"Price is Right" hits Immokalee Seminole Casino

 Special from the News-Press:

Todd Newton smiles his megawatt game-show smile and then utters one of the most famous catchphrases in TV history: “Silvia Santiago, come on down! You’re the next contestant on ... The Price Is Right!”

When they hear those words, some people run to the “Contestant’s Row” podiums inside Seminole Casino. Some leap over a neighbor’s lap to get there. Some can’t stop grinning. And some even cry.
 
But they all want the same thing: To win big, whether it’s cash, a refrigerator-freezer or – as Newton bellows the famous line — “A NEW CAR!”
 
Susan Webb ends up winning $250 by spinning the giant “Price Is Right” wheel. After a frantic beep-beep-beep, the numbered wheel stops on 95 cents, getting Webb the closest to $1 without going over.
 
“I didn’t really know how I would do,” says Webb, 53, of Fort Myers after leaving the stage. “It’s pretty exciting!”
 
The Price is Right traveling road show runs through June 18 at the Immokalee Seminole Casino.
 
That’s putting it mildly. “The Price Is Right Live” opened at the Immokalee casino last week with a sold-out show of 400 people, and everyone there seemed to be a hardcore “Price” fan.
 
The energetic traveling show is part rock concert, part church revival and part department-store guessing game.
 
Read more in the News-Press
 

Immokalee welcomes Naples Philharmonic Orchestra

 Special from the Naples Daily News: 

The Naples Philharmonic Orchestra made what was said to be its first journey in 11 years out to Immokalee, Tuesday, where it not only made music but heard it from young musicians in training.

The students of Immokalee schools, including a squad of young Suzuki violin students and mariachi players, came to Immokalee High School to learn from the pros after an orchestral concert.

The concert was an outreach from ArtsNaples World Festival during its initial year. and judging by the children's response, may be the beginning of a relationship. The concert was an outreach component of the inaugural ArtsNaples World Festival. So keeping with its Russian theme, the orchestra played Tchaikovsky -- two scenes from "Swan Lake," and two movements of the Russian composer's famous Fourth Symphony.

 

Forward motion toward Immokalee Master Plan vote

 Immokalee's planners and visionaries hope to set the wheels in motion May 22 toward a final up-or-down vote on the Immokalee Master Plan - and hope the vote will take place in June in Immokalee. 

Collier County commissioners will be formally asked next week - invited - to hold the June 26th county commission meeting in Immokalee and during that meeting formally and finally vote on the community's future as expressed in the Master Plan. 

A formal and regularly-scheduled county commission meeting in Immokalee would be historic. It has been decades - the late 1980s - since the Collier lawmakers held a formal commission meeting in Immokalee, although the Collier Metropolitan Planning Organization, a joint body of the Collier commission and Naples City Council, held a meeting here in April. The Collier County School Board holds an Immokalee meetings at least once each year. 

The Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency's I(CRA) citizen advisory committee will formally ask, invite, the Collier lawmakers on Tuesday to make that trek on June 26 and at the meeting vote on the Master Plan. 

Nearly a decade in development, the Master Plan was voted down in December, 20ll when it failed to garner the four out of five votes needed to adopt it. Because the plan is a major alteration of the county's formal growth management plan its adoption requires the "super majority" of four votes to win approval. While three lawmakers supported the plan in December - Commissioners Jim Coletta, Fred Coyle and Donna Fiala - one commissioner - Georgia Hiller - voted against it and Commissioner Tom Henning abstained, saying he had a conflict of interest because he owned a piece of property in Immokalee. 

While the December vote might have killed the plan, the State of Florid agreed in January to grant an extension of the deadline for its adoption unti late September.

The Immokalee CRA is in the midst of holding a series of three public meetings about the plan for anyone who might still have questions or who may want to learn more. Click here to learn about those meetings. The remaining public meetings are set for: May 23 at the Immokalee Community Park, 321 North First Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. May 30 at Southwest Florida Works (also known as the One-Stop Shop), 750 South Fifth Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

The plan and much more information about it is available in English, Spanish and Creole at the special Master Plan page on this website

 

 

Lipman moves into 21st Century with web, social media

 One of Immokalee's oldest and most venerable vegetable growers is clearing making a bold move into the 21st Century of Internet communications. 

Lipman, known for decades as 6Ls Farms, continues its rebranding effort by launching a consumer website and social media outreach. 

LipmanKitchens.com was launched earlier this month and includes recipes and a whole range of information about Florida produce in general and Lipman produce specifically. 

“We think it’s important to understand our consumers and what’s important to them,” Lipman spokeswoman Jessica Kerstein told The Packer, an industry news organizations.

“There’s a need among consumers to know where their food is coming from,” she said. 

The company also established a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube - some of the most popular social media platforms. 

 

Immokalee's Jarvis James signs with Arizona Cardinals

 Special from the Naples Daily News

The Arizona Cardinals have signed Immokalee High School graduate and former Miami Hurricanes running back Javarris James after trying out James at a rookie camp over the weekend.
 
James didn't play in the NFL last year after rushing for 112 yards on 46 carries with the Indianapolis Colts in 2010. The signing continues James' path of his cousin Edgerrin, who starred at Immokalee, with the Hurricanes, then with the Colts, and was with the Cardinals when they lost to Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl in February 2009 in Tampa.
 
Javis' more famous cousin, Edgerrin, also played for the Cardinals after leaving a very successful career with the Colts as leading rusher for Peyton Manning. 
 
 
 

Master Plan public meetings: "a refresher course."

 Think of it as a master plan refresher.

That's how the Naples Daily News described Wednesday's first-of-three public meetings about the Immokalee Master Plan, quoting Penny Phillippi, executive director of the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency.  

"What we're trying to do is put forward a master plan that's been worked on for a period of time," Phillippi told the newspaper. "It is a blueprint for the future. Whatever is going to happen is not going to happen tomorrow, next week or next year but down the road this is what we want to see happen. It is not set in stone ... it is a living breathing document that can be changed as (Immokalee residents) see fit."

The Immokalee CRA's citizens advisory committee, who with the community at large has been drafting the plan's revisions for a decade wants to make sure everyone has a chance to completely understand the plan and the blueprint it lays out for Immokalee's future. 
 
NOTE: Translation of this post into Spanish and Creole, indeed translation of our entire site, can be accomplished by clicking on the "Google Translation" button in the right sidebar of the page. An additional notice of the meetings, in Spanish, can be found by clicking here. The additional notice of the meetings, in Creole, can be found by clicking here. 
 
What were live tweets from meeting are available in a stream on our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Click here for our social media page, links and live feeds. 
 
The advisory committee has been holding a series of small gatherings with various groups around town for the past month. The series of May meetings will be the culmination of an effort to give all Immokaleans - and others - the most thorough review possible of the plan before it makes its way back to Collier County Commissioners. 
 
The master plan failed to win the four out of five votes necessary to win approval last December when one county lawmaker voted against it and another abstained from the vote. The plan needs four out of five votes to win final adoption. Read more here, including a history of the Master Plan. 
 
The remaining public meetings are set for:  
  • May 23 at the Immokalee Community Park, 321 North First Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
  • May 30 at Southwest Florida Works (also known as the One-Stop Shop), 750 South Fifth Street, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
Anyone can attend any or all of these meetings. Any and all questions will be welcomed and the answers will be complete and informative. Translations will be available for Spanish and Creole speakers. All information about the Immokalee Area Master Plan is available on our special Master Plan page on this website. 
 

 

Video highlights of Immokalee news!

 You may have noticed the video now gracing the top of our ImmokaleeToday page.

We hope you clicked on the video, watched its brief summation of the news and, maybe, shared it with friends via Facebook, Twitter or GooglePlus. 

It's a new feature, prepared by our friends, Relevanza, working in conjunction with the Wibbitz video design team. 

The amazing new Wibbitz technology draws posted pieces from our news sections and transforms them into a quick video recap. It's great for a hurried review of the news or you can click on each piece featured in the short video. 

Read more about the new feature and the new techonology on the Relevanza blog and on Relevanza's Tumblr blog. Reach out to Relevanza to find out more. 

 

 

IMMBIZ attends international conference on entrepreneurship

 Marie Capita, manager of the Immokalee Business Development Center, of IMMBIZ, is headed for an international conference on business incubation in Atlanta, Georgia.  

The 26th International Conference on Business Incubation is sponsored by the National Business Incubation Association and will bring together around 600 business incubation practitioners and economic development professionals to explore strategies for entrepreneur support. Participants will attend in-depth workshops, educational sessions, incubator tours and receptions, and will have many opportunities to connect with colleagues through informal conversations. Through these training and networking opportunities, attendees learn about incubator sustainability, entrepreneur support services, client funding options, industry best practices and more.
 
"I've had the opportunity to network with other incubator managers from South Africa, Canada, London, Kuwait, Belize,  Thailand, China, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico," Capita reported from the conference. "These few days have taught me the rural and agricultural aspect of Immokalee is an asset on which we need to build."  
Atla
 
Capita's  background in business and law makes her a pivotal resource to the IBDC. Ms. Capita is multi-lingual, speaking English, French and Creole. She graduated from Florida International University with a B.A. in Finance and continued her education at the University Of Miami School Of Law, where she received her Juris Doctor degree. After graduating from law school she managed her own law practice in the Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach County area. Ms. Capita also taught at Miami Dade Community College in Miami, Florida.
 
 

 

Immokalee High Senior Guzman named Gates Scholar

Special from the Naples Daily News and Collier County Public Schools: 

Immokalee High School Senior Daniel Guzman just learned he is one of only 1,000 recipients nationwide of a Gates Millennium scholarship (yes, from Bill Gates). This is truly huge because it'll pay for any and all expenses beyond those covered by his other scholarships for seven full years…to any university he gains admission to (he's been accepted by five thus far). This generous scholarship covers everything you'd expect plus personal expenses and travel to and from school.

Daniel's dream of becoming "Dr." Guzman and earning a doctorate in environmental engineering just gained a whole lot of traction. He'll attend the University of South Florida in the fall to get his bachelor's and possibly his master's degree, but his dream school for doctoral study is now Yale!
 
Daniel is a straight A student, ranking 10th in his Indians' graduating class of 241 with a grade point average of 4.48. He's taken advanced placement, dual enrollment and honors courses throughout his high school career and he'll have earned 15 college credit hours by the time he graduates.
 
Read more in the Naples Daily News
 
 

Immokalee's Aaron Henry signs with Oakland Raiders

 Special from the Naples Daily News. 

Aaron Henry couldn't resist. After not planning on watching the NFL Draft or sitting by the phone waiting for a team to call, the Immokalee High School graduate found himself doing both the past three days.
 
"I thought I had something else in mind," the former University of Wisconsin safety said. "It was nerve-racking."
 
The nerves eventually went away when four teams called offering free agent deals just before the draft ended Saturday night. "It was chaotic," Henry said.
 
Henry and agent Matt Brei decided on the Oakland Raiders over the Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions, and he agreed to a contract.
 
Read more in the Naples Daily News
 
 

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