Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
Sorted by date Results 26 - 42 of 42
Like this owlet our new baby, LakeWalesNews.net, is perched to watch our community from a vantage point not from a safe branch on a tree, but on the ground where life and community are happening each and every day. We know it will take time to develop and strengthen our wings. Our sustenance does not come from our mother's timely feedings. It is fed to us by the members-residents, visitors, businesses and organizations-who are concerned that Lake Wales's flight path will be...
When I met Roberta "Bobbie" Halfacre, director of The Vanguard School Summer Camp program, she explained it is named "Beyond..." because students, faculty, indeed anyone associated with this school for gifted and lifted young people with individual challenges definitely do not think inside the proverbial box. This philosophy starts from the top down and everyone works to make life better for those who need it most. Teaching and learning take on a whole new meaning here, and...
Lake Wales High School's boys baseball team can take it to the bank that closing out Spring 2019 with a won-loss record of 21-7 reflects a season well done. Imagine. Three quarters of the time spent playing, the Highlanders were on top, and only a quarter of the games found them on the losing end. That made for a successful run that took them deep into the FHSAA playoffs, losing only in the Regional finals. Except for a one run difference on the scoreboard both Lake Wales and...
A familiar face at Long's Dry Cleaners, a virtual Lake Wales landmark, is counter attendant Maria Garcia. Back in 2001 Garcia was walking along Central Avenue when she happened upon owner Jim Brow standing inside the door at his dry cleaning business. After a brief conversation she was instructed to return the next day at 9:30 a.m. Assuming she was meeting Brow for a follow-up interview, Garcia was pleasantly surprised to find she was hired and would begin her new job right...
Our Lake Wales Highlander baseball team, 21-6, is riding a 15-game winning streak into an FHSAA Regional Semifinal test against the Dunedin Falcons this weekend after besting the Boca Ciega Pirates Wednesday afternoon, 7-3. The playoff game will be at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 18 at Highlander Hill. Lake Wales Coach Don Bridges and his seasoned staff have been steadily on course this spring honing their players offense, defense and pitching to bring the team on an ascending traject...
What is Pickleball? "It was started in 1965, in Bainbridge (Island), WA," Ambassador Helene "Pookie" DeCocq states emphatically. "It's just getting to (Florida and) the Midwest. There's tournaments all over." Carol Yarbrough adds, "We started with like four people." Another lady Pickleball organizer and player Deborah Waldrip chimes in, "And it just started growing. It's one of the fastest growing sports." From those first four players the group soon doubled to eight, and...
At 83 years young Lake Wales' own Claudette Braswell garnered a whopping 20 gold, eight silver and a pair of bronze to capture the highest total: 30 individual and team medals in 32 events at the PSG (www.polkseniorgames.org) that ended Mar. 11. Braswell earned the honor of being awarded Outstanding Women Competitor 2019 besting more than 1,000 other female athletes and 127 in the 80-84 age group, which means she will return as Torch Bearer to kick off the Olympics-style...
Of the legion of exhibits, aircraft, and fly-in planes of all shapes, sizes and colors on display at the 45th annual Sun 'n Fun International Fly-IN & Expo (www.flysnf.org) continuing in Lakeland through Sunday Apr. 7 one exhibitor stands out from the crowd: Lakes Wales based Aviator Paramotor (www.aviatorppg.com). Local resident and owner Eric Farewell is riding the current wave of popularity and growth that has spiraled his sport into the stratosphere. Through continuing...
Anyone who has ever said watching golf is boring has never attended a Symetra Tour event. From start to finish everyone present gave their all to make this professional and qualified amateur ladies developmental tour coupled with Florida's Natural's fundraising arm benefit event a resounding success. More than 200 volunteers administered to every need from the Pro-Am to the Junior Clinic Special Events to parking attendants to scorekeepers to standard bearers required...
Often it is momentum that dictates success and when, in the top of the first Highlander center fielder Ben Gilbert made a diving catch off a Bloodhound line drive, it set the stage for the rest of the contest. To add insult to injury #9 Gilbert hit a single in left center and came in to score when eventual Player of the Game #2 Abdiel Flores nailed a pitch over the fence for a homer in virtually the same location as Gilbert's hit and his amazing catch. Flores followed up with...
An experienced cast and a script full of twists and turns lead to an entertaining evening of live theatre in "The Assassin's New Friend." The psychological thriller runs through March 31 at Lake Wales Little Theatre. Bok Academy educator Jeff Herman plays Kendrick, the "crazed man" plotting to kill attorney Douglas Brendan, played by engineer John Durbin. Both are veterans of multiple shows, as is apparent in their performances. Herman's portrayal of the "psycho" Kendrick...
Lake Wales Highlanders Varsity baseball took a turn for the better Monday night at Highlander Hill after splitting two games last Thursday and Friday with rival non-conference foe Bartow Yellow Jackets. Monday night's contest results were welcome news to Coach Don Bridges and his hard working Assistant Coaches Steven Wilmoth, Lorenzo Parker, Mike Gerlosky and Levi Borders managing a tricky game with two similar strength teams and Lake Wales needing to avenge an earlier loss...
Our Highlander boys varsity basketball are now idle after a loss Friday night March 1 to home team Lakewood Spartans in the FHSAA Regional Final in St. Pete. But the Lake Wales team and its supporters should be proud of their stellar, break out season nonetheless under the direction of Coach Don Grant, Assistant Head Coach Anthony Jones and Assistant Coaches J. R. Grant, Norman Jackson and Marcus Walker. Although falling one game short of entering the Final Four to participate...
In the final seconds of a hard fought Regional semifinal with the season on the line Lake Wales freshman Donald Gatlin took matters into his own hands sinking a 2-point shot with two seconds remaining, and the defense shut down the Tampa Jesuit Tigers to lead the Highlanders to victory, 45-44, at home. Lake Wales will face off with the 25-3 Lakewood High Spartans in the Regional State Championship Final in St. Petersburg. Lake Wales is 22-7. When asked what factor contributed...
In only their second season and under the steady hand of Coach Stacey Butcher the Lake Wales High School Boys Varsity Lacrosse team crossed a milestone under the Legion Field lights and a full moon by beating a similarly matched but seasoned Lakeland Christian in their season opener Tuesday, Feb. 19. Final score: 9-8 in double sudden death overtime. For those fortunate fans who braved a roller coaster ride of emotions over 54 unyielding minutes of nonstop action the seesaw...
It's nearly the fourth Saturday of the month and everyone around these parts knows that means a parade of classic cars will be making their way to the Lake Wales Car Show. January marked the 9th Anniversary for this Lake Wales mainstay that has attracted thousands of awestruck antique car and truck enthusiasts. Oldies music, shiny vehicles of all makes and models and fun times for mixing, spinning yarns and going back in time when roads were one lane and often unpaved. When...
Senior Forward Raykwon Frazier scored 29 points while Donald Gatlin and Ty Hall each dropped in 14 of their own leading the Highlanders to a decisive 40-point victory over the (Tampa) Robinson Knights in a 6A Regional contest at home Thursday night. With a win-loss record of 21-7, Lake Wales socked it to the mismatched Robinson by working the boards on offense and applying a swarming defense using a double teaming strategy that forced numerous turnovers and missed shots that...
