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  • Fox squirrels meet match at Plant City fall farm festival

    Fox squirrels meet match at Plant City fall farm festival

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    TAMPA, Fla. — Charlotte Weronik knows how to find her way out on the farm.

    “If you do the maze correctly it’ll be one mile,” she explained, “It is five acres. It has a lot of twists and turns and little stops with scarecrows and mirrors and tables and decorations that you can take nice pictures in.”

    The fifth grader volunteers here at the Fox Squirrel Corn Maze in Plant City.

    She hasn’t missed a weekend, and she helps set up too.

    She looks through the hundreds of little funky gourds near their pumpkin house, which clearly a witch lives there. “When pumpkins feel really light and hollow and they have all these spots, it means that they are going bad,” said Weronik.

    Her next job? Weronik drops a peace offering.

    “I am putting sunflower seeds around the base of the tree,” she said.

    That’s because it will distract the fox squirrels from eating all the pumpkins.

    “It’s a very good snack for them, but this kind of distracts them from that,” Weronik said.

    Set up also calls for someone to test the equipment, so she bounces on the jump pad under large oak trees covered in Spanish moss.

    “Sometimes it’ll be way too puffed up that it’s very hard or it will be very floppy and hard to bounce on, but right now, it’s pretty good,” Weronik explained.

    Weronik discovered this Florida-style fall celebration thanks to her aunt and the event organizer, Lisa Steward.

    “I like helping her with flowers and unloading pumpkins like I am right now,” Weronik said.

    She’s the only 9-year-old kid she knows with her advanced seasonal celebration skills.

    “It’s a very unique experience and it’s quite fun,” Weronik said.

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    Virginia Johnson

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  • Bay Area Youth Wind Band Alumni reunite for Summer Breeze concert

    Bay Area Youth Wind Band Alumni reunite for Summer Breeze concert

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    TAMPA, Fla. — It’s the last rehearsal for Francisco Quixtan and his fellow alumni from the Bay Area Youth Wind Band before their annual reunion concert.

    What You Need To Know

    • Florida Wind Band and Summer Breeze concert: July 1 at 5:30 p.m. at Carrollwood Village Park, Tampa
    • Florida Wind Band concert: July 2, 6 p.m. at Palma Cela Presbyterian Church, Tampa
    • Francisco Quixtan is among the Bay Area Youth Wind Band alumni that will be performing in the Summer Breeze concert

    “I was one of the first to join this group in 2012. I was a senior in high school,” said Quixtan.

    The band welcomes back the best middle and high school wind musicians in the Tampa Bay area as Summer Breeze, under conductor and founder Dr. Matthew McCutchen, who is also the University of South Florida’s Director of Bands.

    And there is another concert that involves a flow of different instruments.

    “So the wind band is made of all woodwind, brass and percussion instruments, so we don’t involve any string instruments,” said Tony Negron, executive director of the Florida Wind Band. “And so they are going to see two different ensembles — the first is going to be the Summer Breeze group, which is the Alumni for Bay Area Youth Winds, and then the second group that they’re going to see is the Florida Wind Band, which is the professional ensemble.”

    While some of these musicians only pick up their instruments once a year for this ongoing tradition, others never let it go.

    “I play the clarinet. I’ve been playing since fifth grade, then went to college, got a degree in Music Education and Performance. I love music so much,” Quixtan said.

    As for his current work?

    “I’m an orchestra high school director,” Quixtan said. “I’m also a conductor, a community band conductor and a professional musician.”

    With such a full plate, why come back every year? To be surrounded by people from different walks of life, in different stages of life, brought together by the music of life.

    “People that just want to do this because they love it,” he said.

    The Florida Wind Band and Summer Breeze concert will be held on July 1 at 5:30 p.m. at Carrollwood Village Park in Tampa.

    And the Florida Wind Band will have another concert that will be held on July 2 at 6 p.m. at Palma Cela Presbyterian Church in Tampa.

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    Virginia Johnson

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