Come to the Sunshine City!” Images on postcards, billboards, and in newspapers of the bathing beauties on St. Petersburg’s beaches circled the United States. Sunshine, happiness, relaxation, and ultimate paradise stung Northerners worse than the snow against their face. The harsh reality that they were shoveling snow – unlike the Southerners who were shoveling sand – could not be avoided. While battling the winter, they began to place themselves in the images they saw. Through the early 1900s, St. Petersburg had a large marketing push to lure tourists to the area. They targeted people living in the north, framing the area with a youthful energetic image.… Read More

I’ve always been concerned that someone is going to miss out on an opportunity to learn about or experience something new. Old teacher habits never seem to fade away. If you have never explored, or been to Weedon Island in recent years, now is the perfect time to discover the cultural and environmental treasures in what is literally our own backyard. Weedon Island Preserve (www.weedonislandpreserve.org) is 3,700 acres of natural ecosystems easily located at 1800 Weedon Island Drive NE (go east on 83rd Avenue North until you see the signage for the turn). Both the Preserve and Cultural and Natural History Center receive 18,000 visitors a year.… Read More

The world is your canvas and you are the artist ready to paint the way. With every action, a brush glides paint on a canvas in effort to develop your masterpiece. This metaphor is often used and there is something that can be learned when looking at life through the eye of an artist.

Artist Jenny Bleackley knows that life and painting isn’t as simple or as easy as a glide of the paintbrush. A masterpiece takes time, commitment, passion, patience and continual development. As an artist develops his or her craft, they begin to notice how they look at life differently than most.… Read More

A can of soup. A can of soup? A can of soup! Wooden boxes painted to look like cardboard boxes containing Heinz ketchup. Wooden boxes!

Is this a hoax? This can’t be art, can it? Is Andy Warhol an artist like Salvador Dali, or is he just some media personality who was famous for fifteen minutes or so? Or is he, as the curator of the Warhol exhibit suggests, the person who may have had more of an influence on modern culture and art than any other artist, including Dali. And while we’re at it, what is the relationship, if any, between Dali and Warhol?… Read More

The Ronald McDonald house is often described as a home away from home. Houses all over the world provide a ‘home’ with a warm meal and a place to sleep for families whose child is receiving critical medical care at a nearby hospital. St. Petersburg is home to three Ronald McDonald houses for children receiving care at All Children’s Hospital. Over 44,000 families have been helped at these RMH houses. Annually 2,000 families step through one of the three doors. This organization has been in the St. Petersburg area for over 33 years; however, there is something unique about the Central Ronald McDonald House.… Read More

What is essential for life is not what is seen, but what is felt. It’s the feeling of companionship, of community, and love. It’s the comfort that makes you feel at home, which in return, creates a passion that pushes your desire to be involved with your surroundings. You invest yourself into where you live because, when you love your home, a piece of you is sewn into the community. More and more people are discovering our hidden gem and falling in love. Can it be the preserved parks, up-and-coming downtown, or the beaches? It can’t be just that. There is something St.… Read More

This Christmas story happens to be true. It begins on a late December day in upstate New York in 1971. Although it was almost forty-two years ago, the images are as fresh in my mind as if they happened just yesterday.

I was a young man then, two years out of college with a wife and two sons, Johnny, almost two, and Justin, barely a month old. My life was full of endless possibilities and uncertainties. However, I was still at that age, twenty-two, where I considered myself immortal. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune –failure and tragedy – could not touch me or my family.… Read More

Imagine visiting a foreign country, not knowing a word of its language. Imagine meeting the people – ignorant of their customs and culture – and a feeling of incongruity sets in. Drive their cars on the other side of the road using the other hand to shift gears, and you are likely to be regarded as an unskilled driver. Gazes linger on you just a little longer than what is comfortable. You want to communicate, but you simply speak another language. You do things your way. Among us is a community of children and adults who communicate differently from many, but are blessed with their own talents and skills, dreams, ambitions, and potential.… Read More

Florida ranks above the national average of the percent of children between the ages of 10-17 who are overweight or obese. Nationally, one out of three children or adolescence are overweight or obese, with numbers continuing to grow. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children, and tripled among adults in the past 30 years. This epidemic has made obesity the number one public health issue in America, ranking over drugs and alcohol. To fight this battle, a local family may start from a root… a plant root that is. One local garden uses the love of a family to grow more than just food.… Read More

There is much to love about our beautiful city: Stretches of waterfront green space. Renowned museums and local farmers’ market. Historic hotels, beaches and baseball. A downtown that seems to grow more vibrant each day.

But this idyllic sketch of the Sunshine City may be masking the complete picture. Too often overlooked are the deeply rooted issues of social justice on the Southside of St. Petersburg.

Perhaps the most striking evidence of injustice lingers in the hallways of our public schools, where 70% of African American males are expected to drop out before graduating high school. This harrowing statistic puts Pinellas County on the national map, neck-and-neck with cities like Chicago and Milwaukee.… Read More