TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Students Build Nut Hut For Pasco County Fair

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 16, 2009

ZEPHYRHILLS - When it's FFA students running the concession stand at the Pasco County Fair, you can bet they didn't make only the food they're selling.

Chances are that they made the store, too - at least if they are Rob Brown's students.

In about a week and a half, National FFA Organization students from Zephyrhills High School transformed a pile of recycled cedar into a 8-by-10-foot building with Dutch doors, flooring, a tin roof and an order window: the Nut Hut.

The students also have been creating signs and promotional materials to advertise the boiled peanuts and roasted corn they are selling at the fair, which begins today.

The effort that went into building the Nut Hut reflects the overall mission of the school's FFA chapter, which has about 70 students.

"The main message I want to get out there is that we don't just raise farmers in FFA," said Brown, the school's FFA adviser and agriculture teacher. "With the skills they learn here, they can go into veterinary science, sales, construction, marketing - whatever they want."

Megan Hussey

Garden Club Seeks Vendors For Market

TEMPLE TERRACE - The Temple Terrace Garden Club is looking for vendors for its annual Spring Market.

Exhibitors should have products that relate to yard, home or personal beautification, the club says.

The event will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 18 in Woodmont Park, 415 Woodmont Ave. Proceeds will be used for maintenance of Woodmont Park, including plants and mulch.

For information and registration, call (813) 988-1764.
Lenora Lake
Former Tuskegee Airman To Speak At Libraries

TAMPA - Retired Lt. Col. Hiram E. Mann, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, will share his experiences with people interested in learning more about the unit.

Mann, a Congressional Gold Medal recipient in 2008, will visit three Hillsborough County libraries in honor of Black History Month.

Here is his schedule:

•7 p.m. Feb. 24; Jan K. Platt Regional Public Library, 3910 S. Manhattan Ave., Tampa.

•2 p.m. Feb. 25, SouthShore Regional Library, 15816 Beth Shields Way, Ruskin.

•7 p.m. Feb. 25, New Tampa Regional Library, 10001 Cross Creek Blvd., Tampa

Jessica Balanza

Don't Waste Chance To Tour Water Facility

PLANT CITY - The city will show off its new $53 million water reclamation facility from 2 to 7 p.m. Friday.

The open house will include tours of the state-of-the-art plant at 1500 W. Victoria St. Officials will explain the process used to treat wastewater so it can be used for irrigation, industrial cooling and other uses.

The first 50 children will receive a fun pack of coloring books and other prizes. For safety reasons, children must be 5 or older and accompanied by an adult to go on the walking tour.

For information, call (813) 757-9172.

Dave Nicholson

Religious Scholars To Speak At USF Symposium

TAMPA - Exploring topics from Sufi poetry to the Spanish Inquisition, religious scholars will be at the University of South Florida this week to talk about "Comparative Mysticism of the Middle Ages, 1000-1600."

"The symposium is for everyone - from churchgoers to the curious - who wants to understand how we all came to believe what we believe today," said Mark Greenberg, director of USF Special and Digital Collections and the Florida Studies Center.

Keynote speaker will be Michael Sells, Barrows Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His talk, "Mysticism, Longing and the Erotic in the Writings of 13th-Century Sufi Master Ibn al-Arabi," will look at mystical literature in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Gibbons Alumni Center's Traditions Hall.

Sell is an expert on the Quran and Islamic love poetry, Greenberg said. He plans to present several short poems from Ibn al-Arabi's "Translation of Desires" as examples of classical Arabic love poetry.

For the full schedule of the third annual Sacred Leaves Graduate Symposium, visit http://sacredleavesgraduatesymposium.blogspot.com or call (813) 974-2731.

Lindsay Peterson

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT