Community Bulletin and Business Briefs

Community Bulletin

You can start signing up for March of Dimes’ KnightWalk for Babies, which will be held at 1 p.m. Feb. 27 at Millican Hall at the University of Central Florida. Visit marchforbabies.org; type "32816" in the zip code box in "find events".

Seminole County will be home to a new public charter school next fall designed to serve the needs of gifted and talented students in kindergarten through fifth grade: The Galileo School for Gifted Learning. Visit www.galileogiftedschool.org

Fun World Clown Alley, Central Florida’s oldest and largest non-profit clown alley, is accepting aspiring clowns for its 2011 Clown School. The class begins on Feb. 28 and meets Monday evenings for 10 weeks at Reformation Lutheran Church. Tuition is $115 for adults and $65 for children. To register, visit www.funworldclownalley.com

Orlando Area Historical Rose Society's Annual Christmas Tea was held in Leu Gardens recently. The holiday rose tea began before the historical rose society was even started. Dr. Elaine Ellman, Ed D decided to serve tea and sandwiches as she showed slides of beautiful roses.

A veteran Realtor and president of Fannie Hillman + Associates in Winter Park, Scott Hillman has just completed his sixth season as head JV football coach at Winter Park High School, where he also served as an assistant with the varsity football program.

Four Tiffany windows from the Morse Museum’s annual Christmas in the Park display in downtown Winter Park will spend the holidays brightening public spaces at Winter Park Memorial Hospital, Winter Park Towers, Mayflower Retirement Community and the Mary Lee DePugh Nursing Center. For more information, call 407-645-5311 or visit www.morsemuseum.org

Interior design students at Seminole State College of Florida have used their creativity to transform the Leu House Museum into Leu’s Holiday House. It’s on display through Jan.7 at 1920 N. Forest Ave., Orlando. Hours are 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL) was confirmed by vote of the House Republican Conference to serve as Chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in the 112th Congress last week. “We must begin immediately to address the significant needs and challenges facing our nation’s infrastructure and create jobs,” the Winter Parker said.

Brian Clyne, dean of students and faculty for Park Maitland School, and John Courson traveled to Udawad, India last month, where the organization is building a new school for the village. They brought a video that their students put together, in which they spoke Hindi. They brought back video, which they shared with their students. The estimated date of completion for the project is late January.

The Roth Jewish Community Center in Maitland celebrated Hanukkah this year with a “March of the Maccabees”. This interactive event took place on Monday, Dec. 6 and Tuesday, Dec. 7. The preschool children had fun making edible dreidels, creating pasta chanukiahs (or menorahs) and playing Hanukkah games. For more information, call 407-645-0923 or visit www.orlandojcc.org.

Business Briefs

NAI Realvest, which ranks as one of the region’s largest commercial real estate companies, plans to accelerate sales of distressed commercial properties by participating in the NAI Global 2011 Sealed Bid PowerSaleTM starting March 24.

Florida Opera Theatre announces the appointment of Frank McClain as artistic director.

Attorney Anna Long with Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P.A., has been appointed as president-elect for the Florida Brownfields Association (FBA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the cleanup and redevelopment of Brownfields in Florida.

Palmer Electric Company has completed its $1.6 million contract with general contractor H.J. High Construction Company for the electrical contracting and audiovisual equipment wiring for the new two-story, 56,000-square-foot Vision 360 Bill and Vonette Bright Global Training Center.

Mercantile Capital Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Old Florida National Bank, which specializes in U.S. Small Business Administration 504 loans that assist small business owners acquiring or developing their own facilities, is having the best year in the company’s eight year history.

Urban Trust Bank FSB, a federally chartered, full-service community bank, announced the arrival of banking executive John A. Crumrine. As Urban Trust continues to open new locations throughout Florida, the arrival of Crumrine brings added expertise to UTB’s Retail division.

Altamonte Springs-based Tri-City Electrical Contractors is under way on $554,000 of work at the Polk South County Jail renovation in Frostproof, Fla., under its contract with Peter R. Brown Construction, Clearwater, Fla. Completion is slated for July 2011.

The Central Florida Division of Toll Brothers, the nation’s leading builder of luxury homes, recently stepped up to fight Alzheimer’s disease during the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk event at Lake Eola Park. Toll Brothers employees walked about three miles around Lake Eola and raised $1,470 for the association, which is the leading voluntary health organization for Alzheimer’s care, support and research.