Community Archive

When Donald Vaughan was 17 years old, he joined the United States Navy and was soon deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin, the waters off the coast of northern Vietnam.  He was in combat there for a few months when one day, a Skipper approached him to inform him of a significant problem. Because of his age, Vaughan’s parents had to officially give permission for him to be there fighting in the war. In the day and age before high speed internet and the ability to scan documents, the best they could do was use the ship to shore radio to try to contact his parents. Upon finally reaching Vaughn’s father, the Skipper explained that Vaughan needed a verbal okay to remain on the ship and in the war. Vaughn spoke to his father for several minutes, reassuring his dad that being in the Navy was what he wanted to do and that he did in fact sincerely want to stay. After a meaningful dialogue between father and son, Vaughan’s father addressed the Skipper and gave his permission for his son to remain on the ship.

Part of becoming an Eagle Scout involves doing a service project that benefits the community in some way. Christian McEwan of Troop 406 in Navarre got a great idea from someone at his church.

The Beach Bowl rivalry extends beyond the football fields and into the hallways of both Navarre and Gulf Breeze High Schools.  As tradition would have it, the football players compete on the fields and the students compete with a food collection drive that benefits Caring and Sharing of South Santa Rosa County.

Membership frustrated with decades of attempts to change the Holley-Navarre Water System’s proxy system for voting stood up to make a change at  a Oct. 27 meeting.

Navarre received between 4 and 6 inches of rain from Halloween night into Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service in Mobile.

Everyone who comes before the Santa Rosa County Zoning Board is a special case, at least to those applying for exceptions from the rules governing the use of their property.

Many Santa Rosa County offices are up for election in 2016. In fact, all constitutional offices will be up for election. All of the current constitutional officers will be running for re-election, with the exception of Sheriff Wendell Hall, who has chosen not to run again.

Pet Nation held its annual Halloween event for dogs on Oct. 30 with trick-or-treating for the canines dressed in costumes.  “We usually get between 40-50 dogs for the event, but this year we definitely broke the record with 100 dogs,” owner Holly Elassaad said.  The popular costumes this year were sports-related; football, baseball and referees.

Something extraordinarily special happens when you bring children into an assisted living community to socialize with the residents.  It is difficult to tell who benefits the most, the children or the seniors.

Whitmire Cemetery is the resting place for many respectable, Pensacola families and their loved ones and is located near Olive Baptist Church. According to Jacquelyn Wilson, a local historian of the area and Archivist/Historian for the University of West Florida Historic Trust, “Whitmire cemetery is a public cemetery on Whitmire Road in the Ferry Pass area of Pensacola. This cemetery was set up in the early 1900s by a local family so that there would be a community burial ground.”