Restaurant review > 7 Athletics > 14 Interests > 6 Josh Garrick says TJ’s Seafood UCF baseball fights for the Pop Up Pianos will be auctioned Shack lives up to its acclaim C-USA title this weekend off for charity on June 3 www.SeminoleVoice.com Free! May 25 - June 7, 2012 Skeleton home gets clean slate ISAAC BABCOCK The Voice An unfinished home that amassed $338,000 in code enforcement fines may finally be completed after the Oviedo City Council struck a deal with SunTrust Mortgage to slash the amount owed to the city. Cheering The result may be the end to a saga that Mayor Dominic Persamp- iere said has haunted an Oviedo street for the better part of a decade. There’s something resembling a home in the middle of Long Acres for Caitlin Lane in Oviedo, but not quite. The exposed block walls stretch for long expanses, broken up by worn ply- wood boards and insulating plastic, waiting to come together. “This has been a nightmare from Day 1,” Persampiere said of the house, which has changed PHOTO BY SARAH WILSON — THE VOICE hands between owners and fallen Oviedo’s Caitlin Downing, 5, crossed paths on Tuesday with London Peoples, the 6-year-old Orlando boy who was diagnosed with the same rare brain cancer. into foreclosure while construction stalled and code enforcement viola- tions began piling up. SunTrust ac- Community shows support for two local kids fighting a grim brain cancer diagnosis quired the property in March. At one point the property was SARAH WILSON Neither did her mother, Denise. But when shirt, with his hair styled into a thinning-by- being fined at the rate of $500 per The Voice the boy’s mother called out to them, the par- the-day Mohawk, asked the little girl. He day, but code enforcement man- allel realities the two families had been living was on his way into his next-to-last day of ager Shawn O’Rourke said that it In a rush to be out of the sterile doctor’s office for the past month instantly collided. radiation treatment. n Please see HOUSE on page 3 in favor of the vibrant leftover birthday fun “Can I give you a hug?” asked Ginger “London?” asked the spunky girl in the that awaited her at home, 5-year-old Caitlin Nader, the mother of London Peoples, the Hello Kitty dress, her head partially shaved Downing of Oviedo nearly didn’t notice the wide-eyed boy with the round, familiar face. to reveal a story-telling scar, realizing their fleetingly familiar face of the young boy she “I feel like I know you so well, and we’ve connection. She was one step ahead, at the passed in the Arnold Palmer Hospital hall- never even met.” hospital for a post-operative check-up. way on May 22. “Are you Caitlin?” London, 6, in his pirate n Please see CAITLIN on page 4 Look for a The science guy feature on the top 5 percent of graduating Publisher statement on page 2. USPS 008-093 Oviedo High valedictorian takes science fair seniors from Winter Springs, world by storm, sets his eyes on Harvard Oviedo and SARAH WILSON radiation given off by Bluetooth Hagerty high The Voice headsets, he found a way to do it schools in the testing plants and fruit flies. Voice’s June 8 Oviedo High School senior Neel In seventh grade, when he issue. Patel can turn anything into a sci- wanted to find a way to accumulate ence experiment. enough data to predict standard- In sixth grade, when he wanted ized test scoring, he figured it out PHOTO BY ISAAC BABCOCK — THE VOICE to test the amount and affect of n Please see PATEL on page 2 Neel Patel poses with one of the many trophies he won in his senior year. What’s goin’ on? INDEX Opening this week: ‘MEN IN BLACK III’ The Oviedo Mall will offer free Celery Stalks ........................................... 4 children’s activities, including Stetson’s Corner ...................................... 5 balloon bending, storytelling Interests .................................................. 6 and mime shows, on Tuesdays Calendar .................................................. 8 and Wednesdays for nine Athletics ................................................ 14 weeks starting June 5. Ask Sandi .............................................. 15 Young Voices ......................................... 15 Classifieds ............................................. 16 Agent J goes back in time and teams up with the young Calendar > 8 version of his partner, Agent K, to stop an alien invasion. Page 2 May 25 - June 7, 2012 Seminole Voice THIS WEEK in history May 31, 1859 — The massive clock tower bell known as Big Ben, located at the top of the 320-foot-high St. Stephen’s Tower, rings out over the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, for the first time. THIS WEEK Just two months later, however, the heavy striker cracked the bell. PATEL | The Oviedo senior didn’t follow suit and shake hands with Obama — sharing a fist bump instead n CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE May 18, this valedictorian from He placed sixth in the national In- his research on representing large He’s a normal kid whose plans Geneva has burritos on the brain, tel Science Talent Search in Wash- amounts of data through the use for the summer include writing a with a positive success rate. And and is putting this Chipotle exper- ington, D.C., in March where he of sonifications, or non-speech book to inspire middle school stu- when he wanted to use those data iment to test with the masses for got to fist-bump President Barack based sounds. dents to get into science, working harvesting skills to move into his valedictorian speech. Obama. He earned valedictorian “All these other kids were on getting two start-up compa- mass data analysis in high school, “The theme I’m supposed to be and was named to prom court. He winning and doing these sorts of nies off the ground, and spending he did it — and won or placed in writing my speech on is ‘Special did this all while dual enrolling in hand signs to represent their area three weeks in Italy for a fellow- nearly every science fair he en- People’ and right now I’m work- college-level classes at the Univer- codes, I think, when they got on ship in which he’ll be studying tered. ing on relating that to the perfect sity of Central Florida and Semi- stage,” she said, remembering other innovative ways of present- So when he tells you he’s de- construction of a Chipotle burrito nole State College of Florida — it with a laugh and mimicked ges- ing and interacting with data sets. veloped a scientific method for the bowl,” he said. looks like he’s done a pretty good ture, “and Neel got up there and “My research is all about think- ordering and eating of a Chipotle The rice, he explains, is the job balancing his work and play. he straight up Tebow’d (got down ing about data in new ways and burrito bowl, you believe him. foundation of family, the meat is “In 10 years, no one is going on a knee and start praying aka in new places,” he said. “One day “I have what I order down to a the substance of the core people to ask or care about what place I Tim Tebow after a touchdown). It I want to start a company and be science,” he said. you build your successes around, got, but I will be able to tell people was so unexpected coming from able to change the world around His tricks are ordering a and the sour cream, salsa and top- ‘fist-bump with the president,’ ” him, but it was great.” me and actually make a difference chicken burrito bowl with extra pings are the people that season Patel said with a laugh. “…And Neel’s father, Sanjay Patel, who through science.” rice, and a tortilla on the side. He your life — and in his case, keep I’d say the most unexpected hon- also works in mass data analy- His more immediate goal for shakes up the bowl, eats half in him grounded when he’s off win- or this year was being named to sis, said beneath all the science the next week is to go to as many the tortilla and the other half with ning national and international prom court, that was pretty cool.” awards and honors, he’s always graduation parties as possible, a spoon. He’s come to the scien- science awards, planning for his Oviedo High School biology seen Neel as an everyday high and to mention as few clichés tific conclusion that this way, you future studying computer science teacher P.J. Kreahling said she’s school kid. as possible in his valedictorian not only get more food, but eat- at Harvard University in the fall, not at all surprised by Patel’s suc- “To us he’s just a normal kid, speech. He has a few other tricks ing it with the spoon allows you and turning down offers from cess. so to see him place in an interna- up his grad gown sleeve for the to scoop up all the sauces, and Stanford and the Massachusetts “He’s probably one of the most tional competition the way he did, big day, he says, but that experi- ensures, he says, “a better, overall Institute of Technology. gracious overall kids I’ve ever it’s somewhat humbling for him ment is top secret, and maybe a more flavorful experience.” “I’ve kind of adopted ‘Work met,” she said. “He’s really one and us,” he said.