Haven & LKLD

05/27/2026

🏆GET READY!!!🏆

BEST OF HAVEN & LKLD voting begins on Monday!

No nominations
No "pay to play"
No rounds of voting

Stop by havenmagazines.com, choose from Best Of Haven or Best Of LKLD and write-in your picks for each category. Voting is a simple & meaningful way to show your support and appreciation for local businesses. Don't let their hard work go unnoticed!

You can vote once a day from June 1 - July 26.

Winners will be announced in the September issues.

Thanks!

05/27/2026

"If you stop and watch a patch of flowers for five minutes, you will realize that the little cartoon bees we all drew as children is an over-simplification of what our bees look like. Our native bee species are some of the most beautiful insects in Polk County and also, vary widely in appearance!"

This month, Shannon Carnevale teaches us about native bees. Did you know ... "our native bees can be as small as a grain of rice or as large as the width of a quarter; fuzzy or almost bare; brown and red or metallic blue and green ..." Visit havenmagazines.com to read the full story!

05/26/2026

📷You're invited!💕 Hang out with us on June 5 during First Friday and check out the photos chosen for the June issues, see which two made the covers, and meet the photographers.

It's going to be a FUN night!

Destroyer Media and Marketing
Central Florida Photo Club
First Friday Winter Haven

05/26/2026

📖Read anything good lately? 📚 Need a summer book recommendation?

Thank you to the Lakeland Public Library & the Winter Haven Public Library for May's book selections! Find the full lists at havenmagazines.com.

What are you currently reading?

05/25/2026

🇺🇸In honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, we honor their memory & their families.

05/18/2026

Want to be in the magazine? Tag your posts with in east Polk County & in Lakeland and it might get selected for the next issue!

Check out some of May’s posts here!

05/15/2026

This month, Bob Gernert writes about the history of Winter Haven High School:

"Winter Haven’s first official high school opened in 1915. It was a kindergarten through 12th grade facility located on Central Avenue on the site of the current downtown post office. Prior to 1915, Haven School’s educational offering stopped at the eighth grade. By October of 1916, the school fielded a basketball team. There were 15 students in the first graduating class."

Finish reading at havenmagazines.com and find out why they're called the Blue Devils, why they moved, and some of the impressive awards they've accumulated!

05/14/2026

"... the sphere would roll across the floor on its own, stop, and change direction, occasionally returning toward people after rolling away, as if correcting its path."

Sometime in March 1974, the Betz family discovered a metal sphere on their property on Fort George Island in Jacksonville. What was it? Where is it? Do you remember this from the 70s? So many questions.

Read the full story at havenmagazines.com.

05/13/2026

Introducing our newest feature to Haven & LKLD Magazines, a fictional short story every month written by local actor/filmmaker/writer, Jeremy Gardner. May's story is called,"The Lure." Enjoy:

One large cheese pizza. Nothing else. No toppings, no bottle of pop. The precise minimum order required for delivery. He confirmed the address three times before he drove out there.

“This is in the Norman building? Is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“Downtown on Central?”

“Yep.”

“In Barlow?”

“Listen bud, just take it to the tallest building you see when you walk outside. I’m on six.” She hung up. She sounded cute.

In the Peppy Pizza parking lot, he tucked the hot bag into the backseat and shot a look over the roof of his car. Even two miles away, in the dark, The Norman loomed over the town like a fairy tale tower. And on this night, halfway up the edifice, for the first time in his lifetime…

— “I’ll be damned.”

A single window glowed warm with orange light.

Finish reading at havenmagazines.com

05/13/2026

This is going to be a great show! The kids from the Jewett School of the Arts are amazing.

Next LIVE & LOUD show is June 5th at The Ritz in Downtown Winter Haven. Presented by Haven & LKLD and Six Ten LLC. As always, this show is all ages and only $5! Doors at 6pm. With Jewett School of the Arts, Cherry 2000, The Disorderly and returning is Twiggy Branches

05/12/2026

“And, yes, I am different, but it’s not something that should be held against me. I deserve as much as everyone else does … and I should be able to advocate and ask for those things. Lighthouse and Ms. Elizabeth taught me that.”

This month we visit Lighthouse for the Blind & Low Vision to hear about how they help people of all ages learn to navigate their home, workplace, and the community. They offer programs, training spaces, and even household items to make life easier.

Read the full story at havenmagazines.com