Gina Shireman has been named American Senior High School's Teacher of the Year, a title well-deserved considering the time she invests in her students both during and after school hours.  Shireman currently teaches 10th grade English and intensive reading, but her hours teaching rarely end with the sound of the school bell. She also teaches an adult education after school program at American High School and an adult education...

  Longtime Miami Lakes Optimist Club member Jim Hamilton has dedicated most of his life to helping kids excel in sports and in the classroom. Since joining the organization in 1973, Hamilton has held every position, including president, vice president, board member, commissioner and coach, while helping the club reach its goals by offering kids a chance to play sports, while their parents and other spectators cheer for them and improve...

  Eighteen year-old Maria Martinez, a student at the Academy of Art University, is this year's Miami-Dade Public Library’s Teen Read Week T-Shirt Design Contest winner. Her winning entry was chosen from hundreds of drawings and best represents the theme “Seek the Unknown @ the Library.” Martinez will receive a Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet and had her design reproduced on T-Shirts which were worn by participants...

  Miami Lakes United Methodist Church (MLUMC) has hosted the popular Pumpkin Patch and Fall Festival every year for the last 16 years. For the winter of 2013, a new event will be added to the repertoire: Winterfest.  Winterfest launched the day after Thanksgiving, on Friday, November 29, and will run through the entire month of December. Admission is free and open to the public. Winterfest will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m....

  Perla Tabares Hantman, a Miami Lakes resident and School Board member and chair for the past three years, was elected for the fourth consecutive time to chair the Miami-Dade County School Board for the year ahead. “I would like to thank my fellow School Board members for the trust they have put in me. I will continue to work hard and steady toward the betterment of all the students of Miami-Dade County Public Schools,”...