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Caption: Naples Daily News Weekend Digest Miss something this week?
Catch up on a few of our big stories in this quick digest.
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Caption: Procacci brothers aren't resting on decades of success
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Caption: When Joe and Mike Procacci were growing up, they spent their after-school hours pushing their illiterate father’s produce pushcart through the rough streets of Camden, New Jersey.
Now 88 and 92, respectively, the dapper brothers sit in leather chairs in a conference room in an office building they own, overlooking 2,000 acres of curving fairways, red-tiled rooftops and a huge, swan-dotted lake.
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Caption: The brothers once farmed the land, growing tomatoes. Then they decided to develop it into a master-planned community called the Vineyards, with two golf courses and a 70,000-square foot clubhouse, which the brothers co-own.
Read more here: http://bit.ly/1NcysXv
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Caption: 8 dead, 10 injured in church van crash
after Palm Sunday celebration in
Fort Myers s u b t i t l e
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Caption: It was a festive Palm Sunday gathering between two church congregations founded by friends who grew up together in Haiti.
But it ended in a horrific tragedy.
Eighteen people were on their way home to Fort Pierce from Fort Myers early Monday when investigators say their 15-seat van drove through a stop sign and into a canal.
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Caption: The crash along State Road 78 in Glades County killed eight passengers and injured the other 10.
"They didn’t see that stop sign. They shot right through it," Glades County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Duane Pottorff said. "It was a sad evening."
Read more here: http://bit.ly/1DsZfpC
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Caption: Coach Max: A sudden mom, a sick child and a story of hope
s u b t i t l e
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Caption: Max was dropped off at Shadowlawn Elementary weighing a little more than 12 pounds. It was October 2000, and the 3-year-old couldn’t sit up without help.
Beth Hatch, a teacher for the school’s special needs pre-K class, sat by his chair and held on to his frail body to keep him from toppling over.
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Caption: T I T L E Twelve years later, now as his mom, she is still trying to hold on to Max.
Now 16, he can sit on his own — but often doesn’t want to. He runs in the 100-meter sprint and the 400-meter relay with the Collier County Special Olympics team.
Read more here: http://bit.ly/1yxTuQd
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Caption: Man of mahogany transforms torn-down trees into works of art s u b t i t l e
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Caption: T I T L E Hector Najera Sola, owner of Naples Mahogany, uses a chainsaw to sculpt trees cut down on Naples and Marco Island into beautiful sculptures of Florida wildlife: dolphins, egrets, pelicans, turtles — even a busty, callipygian mermaid that someone requested.
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Caption: “You walk around and see what you’re going to make and sometimes it’s already there,” Sola said, tilting his head as he eyes a 3-foot-high mahogany log from above. “You see it in the wood. The most beautiful thing is when you do the finish, you don’t know what you’re going to see in the wood.
Read more here: http://bit.ly/1CmLkuc
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Caption: For Immokalee visit, the Easter Bunny takes flight
s u b t i t l e
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Caption: Around 9:30 a.m., a pair of Beechcraft carrying some very important cargo circled high above Immokalee Regional Airport before descending onto a runway illuminated by the million-watt smiles of dozens of beaming schoolchildren from the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, an organization that serves the children of migrant farm workers and other rural, low-income families in Florida.
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Caption: T I T L E But then the star of the show disembarked the first plane and at least some of the sense of decorum was lost. It was the Easter Bunny, waving an oversized, snow-white paw in greeting and twitching painted-on whiskers with a button-nose. Dozens of tiny hands immediately shot up from laps to wave enthusiastically in return.
Read more here: http://bit.ly/1Dt00PB
Caption: For these stories and more, check out www.naplesnews.com.