This year’s Modern Woodmen School Speech Contest asked contestants to give a speech addressing the topic, “What Freedom Means to Me.” Speeches were between three and five minutes long and in the student’s words. Ten talented finalists represented more than 200 fifth-grade students who participated. We want to congratulate all of our finalists, especially Aaliyah (1st), Josephine (2nd), and Penelope (3rd). We would like to thank Kevin Cadogan, one of Central Florida’s top communicators, who made a special appearance to share with our students during the Oration. We would also like to thank our judges, Kevin Kendrick, Jim Dobson and Courtney Sellers.

The goal of the Orlando Police Department program Superkids is to instill in students personal ownership of their choices and how those choices will impact their future. We want to congratulate Sophia for having her essay selected from more than 200 entries. Officer Ruhl did an outstanding job putting together the celebration ceremony. We want to thank Dunkin Donuts for donating munchkins to all of our students and Astro Skate of Orlando, which provided free passes for each student.

Literacy Week at Sun Blaze was an event to remember! We had guest readers visit all of our classrooms throughout the week. The week started with superheroes reading their favorite story to multiple classrooms. Special guest readers for “Team Up with a Book” included the following: members of the USTA National Campus, Lake Nona High School, and Olympic gold medalist Mackenzie Soldan. During the week, our older Stingrays were able to buddy read with our younger Stingrays. We celebrated on Friday with a character and vocabulary word parade.

I would like to invite our Lake Nona community to follow our social media links to stay connected with all that is happening at Sun Blaze Elementary. The website address is SunBlazeES@ocps.net. You can follow us on Facebook at SunBlazeES.ocps.net and our new Twitter account: @SunBlazeElem.

Go, Stingrays!