![\"Melissa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Byrd_Web_1745418963-e1767899592414.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLast week was a fun week!\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s\u00a0weeks like this that are why I ran for\u00a0School\u00a0Board with a goal of bringing the community together to support the education of our children.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were two events that epitomized that cooperation, both\u00a0great examples\u00a0of the magic that happens for our kids when our schools have communities that support them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first event was the inaugural Taste of Wekiva event, which was a magical evening that turned the courtyard of Wekiva High School into a spectacular tasting event that included cooking demonstrations, delicious\u00a0food\u00a0and\u00a0very happy\u00a0guests!\u00a0<\/p>\n
The food was unreal. From rack of lamb to wagyu street tacos to shrimp and grits, paired with\u00a0an outstanding\u00a0taco smores, it was the type of food you would expect from the best restaurants in town.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But what made this evening so special were the guest chefs who partnered with our young student chefs to mentor and prepare the dishes the guests devoured. These chefs were from some of the top restaurants in our region and\u00a0volunteered\u00a0their time to spend several days with these students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stopping at several of the cooking stations, I spoke with the guest chefs,\u00a0and every single one spoke about how impressed they were with our culinary students. They said that not only did the students\u00a0possess\u00a0excellent culinary skills, but the work ethic, grit and attitude of each student was incredibly impressive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0help but admire our young culinary students and imagine how working alongside professional executive chefs would be transformative and life-changing for some of these students. I was so grateful for the chefs for their time and willingness to give of themselves for the benefit of these students\u2019 futures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then,\u00a0on Saturday, the Amazing Shake competition took place. It comes from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta and teaches young kids the skills of networking, strong\u00a0handshakes\u00a0and conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It has been a part of Dream Lake Elementary\u2019s programming for years, and I am thrilled that the program is expanding to more Apopka area schools. Last weekend, Dream Lake hosted the Apopka Area Amazing Shake competition,\u00a0which included Clay Springs Elementary and Apopka Elementary schools.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The students competed in various events where they had to\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0on the spot speaking skills, the ability to start a conversation, problem solve,\u00a0debate\u00a0and let their personality shine in front of community judges.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was lucky enough to be a judge along with several other community members who gave up their Saturday to help these young students develop these skills that will set them up for success in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are so lucky to live in a community that shows up for our students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I encourage our schools to keep reaching out to our community,\u00a0and I encourage every community member to reach out to schools to see where you can help.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It makes a difference in\u00a0all of\u00a0our futures.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Melissa Byrd represents District 7 on the Orange County School Board. She has previously taught at Forest City Elementary and Pace Brantley Hall School, served as PTSA vice president and chair of the School Advisory Council at Piedmont Lakes Middle, and volunteered at Clay Springs Elementary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week was a fun week!\u00a0 It\u2019s\u00a0weeks like this that are why I ran for\u00a0School\u00a0Board with a goal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-187841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}