Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Prize money pay for a fish farm in Honduras

By B.C. Manion

As the video opens, 12-year-old Sean Carr is playing the grand piano in his family’s lakeside living room in Lutz.

As the seventh-grader’s graceful hands strike the keys, 13-year-old Kathryn Fontana and her younger sister, Sarah sing a song about love and kindness, peace and justice.

As the video continues, the girls’ sweet voices and the piano music serve as a backdrop, while viewers see kids arranging shoes in the Carr family’s driveway for a shoe drive to help villagers in Cusuna, Honduras.

As the images roll on, viewers see Sean boarding an airplane for the first leg of the journey that ultimately will take him by bus over primitive roads to the shacks and humble homes where the people of Cusuna live.

The video shows scenes of the young man making his way about Cusuna — carrying a young girl, praying with villagers, posing for photographs with local boys and washing a small girl’s feet before fitting her with a pair of blue thongs.

The video, produced by Tami Carr – who is Sean’s mom – won first place in a competition sponsored by Friends and Heroes, a company that produces DVDs of animated Bible stories for kids.

The $15,500 prize money was awarded to the Carr family’s church, Bridgeway Church, which now meets at the New Tampa YMCA. The church expects to move soon into its new Wesley Chapel home.

The Carrs found out about the video competition in an email from Friends and Heroes after buying some of the company’s DVDs for Sean’s 6-year-old sister, Olivia, at a home schooling conference in Orlando.

They decided to enter the contest.

“We had to either just take the song that had already been recorded and make a new video to it, or rewrite the song with the old video, or you could do both,” Sean said.

“We did both,’ he said, noting they rewrote one of the song’s verses to match the video they produced.

Sean’s voice and keyboard teacher, Andrew Hoy, professionally recorded the music and Sean’s mom created the video, blending together the sound with still photographs and film clips of Sean, the singers and scenes from Sean’s home, Tampa International Airport and Cusuna.

At one point, it wasn’t clear that Sean and his mom would be able to make the trip to Cusuna, but then everything came together and they were able to go.

“God really planned this out perfectly,” he said.

And, since they were able to go, they decided at the last minute to conduct a shoe drive for the people of Cusuna.

“In Cusuna, Honduras, everyone is poverty-stricken. Most of them have one pair of clothes and no shoes,” Sean said. “So, their feet are very calloused and flat.

“It was really late notice, so we didn’t expect much,” he said, but they wound up collecting 800 pounds of shoes, which they distributed in Cusuna.

Once they made the video, they posted it on YouTube, for the competition.

“There were 13 different submissions, anywhere from professionals to people like us,” said Sean’s dad, Ray Carr.

The prize of $15,500 was exactly the cost to complete a fish farm the church is building for the village, according to the Friends and Heroes’ website.

When they won the contest, the family had a choice. It could donate the $15,500, or keep half of that amount, Ray Carr said.

Sean said he supported using the money to help the people of Cusuna.

“Look where I live. The size of that bathroom is where eight people live over there. I don’t need anything else. They do,” he said.

Sean said he believes he was called to help the people of Cusuna.

“My aunt suffered from cancer and she died from it when I was 9 or 10,” he said. “So, I have a sense of compassion for people that really need help.”

Before building the fish farm in Cusuna, Sean’s family will build its own fish farm as a prototype. Once it has been operating for six months or so, they will replicate the model in Cusuna, Ray Carr said.

To see the video, go http://www.friendsandheroes.com/us and click on the item titled “Meet a real-life hero!”

Colin Defant achieves a perfect 36

By B.C. Manion

When Colin Defant considers his future, the letters M-I-T come to mind.

The junior in Land O’ Lakes High’s International Baccalaureate Program has set his sights on attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., and hopes one day to be a mathematics professor at the university.

He realizes these are lofty ambitions, but one of his recent accomplishments may cause admissions officials at MIT to take a closer look at his application.

Defant is among roughly one-tenth of 1 percent of ACT test-takers to achieve a perfect score of 36.

The ACT includes tests in English, mathematics, reading and science. Of the 1.6 million test-takers in the class of 2011, only 704 can claim a perfect score, according to ACT officials. Each test scored on a scale of 1 to 36. The composite score is the average of the four tests.

All major colleges in the United States accept the ACT score, and a student’s performance often is one of the factors considered during the selection process.

Defant, who has a quiet confidence about him, said he actually wasn’t terribly surprised by the perfect score.

“It was easy to understand the science, even if I hadn’t seen it before in an actual science class because it was a lot of reading graphs,” Defant said.

“I’m good at math,” added Defant, who is the founder of the school’s Mu Alpha Theta mathematics club.

Although he topped out on every aspect of the exam, Defant most enjoys solving mathematics problems. He discovered his affinity for mathematics when he was involved in the Duke Talent Identification Program, which offers the SAT to high-achieving seventh-graders. During the practice SAT tests, Defant found out how much he enjoyed solving the mathematics problems.

“It was like a puzzle,” said Defant, who is the son of Marc and Susan Defant and lives near Dade City.

He still gets a kick out of solving tough problems and often is working ahead of material taught in class because he enjoys the challenge of learning on his own.

During his down time in the summer, he likes tooling around on his computer, looking for challenging math problems.

“I like that everything in math is concrete. There’s one answer, usually, in most cases. I like that. You can prove things to be absolutely true. It’s not an opinion,” Defant said.

Despite his performance on the ACT, Defant’s advice for future test-takers was limited.

By B.C. Manion

Parents who were worried about day-care issues that would result if Pasco County went to a four-day school week can rest easy – the school district is sticking to its five-day schedule.

The Pasco County School Board was considering a shorter school week as one option to help close a budget gap now estimated at $25.6 million.

After months of study and three public forums, the board made it clear at a March 20 workshop that it won’t pursue the four-day schedule.

Board member Steve Luikart chaired the 36-member task force that looked into potential cost savings and impacts from a four-day school week. He said his interest in exploring a four-day week was to see if it could help the district protect student programs and limit job cuts.

During the workshop, Luikart informed board members that the change would yield about $7 million in annual savings. Board members listened politely to Luikart’s presentation, thanked the task force for its work, asked a few questions, made a few comments and then rejected the four-day week.

No official vote was taken, but board members made it clear that the case had not been made for such a substantial shift in school operations.

School board chairwoman Joanne Hurley said she would only support a four-day school week if she were persuaded the switch would benefit students, parents, the staff and the community.

One of the biggest complaints that parents raised during public forums on the four-day week was child care problems the change would create.

“From the parental standpoint, child care, to me, was a very valid concern,” Hurley said. “You’re talking a significant increase in the amount of money that parents would pay.”

School board member Cynthia Armstrong said she was especially concerned about the impact a four-day school week would have on the most vulnerable children.

“I think about the children who I call ‘hurting,’ ” Armstrong said. Doing away with the fifth day of school would be especially difficult for children who rely on schools for meals, and for a warm building on chilly days, she said.

Board member Alison Crumbley said she would need to see “more convincing evidence” that the change would not harm student achievement. Barring that data, she said, “I’m not willing to take that risk.”

Crumbley also said that shifting to a four-day school week could pose a threat to Pasco County’s efforts to attract quality employers. Good companies won’t come if they’re concerned about the quality of the schools, she said.

As part of the report, Luikart said the task force ran across some potential cost-cutting moves the district could make – which are outlined in the report. The report identifies spending and questions costs in areas including transportation, energy and insurance.

Board member Allen Altman said he’d like the district to take a closer look at issues raised in the report.

Luikart said the task force was a neutral group, interested only in taking a look at the pros and cons, impacts and cost savings of the four-day school week.

As such, it achieved its mission, he said.

Fine arts students score big

Land O’ Lakes Christian School students turned in an impressive performance at the Sun-Shine State Association of Christian Schools’ Fine Arts Competition, snaring 26 first-place honors, 18 second-place awards and eight third-place awards. Many students also will compete in the American Association of Christian Schools National Competition in South Carolina, April 10 to April 12. Six students received $1,000 scholarships to Clearwater Christian College for their accomplishments. They were:

–Abbie Nichols, Katie Avriett, Seth Templeton, Andrew Shelburne in music.

–Olivia de la Rosa in communications arts

–Katie Frazier in English.

The school’s Readers’ Theatre also won first place for its presentation of “The Cat in the Hat.”

MOSI spring break camp

MOSI is offering spring break camps for kindergarteners through fifth-graders in Pasco County and private schools. The Powerful Paper camp will explore paper 100 ways, including making paper from scratch. The camp is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 2 through April 6. The program fee is $223 per child, or $168 for MOSI members. For more information, visit www.campfun.org or call (813) 987-6000. The Museum of Science & Industry is at 4801 E. Fowler Ave. in Tampa.

The dean’s list

Local students were named to the dean’s list at Emory College, the undergraduate, liberal arts college of Emory University in Atlanta, for the 2011 fall semester. Students must be in the top 20 percent of Emory College or have approximately a 3.81 grade point average or higher to be named to the dean’s list. The students are:

–Michael Filer of Lutz, son of Frederick and Jolie Filer.

–Tristin Kauchick of Lutz, daughter of James and Kay Kauchick.

Odessa student in select group

Nico Tavella, of Odessa, a student at Hillsborough High School, is in a select group of 250 students across the country asked to participate in an intensive weeklong study of journalism and media at George Mason University. Tavella was chosen based on academic accomplishments and demonstrated interest and excellence in journalism and media studies. National youth correspondents participate in hands-on learning through simulations that challenge them to solve problems and explore the creative, practical, and ethical tensions inherent in journalism and media.

Moore Mickens students of the month

Moore Mickens Education Center has announced students of the month for February. They are: Kate-Lyn Traver, Jorge Zamora, Richard Costner and Yolanda Castillo.

Jorge Zamora was chosen as the Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Month.

Liberty Middle fares well at history contest

Liberty Middle School students brought home awards from the Hillsborough County School District’s History Fair on Feb. 24. Teacher Simon Meshbesher and David Dick, an intern from the University of South Florida, directed the team. Maya Patel won in the individual website category with her project on India’s Green Revolution to feed the country’s growing population. Maya was recognized as “Most Enthusiastic about the Topic.”

Bailie Franklin and Junie Kim entered the group website category with a project on the historic Brown vs. Board of Education case, which fought school segregation. A group made up of Sayan Chatterjee, Austin Leto and David Alves won third place in the website division for their Vietnam War-era project, which included an interactive timeline, interactive audio pieces, and primary sources.

Teachers can win Disney vacation

The Downtown Disney Resort Area Hotels are partnering with Walt Disney World to honor outstanding kindergarten through 12^th-grade teachers in the 2012 A+ For Teachers at Downtown Disney essay contest.

The fourth annual contest, which runs through April 13, asks first- through 12^th-graders to nominate their favorite teacher by writing an essay of no more than 300 words and submitting it via www.downtowndisneyhotels.com. The essay should explain how the teacher has made a difference in the student’s life and will be judged on its relevance to theme, creativity, originality, and the merit of the teacher’s accomplishments as outlined in the essay. Seven winners will be chosen, and those students and their favorite teacher nominees each will win a vacation prize package that includes accommodations, park passes, meals and gas.

Contest winners will be notified by May 1.

By Kyle LoJacono

Pasco County has agreed to continue a program to help its residents pay for prescription drugs.

The program, called Points of Care, can be used by any Pasco resident regardless of age, income or pre-existing condition, according to case management coordinator Edward Folkes, Jr.

“Anyone can save up to 50 percent on their prescriptions at major pharmacies,” Folkes said. “It’s a great thing for anyone who needs prescriptions because it doesn’t cost anything and it’s easy to do.”

To take advantage of the program, county residents only have to visit www.PascoRxCard.com. From there they can print a Points of Care card, which instantly allows them to save at more than 45,000 participating pharmacies nationwide. People can also get the cards from Pasco’s libraries.

Some of the major pharmacies accepting the program include CVS, Kmart, Publix, Sam’s Club, Sweetbay, Target, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie. Residents can also save on diabetes supplies, durable medical equipment and hearing aids.

Folkes said the program is “designed to assist residents who do not have prescription drug coverage through their insurance or for savings on medications that are not covered through insurance.”

Pasco launched the program last February. Since then it has saved county residents more than $110,000. Folkes also pointed out the program drove business to local pharmacies while helping families pay for medications.

Points of Care is run by Universal RX, a Virginia-based business. It will administer the program for at least one year.

For more information on the program, including a list of medications and other supplies covered, call (727) 847-2411.