Saint Patrick’s Day is this Sunday and the Shamrock Stroll 5K Fun Run/Walk and Pet Parade and Costume Contest is this Saturday on Navarre Beach from 8-10 a.m. There is a registration fee, but you can get there as early as 7 a.m. the day of the event and register. The next holiday is Easter. Easter Sunday is the last day of March on the 31st. Santa Rosa County Schools (and UWF) are out for Spring Break the week before Easter. There is a large concert, Spring Jam, going on at Juana’s on March 24, the Sunday before Easter. Okaloosa Schools have Spring Break March 15-22.
Navarre High School students built an electric car funded by Florida Power and Light. After two months of work, they were able to take it to Five Flags Speedway and test it. What a great project for our students.
We had a great white shark wash ashore Friday morning which was very well fed, not pregnant. An autopsy later confirmed that she was probably 30 years old. Females are considered mature and have the potential to be pregnant around 33 years of age. Kudos to the Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center (NBSTCC); Alex Fox, a Marine Biologist from the Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center; Paige Douglas from Gulf World Marine Institute (GWMI); Volunteers Bob and Tony from NBSTCC; and Navarre Beach Fire Department and Sheriff’s Officers who secured the area because there were plenty there who just wanted to use the situation for their five minutes of fame.
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.
