Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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Nothing ventured, nothing gained; this phrase has been stated for years as a way for people to take chances, or better yet, opportunities that might stretch them. Anything new brings that sense of excitement, trepidation, fear of failure, and allure of success. Time also causes excitement and fear. It continues to march on and although we can never catch it, reflection of what it has taught us can open many fond memories or cause pain from the pictures stamped in our mind. As...
More than 900 communities have lost their local newspapers in recent years. The print version of the Lake Wales News was nearly 100 years old when its owners decided it no longer was viable. Market conditions, printing costs and lack of advertisers contributed to its demise. Enter LakeWalesNews.net. Nearly two dozen area residents have come together and volunteered to create a free, online news site. The goal is to serve as a watchdog of the public interest and a promoter of community spirit. Local businesses already have...
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...
There’s simply no substitute for a hometown newspaper – except a hometown news website – and I’m thrilled to learn that we now have one! I literally grew up with the hometown newspaper – two of them, actually. Late every afternoon when I was a kid growing up in Ridge Manor, I looked forward to seeing the paperboy ride by on his bike. The pages were smaller than the big-city papers and after being rolled tight (and rubber-banded even tighter) it could be thrown a long way...
Dr. Tameka Bradley Hobbs set the tone with famed jazz singer Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 classic "Strange Fruit," a musical tale of lynchings, burning flesh and dripping blood. Her Black History lecture Thursday, Feb. 21 at the Lake Wales Museum continued with fascinating but disturbing stories, statistics and photos of far too many black men and women hung from trees in the South. While many Black History lectures celebrate the accomplishments of African Americans, Hobbs...
Chevon Baccus, executive editor and publisher of LakeWalesNews.net spoke to the members of the GFWC Woman's Club of Lake Wales Thursday, March 7 about the community's new online publication. Baccus told the group that since its soft launch Feb. 13 the online news site has published more than 100 stories and nearly 500 photos. "The site is growing in popularity and readership and we're looking forward to a bright future," Baccus said. The loss of the local newspaper, The Lake...
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...
Traveling by car in Central Florida in 1929 wasn't easy. In the late 1920s, many Florida roads were clay. Yet, thousands of cars full of curious people headed to Lake Wales to see the President of the United States and to see Edward Bok's Bird Sanctuary. On Feb. 1, 1929, President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower, now known as Bok Tower Gardens. It was a very rare occasion to see the President in those days. To have the opportunity to...
Got a garden? Want one? So where do I start? (Is that a question or a statement – I'm not sure.) One thing for certain is you have to start where you are. Unless you're planning to move real soon, and then you could plant in containers and take them with you. Or you could dig it all up and move stuff and watch your plants either die or thrive. Or, like most of us do in life, struggle somewhere in between. I know I have and still do. Hi, my name is John and I'm a gardener - N...
Bullish is the still the word - and the outlook - for the U.S. economy, and its net positive trickle-down effects at the state, regional, and local levels can't be ignored. That's the viewpoint from Jeffrey D. Saut, the chief investment strategist for Raymond James Financial, Inc., and the company's managing director of equity research. Saut's talk about the economy - as it stands now and the trend for the near future - was the highlight when friends of the Lake Wales Area...
What do you think of when you hear the words "El Salvador"? Crime, gangs, earthquakes, a long war, refugees? But, El Salvador has a surprise, and it is none of the above. It is gourmet food! I am a "country counter" avidly trying to reach my personal goal of visiting 150 countries. I am at 107 currently. But to be truthful, El Salvador was not on the top of my list of countries I wanted to visit. It was not that I did not want to go there, it was just that I had not thought...
Chevon and Mike Baccus recently celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary. They were married Feb. 12, 1983, at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Melbourne, FL. Mike is a retired elementary school teacher and Chevon serves as executive editor and publisher of LakeWalesNews.net, an online news site published by the Baccus Center for Engaged Communications and Leadership. Chevon was born in Ohio and moved to Lake Wales at the age of 5. She is a 1973 graduate of Lake Wales...
