Rotary supplies the love in Lakewood Ranch

Rotary supplies the love

Thanks to the Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch and its Books for Kids program, classrooms in Manatee County will be provided more school supplies.

Sheila Halpin, the volunteer coordinator at Manatee County School District's Department of Early Learning, and Rotary Club member Kevin Clayton (above) were among the volunteers who collected supplies outside the Grove on Oct. 27 to support teachers in first, second and third grade classrooms at the county's 15 Title I elementary schools.

"We don't want parents to be forced to make a choice between paying rent and buying school supplies," Halpin said.

Shelter from the storm

While some students and staff members at The Out-of-Door

Academy dressed as princesses, animals or TV characters during school Oct. 30, Julie Bianchi, the head of the middle school, decided to make her costume a reflection of the year 2020.

Bianchi (above) grabbed an umbrella and had 2020 printed on rain drops to show her "surviving the storm of 2020." 

"It's a metaphor for sheltering from the storm we've been facing in 2020 and getting through it together," Bianchi said.