Student Citizens recognized for achievements
The East Pasco Chamber Foundation in partnership with The Greater Zephyrhills Chamber of Commerce recognized 11 students as Student Citizens of the Month. Students are chosen by the teachers and administration of their individual schools for exemplary effort, achievement, and contribution to their school, family and community. These students were honored: Allaster Spivey, Academy of Spectrum Diversity; Austin Dick, Children’s Educational Services Elementary Campus; Mikayla Washington, Children’s Educational Services Secondary Campus; Jackie Herrera, Chester W. Taylor Elementary School; Layla Decara, East Pasco Adventist Academy; Karissa Barrington, Heritage Academy; De’Najah Jackson, Raymond B. Stewart Middle School; Josiah Gomez, West Zephyrhills Elementary School; Audney LaPoint, Woodland Elementary; Cameron Sanford, Zephyrhills Christian Academy; and Yaxiel Nieves, Zephyrhills High School.
Donations to help local schools
Pasco Tax Collector Mike Fasano’s five offices collected donations for the Pasco County School District and select charter schools’ ABC (Assist, Believe & Care) Program, which was created to provide financial assistance to students and their families experiencing economic hardship.
“These uncertain economic times can provide extra stress upon families who have already had to deal with COVID and other challenges,” said Fasano, in a news release.
“Thanks to the ABC Program or its equivalent in many charter schools, funds can be designated to students and their families who are experiencing hardship or crisis. …our five offices collected monetary donations of $22,500 to help children and their families in their time of need,” Fasano said.
Ten Pasco elementary schools each received $2,000 to be used by its respective ABC Program. Additionally, five Pasco charter schools received $500 each.
- Cox Elementary School, Dade City
- Lacoochee Elementary School, Lacoochee
- West Zephyrhills Elementary School, Zephyrhills
- Woodland Elementary School, Zephyrhills
- Lake Myrtle Elementary School, Land O’ Lakes
- Mary Giella Elementary School, Spring Hill
- Gulfside Elementary School, Holiday
- Hudson Primary School, Hudson
- Sunray Elementary School, Holiday
- Calusa Elementary School, New Port Richey
- Dayspring Academy, Port Richey
- Athenian Academy, New Port Richey
- Pepin Academy of Pasco, New Port Richey
- Learning Lodge Academy, New Port Richey
- Academy at the Farm, Dade City
For more information about the tax collector’s charitable giving programs, contact Assistant Tax Collector Greg Giordano at 727-847-8179, or visit PascoTaxes.com.
Donations may also be mailed to the tax collector’s office at: Tax Collector Mike Fasano, P.O. Box 276, Dade City, FL 33526.
Online donations are accepted, too, at GovHub.com/fl-pasco/tc-gives/donate.
Forensic education
National Forensic Sciences Week (Sept. 17 to Sept. 23) recognizes the value forensic investigations provide to law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
The Pasco Sheriff’s Office celebrates its diverse Forensic Science entities within its agency, including its Forensic Services Section, F1RST (Florida’s Institute for Research, Security and Tactics), and Explorer Post 916 Forensic Branch.
Forensic investigators collect, catalog and identify evidence from every scene and achieve this through an array of techniques from evidence collection in traditional settings to finding ways to adapt to Pasco County’s landscape.
Many PSO forensic investigators also take part in specialty teams: Underwater Recovery, Critical Incident Stress Management, Missing & Abducted Children Team, and more.
The PSO Forensic Services Section uses skills and specialties such as crime scene documentation and reconstruction; specialized photography; latent print processing, comparison and identification; DNA collection; and blood pattern analysis. Visit PascoSheriff.com for more information.
The F1RST program provides a more research-focused approach to the forensics field, and includes an in-house forensic anthropologist, who often joins PSO investigators on cases, working to identify those whose remains were discovered in a variety of cases. For more, visit FloridaFirstTraining.org.
Explore Post 916 offers an innovative forensics branch that introduces younger members (ages 14 to 21) to forensics sciences. The program is a science-based look at forensic roles, outside of what is traditionally thought of as a responsibility of a law enforcement officer. Visit https://pascoexplorers.pascosheriff.com/ for information.
International Conference
Saint Leo University’s Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies is one of the organizers of the upcoming international conference, “New Documents from the Pontificate of Pope Pius XII and their Meaning for Jewish-Christian Relations: A Dialogue between Historians and Theologians,” from Oct. 9 to Oct. 11, in Rome.
The conference also will be livestreamed, in Italian and English, online at YouTube.com/unigregoriana.
The conference goal is to shed new light on the historical and theological controversies concerning Pope Pious XII and the Vatican during the Holocaust period and on Jewish-Christian relations at multiple levels.
Structured in seven sessions, the conference will address the most complex issues, both in the historical-diplomatic implications and in the social, religious and cultural ones, which led to an irrevocable reformulation of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people in the following decades.
Registration is open to the public and due by noon on Oct. 2, online at tinyurl.com/2s35d4fu
Published September 27, 2023
