Horses providing therapy. Helping veterans of war with marriages. Nonprofit organizations throughout Southwest Florida have exciting success stories to share with the world, and a Sarasota video production company is on a mission to tell those tales to as many people as possible. Salt and Light Productions this week released its first videos of 2016 highlighting the work of organizations doing good in the region, one showcasing the work of the High Flight Foundation, the other on the Sarasota Manatee Association for Riding Therapy. “We just want to make people aware of what these nonprofits do for our community,” said Don Gangnagel, Salt and Light senior producer.

Salt and Light works with a small team, two people actually involved with production as well as an administrative manager. The four-and-a-half-minute video created for SMART tells the tales of Paloma, a special needs child who has worked with horses therapeutically for years, and George, a veteran also benefiting from the service. “These horses do not judge,” a trainer in the video explains. "I think that makes it ok for people who may have challenges.” Gangnagel said this is actually the second video Salt and Light has produced for SMART, but that there remain great stories to capture.

High Flight Foundation, meanwhile, is a new organization for the Salt and Light crew. That video explains the need and results of Operation Uplift, a program for soldiers returning for war who need help strengthening their marriages following the trauma of combat and separation. Gangnagel said the organization approached the company about the videos. “There are an awful lot of nonprofits doing good work in Manatee and Sarasota counties. Being here for nine years, you would think you know every nonprofit, but we always seem to meet new ones,” he said.

Salt and Light typically produces 15 to 20 videos each year, some promoting organizations and others providing educational messages on topics such as the dangers of texting and driving. 

See videos at SRQ Backlot

Sarasota’s springtime Poetry in Paradise Festival from PoetryLife gets a special winter edition this Saturday with two events featuring Marie Howe, New York State Poet Laureate 2012-14, and the return of superstar poet Billy Collins, US Poet Laureate 2001-03. Beginning with a Poetry Power Luncheon and panel discussion at Florida Studio Theatre, Collins and Howe will speak and answer questions on the importance of poetry education through adolescence, followed by an evening event seeing both poets presenting their work before engaging the audience for a more freewheeling discussion.

“There’s all sorts of activity, but not much of the poetry is getting out to the broader audience,” said Collins in a phone interview, speaking to the democratization of a self-publishing world. Next to regular concerns about the inconstant quality, the greater issue seemed to be the lack of impact despite poetry’s growing ubiquity. The main readership for poetry remains other poets. But that’s why readings are important. “It brings out often the hidden community of poetry readers,” said Collins, “but it’s also a dramatization of the work that’s usually silent on the page. And there’s a power to hearing it.”

Last Spring, Howe and Collins were scheduled to read together at PoetryLife but last-minute events conspired to make that an impossibility, and Collins looks forward to collaborating this year. “We have a lot in common in that we’re both poets of clarity,” said Collins. “We’re not hiding behind the language; we’re using it in a very up-front way.”

Having just sent his latest manuscript to his publishers this week, Collins fans can look forward to his next work, entitled The Rain in Portugal, arriving in October. It has nothing to do with Portugal, said Collins, and the title is more “an admission that I’m not a rhymer.”

The Poetry Power Luncheon begins Saturday at noon at FST, and tickets cost $35. The evening readings begin at 7pm at the Mildred Sainer Pavilion on the New College Campus. Tickets cost $25 and may also be purchased through the FST box office. 

Justum has closed on the purchase of a 2,842-square-feet flex warehouse condo located on McAshton Court in Sarasota, for $300,000. The buyer was represented by Robbins Realty. The seller, Lee & Sons Enterprises of Florida, was represented by an advisor with the downtown Sarasota office of SVN Commercial Advisory Group, Mike Migone. 

Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group

Corporate law attorney Gregory C. Yadley of Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick has been reappointed to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.Yadley has served on the national committee since its inception in 2011 and is one of only three members reappointed from the original committee. The 15-member committee makes recommendations to the five SEC commissioners concerning the best interests of small businesses and investors. 

Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick

G. Matthew Brockway was elected to law firm Icard Merrill’s board of directors. A shareholder at the Sarasota-based firm since 2014, Brockway practices primarily in the areas of real estate and land use law and intellectual property law. He earned his law degree from the University of Florida, as well as bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a master of Engineering degree. Brockway is board-certified in real estate law. 

Icard Merrill