💯Good news and local 'big dad energy'

🎉Happy Friday, everyone!

Big congratulations to Addition Financial Credit Union’s Renovate to Educate contest winner, Morgan Hebner, who teaches fifth graders at Sorrento Elementary School.

In her entry essay, Hebner wrote, “Brown is not the color that inspires great learners to become engineers, artists, and astronauts” and wanted to replace the bland palette she had before with aquamarines, lilacs, peaches and whites to welcome students "with open arms to a bright, modern-style classroom, while not overwhelming them."

Check out the big reveal here.

💯Your Weekend guide: fests, folk and more this weekend

The weather is supposed to be the nicest it's been all summer with a cold front zapping humidity out of the air. Take advantage of the nicer days, if not that much cooler days, ahead and get out and enjoy good times in the community.

This weekend, Clermont celebrates the legacy of Marcus Garvey with soul and reggae music. Trout Lake Nature Center is hosting its monthly folk concert with singer-songwriter Dan Mangum, and the Warehouse is hosting a benefit to the deputies and their families involved in the tragic Aug. 2 confrontation that took the life of a sheriff's deputy and injured others .

Find out more here.

📰More news you should know

🎓 Another chapter begins for LSSC : Lake-Sumter breaks ground on Workforce Development Center .

🐶 Help us find a home for Clyde: Sumter woman, former owner of pit bulls, convicted of animal cruelty. One of the dogs is up for adoption.

🗣 Town hall meeting: Church of the Lakes hosts its second candidates town hall on Sunday, Aug. 18, at 5 p.m. at the Leesburg High School Auditorium. Tim Parrish, a veteran and business owner living in Northern Virginia, will moderate. Details: i nfo@cotlakes.com or 352-405-2825.

🍹 Is it happy hour yet? Our Top 5 bars in Lake County for 2024.

💡3 questions with Jason Eichenholz, founder of Jonathan's Landing

Here's something uplifting:

Jason Eichenholz innovated the optics involved with self-driving cars and became an instant success, but what wasn't quite as automatic was how his son with autism, Jonathan, would enjoy an optimal quality of life as an adult after he was gone.

The question, "What's going to happen after I'm gone?" haunted the Orlando-based entrepreneur, so he came up with a solution: Jonathan's Landing , an open-source job training, life skills and, ostensibly, a residential program for neurodiverse adults.

He also helps nurture Jonathan's love of food and cooking through his social media campaign Meals with Jonathan . (Look for a full story soon on our website.)

How old is Jonathan, and where is he on the spectrum? He's 19 now. And, you know, we spent a lot of time trying to understand what's gonna happen to Jonathan after we're gone and we finally sort of figured out. We're blessed in that he's a person with autism who's also very social, but his speech ability is limited ... I wanted to create an opportunity for him where he could feel welcome and included in our community rather than living in his garage apartment for the next 50 years."

What is the ultimate goal for someone in Jonathan's Landing? "The goal is that we provide skills, so that neurodiverse adults can live and work, that they're able to get their own apartment. They're able to take public transportation, or their apartment is very close to where they work and they walk to work, and they make their own lunch. They make their own meals. They're living independently."

Take us through how Jonathan's Landing would help a young autistic adult in Lake County: "We take an individual, we get them trained. ... We have to help them with social skills just as much as the technical skills. So they may start working at Jonathan's Landing, they then may work at our offsite facility, our office essentially, where we can give them a job while coaching, shadowing and mentoring them. ... We promote them out of our business so that they can go work at the Genius Bar or the Geek Squad at Best Buy, or the local U-Break-I-Fix where they're struggling to find the talent to go work there, to go work on devices." (To get started, visit https://jonathanslanding.org ).

🔌 Help us stay connected! Don't forget to share your news, forward this email, and share your recommendations and pics with us. Email news@dailycommercial.com .

Bye for now!

JG

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: 💯Good news and local 'big dad energy'