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By 
Growing Bolder
Last Updated on April 9, 2025
For 17 years Kevin Gonzo made his mark on the local food scene, running one of Orlando’s first chef-owned-and-operated restaurants, K Restaurant and Wine Bar, and helping pioneer the farm-to-table movement in Orlando, focusing on sourcing ingredients from local farmers. But a chance request from a customer named Brad Stevens to visit a neighborhood school’s garden took the world-class chef in another direction.
“If you’re not serving your community, what good are you?” That’s the philosophy 94-year-old veteran and rotarian Frank Rasbury has lived by his entire life. He’s a true leader that strives for excellence in everything he does, and he wants you to do it too.
Finding a cause or a way to help others not only makes a difference in your community, but it can improve your own life.
In this edition of Growing Bolder’s Ordinary People Living Extraordinary Lives, we highlight the lives of men and women in Central Florida. We share their stories because the passion, purpose and significance they find in their daily lives is attainable for all of us. We just have to believe that more is possible.
From her small-town beginnings in rural Arkansas, Mary Lee Downey had big-time desires to do what she could to help correct injustices and stand up for those in need.
Sometimes the simplest thing – a song, a smile, a dance – can mean everything. When you have dementia, there aren’t many places to go. At Our Moment Cafe, caregivers and patients can find acceptance. Bill Shafer shares the story of Dick Boyden and Joan Bender, who started an Our Moment Cafe in The Villages, Florida
Last Updated on April 3, 2025 Dr. Sylvia Earle fell in love with the ocean splashing in the Gulf of…
Meet Debbie Petry, a 64-year-old who is combing the powers of technology and meditation to make a difference in the world.
The secret to doing more good is to do more of what you love. Here are some tips to help you use your unique talents and skillsets to have fun while you’re giving back.
As a medical doctor, photographer, mother, world traveler and FAA Certified Drone Pilot, Claire Johnson has many impressive attributes. Intelligence. Persistence. Determination. But her greatest characteristic might be this: staying open to the possibilities.
Certified domestic violence advocate Sheryl Kurland had the skills she needed to help the women take steps to move forward in their lives. Still, using advice from her mother, she found a way to do even more.
Vivian Stancil, once a morbidly obese woman with an intense fear of the water is now a healthy, city official who runs two non-profits.
When Colleen Gonzales found her childrens’ school programs were lacking, she got to work and found her own fulfillment along the way.
