COMMUNITY NEWS BRIEFS

Angel Roussel, assistant county administrator; Loretta Shaffer, tourism development director; Sky Wheeler, tourism development manager; Jessica Heller, marketing and communications supervisor; and Carl Zalak III, County Commissioner, with the Flagler Awards. [Photo courtesy Marion County]

County VCB earns awards

The Ocala/Marion County Visitors and Convention Bureau recently received two destination marketing honors, known as Flagler Awards, during the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism.

The VCB’s tradeshow booth earned the Silver Award in the Resource/Promotional Material-Trade category. For two years, the booth has been a key asset for the sales team at major conventions and meetings, including Florida Huddle and Florida Encounter 2024 and 2025, the news release noted.

The VCB team received the Bronze Award in the Out of Home category for the Orlando Moving Billboard Campaign, which aimed to increase awareness of Ocala/Marion County by deploying visually compelling wrapped vehicle advertisements at various events around Orlando. The campaign achieved 4.15 million impressions over two months and showcased Ocala/Marion County as Florida’s Natural Wonder, highlighting its unique natural beauty and rich equestrian culture, the release stated.

National Merit semifinalists

Five Marion County high school seniors in next year’s graduating class have been named semifinalists in the 71^st annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

Less than 1% of high school seniors nationwide qualify for the program, which is an academic competition for recognition and college undergraduate scholarships that started in 1955, the news release stated.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation operates the program, which requires high school students to take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Each year, more than 1.3 million students enter the competition with only 50,000 qualifying for recognition and just 16,000 reaching the semifinals, according to the release.

This year’s Marion County semifinalists include:

• Noah Archer, Vanguard High School – son of Bryan and Christina Archer. Formerly attended Evergreen and South Ocala Elementary and Howard Middle Schools. Plans to study aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University under the U.S. Navy JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program.
• Gabriella Capobianco, West Port High School (now homeschooled) – daughter of Melissa Capobianco
• Patrick Lucaric, Belleview High School – son of Rene’ and Karen Breeher-Lucaric. Patrick moved to Marion County to attend BHS and plans to become an astrophysicist and study at California Institute of Technology.
• Leah McGinley, Forest High School – daughter of Jim McGinley and Lana Kuhn. Formerly attended Madison Street Academy and Osceola Middle Schools. Plans to study math or chemistry at the university level and pursue a career in research.
• Ethan Rubin, Forest High School – son of Randolph Rubin and Donna Melnikas. Formerly attended Dr. N.H. Jones Elementary and Osceola Middle Schools. Plans to pursue an advanced degree in electrical engineering.

The students will compete to become finalists for 6,930 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $26 million to be awarded next spring.