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Artist Is Herself A Work In Progress… Cross-Country Runner Is In For The Long Haul


Artist Is Herself A Work In Progress

By Beth Browning | Sentinel Correspondent

August 31, 2002
Copyright © 2002 Orlando Sentinel. All rights reserved.

KISSIMMEE -- Beatrice Ellin's drawings have the look of someone who studied fashion design.

Ellin, though, has never had formal training. The closest thing to it was an art class she took by mail, but that became too expensive. Her favorite subjects with her pen-and-ink drawings are female faces and life studies. She also has drawn a Viking and animals.

Ellin dabbles in mosaics and has transformed the sidewalk at her home into a scene containing a variety of elements, such as a dolphin, tree, butterfly and rose, using glass pieces and tiles to create the design. Her dream, however, is to study computer drafting, concentrating on architectural designs.

"I would like to see my designs built," Ellin said.

She would also like to experiment with designing computer games.

"Drawing is more for relaxation. My drawings are in a portfolio instead of framed and hung," Ellin said. "It is my passion, but right now it is on the back burner due to my job."

Ellin was born in New York 32 years ago to Puerto Rican parents. When she was 10, the family moved to Puerto Rico. She started noticing the scenery and drawing palm trees and beaches. Four years later the family returned to New York. When she was 17, Ellin returned to Puerto Rico.

She and her husband, Dennis, have a daughter, Crystal, who was born in 1991. From 1992 to 1995, Ellin worked for Hewlett-Packard in Puerto Rico. Dennis Ellin joined the Army and was stationed in Korea for a year, then was transferred to Georgia. Beatrice Ellin joined him there and began working with Wal-Mart.

Four years ago Ellin decided she wanted to live in Florida. She called the Kissimmee Wal-Mart, received a transfer and arrived the next day. She roomed with a friend for two months while her husband finished his tour of duty.

Ellin started in soft lines at Wal-Mart, moved to the shoe department, then to the photo lab as a specialist. In April, she was promoted to assistant manager in the photo lab at the Buenaventura Lakes Wal-Mart.

When she is not drawing, Ellin finds time to model for Walt Disney World and for friends who are professional photographers. She plays the guitar -- she said she needsto learn to play better -- and dances flamenco.


Cross-Country Runner Is In For The Long Haul

By Joe Williams | El Sentinel

September 14, 2002
Copyright © 2002 Orlando Sentinel. All rights reserved.

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Endurance.

(PHOTO: MARK E. LEPOW/FOR THE ORLANDO SENTINEL)

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GROVELAND -- Running is more than a way of life for Santiago Emeric -- it is the way of his family's life.

Emeric, a senior at South Lake High School, emerged as one of the top cross-country runners in Lake County last year when he transferred from Evans High School. He started running alongside his father, Santiago Sr., when he was a little boy.

His younger brother Sebastian and his mother Diana, also run, making it a family affair.

"I remember running with my dad when I was young," Santiago said. "He always used to go running, and I would go too."

Santiago and his family moved to Florida from Vieques, Puerto Rico, when he was a baby, because his father, a physical therapist and his mother, a radiologist technician, could make a better living here. But he spends every other summer on Vieques, visiting relatives who still live there.

Vieques' residents in recent years have been in the news for protesting practice bombing runs by the United States Navy over their island.

"It is a great little island," Emeric said. "There are great beaches there. In my opinion, it is kind of sad what they [the military] are doing there. People say that you can see bomb shells just sitting in the water.

"It's really a much different lifestyle there. They don't have McDonald's there -- I mean, they have McDonald's in Puerto Rico, but there aren't any on the island. They don't have anything that is high-tech. It is just totally different."

Emeric not only has become one of the area's top runners, he also is a top student, carrying a 3.75-grade-point-average (out of a possible 4.0) in honors classes at South Lake, where he also runs distances on the track team and may play soccer this year.

"The one thing I have seen in him this year is that he really has a renewed love for the sport of running," South Lake Coach Bobby Haeck said. "He trains very hard. I look for him and Johnny Roberts [a former South Lake teammate who now is at new East Ridge High School in Clermont] to really push each other for the best in the county. I expect him to make it out of our district and, hopefully, qualify for state.

"And I expect him to see the same thing."

For Santiago, the driving force is to always be the best.

"If I go to races, if I am not running in them, I see other people win and I want to beat them," he said. "That makes me work harder. The only way I think I will ever stop running is if I don't go to any races anymore."

Haeck said Emeric's best running is ahead of him.

"He started off at Mount Dora Bible on Saturday [Sept. 7] at Mount Dora Bible and he ran 18:18, which is one of the fastest times I have seen him run in a 5K and that course is really tough," Haeck said. "I look for him to be in the 16s [minutes] when we go this weekend to Edgewater because it is a flatter, faster course."

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