Community Archive

More than 70,000 people live in the Navarre area, but Robert Reyes stands out. The owner of a well-loved restaurant called Stripes and a U.S. Air Force veteran with 23 years of service, Reyes loves to put others first.

Reyes was nominated by multiple citizens and was selected to be the Navarre Press 2020 Person of the Year.

There’s can be only Navarre Press 2020 Person of the Year, but many others made a significant difference to the community this year, which lead to them being nominated for the distinction.

Here are the nominations for other residents worth watching in the months to come.

When Sabrina Svargerko had her baby, a little boy named Lincoln, in August, she still had a lot to learn, she says.

But before the new Navarre mom took him home from the Santa Rosa Medical Center, she sat down and watched a video about the importance of reading and singing to him, even before he was old enough to respond.

Here are some Santa Rosa County Animal Services achievements during a year made more challenging by COVID 19.

Among them are adoption rates increasing by 20%.

Deployment of new reef modules for the one-mile out reef expansion is expected to begin Tuesday morning at three sites off the shore of Navarre Beach.

A total of 47 structures will be deployed, including 20 at a site a little more than a mile south of the pier. The other two sites are a little less than a mile west of the pier.

The year of relentless challenges has finally come to an end and what better way to celebrate the new year then by taking a quick dip in the cold water.

More than 300 people came out to Juana’s Pagodas New Year’s Day for the 12th annual Penguin Plunge. Some registered as “penguins” and plunged into the chilly water of Santa Rosa Sound, while others registered as “chickens” and stood on the sidelines. Either way, all proceeds benefited Healing Paws for Warriors, a nonprofit that provides service dogs to veterans in need.

The Navarre Garden Club helped brighten Christmas for 50 local families this year with its Angel Tree Program.

Ann Marie Corbett, representing the Navarre Garden Club, is shown in this photo delivering Angel Tree Christmas gifts to an unidentified representative of Caring and Sharing of South Santa Rosa County. 

Six years ago, newlywed Tammy Kuss ended up on a “little rock in the Pacific Ocean” known as Guam with her military husband.

Friends and family were 3,000 miles away, and she had to learn how to transition from life as a single woman to sharing everything, including a home.

In the season leading up to Christmas, Gary Diamond worked in package delivery to make extra money to buy presents for his family.

Diamond, who had worked his way up to captain at the Navarre Beach Fire Rescue, was that way – always taking care of others.

So it makes sense that when he died early Saturday morning, during a domestic incident in Molino, he was putting other people’s needs ahead of his own, family members  say.

Readers were asked to submit Christmas photos of their pets.

Here are some of the those photos.