By Randy Moore, Publisher – Congratulations to our three newest award recipients. Mission Café & Coffee is receiving our Venice Spirit Award, the North Port Library is receiving our North Port Spirit Award, and the nonprofit Kids’ Needs Englewood is receiving our Englewood Spirit Award. The photo shows a dish from Mission Cafe & Coffee located on Venice Island, Florida.
All of our awards acknowledge local individuals, businesses and nonprofits that are having a positive impact on the health and happiness of our community. You can see a list of our prior award winners on the home page of our two websites for South County Healthy Living and Englewood Healthy Living.
Our other awards include the Wildlife Champion Award and the Inspiring Artist Award. We also present lifetime achievement awards in Venice and Englewood. The prior recipients of our Venice Lifetime Achievement Award include Dr. Barbara Gaunt-Jaehne with Medical Gardens Hearing Center, and Mike Levine with Home Instead Senior Care. The recipients of our Englewood Lee Reid Lifetime Achievement Award include the award namesake Lee Reid (founder of Reid’s Health Foods formerly known as Reid’s Nutrition), retired teacher and watercolor painter, Linda Soderquist, and art event organizer, Carroll Swayze.
Here are some of the books I enjoyed reading recently: The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman, The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff, and Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. I’ve read 190 books since launching my current reading program in July 2022. My long term goal is reading 1,000 books. I enjoy reading historical fiction, magical realism and classic novels.
It’s easier to find time to read when we watch less television and reduce our time on social media. I like the basic pleasure and cognitive health that comes naturally from reading a good book. Reading also helps us to become better informed about psychology, history, geography, culture, science, religion, politics, and just about every other topic. I also read books written by authors from around the world over multiple centuries.
Speaking of books, I continue to be disappointed in the misguided efforts by groups to ban books and stifle freedom of speech. Book banning should be restricted to the home and not local schools and libraries. Perhaps we should trust our children and grandchildren more instead of reacting with fear to people and ideas we disagree with. Let’s ban unwarranted fear and hate and leave books alone.
Randy Moore is the publisher of South County Healthy Living and Englewood Healthy Living.
