SARASOTA/SIESTA KEY
Observer
A+E Changing of the guard. INSIDE
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
FREE • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2023
VOLUME 20, NO. 5
YOUR TOWN
File photo
Ron Soto preps Sarasota’s beloved pineapple for last year’s New Year’s Eve Block party and pineapple drop.
The countdown to the countdown It’s hard to believe, but we’re just days away from 2024. Yes, this is the year we’ll kick the nasty habits, start working out every day (OK, every other day), organize the dresser drawers (OK, the sock drawer at least) because “tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther …” So what better way to mark the occasion than by watching a giant fruit descend? Sure, New York, nice ball. Here in Sarasota we usher in the new year with lighted fruit and a block party. The annual Pineapple Drop Block Party runs from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. on New Year’s Eve in downtown Sarasota. Live music starts at 8:30 p.m. and the pineapple drops at the intersection of Lemon Avenue and Main Street.
FEBRUARY
THROUGH THE LENS:
2023 IN PHOTOS R
NEVER FORGOTTEN Southside Elementary unveiled its newly planted daffodil garden in the courtyard in memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children who were killed in the Holocaust. The Sarasota elementary school hosted two guest speakers who shared their stories of the Holocaust.
emember photo albums — those ancient, analog devices for preserving memories?
Yeah, just barely. Lovely to look at and flip
through, but you could spend a week (or more) just organizing the year’s photos and pasting or taping them onto the cardstock pages … when all you really wanted was to have the chance to look back at where you’d been, to show gratitude for what was received and to remember the joyful circumstances that surrounded this photo or that photo. Here at the Observer, we like to get in the holiday
spirit by doing the heavy lifting for our readers, sorting and organizing our favorite photos from the past year in the hopes that you might spend a few minutes with us to pause and reflect on where we’ve been and, of course, to consider where we might be headed. Courtesy image
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He sees you when you’re speeding You better watch out; you better not speed through the roundabout. That’s because this holiday season, Santa Claus himself, or at least David Lough in a costume, was busy reminding motorists to respect the rules of the road at downtown Sarasota roundabouts. Lough is the president of the Downtown Sarasota Condominium Association, which is trying to promote roundabout safety. Previously, he stood in a zebra costume to get drivers’ attention. Lough got the idea from Bolivia, “where a group is using people in zebra costumes to promote safety at pedestrian crossings; these are called ‘Zebra Crossings’ in many parts of the world.” He said he might add another costume to his wardrobe — perhaps a “manatee or a dolphin” — for spring.
File photos
OCTOBER
HOT STUFF Blaze Belligan with Sarasota County Fire Station 11 prepped sample cups of the station’s sweet chili at the 23rd annual Morton’s Chili Cook-Off. Area fire departments went all out with creative booth designs along Osprey Avenue. Proceeds from the event benefited the Sarasota Firefighters Benevolent Fund. The locally operated organization assists firefighters and families in difficult times and provides training opportunities.
JUNE
LIL’ R&R Stella the Sloth relaxes at the Liger Luau. The event is an annual fundraiser each June for the Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary.
MARCH
READ ME A STORY Six-year-old Emilia Kalev reads to Olive, a pug who arrived with Joanne Long, a volunteer with The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs, during Sarasota County Libraries’ Read with the Dogs event.