The newly formed Blackwater Chapter of the Blue Knights International recently rode to the highest point in Florida to honor officers killed in the line of duty.
Jay Carraway, 91, speaks rapidly. Short, to the point sentences carry no nail-biting emphasis on the carnage and destruction he witnessed at Pearl Harbor, that day of infamy, December 7, 1941, they speak volumes.
Two years ago amid budget constraints and after a canine suffered a career-ending injury, the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office asked the community’s help to purchase more canines for their K-9 unit. The response was incredible with over $30,000 raised for the unit, which requires periodic animal replacement. Once again, the community is rallying to support for the award-winning K-9 unit. The Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Class is holding a golf tournament in August to help fund the purchase of another canine officer.
Retired Air Force Chief Angel Ortiz came home at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon from babysitting his three grandchildren and found more than two feet of standing water in his back and side yard on Raider Lane in Navarre.
Driving down neighborhood streets in Navarre, one would never know that there is a cottage industry of raising backyard chickens for eggs unless you happen to know someone that is participating. Neighbors wouldn’t necessarily know because the majority of the owners don’t breed their chickens and therefore a rooster is not required. However, when you run into someone with chickens, you’ll notice they love to talk about them.
This evening’s Concert in the Park will have a special mission, featuring a donation table to benefit the planned Gulf Coast Discovery Center, a $6.9 million project that will allow the public to observe and interact with the gulf’s underwater ecosystem without ever leaving land.
Despite the Blue Angles being grounded, the show will go on through the skies over Pensacola Beach this weekend. The Pensacola Beach Airshow, that is. This year’s event will feature more than 20 civilian aircraft, but not the Blue Angels, performing awe-inspiring maneuvers beginning at 1 p.m. and lasting until 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 12, according to Buck Lee, Santa Rosa Island Authority Executive Director.
“I was born in Elmwood, Ohio,” Donald Hickman, 80, said. “It was a small community with 13 bars, 13 churches, about 3,500 people, and I quit school and joined the Navy in 1950,” he chuckled.
The golden rule of treating others as you would like to be treated is a simple enough concept, but one seemingly too often overlooked in today’s hectic society. The Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Class 27 is trying to change that. The group has started a local pay-it-forward campaign designed to unite all areas of Santa Rosa County using a series of random acts of kindness.
