Community Archive

Navarre Beach lifeguards is sending nine of their members to a national competition after recently competing at a regional lifesaving event in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The 2026 USLA James Mac McCarthy Memorial Surf Lifesaving Championships featured lifeguards from across the Southeast.

The Betty J. Pullum YMCA has reopened its newly renovated wellness area, giving members a new space and new equipment to work out.

Completed over a three-month period, the renovations included a 2,122-square-foot expansion of the wellness area. During the renovations, some gym equipment was moved into the multipurpose room, where basketball and volleyball are played.

Dep. Patrick Adam Blackwood has been in law enforcement for 14 years. This August, he will step into a brand-new role.

Blackwood was recently announced as the first school resource officer for Soundside High School.

Throughout his time at Community Life Church in Tiger Point, Jim Bell, 79, saw it all.

He started attending the church in the 1990s, when it opened its doors as a secondary campus of Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church. He became discipleship director and teaching pastor and helped the church navigate growth and serve the community.

A Navarre home was recently renovated for a U.S. Air Force veteran living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Tunnels to Towers Foundation, a nonprofit focused on helping first responders, veterans and their families, completed the renovation.

Air Force Master Sgt. (Ret.) Pete J. Nikolakakos spent 21 years in the Air Force, mainly working as an aircraft metals technology specialist.

Layloni Engelkens, a nurse at Ascension Sacred Heart’s freestanding emergency room in Navarre, not only helps patients heal, she also boosts their morale.

Engelkens, who has been working at the facility since it opened in 2021, maintains a series of chalk drawings on the glass doors of all 12 patient rooms at the ER.

A woman died Sunday, July 19, after being rescued from a house fire Saturday, July 18, in the 2100 block of Villa Street. The fire was reported just before 8 p.m.

The 911 caller told dispatchers the rear porch of a home was on fire and that numerous vehicles were in the driveway. By the time Battalion 40 with the Holley-Navarre Fire District arrived, the fire had already spread into the attic.

As the Blue Angels and other aerial acrobats took to the skies over the Emerald Coast this past weekend, one man sat in a stand on Pensacola Beach directing the entire event.

Paul Entrekin, a retired Marine and air show aviator, has been the air boss for the Pensacola Beach Air Show for 33 years.

Located in a strip mall on the north side of Highway 98 in Midway, Slidsters Tap House grew from owner Scott Day’s love of the American food staple.

Slidsters Tap House, which opened March 25, 2025, celebrated its first anniversary a few months ago and continues to grow, even as other restaurants struggle with the ebbs and flows of the economy.

Navarre Beach isn’t the normal stomping grounds of Pine Terrace Baptist Church, but it was the site of the church’s recent student beach worship night.

The Milton church brought more than 30 youth members to the beach Wednesday, July 15, for an event filled with fellowship and summer fun.