RUN SAM RUN

FP Westwood Senior Samantha Jones stole the show at last week's St. Lucie County Track Championships where the impact of Kids at Hope filled the air at Lawnwood Stadium as students, coaching staffs, parents and fans from all of the counties six traditional public schools as well as a contingent from John Carroll High School roared with approval as she made her way around the track. And by Sams side was a non-Special Olympics student-athlete, Alma Garci, another senior at FP Westwood, encouraging her to just do her best.

April 3, 2017 – Fort Pierce, FL – When Kids at Hope Founder & Chief Treasure Hunter Rick Miller coined the slogan “All kids are capable of success – NO EXCEPTIONS” he must have been thinking of kids like Fort Pierce Westwood’s Samantha (Sam) Jones.

Sam was born with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), a very rare but severe genetic disorder that results from an abnormality on the 15^th chromosome and affects about one in 15,000 newborns each year. Putting that in perspective that equates to 0.000002% of all live births worldwide in the year 2016 alone.

Although rare, Prader-Willi syndrome is one of the ten most common conditions seen in genetics clinics and is the most common genetic cause of obesity that has been identified according to pwcf.org a California-based Foundation that supports individuals and families with the illness, along with those that care for them.

PWS is a life-long, life threating condition with no known cure that affects growth, metabolism, appetite, behavior and overall development. Many who suffer from it have no control of their appetite as their stomach never tells the brain that it’s full. For those with this debilitating illness learning disabilities are common and PWC is considered to be a mild form of mental retardation according to the National Institutes of Health. 

“When Samantha was younger I had to actually padlock the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets because she lacked that belly to brain signal”, says Sam’s mother Joan.

She has very low muscle tone and at times needs the assistance of a wheel chair because walking can be a struggle. She is in self-contained (non-mainstream) classes at FP Westwood and requires the assistance of an aide at all times. Her mother was forced to stop working to care for her. Her step father, Joe, who has raised her since she was two, is the Parts Manager for Martin County Public Schools.

Yet despite the odds being stacked against this charming young lady, Sam is a happy go lucky social butterfly who just loves to be involved.

“She understands that she is different than other kids, but that has not stopped her. She can read, write, do basic math and work on the computer. She has a boyfriend, Billy, and the two go to the Tim Tebow prom annually. She just loves to be involved”, Joan told Treasure Coast Sports Journal in an exclusive interview.

And part of that involvement includes participating in the St. Lucie County Special Olympics Unified Games where a student-athlete with a disability is paired with a not disabled student-athlete to compete in various events. For Sam that means the fifty and one-hundred-yard dashes and the four by one hundred relay.

It’s this Kids at Hope Philosophy, that every child is capable of success - no exceptions, brought to St. Lucie County by the Children's Services Council and the Executive Roundtable that enable children like Sam to wake up each day with a smile on their faces.

“Kids at Hope has become part of St. Lucie County culture. We know that providing nurturing adults help enhance resiliency in children (and adults) which decreases the factors of being "at risk". We no longer look at a child as being at risk, but look at each child's potential which gives him or her opportunities for success which is the future of hope,” according to lifelong child advocate Mrs. Kathryn Hensley, St. Lucie County School Board Member and the Chairwoman of St. Lucie’s Children's Services Council.

As Samantha stole the show at last week's St. Lucie County Track Championships the impact of Kids at Hope filled the air at Lawnwood Stadium as students, coaching staffs, parents and fans from all of the counties six traditional public schools as well as a contingent from John Carroll High School roared with approval as she slowly made her way around the track. And by Sams side was a non-Special Olympics student-athlete, Alma Garci, another senior at FP Westwood, encouraging her to just do her best.

“Creating opportunities for all students to experience what these (disabled) student-athletes experience at track meets is the essence of high school athletics.  To watch them compete, smile and enjoy the sense of teamwork and belonging.... What could be better?”, says John Lynch the Executive Director of School Transformation for St. Lucie Public Schools.

And yes it's true - All Children Are Capable of Success - NO EXCEPTIONS!

Eagles Trace Meding One Hits Fort Pierce Westwood In Three Inning Slugfest

February 27, 2017 – Fort Pierce, FL – St. Lucie West Centennial Pitcher Trace Meding only needed 52 pitches to work his magic against Fort Pierce Westwood in an afternoon game in Fort Pierce as the Eagles downed the Panthers 16-0 in three innings. Meding allowed just one hit on the day as 64% of his pitches reached the strike zone where he fanned four Panther batters while walking two. He averaged just 5.7 pitches per batter for the day.

At the plate the Eagles were led by Nathan Hinkley who went 3-2 with three RBI’s, Austin Hiller with two RBI’s, Danilo Quezada with two RBI’s, and Luke Hartely who went 2-2 with five RBI’s as the Eagles plated four runs in the first, ten in the second and two in the third to improve to 2-1 for the season.

Maurieio Calderon had the sole hit for FP Westwood, a shot to third base in the bottom of the first inning.

Three Panther pitchers combined for 113 pitches allowing nine hits, one walk and six errors while striking out one Eagle batter.

The Eagles put 21 batters to the plate for the day compared to nine for Westwood.

The Panthers travel to Treasure Coast tomorrow to face the Titans at 3:30 while the Eagles are on the road against Jensen Beach on Wednesday for a 6PM start and back at home vs. Fort Pierce Central on Friday for a 3:30 matchup.

CITY OF PORT ST. LUCIE PLACES ITS ECONOMIC PROBLEMS ON THE SCHOOL SYSTEM – SHAME ON THEM!

May 1, 2017 – Treasure Coast, FL: As parents and adults we do everything possible to ensure that our children will be successful, with the most important thing being our children’s education, which is the responsibility of the entire community – the village if you will. Our children’s education starts at home as we teach them their first words, how to walk and how to have respect for others. And we try and teach them that bullying, intimidation and physical violence is never good.

That is why it is so disappointing to hear Port St. Lucie Mayor Greg Oravec say that he is “not scared to take off the jacket, roll up the sleeves, get out the brass knuckles and get serious” with what he calls the St. Lucie School Districts “lackluster performance”.

School Board Vice Chairwoman Dr. Donna Mills
has personally recruited 150 area individuals
who come from all walks of like to participate
in the School Districts Speakers Bureau program.

Oravec, the onetime fired City Manager of Port St. Lucie who was either at the helm or the Chief Assistant City Manager when the city entered agreements and provided funding for failed projects like VGTI and Digital Domain costing the city hundreds of millions of dollars, and the Torey Pines project (also in Port St. Lucie) which recently lost millions in state funding for failing to create promised jobs, has shifted the responsibility for the city’s lagging economic growth to the easiest target – the school district.

And Oravec isn’t alone. Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan also blames the school district as does the Tea-Parties Cathy Townsend who sits on the County Commission and called the school district the “weakest link” stating that they (the schools), “don’t think outside the box”.

So, let’s just go ahead and unbiasedly lay all the facts on the table and let the public decide if it’s the school system that needs an overhaul or the politicians who we only happen to see when the media is around.

First and foremost, we need to understand that these politicians are clueless as to how schools are graded. And that is understandable – it’s not their area of expertise, it’s not the business they have spent their whole lives in.

Florida’s school grading system was created by former Governor Jeb Bush as both a political stunt and an economic boost to his family. Bush, the founder of the state’s first charter school – a public school run by a private entity that is funded by your and my taxpayer dollars – saw an opportunity to create a statewide standardized testing system to measure student outcomes and assign a letter grade to public school in Florida.

That test, previously known as the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test or FCAT, and now known as the FSA, measured a child’s proficiency in subjects such as reading, math, and science and other factors such as learning gains, end of course exams, graduation rates and others to come up with a school grade.

The idea was to identify schools that needed additional assistance, such as Bush’s Charter School which had a failing grade and was closed by the Miami-Dade School District several years ago.

But, like anything political, the system was and still is flawed. Schools are expected to hit a moving target set by the Florida Department of Education. The initial grading of the FCAT was contracted out to a company in which Bush’s brother, Neil, was a principal, earning that company millions of taxpayer dollars. But most importantly, the test results were the result of one day of testing that did not take into account any other factors from throughout the school year.

Schools that received A’s or improved their grade from one year to another were and still are rewarded financially, while schools that struggle and need the help the most were and still are punished.

Oravec, Morgan and Townsend are quick to blame the school system for the cities lack of growth and are throwing the county’s largest employer – one that has steadily maintained nearly 5,000 jobs – squarely under the big yellow school bus. Their uneducated statements are an insult and a slap in the face to the teachers and other employees of the district that have dedicated their lives to helping children.

Perhaps shedding some light on the true facts will help this trio understand that it takes time and the efforts of an entire community to raise up a school system.

For example, while the State’s high school graduation rate hovers around 85%, the graduation rate in St. Lucie County increased to nearly 89% (88.6) last year. And this despite the county having a poverty rate that is a full nine percentage points over the state average (67/76).

Our trio of bandits makes no mention that while the state as a whole saw 65% (according to the Tampa Bay Times) of its schools drop a letter grade in the 2015-2016, only 29% of St. Lucie’s schools fell a letter grade during the same period according to state data.

But the one variable that is not measured by any type of school grade is community involvement.

While I was at a breakfast last week to recognize men and woman that have given their time to talk with school children, telling their stories and showing them that there is a way out of the poverty and high crime rates that affect all of St. Lucie County I couldn’t help but notice that Oravec, Morgan and Townsend were nowhere in sight. Yet the Mayor of Fort Pierce, the Superintendent of Schools, the City Manager of Fort Pierce, school principals, business leaders, ministers and others all took time out of their day to attend the event at Fort Pierce Westwood High School.

The program which was created by School Board Vice Chairwoman Dr. Donna Mills has been years in the making as others have tried and failed to implement it. Known as The Speakers Bureau, Mills has personally recruited 150 area individuals who come from all walks of like to participate.

Before trashing our schools and berating our teachers, administrators, school staff and most importantly the children of this community Oravec, Morgan and Townsend should give what St. Lucie School’s Superintendent Wayne Gent calls the Greatest Gift  - Time.

As Fort Pierce Westwood High School Principal John Lynch said – the people in this room are the “Rock Stars of Teachers of Children”.

Yet Oravec, Morgan and Townsend never heard those words – because they were not there, there were too busy rolling up their sleeves, taking off their jackets, putting on those brass knuckles all in an effort to do what they have been known to do best – intimidate others by bullying and picking fights!