We want to give a huge shoutout to Juana’s! Last Saturday night, the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce was hosting their annual gala – beach party themed – and as luck would have it, it was forecasted to be very cold and rainy. Without hesitation, the Rudzki’s and Juana’s crew went to work setting up tents on the deck that appeared to be one continuous covering of the entire deck complete with sides to block the wind.
Last week I was rushing around getting ready for work, and I let the dogs out one last time before leaving for a meeting, and I was about to be late. Turns out, I was. One dog came in, and the second dog was nowhere to be found. So, I called out and she came around the corner with a very recently deceased squirrel in her mouth. She proudly plopped it down on the cement and then strutted into the house – very happy with herself.
I went to the AMC Theater on W Street in Pensacola last weekend to see “The Boys in the Boat.” It was a Friday night, which is usually a popular “date” night. However, when we arrived, there were only a few others in the theater. The movie, directed by George Clooney, was well worth seeing, but there were only about eight of us in the movie theater by the time the movie started. When we exited at 8:45ish p.m., the concession stand was closed, and it was like a ghost town.
We are proud of the five Navarre High School students who received military academy nominations from U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz. Benjamin Johnson, Gennaro Smith, Jee Lee, Brenner Mavity and Katelynn Johnson were the Navarre students selected. You can read about it on page 2A.
Let the record reflect, Jay High School in north Santa Rosa County does not have a wrestling team. The district’s county commissioner, James Calkins, shared a post over the weekend on social media and congratulated Jay’s wrestling team – Jay, Oklahoma. He later blamed it on a staff member and removed the post. It is just a suggestion, but if you follow the Santa Rosa Press Gazette sports page on Facebook, and X, you wouldn’t make that mistake. Also, we are sure if our Jay High School had a wrestling team, they would be worthy of congratulations. When you are unsure about your sports teams, just ask Brian Lester – our Santa Rosa County sports reporter. He is the expert on Navarre, Milton, Pace and Jay sports.
The Mardi Gras Parade will be here before you know it. You may have forgotten, but last year’s was cancelled due to the weather. The weather has rained on a lot of parades lately. The Navarre Christmas Parade was cancelled due to rain this year and Crestview’s was also cancelled, rescheduled, and then cancelled again due to bad weather the following weekend.
As I’m typing this column we are posting about the storm and deciding on whether or not to send people home early and then delaying our start time tomorrow. As I came down the stairs at my office and looked around, I thought out loud that if a tornado hit our building, we would have papers all over Navarre. Gail chimed in and said, well, we say we have Navarre covered…we literally would.
Happy 2024! We are looking forward to the new year. We have two additional team members joining us within the first eight days of the new year, and we interviewed a very good candidate for Crestview today. One of our new team members will be “newsworthy” because of her history with Santa Rosa Press Gazette. You can “read all about it” next week. Can you tell I’m excited about having more help? The week between Christmas and New Year’s we have been getting computers and offices ready for our new team, clearing out a storage unit – one of three. Yes, we are the culprits keeping all the storage units in business.
I recently heard a sermon from my home church, First Baptist Orlando, that 100% inspired this column. I love Christmas for many reasons, but first and foremost because we are celebrating and recognizing the significance of the birth of Jesus. How does the world celebrate Christmas? By giving gifts and acts of kindness to one another to demonstrate our love for others.
If you are still looking for that perfect Christmas gift, you should check out all our photos at www.yourcommunityphotos.com. We have tons of photos that covered sports, local events, naturalization ceremonies and beautiful shots of Navarre, the beach, and sunsets. All of them are frame-worthy. You can order the photo on metal, canvas or print.
