Polk County Public Schools
Traviss Career Center in Lakeland will have a day-long Open House for the public on Thursday, October 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Traviss Career Center, located at 3225 Winter Lake Road, Lakeland offers more than 35 career, vocational and technical programs for high school students and adults. Programs include automotive, avionics, commercial arts and technology, welding and others.
The Open House includes tours, program demonstrations, health screenings and door prizes. There is no charge to attend. For more information click here or call (863) 499-2700.
The Thespian Troupe at Winter Haven’s Jewett School of the Arts is participating in The International Thespian Society’s Trick or Treat so Kids Can Eat program on Halloween, Saturday, October 31.
The Thespian Troupe, composed of the school’s theatre students, will be dressed in costume and will canvass for food donations in the school’s neighborhood from 4 to 6 p.m. on October 31. Jewett School of the Arts is located at 2250 Eighth Street, NE. The food donations will be given to The Mission, a food bank and shelter, located at 180 East Central Avenue, Winter Haven.
The Trick or Treat so Kids Can Eat is a program of the International Thespian Society, a division of the Educational Theatre Association and is being done by thespian troupes across the state. This is the program’s inaugural year.
Information: Jeremy Henry, Jewett School of the Arts drama teacher, (863) 291-5373.
Lake Wales’ McLaughlin Middle And Fine Arts Academy is holding an arts celebration event on Thursday, November 5, Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 7. McLaughlin, one of four Polk middle schools with an intensive fine arts curriculum, will open its art gallery at 6 p.m. on each of those evenings for its “Shapes and Patterns” art show featuring student work in two-dimensional, three-dimensional or graphic arts. Included in the show are African and Japanese patterns and realistic and abstract portraits. There is no charge to attend the art show.
At 7 p.m. on November 5,6 and 7, McLaughlin drama students will perform the play “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by national playwright Celeste Raspanti. The play depicts the experiences of 15,000 Jewish children imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp of Terezin and their story of hope. The play is meant to show the best and worst of which the human heart is capable. Tickets to the play are $5 and can be purchased at the school or at the door on the nights of the performances. McLaughlin is located at 800 South Fourth Street, Lake Wales. Information: Madalyn Walton, McLaughlin Middle And Fine Arts Academy fine arts resource specialist, (863) 678-4233.
