It’s time once again for another round of spring cleaning, and the City of Winter Park, Fl,  is encouraging residents to come and join the city’s yearly Spring Cleanup, which takes place during the last week of May, until the beginning of June. Four city quadrants are designated clean up areas, but residents are more than free to clean where they please.

This year’s Spring Cleanup also has a pickup day, allowing residents to discard hard-to-dispose items such as broken appliances, computers and other electronics, broken furniture, and other heavy & bulky objects. All residents have to do to avail of this convenience is to place these items outside the curb at 5 in the evening, the night before the scheduled pickup day in their quadrant.

Remember that hazardous waste will still be collected the regular way, and will not be included in the Spring Cleanup. These items include household chemicals, tires, batteries, paints, propane tanks, and pesticides.

The same goes for yard waste, which will still be collected during regular trash pickup days.

So what’re you waiting for?Free up some space in your home and figure out which items can be given to charity or disposed.

It’s time once again for another edition of the Winter Park Country Club’s Golf Lecture Series brought to you by the North Florida PGA and the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. For the month of April, the Lecture Series will feature Rich Lerner, an accomplished figure in the world of golf. As always, seats for this month’s lecture are limited, so grab your tickets right now, which are priced at just $10.

To those who ardently follow the sport, Rich Lerner is one of the most easily recognizable journalists/reporters in golf. Lerner took up and received a degree in journalism from Philadelphia’s Temple University. Lerner has been a mainstay at The Golf Channel since 1997 and it was with the network that he made his presence known in golf through his smart essays and sharp commentary for PGA TOUR tournaments. Regular viewers of PGA TOUR telecasts will instantly recognize Lerner as the host who sets the scene before the start of play.

Score your tickets now and don’t miss out on this great episode with Rich Lerner. Light refreshments will also be provided courtesy of Tolla’s Italian Deli & Café, so not only are you enjoying the company of one of golf’s most prominent figures, you also get to sample great food and drink.  The lecture takes place on the 27th of April, at 6:30 in the evening.

Summer is slowly but surely creeping in as the days go by, and if you want your kids to take part in a memorable activity here in Winter Park, Fl, we’ve got just the event for you.

The City of Winter Park, together with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida Winter Park Branch brings you the Summer Fun Camp 2010, a 9-week program that takes place on Thursday, June 14, through Thursday, August 17.

The Fun Camp promises to be chock-full of both fun and education activities for kids 6 to 16 years of age. If the Summer Fun Camp sounds like something your child, or children, would enjoy, then head to the registration booth at the Azalea Lane Recreation Center. Pre-registration starts on Tuesday, May 11, and will cost only $25.

This year’s Summer Fun Camp will have kids split into two groups, the details of which are below.

Elementary: for kids ages 6- to 11-years-old, with a maximum of 60 campers.

Middle School and Teens: for kids and teenagers ages 12- to 16-years-old, with a maximum of 15 campers.

Details on the camp costs will be available on the registration booth. Costs will include a camp T-shirt, daily breakfasts and lunches, field trips, and before & after care.

First started in January of this year, the Winter Park Ambassador Program is aimed at enhancing customer service for the hundreds of people that visit City Hall daily for a number of reasons ranging from paying their utility bills, having a business permit furnished, and applying for an employment position.

Like most City Hall offices in other parts of the country today, Winter Park’s City Hall, which is in the downtown area, is extremely busy. Fortunately, the layout of the building is superb, and visitors can easily locate their destinations. The ambassador program was designed to enhance that visitor experience, with the help of two people who welcome guests at the entrance, taking questions and providing directions to the City Hall’s many departments and services offices.

As of the moment, 50 city employees are serving as City Hall Ambassadors on a volunteer basis. Each employee works only twice a month for two-hour shifts. According to City Manager Randy Knight, who had the honor of serving as the first Ambassador, an organization will be successful if they pay attention to customer service. Since volunteering as an Ambassador, he’s found out how much a smile can change the whole demeanor of a person.

Due to the program’s success, the city is now opening the Ambassador Program to the public, and those who want to volunteer can call 407-599-3245 or e-mail the city at jgrant@cityofwinterpark.org on how to be a Winter Park, Ambassador.

First started in January of this year, the Winter Park Ambassador Program is aimed at enhancing customer service for the hundreds of people that visit City Hall daily for a number of reasons ranging from paying their utility bills, having a business permit furnished, and applying for an employment position.

Like most City Hall offices in other parts of the country today, Winter Park’s City Hall, which is in the downtown area, is extremely busy. Fortunately, the layout of the building is superb, and visitors can easily locate their destinations. The ambassador program was designed to enhance that visitor experience, with the help of two people who welcome guests at the entrance, taking questions and providing directions to the City Hall’s many departments and services offices.

As of the moment, 50 city employees are serving as City Hall Ambassadors on a volunteer basis. Each employee works only twice a month for two-hour shifts. According to City Manager Randy Knight, who had the honor of serving as the first Ambassador, an organization will be successful if they pay attention to customer service. Since volunteering as an Ambassador, he’s found out how much a smile can change the whole demeanor of a person.

Due to the program’s success, the city is now opening the Ambassador Program to the public, and those who want to volunteer can call 407-599-3245 or e-mail the city at jgrant@cityofwinterpark.org on how to be a Winter Park, Ambassador.

Last weekend, Park Avenue hosted one of the country’s most prestigious outdoor fine arts events, the 51st annual Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, which took place here in the City of Winter Park, Florida. The 3-day event drew in some of the world’s finest and most talented artists, with a crowd of art aficionados eagerly joining the fun to see what they could find in the festival’s displays. It was undeniably a 3-day feast of non-stop browsing and buying of different art pieces. From clay, drawing and graphics, glass, digital art, fiber, leather, jewelry, paintings – the categories of the Art Festival were very impressive, even to the most seasoned of art collectors.

The festival was open from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening on Friday and Saturday, and ended an hour earlier on Sunday at 5.

Dozens of artists vied for a total of 62 awards, all worth $67,500. All winners of the Best of Show category not only get the top prize of $10,000, they also get to be on permanent display at the City of Winter Park Public Library, along with past Best of Show winners.

The goal of the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival is to promote an enjoyable and nurturing environment for artists and art lovers in Central Florida. If you missed out on this festival, don’t fret, there’s always the one next year.

Another month has passed and it’s time once again for another episode of the Winter Park Country Club Golf Lecture Series, brought to you by the North Florida PGA® and as always, the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. The March edition of the lecture is set to take place on the 23rd of March, at exactly 6:30 in the evening. For this month, the lecture will feature renowned PGA TOUR® Erik Compton, known for his great achievements in the sport despite being afflicted with heart disease.

For his dedication to the sport of golf, Compton is without a doubt an inspiration to those who suffer from heart disease. After receiving two heart transplants, Compton still competes with the very best golfers in the world today. After attending college at the University of Georgia, Compton turned pro in 2001. He has so far played in close to 20 PGA TOUR events.

Since space for the lecture is very limited, tickets will be sold on a first come first serve basis. Tickets to the event are priced at $10, with light refreshments to be served during the lecture.

Interested? Be sure to grab your tickets now and don’t miss out on this great golf lecture.