Lauren Ritchie -- OrlandoSentinel.com

Lauren Ritchie

COMMENTARY

New superintendent has tough task of righting predecessor's wrongs

November 19, 2008

Best wishes to Susan Moxley, Lake County's new superintendent of schools, who began work Tuesday.

Recent columns

Lauren Ritchie: Teen's 'manhood' behind South Lake High's lights-out footbrawl

November 16, 2008

One of my buddies was in a 2-mile race the other night against 15 other runners when the lights went off at the track. They all stopped and suddenly began kicking and punching one another.
Scouts, Lake teens giving back to community

November 14, 2008

Several weeks ago, this column featured the story of Shelby Kelley, a 15-year-old Mascotte girl who started Teens Save, a nonprofit organization dedicated simply to helping people in need.
As a man lay dying, he found comfort in a stranger's presence

November 12, 2008

Last week, this column described the death of Trent Stover, the 31-year-old son of a couple who have taken in several hundred foster children since the mid-1980s and who often hold the foster community together in Lake County by their support and caring.
T.H. Poole Sr. helped integrate pool and theater - now he can revel in Obama victory

November 9, 2008

T.H. Poole Sr. never thought America would elect a black person to the office of president in his lifetime.
Making every last-minute vote count in Lake

November 7, 2008

A young fellow, tips of curls peeking out from under his reversed ball cap, rushed into the atrium and looked wildly about him.
Tiny Groveland's big council salaries are poor use of taxpayer cash

November 5, 2008

After a recent column about elected officials of little local governments getting big-time expensive benefits such as medical insurance, a reader wrote to suggest checking Groveland's pay levels.
Lake County foster parents Karen and Lonnie Stover lost a son, Trent, but he inspired a very big family

November 2, 2008

Karen Stover has had hundreds of children as a 23-year foster mom. But Wednesday evening, she lost the only child to whom she ever gave birth.
Early voting means early frenzy in Lake County

October 31, 2008

Has this presidential election got you riled up or what?
South Lake High teen is paying it forward

October 29, 2008

Shelby can't come to the phone.
When it comes to water, logic doesn't always prevail

October 26, 2008

Welcome back, fellow water guzzler.
Elected officials who take perks have lost vision

October 26, 2008

Commissioners in the city of Eustis are in a tiff over whether to keep giving themselves insurance coverage.
Oops - what a difference that decimal makes

October 24, 2008

You know how sometimes a niggling little voice inside keeps telling you that something isn't quite on target? Even after you've double-checked, it keeps gnawing away at the same spot.
Kind words pour in from those whose lives Robert Moore touched

October 22, 2008

The death of Robert Moore, the fellow behind the creation of the emergency-medical services system that covers Lake and Sumter counties, prompted heartfelt notes from people who knew and loved him.
Lauren Ritchie suggests more money be voted to preserve more land in Lake County

December 2, 2007

Secluded under a canopy of oaks, Elaine Renick paused next to a bush of splashy purple American beauty berries and gazed at the shimmery sapphire waters of Lake May.