Photo Gallery: Pensacola Memorial Day Service
May 28, 2013
A Memorial Day service was held Monday morning at the Veteran’s Park in Pensacola.
The opening prayer was presented Clint Lott, former assistant principal at Tate High School. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Lee “T-Bone” Welch of McDavid, and his father Gary Welch, also of McDavid, was recognized for his military service.
Pictured: A Memorial Day service Monday morning at the Veteran’s Park in Pensacola. Pictured below: Lee “T-Bone” Welch of McDavid (seated) leads the Pledge of Allegiance during the ceremony. Submitted photos by Perry Byars for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Boy Scouts Hold Berrydale Memorial Service
May 28, 2013
A Memorial Day service was held by Boy Scout Troop 408 of Jay at the Berrydale Community Cemetery on Monday.
Troop 408 honored all veterans buried at the cemetery with by calling out the veteran’s name and rank. Troop 408 also cleaned the cemetery and placed flags at each veteran’s grave site. Ryan McKinley played Taps on the bugle during the ceremony.
Pictured: Boy Scout Troop 408 holds a Memorial Day service at the Berrydale Community Center. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Wanted: Florida Foster Parents
May 28, 2013
With new legislation reforming Florida foster care, good foster parents will be more in demand than ever. And current foster parents say new ones will have a better experience than the old image of foster care might have led them to expect.
A so-called “normalcy” bill (SB 164) is already in law, giving foster parents more decision-making power when foster children want to take part in activities such as going to the prom or sleeping over at friends’ houses. Senate Bill 1036, which would give young adults the option of staying in foster care until age 21, passed the Legislature overwhelmingly but hasn’t gone to Gov. Rick Scott yet; he’s expected to sign it.
“Now we’re expecting to have teenagers stay in (foster care) longer, and possibly some teens that will re-enter,” said Lora Diaz, a foster and adoptive parent in Pasco County. “So we need more foster homes to be able to take care of this.”
Diaz is also a training coordinator with the Quality Parenting Initiative, which many credit with providing the push the bills needed by changing the perception of foster parents and how they’re treated by caseworkers and administrators.
“QPI has changed the culture of child welfare,” Diaz said.
The initiative is a joint project of the California-based Youth Law Center, the Florida Department of Children and Families, 15 of the state’s community-based care lead agencies and the Eckerd Family Foundation.
It sprang from a crisis in Florida in 2004, when foster homes were in such short supply that special-needs children were sleeping overnight in conference rooms at Big Bend Community Based Care, one of DCF’s lead agencies.
“It was children the shelter had rejected because they had such serious problems,” said Carole Schauffer of the Youth Law Center. “These were the highest-need kids who needed the most supervision.”
So Schauffer and Paolo Annino of the Florida State University College of Law sued DCF and Big Bend Community Based Care. By 2007, the case was settled and Bob Butterworth, who had dealt with the lawsuit while serving as attorney general, had become DCF secretary. He met with Schauffer and Jane Soltis of the Eckerd Family Foundation, agreeing that the need for more foster homes was statewide.
The Quality Parenting Initiative came out of that meeting, based on the idea that foster parenting was a brand with an image both negative and just plain wrong. And it was making it harder to recruit and retain good foster parents.
“People keep saying it’s that foster parents don’t get enough money,” Schauffer said. “But there are so many other things that people do that they don’t get enough money for, and they are lined up to do them.”
PARENT-CHILD BOND
The old normal was that foster children couldn’t go on family trips or sleep at a friend’s house without a security check. They couldn’t go to the beach or the prom. Such rules had their basis in liability law, but often damaged the foster child’s relations with the foster parents, especially for those children too young to understand why other kids had privileges they didn’t.
“They want to blame the parent because they don’t see the system,” said Thomas Fair, 23, a former foster youth who now works at Big Bend Community Based Care. “Sometimes they might take it out on that parent or on their group home or, you know, shut down. So that can really mess up that relationship.”
The child welfare authorities were prone to blame the parents, too, if the foster child made a typical mistake — falling out of a tree or wrecking the car.
“A child could be harmed at the beach, yes, and it has happened in the state,” agreed Mike Wakins, CEO of Big Bend Community Based Care. “But we also know those are the kinds of experiences that develop children and allow them to be part of a normal family.”
It cuts both ways. Schauffer said research shows the level of emotional attachment the foster parent feels for the foster child has direct consequences for the child’s ability to learn and succeed.
“If we put those kinds of limitations on, the foster parent is less likely to feel that emotional commitment,” Schauffer said. “And if they don’t feel that emotional commitment, it has a long-term impact on the kid.”
Soltis said brain-development research shows teenagers can still change their learning outcomes — with the right kind of parenting.
“Kids who age out (of foster care) at 18 generally have very poor outcomes,” Soltis said. “But if we listen to the research and provide age-appropriate learning experiences and opportunities for these kids, they can do better than we would have thought.”
John Fair, Thomas’s twin, offers himself as an example. He was troubled in foster care, he said.
“Especially coming from somewhere you can’t trust nobody, don’t have no one caring about you,” he said. “Seeing that difference in that exchange just opens a lot of doors for you as a person and opens yourself up to the world.”
John Fair will spend this summer in Washington, D.C., on a paid internship at the U.S. House of Representatives.
Schauffer praises the new legislation and says DCF and the community based care agencies have been responsive to Quality Parenting Initiative. But she warns the assumptions of the child welfare system are 100 years old, and — like racism — difficult to remove from institutional thinking.
“It’s hard to get people to think foster parents are full and respected partners on the team, not a baby-sitter,” she said
by The News Service of Florida
Blue Wahoos Lose Ninth Straight
May 28, 2013
The Chattanooga Lookouts scored in each of their first four at-bats en route to an 11-1 win over the Pensacola Blue Wahoos to finish off a five-game sweep on Monday evening at AT&T Field. Pensacola’s losing streak reached nine straight games.
The Lookouts pounded four home runs to blow out the Wahoos in the series finale. Yasiel Puig belted two homers, a three-run shot in the first and a two-run blast in the fourth to account for five RBI. Griff Erickson added a pair himself, a solo dinger in the second and a rout-capping, two-run moonshot in the seventh.
Tim Crabbe (2-4) was roughed up in three innings for Pensacola, yielding six runs (all earned) on five hits while walking four. After giving up homers in the first two innings, Crabbe walked three batters in the third, including two with the bags packed to force in two runs.
Pensacola’s lone run came in the top of the seventh when Theo Bowe smacked a two-out, pinch-hit double to score David Vidal from first. The two-bagger extended Bowe’s modest hitting streak to four games.
The Wahoos now return home to try and snap the extended losing skid with the first of a six-game series with the Jacksonville Suns. Chad Rogers (2-2, 1.93) gets the ball for Pensacola against Jacksonville’s Jay Jackson (2-1, 2.56). First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
story by Kevin Burke
Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Glynn Clayton Key, Jr.
May 28, 2013
Glynn Clayton Key, Jr., was born in Henley, Hays County, Texas on May 10, 1928. Mr. Key died Memorial Day, May 27, 2013, in Spanish Fort, Alabama. He was formerly a resident of Escambia County, Florida, raising Angus and farming there for over 40years. He was the son of Glynn Claiborne Key and Mary Rhoda Mansola. He attended Dripping Springs, Texas schools, and after attending Tarlton Junior College, joined the military. He served three years in the 82nd Airborne Division of the Army and was a staff sergeant.
After the Korean War, he went to Texas A&M and earned a Bachelor of Arts. After receiving a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Education from the University of Florida, he completed a year with the USDA’s citrus division. After he moved to Walnut Hill he began teaching agriculture at Ernest Ward High School where he taught for 27 years helping young people and FFA students to develop a love for farming through his leadership. Mr. Key added to the area’s genetic investment in animal husbandry as a member of registered Black Angus organizations like the American Angus Association. He raised registered Yorkshire and Hampshire hogs and bred and raised border collie dogs. He was active in the Ruritan Club of Walnut Hill for 31 years and was involved with and held offices in the Walnut Hill Water Board and the Escambia County Soil and Water Board. His dedicated work with the Escambia County Storm Water Committee resulted in the naming of the Glynn Key Storm Watershed Park, a wetlands preservation and education site in Pensacola.
Mr. Key established numerous scholarships and education funds for students, mainly in agriculture, and was a leader and teacher in the Canoe Church of Christ for over 30 years and was a lifelong member of the Church of Christ.
Mr. Key was predeceased by his wife of 46 years, Ann Cile Hall Key. He is survived by a brother, Billie Wayne Key of Texas, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral Services for Mr. Key will be Thursday, May 30, 2013, at 10:30 a.m. at Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home Chapel in Atmore, Alabama, with a graveside service afterwards, both officiated by Rick Whittle, minister of the Spanish Fort Church of Christ. Burial will follow in Hall Family Cemetery in Canoe, AL.
Visitation will be held Thursday, May 30, 2013, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. from the Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home.
Sunny And Warm Memorial Day Forecast
May 27, 2013
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Memorial Day: Partly sunny, with a high near 89. Light and variable wind becoming southeast 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
- Monday Night: Patchy fog after 4am. Otherwise, partly cloudy, with a low around 62. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Tuesday: Patchy fog before 7am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 89. East wind 5 to 15 mph.
- Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 65. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. East wind 10 to 15 mph.
- Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 67. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. East wind 10 to 15 mph.
- Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 67. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.
- Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66.
- Saturday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 92.
- Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 65.
- Sunday: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 90.
Memorial Day Programs Remember Those That Served
May 27, 2013
Several Memorial Day programs took place across the area this morning.
In Atmore, a Day of Rememberence Memorial Day program was held at the Atmore Memorial Monument in front of city hall (pictured top). More details and photos of this event will be published Tuesday.
Other planned events include:
All Day — Fort Pickens, Gulf Islands National Seasore
Gulf Islands National Seashore will host a special event in honor of Memorial Day at historic Fort Pickens. The event features a living history encampment by Company C, 3rd U.S. Infantry (1860-1865) until 5 p.m. Uniformed re-enactors will conduct period “Colors” and “Retreat” ceremonies at 5 p.m. Company drill demonstrations will be conducted at 3:30 p.m. Ranger led tours of Fort Pickens are at 2 p.m. At 3 p.m., a special moment of silence will be observed for those who have given their lives for their country.
Tuesday — Molino Park Memorial Day
Molino Park Elementary’s Melodic Minors Choir will present “Of Thee I Sing”, a patriotic concert to honor our veterans and service members on Tuesday, May 28 at 6 p.m. All service members past or present are welcome and encouraged to wear their service uniform or token of their service. Everyone is invited to attend.
Pictured top: A Day of Remembrance held Monday morning in Atmore. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Northview Class Of 2013 Holds Baccalaureate Service
May 27, 2013
The Northview High School Class of 2013 held their Baccalaureate service Sunday afternoon at the First Baptist Church of Bratt.
“Never forget that it matters to God what you do with what you have,” guest speaker Bro. Glenn Webber said during the student-led and organized program. The program included scripture, prayer and music provided by the Northview Senior Class Ensemble and students.
“Take time to appreciate what you have before time forces you to appreciate what you had,” Webber told the graduating seniors.
Graduation for the Northview High School Class of 2013 will be at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 1 at the school.
Pictured: The Northview High School Class of 2013 Baccalaureate service Sunday afternoon at the First Baptist Church of Bratt. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Memorial Day Closures
May 27, 2013
Most city, county and state offices are closed today for Memorial Day.
Closures:
- Escambia County Board of County Commissioners
- Escambia County Tax Collector
- Escambia County Clerk the Court
- Escambia County Property Appraiser
- Escambia County Supervisor of Elections
- Escambia County Schools
- City of Pensacola
- Town of Century
- West Florida Library
- ECUA business offices
- Florida state offices
Exceptions:
- Perdido Landfill will be open, offices closed.
- ECAT: Administrative offices are closed with no bus service except for Route 59 Express, Route 64 Beach Jumper and the Beach Trolley.
Trash Pickup
There will be no charges to the ECUA residential or commercial sanitation collection schedule. Sanitation collection schedule. All garbage, yard trash, recycling and commercial dumpster collections will be made on their regularly scheduled collection days.
North Escambia Memorials Honor Those That Served
May 27, 2013
People across North Escambia and the country will pause today to remember the brave men and women that have served our country as we celebrate Memorial Day.
In North Escambia, there are several memorials that honor those that have served in the military:
Walnut Hill Veterans Wall of Honor
The largest such memorial in the North Escambia area, the Veteran’s Honor Wall has stood in front of the Walnut Hill Community Center since its dedication in 2003. There are nearly 300 names on the wall, including names of just over a dozen soldiers killed in action. The wall honors those from the Walnut Hill area that have served in the nation’s military.
The Walnut Hill Ruritan Club began planning the wall in late 2001, and they decided that it would be a community project at no cost to the veterans listed.
Billy R. Ward began to engrave the names with an antique machine the club purchased off the internet, and there were 220 names on the wall when it was dedicated in 2003. He spent a lot of time on the project, even visiting the Wall South Memorial in Pensacola to get an idea what size the letters on the plaques should be.
On the Walnut Hill Veteran’s Honor Wall, everyone is equal. It was decided that no service rank would be include on the name plaques, just the branch and years of service.
It is estimated that about one-fourth of the veterans listed on the wall are now deceased.
The Walnut Hill Veteran’s Wall is located in front of the community center at 7850 Highway 97.
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LCpl Travis M. Nelson Park
The LCpl Travis M. Nelson Park was dedicated in Bratt on November 8, 2011, in honor of the local Marine killed in action in August 2011 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. It was just two weeks after his 19th birthday and only about a month after he arrived in Afghanistan.
The park features a memorial in Nelson’s honor. It is located on West Highway 4, just west of Northview High School.
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Atmore Veterans Memorial
The new Veterans Memorial in Atmore stands proudly on the lawn of the Atmore City Hall to pay tribute to those have served from around Atmore and North Escambia. Names of the fallen are on the spire, while commemorative bricks around the base of the spire name those that have served in the military past and present.
Those honored on the bricks date back to the Revolutionary War with a brick with the name of Benjamin Sasser, 1755-1840. His relative, Federick Sasser, 1794-1846, is also honored for his service in the War of 1812.
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Barrineau Park Wall of Honor
The Wall of Honor inside the Barrineau Park Community Center honors scores of area residents that have served in the military. The wall was a project of the Barrineau Park Historical Society. (Pictured above.)
Century Veterans Wall of Honor
About four dozen of those that served from the Century area are honored on the Century Veterans Wall of Honor at Century’s Roadside Park on Highway 29. The memorial was dedicated on July 4, 2008. (Pictured below.)
The Century Veterans Wall of Honor is located in the Nadine McCaw Park at the corner of North Century Boulevard (Highway 29) and Hecker Road.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.