Here's to our graduates young and old(er)

Big ups to Barry Brooks.
A West Manatee Fire & Rescue battalion chief and Manatee Technical Institute Fire Academy instructor, Brooks recently earned his masters degree in public administration from Barry University.
Brooks joined the department in 1990.

If you’re headed to Anna Maria Island and the beach, consider giving blood to assist some good causes in an annual fundraiser 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at St. Bernard’s Church, 248 S. Harbor Dr., Holmes Beach.
Among the nonprofits participating are the AMI Community Center, AMI Privateers, West Manatee Fire & Rescue Volunteers and Wildlife Education & Rehabilitation, Inc.

River Club’s Nicolas Juliano recently graduated from The Goddard School.
Parents Frank and Paddi and sister Isabella are so proud.

Help send Manatee High’s senior-to-be Sugar ‘Canes to New York City’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
All you have to do is visit http://sites.google.com/site/sugarcanes2macys2012/ and save the discount coupon for Sunday at Tarpon Pointe Grill and Tiki Bar, 801 Riverside Dr. E., Bradenton.
A portion of the proceeds will go toward the trip.
Sugar ‘Canes Whitney Barnes, Cierra Cydrus, Brianna DiTommaso, Alessandra Krause, Elly Kretchman, Margarida Phelan and Rachel Schmitt will be at Tarpon Pointe to perform at 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

Lincoln quote on Grant still a good one

One of my favorite Civil War anecdotes was blown away Tuesday evening.
Jeff Shaara did it.
Funny part is, I enjoyed it and the audience who came to hear the acclaimed author at the University of South Florida Sarasota/Manatee's Selby Auditorium got a laugh out of it, too.
Shaara came from his Tallahassee home to talk about his new book, "A Blaze of Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Shiloh."
It's his third Civil War book, following "Gods and Generals" and "Last Full Measure," and the first of a trilogy that will continue with Vicksburg and then Sherman's march to the sea.
Shaara was animated and entertaining during the evening, illuminating corners of Civil War history many of the audience did not know about.
He also shattered a few myths.
Like the one about Abe Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
The president had been frustrated by a succession of generals whose caution in battle allowed the war to drag on and on.
Then Grant reversed that trend, much to Lincoln's pleasure.
As the story goes, a skeptical aide remarked to the president that Grant was still a drunk.
Lincoln's response?
“Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks," he is supposed to have said. "I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”
Shaara said it's not true.
This is a man who has read and researched more about the Civil War than probably most Americans.
So I won't argue.
Still, it's a good story.

Engraved words resonate Memorial Day

"Call Out Our Name As The Years Go By. Remember Us And We Shall Never Die."


The haunting words are engraved in the war memorial on the northeast side of the Green Bridge.
They are a daily reminder of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice dating back to World War I.
The inscription resonates for Memorial Day.
So do similar epitaphs of solemn tribute found on monuments and headstones wherever kith and kin are gathering throughout our community.
Whether it’s on the sweeping grounds of Sarasota National Cemetery, Bradenton’s historic Fogartyville Cemetery, or a little country graveyard in Parrish where mighty live oaks stand sentinel.


Read more Sunday in Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

Saturday salute for Lincoln Memorial alums

Lincoln Middle School will be the setting of a mighty gathering Saturday.
Lincoln Memorial High alumni will honor six distinguished former Trojans, who have earned a place in various halls of fame and will be duly honored for their accomplishments.
They are:
Raymond Bellamy -- University of Miami Hall of Fame.
Waite Bellamy -- National Negro High School Basketball Hall of Fame.
Marvin Clemons -- Eckerd College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Henry Lawrence -- Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
Neil "Chip" Nelson -- National Negro High School Basketball Hall of Fame.
Eddie Shannon -- Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
The fun begins at 5 p.m. at the Lincoln Middle cafeteria.
Tickets are $5.

Marty the Marauder wants your vote!

Vote for Marty the Marauder!
MiLB.com, minor league baseball’s website, is holding Mascot Mania for fans to vote for their favorite minor league mascot.
For us there is only one — Marty the Marauder.
He’s in the South region against the likes of Conrad the Crawdad (Hickory, N.C., Crawdads.), Gnate the Gnat (Savannah, Ga., Sand Gnats) and Tennessee Tex (Greenville, Tenn., Astros).
Bet none of them can bust a move like Marty the Marauder.
Round 1’s voting deadline is May 29 with the final round June 15-18.
Visit http://www.milb.com/milb/fans/mascot_mania/y2012/index.jsp.
Vote early. Vote often.

Amvets Post 301’s new officers are commander Stacy Rhodes, first vice-commander Dave Wilson, second vice-commander Darren Miller, finance officer Gil Craig and trustees Ron Richardson, Marty Cucura and Dan Bannister.

Manatee High senior McKinna Anderson received a nice early graduation present.
Mark and Joanie’s daughter made the University of SouthFlorida’s cheerleading team.
McKinna was undaunted by some considerable odds, competing against USF squad members, USF students and transfers, as well as other incoming freshmen, too.
Guess we know where Team Anderson will be spending a lot of Saturday nights the next four football seasons.

Sunday’s visit to Sarasota National Cemetery will be moving for WCTQ’s Maverick Johnson. He’s master of ceremonies for the Memorial Day service at the cemetery — the first since the passing of his father, Denis Cooper, who is also buried there. A Marine helicopter crew chief in Vietnam, Cooper died last July.

Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

Once was an easier way to build a ballfield

The fuss over how to get ballfields for North River American Little League is never ending.
You've got the City of Palmetto.
You've got the Manatee County Commission.
You've got the lawyers.
Aaah, yes.
If only things were as uncomplicated as they were when folks on Anna Maria Island rallied to build their Little League field out of bricks, concrete, steel and community teamwork.
It was back in the 1950s and the field was adjacent to AMI's original school, now the Anna Maria Island Community Center.
With the blessing of J. Hartley Blackburn, then superintendent of schools, people got to work building a ballpark for the kids.
According to the Herald archives of the late Tony Conboy, numerous AMI families pitched in and made a regular party of the fundraising and heavy lifting to bring the project to completion.
The Van Ostenbridges and Hutchinsons were but a few of them.
Ben Scanio Sr. contributed $5,000 -- a fortune back in those days -- and his "scrounging" ability to boot.
He managed to get hold of the steel from the Ringling Brothers Circus. The railings were fashioned out of the bars from lion cages. The towering poles that formed the backstop were from the circus big top.
Scanio loved telling folks how those poles, beams and bars had been all around the world before settling in Anna Maria.
Among those who also worked on the ballfield were major leaguers Warren Spahn and Fred Hutchinson on the heavy equipment.
The fruit of everyone's labor was Scanio-Hutchinson Field.
It was a memorial to Ben's son and namesake, who died in an auto accident, and to Hutchinson, the former Detroit Tiger pitcher and Cincinnati Reds manager who died in 1964 at the age of 45 from lung cancer.
The ballfield, modernized since then, is still there, a testament to how things got done in much simpler times.

Kirby Stewart's Memorial Day tribute

Many will be our Memorial Day events.
A parade in Lakewood Ranch.
A ceremony at Sarasota National Cemetery honoring Patrick Lay, killed in Afghanistan last August.
A procession to the gravesite of one of Bradenton's beloved sons: Kirby Stewart.
On May 28 American Legion Kirby Stewart Post 24's Honor Guard and Legion Riders as well as other Legion organizations will conduct a procession to a memorial service at Stewart's gravesite in Fogartyville Cemetery.
They will pay homage to a man who is a Bradenton legend and was cheated by fate of becoming a national hero.
Stewart, a second lieutenant, was killed October 1918 in France during World War I, leading an attack against a German position.
Instead, another man under his command, Cpl. Alvin York, took that handful of soldiers to victory against staggering odds, capturing more than 100 German officers and soldiers.
Stewart, 27, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and received a big funeral attended by hundreds if not thousands in 1921.
York, 30, received a Medal of Honor and joined the pantheon of America’s war heroes.
Devout and modest, York spurned many endorsement opportunities, but used his renown and the proceeds from his biography and the 1941 movie “Sergeant York” — Gary Cooper played York and won an Oscar for Best Actor — to start schools for poor Tennessee mountain children like himself.
York died in 1964 at the age of 76 and is buried in Pall Mall, Tenn.
At Post 24's 90th anniversary three years ago, commandant Len Sirotzki said, "Most people don’t know or understand that had Kirby not been killed, there never would’ve been a Sgt. York story."