manatee Education Foundation (MEF) President Mary Glass knows that when it comes to leadership transitions, timing is everything.
“I’ve been quietly interviewing for my replacement for years,” she said. “From the moment Kathy Price expressed interest…
Ready, Set, Grow!
In an office at the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County (ELC), Andres Guzman settles in and begins another day helping families enroll in Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) program, now celebrating its 20th year. For many families…
Where Hope Takes Flight
When families step into Feld Entertainment Studios on a special December day, they walk straight into a winter wonderland. A towering Christmas tree glimmers in the center of the stadium-sized room, next to a forest of evergreens. A working train…
Never Alone…
Here’s a sobering statistic: One in 10 children in Florida will experience the death of a parent or sibling before turning 18.
That’s 10 kids out of every hundred staring at an empty seat at the dinner table. That’s two kids in every classroom who carry…
It Takes a Village…
You’re staring, bleary-eyed, at a spreadsheet, and the numbers still don’t add up. You’re on hold with the insurance company (again). Your inbox just hit triple digits, and your laundry pile rivals Mt. Everest. Somewhere between rush-hour traffic and…
Girls Who Code
It’s 7:45 a.m. on a Tuesday, and one by one, fourth grade girls trickle into the STEM lab at Palm View K-8. They bring their differences—various backgrounds and personalities, likes and dislikes. But they walk together on common ground, drawn by…
The Truth About Safe Sleep
Parents of newborns often dread those long nights—the baby crying, the rocking, the desperate wish for sleep. But for some, the real nightmare is waking up to silence.
Retired law enforcement officer Connie Shingledecker spent decades investigating child…
