With a dip in daytime high temperatures below 83 Degrees and leaves falling off the trees to be raked or caught up in pool cleaners, those of us lucky enough to live year-round in Florida know winter is here.
Who says we have no seasons? Just feel the difference in humidity and the Gulf water temperature. Note the influx of traffic on the highways as Northerners and visitors from around the globe come to town. See the way kids (and the young at heart) get all giddy at the prospect of romping in area parks and playgrounds while taking two weeks off from school. Know that adults are just as excited about the chance to wear sweater tops and corduroy bottoms and leather boots!
Winter in the Tampa Bay region also means time for lots of you and the
83 Degrees Media team to take a little time off to visit with friends and family while planning ahead for the new year.
We're looking to get started on some new projects and series of stories and will continue to carve out our niche for reporting on the Tampa Bay region's talent, innovation, diversity and environment.
Our "Not Your Average Speakers'' series will resume in March with a discussion around transit and transportation followed in May by a conversation about entrepreneurship and startups.
And given the extraordinary track record of the last four years, our readership base will continue to grow and share stories online and in social media in ways we can't even predict.
Thanks to all of you who appreciate what we are doing to help change the narrative about the Tampa Bay region. And thanks to all of you who faithfully "like'' our stories and tweet about them to friends and other connections.
As you're giving thanks this year, please do remember to share a little of your wealth with local charities struggling to feed the hungry and clothe the less fortunate. Make a donation in honor of your loved ones and be grateful that you can.
We'll be back January 7 with new stories and fresh photos to reflect the Tampa Bay area's growing new economy. Enjoy the holiday season and we'll see you online and around the region next year.
The 83 Degrees Media Team: Diane Egner, Julie Busch Branaman, Megan Hendricks, Kaye Brown, Kathy Steele and all our feature writers. Comments? Contact 83 Degrees.
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Read more articles by Diane Egner.
Diane Egner is a community leader and award-winning journalist with more than four decades of experience reporting and writing about the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. She serves on the boards of the University of South Florida Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications Advisory Council, The Institute for Research in Art (Graphicstudio, the Contemporary Art Museum, and USF’s Public Art Program) Community Advisory Council, Sing Out and Read, and StageWorks Theatre Advisory Council. She also is a member of Leadership Florida and the Athena Society. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, she won the top statewide award for editorial writing from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors while at The Tampa Tribune and received special recognition by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists for creative work as Content Director at WUSF Public Media. Past accomplishments and community service include leadership positions with Tampa Tiger Bay Club, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP), Alpha House of Tampa Bay, Awesome Tampa Bay, Florida Kinship Center, AIA Tampa Bay, Powerstories, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Diane and her husband, Sandy Rief, live in Tampa.