New AR Workshop Brandon owners Rachel O’Connell and John Roder.

Angel Foundation FL Celebrates Gift Shop Anniversary With Ribbon-cutting

The Angel Foundation FL, a caring resource for families in our community experiencing a temporary crisis due to a life-threatening illness or catastrophic event, recently celebrated the first anniversary of its gift shop, located at the HCA Florida Brandon Hospital, with a Valrico FishHawk Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting. The gift shop space is generously donated by the hospital and all proceeds from store sales go right back into helping families in the community.

For more information on the Angel Foundation FL, visit https://angelfoundationfl.com/.

Heath Wealth Management LLC To Host Estate Planning Workshops

Did you know 67 percent of Americans do not have an estate plan? According to 40 percent of survey respondents, the biggest reason why is ‘they just haven’t gotten around to it,’ while 33 percent indicated they don’t think they have enough assets.

Of those Americans who have an estate plan, many have plans that don’t work out exactly as intended for a variety of reasons, including wrong registration, wrong beneficiary, misunderstanding of legal terms, fraud, unplanned contingencies and more.

Elijah Heath, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® and Heath Wealth Management LLC will be hosting a workshop that will review traditional estate planning strategies along with smart, new techniques that traditional estate planning may not have addressed.

The workshop, which includes downtown brunch, will be held at Heron’s rooftop, located at 815 Water St. in Tampa, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 11. Seating is limited and interested parties must RSVP to Sandra Massengale at s.massengale@lpl.com or 813-556-7171.

Florida Strawberry Festival Announces Theme For 2024 Event

The Florida Strawberry Festival recently announced the theme for its 89th annual event: “Out of This World!”

“The sky’s the limit,” said Florida Strawberry Festival President Kyle Robinson. “Our board of directors, staff and maintenance crew have been hard at work this summer planning and preparing an ‘out of this world’ experience for all our guests. We look forward to welcoming visitors from far and wide to BerryFest24.”

A new theme is created for each year’s festival to offer patrons a glimpse of the experience they will have at the 11-day event. It also unifies vendors, FFA chapters, organizations, corporate partners and exhibitors, who create parade floats and displays throughout the event.

Award-winning Challenge Island STEAM Programs Now In Southeast Hillsborough

Challenge Island South Hillsborough County wants to bring STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) to you. Offering STEAM enrichment programs in a mobile capacity, the award-winning Challenge Island program and curriculum are designed to meet the needs of two entities: today’s playful, imaginative child and tomorrow’s empowered, globally successful adult. Kids work together for hands-on learning in programs that use imagination and teamwork. The Challenge Island program offers after-school enrichment, award-winning camps, on-site field trips, birthday parties and more.

For more information or to book a Challenge Island program, visit https://challenge-island.com/south-hillsborough-county/.

The Florida Orchestra Names Principal Oboe And Bass Musicians

As the new season begins, The Florida Orchestra has named Mark Debski as principal oboe and Ryan Sujdak as principal bass, filling two key positions in Florida’s largest professional orchestra under the artistic leadership of music director Michael Francis. In total, the orchestra welcomes nine new musicians to its first full season. All have won highly competitive blind auditions that attracted nearly 200 candidates from around the nation and world.

As the principal oboe, Debski fills one of the top-tier positions in the orchestra of 70 full-time musicians and conductors. Seated in the middle of the stage, the principal oboe is often featured in major works and traditionally tunes the orchestra before the performance begins. Florida native Sujdak will be TFO’s first new principal bass in nearly 50 years. He succeeds Dee Moses, who retired last season after 47 years with the orchestra.

Visit https://floridaorchestra.org/musicians/ for more information on the musicians with The Florida Orchestra.

Riverview Internal Medicine Now Open And Seeing Patients

Riverview Internal Medicine is excited to announce it is now open and seeing patients. Dr. Salman Ahmed, M.D. is a compassionate physician who has been in practice for over 20 years. The practice offers essential services, including managing high blood pressure, diabetes, congestive heart failure, women’s health, hormone replacement therapy and more. Riverview Internal Medicine also has a focus on preventative medicine.

Ahmed’s practice is conveniently located at 13113 Vail Ridge Dr. in Riverview at the cross section of U.S. 301 and Big Bend Road in the medical complex behind Publix. Its office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and has appointment availability on Saturday. For more information, visit www.riverviewinternalmedicine.com or call 813-257-0342.

Local Resident Appointed As FMO District 10 President

The Federation of Manufactured Home Owners of Florida Inc. (FMO) is pleased to announce that Tamara Buzbee is the new District 10 president who covers Hillsborough County.

Buzbee, after 30 years working as a school bus driver, bookkeeper, district secretary and TABE tester, is retiring from the School District of Hillsborough County.

Buzbee is a resident of StrawBerry Ridge Village, where she serves on the HOA board as a director and on the events committee as a photographer who memorializes events to preserve memories and improve the mobile home quality and lifestyle.

Tamara is dedicated to building a respectful relationship between the FMO park representatives and the manufactured home community so “they have a person they can go to with their concerns.”

New Owners Continue Great Experiences At AR Workshop Brandon

AR Workshop Brandon is your destination for all things DIY. New owners Rachel O’Connell and John Roder are excited to bring their passion for woodworking, crafting and most things DIY to the business.

AR Workshop is a boutique studio offering hands-on craft classes, group activities, private parties and a curated selection of gifts and on-trend home decor. It also hosts local businesses for team-building events as well as fundraising support and hands-on training with tools for scout troops. AR Workshop is always looking to expand offerings, so it welcomes the opportunity to work with you and/or your business. Simply send a request and the team will do what they can to make it happen.

AR Workshop Brandon is located in Plaza Bella at 1046 Bloomingdale Ave. in Valrico. For more information, call 813-775-7109 or visit www.arworkshop.com/brandon/.

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