Submitted by Donna Digennaro, South Lake County Historical Society
It was a great 2018 for Clermont’s Historic Village and the South Lake County Historical Society. Many people visited the Village, not only from Clermont, Lake County, Florida or even the United States.
People from several different countries, mostly in Europe, came to see our beautiful buildings. They also came to see a fascinating demonstration of Morse Code, Tin Lizzies, the Heritage Day Festival, and interesting guest speakers ranging from a chef to authors, from Historical Society members to Clermont City officials and many more.
2019 is going to be just as exciting and it is all going to start at the Society’s January membership meeting on Monday the 14th at 7 pm. The featured speaker will be Sheryl Needle Cohn.
Ms. Cohn is a teacher in Groveland, a Holocaust historian and the author of The Boy in the Suitcase: Holocaust Family Stories of Survival, a book where each chapter tells a different story of families throughout the world who have been affected by the Holocaust, including the title story of a boy smuggled out of Germany in a suitcase and raised in the Dominican Republic and “Baker of Quaregnon,” a screenplay she wrote dealing with a bakery where Jewish families hid from the Nazis that is being considered for a movie.
Cohn will be sharing information about both of these writings and how they came to be, as well as a story of her own grandmother’s experiences in Europe during World War II that she uncovered while researching her family’s genealogical history. Cohn will have copies of her book available for sale at the meeting or it can be pre-ordered on Amazon.
Clermont’s Historic Village is a unique partnership between the City of Clermont & the South Lake County Historical Society which is open every Friday from 1 pm to 3 pm and every Saturday & Sunday from 1 pm to 4 pm. Located at 40 West Ave. on the shores of beautiful Lake Minneola and just a few short blocks from the Historic Downtown Shopping District, the Village is the perfect place to spend a Fall afternoon. Admission to the Village is always free but a $2.00 donation per person is requested. After touring the Village, please like us on Facebook or mention us on Yelp.
If you are interested in history in general or the history of Lake County in particular, contact the South Lake County Historical Society by going to our website, ClermontVillage.org; by calling our manager, Roxanne Brown, at 352-432-3496 or by attending our membership meetings which are held on the second Monday of every month at 7 pm in the Train Depot in the Historic Village.
The next meeting will be January 14th and Sheryl Needle Cohn will be the speaker.
