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Courtesy photo for NSBNews.Net / New Members of the Port Orange Family Days Community Trust Board, flanked by President John E. Evans, left and Installing Officer Mayor Allen Green, right, are, from left, Cheryl Shaw, Mike Arminio, Amy Hall, Todd Matacale, John Junco and Karen Beattie. PORT ORANGE -- Mayor Allen Green told the members of the community-building Port Orange Family Days Community Trust that the one thing he won't let a resident tell him is "where home is."
"You can tell me where you grew up; where you've come from; where you used to live, but your home is right here," Green said.
The mayor praised the organization, which stages Family Days and Kidz Dayz entertainment and expos each year and holds free Movies Under the Stars on a regular basis, for its 16 year record of helping make the community family friendly. And he challenged the six new Board members he installed to "make the commitment to be involved beyond just attending meetings."
As part of the installation ceremony current Board members were called on to tell what they liked best and least about serving in the organization's leadership. Many discussed getting to know people in the community and about their needs, and talked of work which ranged from manning the concession stand at movies to covering wiring that provides power to the hundreds of booths that line City Center Lake for community expos.
The board applauded when its president, John E. Evans, noted that after they had taken on the job of trash collectors, to save the City costs of supporting the event, the back-breaking labor prompted a motion to find other ways to cover those costs. Evans told the new members that they were assuming leadership roles in providing opportunities for residents of Port Orange and the rest of Volusia County to get to know each other and about businesses and organizations that are the backbone of the community.
"Through our events we attract more than 100,000 people to City Center each year, provide a showcase for more than 300 businesses and organizations and have generated nearly $700,000 that has been invested back into the community," Evans said.
He and other board members talked of the range of those investments from improvements to All Children's Park to annual unrestricted grants to area schools, to support of food banks serving the area.
The next Family Days event is Kidz Dayz, which will run March 17-20 at City Center and this year will add to the traditional carnival, expo and entertainment, the Hospice of Volusia/Flagler Rubber Duck Race across City Center Lake.
The race is a fund raiser for the Lawrence E. Whelan Children's Grief Centers and attracts attention because a rubber duck bought for a five dollar donation could win the $3,000 first prize.