News Briefs

+ Willis art students walk red carpet for film debuts
Fourth- and fifth-grade students at Willis Elementary School showed off their artistic talents May 26, as they presented their animated films during the Gecko Film Festival 2011.

The program was made possible after the Visual Art Department at Willis received a grant called “Animating the Arts” through the Leslie and Margaret Weller Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota.

Participating students completed a cross-curricular project between visual-and-language arts to create stop-motion animated films.  Fourth-graders drew and wrote storyboards for their versions of “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” by Judy Blume.  Students in fifth grade collaborated together to animate famous works of art using claymation techniques. 

The event featured the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, with student filmmakers walking the red carpet, posing for paparazzi and munching on popcorn.

Goscars went to: Laura Whalen, Vince Mirdala, Sydney Strimer and Cara Ryan for Fifth Grade Best Animated Film; to Alison Daniels, Karen Garcia, Sejal Keshvara and Federico Tello for Fifth Grade Best Interpretation of a Famous Work of Art; to Catriona Barr, Riley Quinn, Ty Barker, Daniel Kendall and Garret Zimmerman for Fourth Grade Best Animated Film; to Emily Williams, Colton Branham, Ahliya Betterson and Gianna Torres for Fourth Grade Best Screenplay;  and to Lily Adamson, Katie Daniel, Alison Daniel and Meaghan Schutte for Best Indie Film.

+ Foreclosed restaurant space burglarized
The space formerly occupied by Stingray’s Grill in Lakewood Ranch has been burglarized.

A Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report states the restaurant, located in the 6200 block of Lake Osprey Drive, was burglarized sometime between May 20 and June 1. Subject(s) pried open the back door to enter the property and stole $27,000 worth of appliances.

+ Scott appoints three to SCF Board
Gov. Rick Scott announced June 1 the appointments of Charlene J. Neal, Ann Y. Moore and Dr. Craig A. Trigueiro to the District Board of Trustees, State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.

Neal, 58, of Bradenton, is the president and owner of Charlene Neal PureStyle. She succeeds Ronald Allen and is appointed for a term beginning June 1, 2011, and ending May 31, 2015.

Moore, 52, of Sarasota, is a real estate broker with Michael Saunders and Company. She succeeds Christine Robinson and is appointed for a term beginning June 1, 2011, and ending May 31, 2014.

Trigueiro, 61, of Lakewood Ranch, is a self-employed physician. He succeeds Susan Miller Kelly and is appointed for a term beginning June 1, 2011, and ending May 31, 2014.

The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.

+ LECOM breaks ground on dental school
Officials celebrated the groundbreaking of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine’s School of Dental Medicine with a special ceremony June 4.

Manatee and Sarasota county officials, LECOM representatives, state legislators and local dentists, among others, turned out for the event, which was held on the school’s future site just north of LECOM’s medical school on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard.

“These folks are the epitome of a good corporate citizen,” Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch’s CEO and President Rex Jensen said of LECOM.

The $52 million dental school is expected to open in 2012.

Because the business is in foreclosure, the alarm system has not been in use, the report states.