Winter Park FL is proud to announce the hosting of the annual Champs Sports Bowl Parade of Bands on the 29^th of December. Now on its 3^rd year, the parade is considered to be the calm before the storm for Tuesday’s game for the Champs Sports Bowl which is expected to fill the Florida Citrus Bowl. The parade itself will feature bands from the 15 seeded University of Miami and the University of Wisconsin.

The school band parade will start at 1:30 in the afternoon at Lyman and Park avenues. The bands and their respective mascots will be passing through downtown Winter Park with a climax on Central Park West Meadow.

During the course of the parade, the city of Winter Park FL has decided to keep roads open up until the point that the parade is there already. Once the parade passes by a certain road, then it shall be re-opened once again. This has been agreed to be the smartest way to keep traffic problems to its minimum while protecting the participants of the parade as well.

Once again, this is yet another event to mark everyone’s calendars for before this year ends so see you there!

In accordance to Winter Park FL’s drive to go green and to continue the city’s commitment to a resolution that has been enacted in 2008 by the City Commission to make Winter Park an environment friendly local government unit, everyone is now being invited to take part in yet another green effort through the recycling of old and unused phone books.

As part of the program, there are now 3 drop-off spots for phone books that are set to be recycled.  The locations include Winter Park FL’s Parks & Recreation Department which is specifically at the City Hall’s second floor, West Wing. The other two drop-off locations include Stations 61 and 62 of the Winter Park Fire-Rescue Department which is at West Canton Avenue and South Lakemont Avenue respectively.

These phone book drop-off centers have been aimed mainly at those residents who are not part of the city’s curbside service. For the more fortunate parts of the city under this service, residents can recycle their phone books easier through it. Just keep in mind the regular recycling day schedules.

For this project, everyone has the Winter Park Fire-Rescue Department (WPFD) and Keep Winter Park Beautiful (KWPB) to thank for. Happy recycling everyone!

The yearly Annual Boat Parade & Festival of Lights at Winter Park FL will kick off at dusk of the 12^th of December which is this Saturday. This is a free event and everyone – locals and tourists alike – can take the time to be dazzled with all the lights and decorations of the boats that will join the parade on water along the Osceola and Virginia Lakes of Winter Park FL.

This event is community driven with everyone joining in for the fun by helping out in the decorations of the boats. The local businesses and establishments also support by sponsoring some of the boats making the event even bigger and brighter for everyone.

Just like the previous year, this year’s Boat Parade & Festival of Lights will start at the Windsong Cove which is at Lake Virginia. The parade will then move clockwise passing along known establishments including our very own Rollins College and even the Dinky Dock as it makes its way around Lake Osceola via the Fern Canal and The Albin Polasek Museum.

So this Saturday, don’t miss – it’ll be hard for anybody to do so with all the lights coming from the event – this wonderful parade of lighted boats.

The City of Winter Parks officially goes interactive via the internet with the launching of their new online resources on Facebook, Twitter, and The Green Button. Aside from logging on the city’s official website www.cityofwinterpark.org, interested individuals can also click these sites for more information and queries about Winter Park.

-          For Facebook: www.cityofwinterpark.org/facebook

-          For Twitter: www.twitter.com/WinterParkFla

-          The Green Button: www.winterparkgreenbutton.org

The move was approved in October this year, resulting in the creation of a new city Social Media Policy as well as official Facebook and Twitter accounts for the city. The goal behind these online resources is to expand the city’s target audience, giving curious web visitors the chance to know more about the culture, heritage, attractions, and people of Winter Park. Not only that, updates are made in real time, with news having the potential to spread in merely seconds to minutes with the power of Facebook and twitter posts – or “tweets” as they are commonly called.

The Green Button on the other hand is the eco-friendly arm of the city’s official web site, an online resource created by Winter Park’s Environmental Review Board to help the public learn more on environmentally conscious living.

Surfers now have the best of both worlds with the launching of these online domains. Whether you’re looking up green and clean ways of living, or news and updates on the city, Winter Park presents these choices to in the matter of a simple mouse click.