Before you read more about the exciting news, let me take you back on this incredible journey... Nona Smiles’ owners, Dr. Melendez and Dr. Ramirez, first met in dental school. Soon after graduating in 2000, they began their residency at a New York hospital. Trying to escape from the cold weather, they both returned to Puerto Rico, where they opened their first dental … [Read more...]
The Lake Nona Book Maven Review: Louise Penny Novels
Author: Louise Penny Genre: Fiction (detective, mystery, suspense) For the last 10 years or so, I’ve been reading through the Louise Penny novels featuring her detective, Chief Inspector of Homicide Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec in Canada. There are 14 novels in the group now, and I’ve fallen in love with the characters and watched them grow and change over … [Read more...]
The Lake Nona Book Maven Review: Before We Were Yours
Author: Lisa Wingate Genre: Historical Fiction Two stories are intertwined in this 2017 novel. The first, from 1939, is told from a child’s point of view. She is Rill Floss, one of five siblings of a poor, riverboat family from the Memphis, TN, area. Floss and her siblings are abducted and brought to an orphanage, where the atmosphere is abusive and care is … [Read more...]
Gail Chase Teaches the Art of Philanthropy and Celebrating Families In the Classroom, On the Stage, and in Life
This spring, Lake Nona High School (LNHS) is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. Mrs. Gail Chase, the LNHS theatre director, has been teaching theater for 21 years. She opened the theater curtain in Lake Nona and has been running a very strong program every year since. Throughout the last 10 years, she has empowered her students to not only succeed in her classroom and on … [Read more...]
Doctors and Nurses Saved Child While Ronald McDonald House Saved Parents
Lauren was born in 2011 at Winnie Palmer Hospital and looked to be a healthy baby. The hospital performs pulse ox screening on all of their newborn babies before they are discharged to go home. Lauren failed the screening by one percentage point and was sent for an echocardiogram. The test results confirmed a congenital heart defect known as Total Anomalous Pulmonary Vein … [Read more...]