Although there is no proclamation officially proclaiming it, October must be Proclamation Month for the Sumter County Board of Commissioners.
Five proclamations dealing with fire prevention, native plants and other topics were presented Tuesday at the meeting in Bushnell. The board often has one or two of them at each meeting.
Proclamations are designed to call attention to a particular group or activity. People involved get their pictures taken with chairman Don Burgess, who reads the proclamations into the record, and the photos are posted on the Sumter County web site.
This week is Fire Prevention Week with the theme of “Not every hero wears a cape, plan your escape.”
The Villages Public Safety Department and Sumter County Fire and EMS encourage people to find two escape routes from every room in their homes. In 2017, 2,630 people died from fires nationwide and fire departments responded to 357,000 calls. Four of every five fire deaths are in homes.Â
The entire month of October is Florida Native Plant Month. The Florida Native Plant Society was founded in 1980 by a group of scientists, educators and conservationists concerned about the loss of Florida’s native plants.
The group now has 4,382 members in 37 chapters who participate in public workshops, restoration projects and other activities to promote the benefits of native plants.
County officials proclaimed the week of Oct. 13-19 as Mediation Week to recognize this form of conflict resolution. Sumter County Mediation Services offers mediation through the court system.
White Cane Day is Oct. 15 to call attention to the White Cane Law, which gives blind and visually impaired persons using white canes the freedom to travel independently on sidewalks and streets.
With next year’s proclamation of White Cane Day, commissioners will be blindfolded so they can experience the hardship of blind people.
Baha’i Community Day is Oct. 29 to recognize the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Herald of Baha’u llal, founder of the Bah’i Faith.
The Bah’i Community of Sumter County was established in 2002 and became a local spiritual assembly in 2016, recognized by the national assembly. The community works to eliminate all forms of prejudice.
