Many college students recently ended their spring break, sporting tans from a week of relaxation and fun at the beach.
Along with other college vacationers, 15 students from Maryville College in Tennessee returned to classes after visiting St. Petersburg. According to the group, their trip was fun-filled but their experience was very different from that of many of their contemporaries.
These college students devoted their spring break to the Pinellas Association for Retarded Children. Volunteering to paint, teach, landscape and work at any task, they gave PARC more than 500 hours of valuable time and talent.
We learned that Maryville's mission statement reflects preparing students for lives of citizenship, leadership and service. Their visit to PARC was an example of living their mission.
As the beneficiary of their hard work, PARC is extremely grateful. Looking at the economic value of their gift, we received more than $8,500 (the Independent Sector, a nonprofit collation of national foundations, values a volunteer hour at $16.54). Add their inspirational attitude and you have an invaluable donation.
These Maryville students are an example of young people worldwide who will continue to serve. Nonprofit organizations everywhere are depending on these future leaders, and if Maryville is any example, we are in very good hands.
-- Curt Thomas, president/chief executive officer, Pinellas Association for Retarded Children, St. Petersburg
50 years of "a hand up, not a handout'
Your local Goodwill celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It was 1954 when Goodwill Industries-Suncoast opened its doors in the old Borden's Dairy building in downtown St. Petersburg and began offering disadvantaged people the opportunity to earn a paycheck. Today, your local Goodwill is the No. 1 Goodwill in the world in job placements.
Since its founding, Goodwill-Suncoast has helped put more than a quarter-million people on the road to self-sufficiency. Last year alone, your local Goodwill placed more than 12,000 people in competitive community employment. That wouldn't have been possible without the support of thousands of people who donate to Goodwill and shop in Goodwill stores.
As we mark this half-century milestone and celebrate Goodwill Industries Week May 2-9, we renew our pledge to help people achieve the dignity of employment and the purchasing power of a paycheck. Our goal is to offer even more people "a hand up, not a handout" during our second 50 years.
-- R. Lee Waits, president and chief executive officer, Goodwill Industries-Suncoast, St. Petersburg
"Fiddler' flourishes after all
For Clearwater Christian College, producing and performing the musical Fiddler on the Roof five times in four days was a daunting task, though CCC had produced it eight years ago.
We invited Ronald Billingsley, a great baritone and voice teacher from St. Petersburg College and our original Tevye, to reprise the role. He spent a month rehearsing with our cast of 36 and a 21-piece orchestra.
We opened with a great Wednesday morning show for nearly 600 excited visiting schoolchildren. Thursday was a big day with two shows, morning and night, both sold out. At 7 a.m., Ron's wife called me with the bad news that Ron had a case of swollen vocal folds. Short version, Ron did the show without his songs, trouper that he is. The production got a standing ovation from the schoolchildren, who didn't realize Tevye was supposed to sing, or enjoyed it without the music.
While the show was running Thursday morning, I was on the phone, wondering if we were going to have to close the run. Within three phone calls, I was talking to Michael Schwartzberg, a local criminal defense lawyer who spends his free time as president of the St. Petersburg Little Theatre. Michael came that evening for one rehearsal - we had postponed that evening's performance. He had not performed Tevye for three years but did not drop six lines! Michael did the show for us the next two nights as if he had been rehearsing with our cast for a month. The production got standing ovations both nights. He saved two performances for over 1,200 guests who came to see Fiddler.
Michael and I both saw the irony of a Jewish man playing a Jewish character in a Christian college production of Fiddler. I would add that finding Michael at such short notice, and his being available, was divine providence.
We ended up with five performances of Fiddler on the Roof and two marvelous Tevyes, who deserve public thanks. Ron Billingsley, who did recover sufficiently, finished the postponed performance. Schwartzberg, coming at a moment's notice, filled in when we needed him most. Here is a great example of our community working together for the benefit of the arts and education. Thanks to all who helped in any way with the production.
-- Dr. Robert S. Cundiff, professor of communications, stage director, Clearwater Christian College
Lives threatened by "progress'
Re: Mobile home park residents protest, April 18.
I am a resident of a small and almost surreal community where nature resides and where the folks, both young and old, get along quite well with each other. Citizens have lived here from infancy to 100 years old, some for more than 30 years, snuggled behind the mangroves on the west side of Tampa Bay. Around 250 families live here, some 800 people.
This is a unique little place where the roads are shared by both cars and tricycles, and where people share what they have in times of need. This is America. These people fish and boat and sometimes just sit back and watch and enjoy the seabirds as they travel past from the Weedon Island Sanctuary. We see spoonbills, egrets, ibis and more. We watch the manatees as they quietly roll by.
Around us, we see the condominiums growing up out of the ground, everywhere. For many years, this has been a part of "Old Florida" and a haven for snowbirds to come to and relax.
Now the developers are coming in and trying to buy our park right out from under us! We have first right to buy our own park. We are trying to do that. The developers are so bold as to speak of it in future tense: "We are going to bulldoze the park in February and put up condominiums."
My God, don't we have enough of them yet? What rights do we have, here in America, today, when someone, just because they have more money, can run people right out of their homes? We have worked hard all our lives. We are registered voters. Many of us are veterans. How are we to live? How are we to pay off our mortgages? Where are we to go? Our lives are being threatened by "progress."
Is this really that, or is this a very disrespectful way to treat American citizens in today's world? People who have worked hard and finally made it to reach their "golden years" should be left alone in peace and not driven out like yesterday's garbage in the name of "progress"!
-- Patricia Peterson, Riviera Harbor Mobile Home Park, St. Petersburg
[Last modified April 28, 2004, 01:05:41]
