I covered Trump’s visit Friday.  I was in the media section – which I later regretted. My husband was in general seating and he had great seats and was in a better position than I was to get great photos. However, I had my super-duper long lens – and a ladder. I only had a ladder because another photographer brought two ladders and he could only be on one at a time. Therefore, I was the guardian of the ladder he wasn’t on. The atmosphere was electric and positive. There were some protestors outside – but not very many. We had someone call our office on Friday and invite us to go protest with them. For the record, media doesn’t protest – or shouldn’t protest – though they do it all the time – in their own pages. But, that is another topic. The civic center was full rafters to floor. There were even rows of people two deep in front of the media pit – where they weren’t supposed to be.  Thankfully – I had the aforementioned ladders. Every time Trump mentioned fake news or the lying media, some in the crowd in front of us would turn around and sneer and snicker – a little. They were trying to be as polite as possible while sneering – but I felt like I was in a cage at a Zoo and we were the attraction. However, they quickly forgot about us – in between jabs from Trump. Of course, I knew he wasn’t talking about Navarre Press. I even had someone tell me later that every time they heard Trump call out the fake news media he thought – “except Navarre Press.” He must have been reading my mind – because that is what I was thinking. When I was with Matt Gaetz on Open Gaetz Day in Navarre even Gaetz told me that he has never had an instance when Navarre Press has misrepresented him. And, for good reason, we don’t. We aren’t perfect and don’t pretend to be. We own up to our mistakes and fix them.  But we don’t take news out of the paper because it is derogatory to our friends and we don’t put slants on stories. There isn’t anyone that we would go out of our way to compromise our core values or our mission for. There just isn’t – because there is no one worth compromising ourselves for. And, there is a lot of salacious “news” we know that we don’t print because it really isn’t news.

A timeline of historical milestones in Navarre as provided by the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce can be found in this issue thanks to the scrapbooks of Shirley Brown. If you have read Navarre Press for any amount of time, or have lived in Navarre for the past 10 years or more – you know of the tireless efforts of Charlie and Shirley Brown as they were part of the glue that pulled this community together. And, you will see signs on the side of Hwy. 98 aptly dedicating a portion of the highway in memory of their service to our community. Of note, is that the Navarre Beach Area Chamber broke ground on the Navarre Community Center – the same community center that was later sold to the Navarre Beach Area Board of Realtors. The money for that sale was to be set aside for a new community center, but, I believe it was earmarked to go toward our multimillion-dollar park renovation where the chamber currently is located within the county building.

I’m sure you have heard by now but this is worth repeating. You are reading one of the best newspapers in the state of Florida – and we have the trophy to prove it. Last Friday in Naples, Florida, our newspaper earned 16 first place awards for journalism, three overall first place awards (meaning first place in all divisions) and the top award of Newspaper of the Year! They found our coverage to be second to none in sports, health/medical, in-depth reporting, headline writing, photography, First Amendment defense, the overall design of our newspaper,  local tax reporting, environmental reporting and nearly every other section of our paper. We are so proud to be part of something so much bigger than ourselves (Navarre Press core value) and to provide our readers with excellence only. Thank you for being our cheerleaders! You can see all of the coverage that won throughout this issue and in the spread of section B.

It seems escape rooms are all the rage right now and Navarre is fortunate to have one. It opened recently and Navarre Press had the opportunity to visit and find out more about this entertainment business model. The trend started in Japan in 2007 and now they are worldwide – including Navarre. You can read more about it on our Business page. It would be a great team-building exercise for businesses. Maybe even for our county commissioners – it would require them to come together to create a solution to the puzzle of clues to be able to get out of the room. Hmmm…work together to solve a problem. What a novel concept.