The Fancy Flea Celebrated Jane Austen Garden Party

by James Coulter

If you’re into clothing with lace and other frilly things, then you should consider taking a look around at the merchandise of Blue Betty.

A regular vendor at The Fancy Flea vintage market in Lakeland, Blue Betty offers many different dresses, clothes, and other various items repurposed from lost and found pieces.

Owner Carrie Ferrante loves to find old items and give them a Bohemian, vintage-style makeover. Some vintage lace here, some extra trimmings there, and what she ends up making is something truly unique that can’t be found at any big box store, she said.

“What sets me apart is that many of my pieces are one-of-a-kind,” she said.

For the past nine years, Ferrante has been attending The Fancy Flea vintage market events in Lakeland. Last weekend, she attended for their Jane Austen Garden Party-themed event.

What keeps her coming back time and again is the camaraderie among vendors and attendees alike. The Fancy Flea allows everyone to get to know everyone so that they know exactly what to expect from vendors time and again, she said.

“I have a following now that I have been coming here for so long,” she said. “People are really friendly in this area. I just love being a part of this show.”

Blue Betty was one of nearly 100 vendors that attended The Fancy Flea vintage market last weekend at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. This event provided a Victorian atmosphere, with the summer market being themed to a Jane Austen Garden Party.

Upon entering the convention center, guests could step right into the spirit of the theme, with a trail of pages from a Jane Austen novel leading them into the heart of the event teaming with foliage and vintage signage and scenery.

Nearly a hundred vendors from the local area, as well as from across the state and country, gathered to provide vintage merchandise, many of which reflected the Jane Austen theme with frilly dresses and blooming flowers.

“Women love Jane Austen,” said Director Lori Powell. “They love the romance. They love all that goes with it. Right now there is a resurgence [of the genre]…In Florida, you garden year-round, and [we did this for] the women [who] love the romantic theme.”

Powell started the seasonal vintage market ten years ago in Downtown Lakeland. What started with 12 vendors her initial year has since grown to 150 regular booths and vendors, with 250 at their largest shows.

For the past 40 years, Powell has been working within the hospitality industry, having previously worked as a sales director for 15 years. With four decades of experience under her belt, she decided to utilize it by hosting her own vintage market.

“It is an easy business to get into,” she said of her career. “You have to love what you do to do a good job. I love the vintage. I love to repurpose things…I am very pleased with what the vendors have bought.”

The only real challenge with hosting an event such as this has been competing with other similar shows. When she first started, the vintage market trend was only starting. Now there is a glut of other shows to compete with.

“I still have people who come from outside of the area, but not as many because there are vintage markets everywhere,” she explained. “So right now, we have to reinvent ourselves, the vendors are looking at what they have been selling. I make changes to the show, so you have to evolve with the times.”

What has allowed her own show to remain popular for the past decade has been the relationships fostered among attendees and vendors alike. Being able to purchase items from friendly faces that you’ve seen time and again adds to the overall experience, she said.

The Fancy Flea will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this November with their largest event yet with celebrity guests, live entertainment, and other festivities to mark off a decade of vintage love.

“When you come to a fancy flea, you are not just here to shop, you are here to visit and eat,” Powell said. “It is an experience. It is not just a trade show. It is an experience when you come here.”

Florida Air Museum Celebrated Apollo 11 Anniversary With Night At The Museum

by James Coulter

On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the moon, allowing for the fateful “one small step for man” and “one giant leap for mankind.”

While many scientists helped with the moon mission, perhaps one of the most important was Margaret Hamilton. She helped program the software that allowed the rocket and module to safely follow its course to the moon.

Growing up, Margaret loved numbers. She loved solving problems using math. Her love of numbers would lead her to MIT, and later to NASA, where she would learn to code and program software, including the software used in all of the Apollo missions.

Margaret’s story was shared to young listeners through a storybook about her life, “Margaret And The Moon”, which was read as part of storytime during the Night At The Museum event at Aerospace Discovery at the Florida Air Museum on Saturday.

Last Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which the Florida Air Museum celebrated through its special nighttime event. The event allowed visitors young and old an opportunity to visit the museum and its exhibits as well as partake in other activities.

The museum provided free admission to the public. Visitors could receive a free moon pie snack upon admission, and could enjoy pizza at $2 per slice. Other activities included craft painting, model building, moon background selfies, and glitter tattoos.

Visitors came from far and near to enjoy the museum that evening. One visitor, Kelly Spence Banks, and her two daughters, Madelyn and Emma, arrived all the way from Frostproof to visit.

As her two daughters love science, Banks felt that this evening was a good opportunity to visit the museum. This was the first time they have ever visited the museum, and upon seeing the exhibits, it would certainly not be their last.

“We saw the event, it was free to the public, and we really appreciated the opportunity to come and see what they have going on here,” Banks said.

The Florida Air Museum hosts its annual Fly Into Summer event at the start of every summer, allowing local children to start their summer vacation by visiting the museum and experiencing everything it has to offer.

As this year was the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the museum decided to do something different by hosting a nighttime event to celebrate the occasion, explained Jaymie Jamison, Museum Manager.

Within the first hour of the event, more than 200 attendees flocked into the museum, and many more hopefully arrived throughout the remainder of the evening, Jamison said.

“We are packed,” she said. “Not sure if this is the early bird gets the worm where everybody wanted a free Moon Pie, but we are pleased at the turnout.”

Aside from its many exhibits, the museum also offers many science programs and events to help children and young people gain an appreciation within STEM fields, especially when they pertain to aviation. They hope that their programs help to inspire the next generation to take to the skies within the aviation and aerospace industry, Jamison said.

“Museums are informal education spaces: people can come in, it is a non-threatening environment…so they get exposed to ideas and concepts related to aviation and science; and then our hope is later down the road, when they see an airplane fly, they say they learned that at a museum and that it is something they can do,” she said.

Kimberly Brewer, Education Director, has been helping the museum fulfill this mission for the past month and a half, having previously served as an educator for the past five years.

he is especially excited for their upcoming Aviation Discovery Day to be hosted later this year on October 5. The event is expected to be their biggest one ever, and she has high expectations for it and the museum in the upcoming future, if this event is any indicator.

“I think it has been a wonderful event for families in the community to come out and learn a little bit about everything we offer here while also celebrating such a phenomenal event,” she said. “Being able to work with the museum has been a rewarding experience, to be able to inspire so many children, not only in aerospace, but also in STEM, has been very eye-opening.”

“No Kids In Cages” Activists Say At Lights For Liberty Rally In Lakeland

by James Coulter

One day, a young boy snuck into his father’s room. He opened up the closet to discover his father’s army uniform. He put on the uniform, stood on the bed, looked in the mirror, and posed with a salute.

Just then, his father entered the room and asked him what he was doing. Scared, the young boy was about to dart off of the bed, only to be caught in his father’s loving embrace.

“It was that moment that the little boy saw his dad and saw that affirmation, that level of pride that he had with his son wearing that suit,” said Caesar Ramirez, Vice President for the Polk County Democrats.

That young boy was Ramirez himself, and that moment would inspire him to follow in his father’s footsteps and serve in the military. While his father was drafted into the army, Ramirez joined willingly. His father may have been “volun-told”, but he had volunteered, he said.

His grandfather served in WWII. His father served in Vietnam. Ramirez served from 1995 to 2001. As such, his service in the military continued his family’s legacy of being all that they could be by serving their country in the military.

However, while he is proud to have helped protect the blessing of liberty bestowed upon America, Ramirez is saddened that his own country is robbing people of their own basic liberties, as is with the case of the countless families being held in inhumane conditions in immigration detention centers.

“My dad is in heaven, but I can tell you right now that he would not be happy about what is going on,” he said. “My father was a proud American, and my grandfather was a proud American, and we served. But we didn’t serve so we could treat people like the way that we don’t want to be treated. We wag our fingers at other countries, yet here we are asking ourselves who we are and who have we become.”

Ramirez was one of many activists who gathered in Downtown Lakeland on Friday to protest the inhumane treatment of undocumented migrants held within detention centers operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Lakeland Lights For Liberty was one of many rallies hosted Friday evening nationwide to protest the cruel treatment of migrants, as well as the nationwide raids to arrest thousands more planned that weekend.

Thousands of activists attended rallies across the nation. The Lakeland rally itself attracted the attention of many local residents. At least 272 people had expressed their interest on the Facebook event page, with 92 claiming to have attended.

Lakeland demonstrators gathered at 124 Florida Avenue South to wave signs at passing traffic and to host a candlelight vigil in respect to detained migrants and their families. Many political activists like Ramirez also used the opportunity to express their solidarity with the event and its cause.

Jackie Vickers of the NAACP Lakeland Branch spoke out against the horrific conditions of the detention camps, how children were denied basic hygiene products like soap and toothpaste, and how adults were often forced to stand in cramped cages due to lack of spacing.

As she detailed these horrific conditions, a few demonstrators exclaimed, “lock him up!”, referring to President Donald Trump, whose strict policies have led to the mass incarceration of migrants within these camps.

“We come together in unity to speak up against the truly wrong and inhumane conditions that these people are going through at ICE camps,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is all happening on the land of the free and home of the brave. But unfortunately, we have cowards among us. We have some cowards that are allowing men, women, and children to live in such horrific conditions.”

Taylor Aguilera, president for Polk County Young Democrats, expressed her empathy towards the mothers within these camps. As the mother of two children herself, she could not bear the thought of being torn away from them and having them denied basic care.

“As a mother, I cannot imagine what it takes for a mother to look at her children and leave her home, leave her country, leave her culture, to come here, go through dangerous terrain, only to arrive for ICE to rip their family apart at the border and deny them due process,” she said. “This is outrageous. This whole process is disgusting. We must do better as a country, as a society, and as a government.”

Donna Windsor, another member of Polk County Young Democrats, and another mother of two children, also grieves over the suffering being endured by the families within these camps.

“That keeps me up at night,” she said. “And as long as I’m up at night, I’m going to be doing something about it. So I will be signing petitions and I will be writing e-mails and I will be here fighting for every one of those mothers and every one of those children until there are not anymore. That is why I am here.”