This Lucky Lakeland Lady Was Named Ms. Central Florida At The Cocktails & Couture Fashion Show

by James Coulter

By day, Angela Martinez works as a full-time mother and an independent beauty consultant for Mary Kay. Last Thursday evening, she joined more than two dozen women in strutting their stuff along the runway as fashion models during a fashion show in Lakeland.

Encouraged by her family and friends, some of whom actually created the jewelry she wore at the show that evening, she graced the stage wearing a sleek black dress with diamonds embedded around her neckline.

Her apperance caught the eye of many attendees at the show, so much so that she overwhelmingly won their vote, allowing her to win first place and be named Ms. Central Florida.

“It feels amazing, wonderful, and beautiful, very rewarding,” she said.

Being able to act like a fashion model and win first place that evening felt fabulous to her. Even more so was being able to participate with an event fundraising for an important cause such as the Central Florida Speech And Hearing Center.

Located in Lakeland, the dual-purpose center helps patients with their hearing and speech needs, whereas most other facilities either focus on one or the other. As such, the local medical center provides a much-needed service to the local community that Martinez appreciates.

While she does not know anyone personally who receives services from the facility, she has made friends with everybody who works there, including both the director and fundraising director.

“They have really made a big impact in my life, and I believe that I made a big impact in their life as well,” she said.  “It is an amazing facility…and this money will help other people to attend this center and improve their quality of life. It is a joyful event.”

Martinez was one of nearly two dozen local women who participated in the 6th Annual Women of Central Florida Fashion Show, “Cocktails & Couture Fashion Show”, hosted at Lake Mirror Auditorium on Thursday evening.

She won first place during the main Women of Central Florida competition. Winning second and third place as runners up were Debbie Miller, a local real estate specialist, and Kim Esposito, a microblading and eyelash extension specialist at Bella Viságe Medical & Aesthetic Rejuvenation.

Aside from the main competition, the show also featured a runway show hosted by Runway Noir, a traveling fashion show that lauds itself as being “the largest traveling runway show event in the country.” Nearly a dozen models promoted unique designs in evening dress, business wear, swimwear, and even church attire, all of which showcased diversity in culture, gender, and body shapes.

Ricc Rollins, one of the men’s stylists, and the commentator for the show, loves how his show celebrates the artistic gift that humanity has been bestowed by reveling in something as universal to mankind as fashion.

“It is a show about fashion, it is not a fashion show,” he said. “It celebrates culture, creativity, especially of wonderful designers. You may not have heard their names at the beginning of the show, but by the end of it, you knew their names, you knew their clothing, and you wanted to see what they were going to do next.”

Aside from the main two shows, attendees could also enjoy an evening of hors d’oeuvres, beer, wine, and other signature drinks, as well as place bids on various prizes within a silent auction.

The main event served as a fundraiser for the Central Florida Hearing And Speech Center in Lakeland. The local facility receives 230 children a week for therapy, 92 percent of which require subsidized funding for their care, explained Roxann Bonta, President And CEO.

One of their chairpersons, Johnni Tyler, had served as a fashion model when she previously lived in New York City. So when it came time for them to plan a fundraiser, she suggested a fashion show, said Bonta.

Organizing the event itself took a lot of time and cooperation with everyone involved; but at the end of the evening, being able to see so many people come together to enjoy themselves and raise money for a local cause was more than worth the hard work, Bonta said.

“Every seat was taken,” she said. “Everybody had a great time. People have been very generous tonight, and I couldn’t ask for more. I love to watch that people were entertained, and that it was an evening for them, not just to ask them to do something for us.”

Channon Eickenberg, Director of Development, performed most of the heavy lifting, serving as the organizer involved with the steering committee and other chairpersons.

This was her first time organizing a fashion show, though she has more than a decade of fundraising. Even then, the event that evening more than exceeded her expectations.

“It takes a village to make something like this, and it came together so well, because of the people that I work with,” she said. “It was fabulous. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I know we raised a lot of money. It was very exciting, can’t wait to do it again.”

These Lakeland Christian School Students Won First Place For Creating This Invention

by James Coulter

Getting children to eat their vegetables can be hard, especially if you live in a food desert or a climate where growing and obtaining fresh produce can be even harder.

Middle school students at Lakeland Christian School figured out a creative solution to get other children invested in growing and eating their own produce. Their idea won them first place at the SlingShot Polk 2019 science competition at Crystal Lake Elementary School on Monday evening.

Called “The Bucket Farm Project”, their invention encourages young children to grow their own produce using a miniature garden planted within a set of buckets. These buckets are specially-crafted and developed to provide the best combination of soil, fertilizer, and water to allow their vegetables to grow in any climate, especially that of Florida.

“We observed at our own school that when kids grow their own vegetables, they are more likely to actually eat it,” said Yuexin Quin, one of the three middle school students. “Our bucket farms will teach them it is important to have vegetables in their diet.”

Quin and her two other teammates, Nicole and Mya Rivera, developed the miniature garden prototype using three five-gallon buckets, each of which fit within one another. One bucket serves as a reservoir, holding one gallon of water, which wets the soil using a pantyhose as sort of a wick, explained Nicole.

Each bucket farm comes with a special bar code, which can be scanned to access a website with recipies for the different vegetables that can be grown. Each farm costs approximately $13.25, though the cost can be potentially reduced to $7.25, Nicole said.

These bucket farms are planned to be sold at local farmer’s market. For each bucket farm sold, another will be donated to community gardens and schools, Nicole said.

“We hope to spread our ideas all over the United States, many different places, to give kids the opportunities to grow and eat their own vegetables,” she said.

Their Bucket Farm Project allowed them to win the $1,500 prize for first place at SlingShot Polk, an annual science competition that encourages middle, high, and college students under age 29 to think like entrepreneurs and develop solutions to problems facing their community. Four other teams from four other schools across the county also participated that evening for a chance to share their entrepreneurial endeavors.

Second place went to students from Florida Southern College for their project, “Grade A Fashion”, a retail fashion boutique that allows students to purchase clothing in exchange for credit gained by improving their grades, behavior, and good citizenship.

These boutiques would be set up within low income and underprivileged schools within the county, and allow students to purchase clothes by earning credits through good grades, attendance, and various volunteer opportunities.

Natalija Popovic, one of the students within the team, felt that positive reinforcement was a great motivator to allow children to complete their homework and focus on their studies. Not only would this allow children in low income areas an opportunity to improve their education, but also to obtain nice clothing they otherwise would not be able to receive, she explained.

Their first store is already set to open later this week at Southwest Elementary School in Lakeland on Friday, April 12. Clothing for the store is being donated through partnerships with local churches and laundromats, Popovic said.

“Our expectations are that kids will have…money to shop, and that they will be slowly improving their grades and attendance in order to shop even more,” she said. “We are very grateful because it shows us that other people see the value of this project, as much as we believe in this project.”

Third place went to Florida Polytechnic University students for their project, “SynapCare”, which will provide personal electroencephalogram (EEG) devices that can detect changes in mental health. Their initial prototype will be programed with an algorithm to monitor depression, but other devices may be program to detect other disorders, allowing its users to track their mental health the same way they can track their heartrate using a smart watch.

Fourth place went to McKeel Academy of Technology for their project “Bully No More”, a smart device app that can be used to report incidents of bullying to school officials and access resources for bullying victims. Fifth place went to Bok Academy students for their project, “Tycoon Game”, a video game where players can learn financial literacy by running a virtual business.

SlingShot Polk is a collaboration between the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce and United Way of Central Florida to “identify and solve the biggest problems in Polk County”, according to their website.

While many similar science competitions are focused on giving money to an idea, this competition encourages students throughout the county to become more hands on in their endeavors and actively work on solutions towards solving problems in their county, explained Justin Heacock, Coordinator Entrepreneurship with Florida Polytechnic.

“The exciting thing is that we had a middle school team win, they beat out two college student teams, it is kind of amazing,” he said. “No matter how big the problem, there is always a way to solve it, and it starts with being creative, and what SlingShot has done is to create a pipeline to take that creativity through.”

Central Florida Development Council served as the main sponsor for this year. Sean Mallot, President and CEO, was most impressed by the projects entered in this year, as it showcases the ingenuity of the young people within the county.

“The thing we like to see is that we like students to get involved,” he said. “We would like to see more participation, more schools…and we would like to see more sponsors involved, the bigger the prize dollars as well.”