City Commission Recognizes 2024 Florida Strawberry Festival Royalty
This week’s city commission meeting was made extra sweet as it honored the 2024 Florida Strawberry Festival Queen Annistyn Faith Griffin and court and Junior Royalty Queen Brooke Sidnei Browning and court with proclamations, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon its citizens. The proclamation congratulates the young women on their reign as they represent the community at various parades and events during this year.
Strawberry Crest High School Earns Top National Ranking
The latest high school rankings from U.S. News & World Report have been announced and Strawberry Crest High School was ranked in the top 200 in Florida, coming in at #102. Rankings are based on six key elements that contribute to student success: College Readiness, Math and Reading Proficiency, Math and Reading Performance, Underserved Student Performance, College Curriculum Breadth and Graduation Rate.
“Our students are graduating from our high schools prepared with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful,” said Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent Van Ayres.
The Ballots Are Coming!
The Supervisor of Elections staff will load and send a truck to the post office on Thurs., Feb. 15 with more than 48,000 Vote By Mail ballots for the 2024 Republican Presidential Preference Primary Election. The ballots will be delivered to registered Republicans who have already requested Vote By Mail ballots for this election. Hillsborough County voters who are registered with the Republican Party by Feb. 20 can continue to request mail ballots for this election through Mar. 7 by visiting VoteHillsborough.gov or calling (813) 744-5900.
Florida Strawberry Festival APPsolutely Ecstatic About New Mobile App
Easily plan and customize your visit to the Florida Strawberry Festival using its new mobile app, with features that help festival goers with tickets, food, events, parking, and more. Download now from the App Store or Google Play.
Milee Hasting Named Miss Orlando’s Teen 2024
The Super Bowl wasn’t the only competition held last Sunday. Even before both teams took the field in Las Vegas, the 2024 Miss Orlando Scholarship Competition was underway at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center in Orlando and at the end of the event, Plant City’s own Milee Hasting was crowned Miss Orlando’s Teen.
For the talent portion of the pageant, Hasting took a page out of Miss America Madison Marsh’s playbook and performed a monologue that she also wrote titled “The Farm Girl Who Dreamed Big.” “I don’t dance or sing and when Miss America won with a monologue I knew I could share my speaking talent so that’s what I did,” she said.
She was nervous standing on stage, listening to the third then second place winners being announced. When her name was called as the winner, she broke down in tears. “It was the best moment,” she said. “It’s great knowing I’m able to break some standards when it comes to doing a monologue as my talent and being able to talk about my passion which is agriculture.”
Later that evening, as she was watching the Super Bowl with family and friends, she heard a friend remark “the pageant was her Super Bowl.”
Hasting, a junior at Strawberry Crest, also shared her platform, which is “Sow Sisters: Empowering Women and Cultivating Change One Seed at a Time.”
“My platform is about breaking down barriers in the agriculture industry and proving to women that you can wear a crown and talk about agriculture at the same time,” she said.
The pageant is a preliminary to the Miss Florida’s Teen and Miss America’s Teen competitions. She will compete in Miss Florida’s Teen pageant in June.
