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Oct 29, 2026
Good News Parish: Daily Good News — October 29, 2026
Good News Parish: Daily Good News — October 29, 2026
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10:09
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Transcript
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[gentle music] Good morning, Parrish. This is George Henman in the heart of Parrish, Florida. Here's today's good news for Thursday, October twenty-ninth.
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Let's start right here at home because Parrish has something new growing, literally. Manatee County is planning a community garden at Parrish Community Park on Fort Hamer Road.
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It will be the fifth community garden in the county's program and the first north of the Manatee River. Residents will be able to claim individual plots and grow vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
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Whatever they want, essentially. There will be common areas with fruit trees that garden members can harvest from, plus weekly gardening tips and ongoing education from the University of Florida Extension Service.
0:52
The county's garden program started back in twenty fifteen with the idea of helping with food insecurity.
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It has since grown into something more: education, fun, and neighbors getting to know each other over a row of tomatoes.
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The Parrish garden was discussed at a Parrish civic association meeting this month, and folks there heard the same thing gardeners always say: "Give people a patch of ground and good things grow."
1:23
Now to a story about four-legged neighbors. All through October, folks across Manatee and Sarasota Counties have been filling a van with pet food.
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It is called Fill The Van, put on by Sea Monkey Apparel, and this is its third year. More than fifteen donation stations are set up at restaurants and shops across both counties.
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Last year, the drive collected more than three thousand two hundred pounds of pet food and supplies.
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This year, the donations support the Humane Society of Manatee County, Friends of Manatee County Animal Welfare, and the Humane Society of Sarasota County.
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That means full bowls and pet food pantries, help with medical care, and help getting shelter animals to new homes. The drive runs through October, so there is still time to drop off a bag.
2:19
And while we're talking about animals, Parrish has a new place to take care of them. Chewy Vet Care opened on US 301 on October twentieth. You can walk in with an appointment or without one.
2:33
Vaccinations, wellness exams, urgent care, and a pet portal so you can check prescriptions and medical records anytime day or night. It is the ninth Chewy Vet Care clinic in Florida.
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For a town growing as fast as ours, that is a welcome sight. Let's stay in Parrish and talk about the classroom.
2:55
Parrish Community High School teacher Savannah Finley has won a Splash Grant for water resources education, part of more than one hundred thirteen thousand dollars awarded to fifty-six educators across the region by the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
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These grants, up to three thousand dollars per school, pay for hands-on learning, field studies, water conserving garden projects, and awareness campaigns.
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Also students in kindergarten through twelfth grade understand fresh water a little better. Palmetto Elementary, Palmetto High, and Lakewood Ranch High also earned grants.
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That is real money going straight to teachers who want to get kids outside learning by doing. Now, some news that matters at two o'clock in the morning.
3:49
Manatee ER at Harrison Ranch right here in Parrish on US 301 North welcomed its first patient on October sixth.
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It is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, with six exam rooms, three rapid medical spaces, and a full-service laboratory, plus X-ray, CT, and ultrasound.
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It is Manatee Memorial's third freestanding emergency room in the county. For families in Parrish and Palmetto, that means emergency care close to home, no matter the hour.
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That is the kind of growth that actually makes life easier. And here is one for the land itself. On October twentieth, Manatee County approved the purchase of two preserves.
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The roughly one hundred and fifty-six acre Bunker Hill Preserve right here in Parrish along Taylor Grade Road and the roughly five hundred and fifty-four acre Myakka Valley Preserve in Eastern Manatee County.
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Now, to be clear, these are purchase agreements, not parks that opened yesterday.
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But they are funded through the county's voter-approved conservation lands program, and they protect forested wetlands and native hardwoods along the Little Manatee River and expand habitat and future public access to conservation land.
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More than seven hundred acres set aside. That is a gift to the Parrish of twenty years from now. Let's widen the lens just a little to our neighbors. In Palmetto, the Tigers just keep winning.
5:28
Palmetto High beat Manatee thirty-seven to fourteen in their rivalry game, the Cross River Rivalry, winning it for the second straight year.
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Senior running back Ashton Kelly scored three touchdowns and the Tigers stretched their winning streak to six games. And back in Parrish, the Bulls had their own reason to cheer.
5:50
Parrish Community High's volleyball team finished the regular season seventeen and seven, beating Lakewood Ranch three to one in a rematch and celebrating five seniors on senior night Winning seasons are nice, but what you really hear in both stories is a community showing up for its kids.
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And speaking of showing up, a longtime nonprofit leader finally got her flowers. Maribeth Phillips, who has led Meals on Wheels Plus of Manatee since 2012, received the 2026 C. John A.
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Clark Humanitarian of the Year Award at the Lakewood Ranch Community Foundation's Soiree at the Ranch on October 1st. The event itself raised roughly $150,000 that will go back out as grants to local nonprofits.
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And Phillips now has her name on a plaque near the fountain on Main Street in Lakewood Ranch. 14 years of making sure neighbors do not go hungry. That is worth a plaque and then some.
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One more local note, just in time for Halloween weekend.
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There is a free haunted house in Parrish raising support for Screamworks Florida, a nonprofit with plans for youth arts programs, scholarships, and farmland partnerships. Scares for a Cause. The idea is simple.
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Turn Halloween fun into something that lasts past October 31st in the form of arts opportunities for young people. If you go, check the details before you head out and enjoy the scare knowing it is for something good.
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Now, out to the rest of Florida. The state has awarded $100 million across 45 projects to restore and protect Florida's water resources through its Springs Restoration and Alternative Water Supply programs.
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$50 million of that goes to 23 projects aimed at restoring Florida's springs through wastewater upgrades and other improvements expected to reduce nitrogen by more than 55,000 pounds per year.
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Springs are one of the things that make Florida, Florida. Protecting them is good news for everybody who swims, fishes, or just likes knowing they're there.
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And a little further up the coast in Volusia County, a park got a new name and a story got its proper ending.
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Lighthouse Point Park in Ponce Inlet is now the James Milton Hunt Lighthouse Point Park, honoring the late environmental advocate whose grassroots campaign in the early 1980s called Don't Condo Our Lighthouse helped save that stretch of coastline from development.
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The park opened in 1986 and has welcomed generations of families since. His daughter asked that his work be formally recognized and the county, the town, and the state agreed.
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One person standing up for a place he loved and 40 years later, his name is on the gate. And finally, a story that ended just last night right here in Florida.
9:11
The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history. They beat the Tampa Bay Rays four games to one, closing it out in Game 5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
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It ends a 44-year wait since the Brewers last reached the World Series back in 1982. The Rays came up short, but what a run and what a stage.
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A first-time champion crowned in Florida in front of a crowd that will remember that night for a long time. Sometimes the team that has waited the longest gets its day. Last night, Milwaukee got theirs.
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That's the good news for today. Be good to each other and share good news.
Good News Parish: Daily Good News
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