Each Sunday morning, Debbie Miller leaves North Lakeland’s Fuel Community Church uplifted and inspired, ready to tackle the week ahead. However, one particular Sunday morning message reduced Miller to tears—she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. The church had invited Alli Mellon, executive director of the Hard Places Community, to speak about her experiences in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia and the heart of the country’s child sex trafficking industry, where boys and girls as young as three years old are forced into having sex with grown men night after night—including Maeng. More...

The year 2013 marks an important milestone for Florida: 500 years ago, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León stepped ashore onto a land he named La Florida, and claimed it for Spain. Although Florida’s Native American heritage spans more than 12,000 years prior to Ponce de León’s April 2, 1513 arrival, Spain’s claim began a new era. A yearlong, statewide celebration, Viva Florida 500 is an initiative of the Florida Department of State commemorating and highlighting the 500 years of Florida’s Spanish Colonial history and the different cultures (including Native American) that have shaped Florida and contributed to its diverse heritage. More...

Lakeland resident Heather Russo enjoys long distance running (She’ll be running her first half-marathon soon!) and watching her 13-year-old son excel on the baseball diamond, two interests many people can relate to quite easily. However, unlike most individuals, Russo has a passion for cleaning. In fact, Russo’s zeal for mopping floors, sanitizing countertops, and dusting furniture inspired her to start her own business in August 2012—the Lakeland Cleaning Co. More...

Polk County has a reason to celebrate, as they marked a milestone this year when longtime Davenport residents Howard and Fatima Gill opened the True Blue Winery, the first of any kind in the county. With a grand opening that attracted over 500 visitors in late October, they officially opened for business November 2, selling blueberry wines made from the blueberries that they have been growing on their own land for the past four years. Howard, who also owns Gill Manufacturing in Davenport along with his brother David, opened H&F Blueberry Farms with his wife in 2008. The intention was to give Fatima something to do as a hobby that would keep her busy enough that she could retire from the City of Winter Haven. “My husband wanted me to quit my job,” Fatima explained. “But I’m just too hyper, and I can’t just sit around. I needed something to do, so I poured my heart and soul into these blueberries.” More...

In a month already known for giving thanks, the theme for this year’s Polk County Family Week—an event designed to unite, honor and celebrate families—is appropriately “An Attitude of Gratitude.” A kickoff event is planned at Central Park in downtown Winter Haven from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 10 and will mark the sixth year the weeklong celebration will be held in cities throughout the county. Past kickoff events have drawn in crowds of thousands, and chair Lori Waters and co-chair Kim Daugherty are optimistic that the 2012 kickoff will be the biggest yet. More...

October may be a month of ghosts, ghouls and goblins, but there are a few things out there scarier than the vampires and zombies walking around on October 31st.

According to numbers from the American Cancer Society, nearly 227,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women were diagnosed in 2012, with nearly 40,000 deaths. The chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer at some time during her life is a little less than 1 in 8, with about a 1 in 36 chance of dying. In addition, 1 in 20 women with breast cancer were diagnosed prior to the age of 40. More...

The 2012-13 school year has just begun, which means weekly beach trips and afternoons at the pool are no longer a top priority among Polk County families. In addition, many Florida residents are looking forward to the cooler temperatures hovering on the horizon, when continual exposure to air conditioning is not a necessity and a much-needed escape from the steamy, sultry air. Therefore, one could believe the dog days of summer are coming to a close. More...

Although summer is still in its prime, the beginning of a whole new school year is right around the corner. Our children face so many changes and challenges through the transitional phases of their education that it’s important for adults to offer solid support. More...

In the weeks leading up to May 20th, 8-foot cardboard cutouts of Ironman athletes greeted me along U.S. 17/92 as I headed into Haines City. I of course knew Lance Armstrong, but didn’t recognize any of the others, and if 70.3 hadn’t been posted on the right on the cutouts, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the distance. If I hadn’t been covering the event for this issue, I might not have gone, even though it was happening in my own backyard. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten up at 5:15 on a Sunday morning for it! But watching the effort that the workers and residents of Haines City put into creating an Ironman Village at Lake Eva Park, and the spirit and enthusiasm from athletes and volunteers alike left me thoroughly impressed and instilled in me a great sense of pride for Haines City and Polk County. More...

Wide-eyed kids talk dinosaurs and wooly mammoths. There’s the fascination over blackened sharks teeth and the obsession with Disney’s going-extinct Ice Age creatures. And parents, in an effort to encourage discovery, wonder what possibilities there might be when there is not time to skip up to Gainesville to the Museum of Natural History or the money to sprint to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. More...