New Year's Day 2011 marks the 11th anniversary of Handlee Vige's career as the pastor at Apostles Lutheran Church on Kingsway Road. One month earlier he was an avid observer and participant in the church's annual production that uses the "boar's head" festival theme to bring forth "the reason for the season" in a show of pageantry and music for the Greater Brandon community. "It's for the community, it's our gift to the community, an opportunity to show the community what the Word is about," Vige said. "What better way to end the year?" he said, then with this "message of hope" set in the …

The 27th Annual Lighting of the Christmas Tree, hosted by the Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association and the Community Roundtable, formerly known as the Presidents' Roundtable, featured performances from Greater Brandon area schools, dance studios and theater companies. Performing at the Dec. 1 event were the Brandon Spotlights from Brandon Academy; dancers from the Brandon Ballet, Kim Hall's School of Dance and Leonard's Academy of Dance; performers from Music Showcase and Tampa Bay Family Theatre; and the Bloomingdale High School Ambassadors, who returned with their annual …

The economy took its toll on a lot of people in a lot of ways this year but that didn't stop Kings Avenue Baptist Church from giving to the community a gift it's been giving for almost a quarter-century. For a 24th year, hundreds of Kings Avenue parishioners transformed their church grounds into a makeshift town of Bethlehem, once again welcoming throngs of residents from Greater Brandon and beyond to its re-creation in the tropics of the West Bank birthplace of Jesus Christ. "A lot of churches out there, they won't admit it, but they're struggling. A lot of people don't make what they used …