Jason McKibben

Portraits: II

As the chaplain of American Legion Post 159, Loren Pittman, 83, has performed hundreds of eulogies for departed members over the last 20 years. With 2,700 members, Post 159 is one of the largest units in the country. Pittman makes an effort to learn specific details about each person he eulogizes so that the service is more meaningful for loved ones. "I want to look my audience in the eye and say, 'This guy was important.'"
   
Jocelyn Cherisier's quick thinking saved her mother's life when she called 911 after her mother fainted because of low blood sugar on October 18, 2007. Jocelyn then made sure her mother was breathing, and waited on the line until an ambulance came.
  
Roberta MacDonald, left, plays Matron Mama Morton and Charlene Clark plays Velma in the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre production of "Chicago."
     
  
   
Demen Naquin sits at his kitchen table that was a foot under water after Hurricane Rita passed 150 miles offshore. After 79 years, he will make his first concession to flooding and move across the street to a home on stilts.
   
Joe Borges, a frame technician, shows off a pair of Neostyle frames Wednesday, April 23, 2008. Neostyle, a high-end eyewear manufacturer based in Germany has moved its U.S. distribution headquarters to Bradenton.
     
  
Matt and Heather Beck, founders of PropertyMaps.com.
   
Organist John Fischer plays Christmas music on the pipe organ inside Chuck and Joanne Pierson's home. The vents on the left of the frame open into the Pierson garage where Chuck has assembled over 1,600 pipes of all sizes, "from the size of a telephone pole to the size of a pencil."
   
Keith Crawford of Sarasota joined 400 riders Saturday, February 23, 2008 in the True American Hero Benefit Motorcycle Ride sponsored by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. The ride, in memory of the 16 Florida law enforcement officers who were killed on the job, wound its way through east Sarasota and Myakka River State Park.
     
  
Bruno Mollica, the man responsible for bringing a St. Patrick's Day parade back to Venice, sits on the 1968 Shelby Mustang Cobra G-T 350 that he will drive in the parade.