By Donna Bollenbach |Florida Native Plant Society To appreciate the beauty of native plants, you should see them in the wild, and the wild is closer than you think: the Blackwater Creek Nature Preserve in Plant City is 1,993 acres of pristine wild habitat. The preserve is predominately pine flatwoods, palmetto prairie and riverine swamp […]
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Sustaining Relationships
At some point in life, most people start a long-term relationship with someone. Having a companion in life reduces feelings of isolation and leads people to form other social bonds that support a healthy society. The people involved in such a partnership tend to get to know each other better than they have ever known […]
Continue ReadingGiving Thanks
There is something to be said about those who open their hearts when nobody is watching. In our Oct. 23 edition, the Plant City Times & Observer ran an article I wrote about Lisa Brown and her 12-year-old daughter, Haley Brown. Haley had been diagnosed with a heart condition called paroxysmal atrial tachycardia, which causes […]
Continue ReadingA Pilot’s Prayer
Have you ever sent a message out for help? It may have been a phone call, a text or even the prayer chain email. Why do we do this? It is because of the inner need to have someone know where we are in our time of need. As I prepare for the month we […]
Continue ReadingCelebrate Florida Native Plant Month
Floridians are in love with exotic plants. Many yards are planted to resemble a tropical island, a rainforest or an African jungle. While there are many tropical plants native to Florida, more often than not, the plants in these landscapes are not natives. Some are even harming our environment. So why are so many people trying to […]
Continue ReadingRotary: A way to help Plant City
For 25 years, Daybreak Rotary Club has been helping its community by providing dictionaries and bicycles to elementary students, supporting the South Florida Baptist Hospital Foundation and the Plant City Family YMCA, and volunteering with the United Food Bank of Plant City. But perhaps one of its biggest projects is its Country Cracker Feast, to […]
Continue ReadingAre you living in fear?
T.S. Eliot once wrote, ”I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” One meaning of this is that if someone sees fear in a handful of dust, then they suffer from a lot of fear. Fear takes the form of anxiety in most people, and this feeling is sometimes helpful when it lets […]
Continue ReadingBeauty and grace: A Calendar Girl experience
By Arden White | Staff Intern It’s when you’re next in line for your preliminary walk on the Plant City High School auditorium stage that you realize how nervous you are. Coming to the first stop on the stage, you can feel your smile shaking and can hear your heart pounding. Once you’ve completed your […]
Continue ReadingTimes & Observer launches PCHS journalism mentorship
It’s second-period journalism class at Plant City High School. The bell has rung. I’m five minutes late. But not because I was talking to friends outside of my locker. It was the last day of a 58-hour work week, and I was organizing the stacks of personality surveys, journalism 101 worksheets and Plant City Times […]
Continue ReadingRaider Review coming soon
Several weeks before the 2015 fall semester at Plant City High School started, Principal Susan Sullivan and the PTSA invited a group of professionals from around the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World to a business advisory meeting. The emphasis of the meeting was to ask those with unique skills and a passion for volunteerism to mentor the […]
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