Vakani Orthodontics Sponsors St Lucie County School District Project Citizen Showcase Competition

Project Citizen Showcase is a competition among seventh graders in the St. Lucie County School District. Their goal is to find a problem in the St. Lucie County community, collaborate and create a solution to solve it through public policy. Patients of Vakani Orthodontics, Sarahi F. and Annalisa A., are local students of Palm Pointe Educational Research School at Tradition in Port St. Lucie, FL. The girls and their classmates chose to create a law to stop over breeding dogs and end abuse in Puppy Mills by entering their project entitled “Puppy Mills Bite” in the St. Lucie County School District Project Citizen Showcase competition. Dr. Vakani, an orthodontist at Vakani Orthodontics, decided to help them by sponsoring their project, as he happens to be an animal rights supporter himself.

Florida is one of the few states in the U.S. that does not regulate commercial breeders by state law. The girls, along with their classmates conducted their research with the assistance of Dr. Gaj from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Dr. Gaj visited their class and wrote a letter supporting their cause. The girls contacted Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson proposing their law and both senators replied, saying they would support them. Sarahi, Annalisa, and their fellow classmates at Palm Pointe Educational Research School at Tradition in Port St. Lucie, FL took first place out 3 groups in this year’s St. Lucie County School District Project Citizen Showcase competition.

The students of Palm Pointe will now continue to the next level in the Project Citizen Showcase competition, in which their portfolio will be displayed in the rotunda of the Capitol building in Tallahassee this spring. The state level competition will take place in Orlando, FL this May to choose a winner among the top ten projects chosen across Florida.