Community Heroes Spruce Up Atmore YMCA
August 7, 2015
Volunteers from the Ensley Lowes and the local community came together Thursday to spruce up the Atmore Area YMCA.
The Ensley Lowes selected the Atmore Area YMCA as their Community Hero Project for the year. Lowe’s Heroes is a company-wide volunteer initiative that offers Lowe’s employees the opportunity to work on a project in their own neighborhood, helping to make their communities better places to live, work and play.
The volunteers painted, added ceiling fans and updated restrooms at the Y.
Back in 2014, it was announced that the Atmore YMCA would close its doors due to a poor financial outlook. But within just a few weeks the Y announced the community had stepped forward with funding to keep the doors open. The Atmore YMCA has served Atmore and surrounding areas since June 1995. The Atmore YMCA currently has over 500 memberships representing about 1,250 members.
Meet The Dogs That Protect Florida Agriculture
August 7, 2015
Protecting Florida’s $120 billion agriculture industry requires a multifaceted approach, including the assistance of several four-legged, furry helpers. During the dog days of summer, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is showcasing its lesser-known staff members—rescue dogs trained to detect invasive pests and disease.
“Dogs’ unparalleled sense of smell makes them indispensable to multiple industries, including law enforcement and health care. Here at the department, our working dogs are an integral part of our early detection efforts to identify invasive pests and disease that threaten Florida’s agriculture industry,” stated Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam.
Florida’s warm climate makes it a hotbed for invasive pests and disease. Among the many tools the department employs to detect, monitor and eradicate pests and disease are five working dogs.
Meet the dogs that defend Florida’s agriculture industry:
Audi (age: 5): Audi is a chocolate Labrador Retriever rescue dog who patrols parcel facilities in Orlando, Tampa and Miami. One career highlight is when Audi detected olive branches from California with fruits that contained larvae of the Olive fruit fly, one of the most damaging pests of olives in southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and California. Olive trees are a relatively new addition to Florida’s agriculture portfolio.
Kojak (age: 6): Kojak is a Labrador Retriever-mix rescue dog who works in Ft. Myers, Tampa and Orlando. Kojak patrols parcel facilities to detect invasive pests and disease, as well as unauthorized plant material that may have been shipped into Florida. One career highlight is when Kojak detected a live whitefly pupa and several crushed adult whiteflies.
Bear (age: 4): Bear is a Labrador Retriever-mix rescue dog who works in Miami. Bear’s sole mission is to detect giant African land snails in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, which are considered to be one of the most damaging snails in the world. They consume at least 500 types of plants and pose a threat to health as they carry rat lungworm, which can cause meningitis in humans and animals.
Sierra (age: 3): Sierra is a chocolate Labrador Retriever rescue dog. She joins Bear in the mission to eradicate giant African land snails located in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Verde (age: 7): Verde is a Labrador Retriever who was found abandoned and in ill health. Since her rescue and recovery, she has been trained to patrol parcel facilities to detect invasive pests and disease. She works in Miami, Hollywood, Homestead and Miramar at postal facilities. One career highlight is when Verde detected invasive water lettuce, which is prohibited to import to Florida, contained within an unmarked box at a postal facility.
Pictured top: Larry Bynum and Bear. Pictured inset: Kojak with a find. Pictured below: Sierra locates a giant African land snail. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Northview Tribal Beat Band Preview Show Friday Night
August 6, 2015
The Northview High School Tribal Beat Band will present a special preview of a portion of their 2015 halftime show Friday evening, August 7, at 6:30 p.m. in the NHS Tommy Weaver Memorial Stadium. The event is free is open to everyone. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Need A Birth Certificate To Get A Driver’s License Or ID Card?
August 5, 2015
The Marcus Pointe Office of Escambia County Tax Collector Janet Holley is now issuing Florida certified birth certificates to customers who are in need of the documentation to complete their driver license and identification card transactions.
Requests not related to a tax collector transaction are not accepted at this time. Birth certificates can only be issued to the registrant (the child named on the record) if of legal age (18) or the parent(s) listed on the birth record.
The applicant (self or parent) will complete an application and provide valid photo identification. Acceptable forms of identification include: driver license, identification card, passport, and/or military identification card.
Birth record purchases are non-refundable. The cost for the certified Florida birth certificate is $17.25; additional copies of the same record purchased at the same time cost $10 each. These fees are separate from any driver license or identification fees that are charged.
For more information, contact the tax collector’s office at (850) 438-6500, ext. 3252.
Pine Meadow Making Space For Makerspaces
August 5, 2015
Makerspaces are coming to Escambia County Public Schools this year according to Superintendent Malcolm Thomas. This is just one part of his Vision 2020 plan that he is rolling out to administrators and teachers this week as the district prepares for the start of the 2015-2016 school year.
Makerspaces are creative, DIY spaces where people can gather to create, invent, and learn.
“Schools and education are improving, but the world is changing at a pace faster than our improvement trajectory,” Thomas told a group of administrators and teachers who attended the district’s Administrator’s Conference last Friday. “We have to be able to prepare the workforce of the future. We cannot sit and wait for the future, we must lead and prepare for the future.”
Makerspaces are one of the ways schools will be helping children of today prepare to be the life-long learners and creative leaders of our future is by going back to an old fashioned concept of letting kids explore, experiment and learn through trial and error in a safe environment. One school that is already onboard with this idea is Pine Elementary School where the school’s media specialist, Debby Dorough, found out about Makerspaces on Pinterest and decided to try it.
“I started small with Legos and tinker toys. I set up a space with materials and no directions – just build something, take a picture of your creation and then take it apart for the next person,” Dorough explained.
This summer, Dorough continued to develop this plan with special events in their library every Wednesday in July. Different groups of students met at different times throughout the day. One group was learning how to be this year’s library helpers while others were learning how to be Pine Meadow’s Techspurts (technology helpers). She also had an hour for teachers, so they could learn new technology tricks and techniques over the summer, such as how to use a green screen or how to use an Apple TV in their classrooms.
Then at 2:00 the Minecraft Club met. Once they helped each other learn the program, they agreed upon a rubric for designing a virtual school.
“They decided what to include, like classrooms, a bus ramp, a cafeteria, etc. Then they put their own spin on it, like having a lava pit in the principal’s office,” Dorough added with a laugh. “They designed on iPad minis and presented using an AppleTV which allowed everyone to see their design as they took everyone on a virtual tour.”
“I tried to make the cafeteria look like a replica of the Crusty Crab,” explained incoming fifth grader, Michael Bui to his friends. Why the Crusty Crab? “I like Sponge Bob.”
Meanwhile, Griffin Lavallee a third grader this year, explored how the marble run worked in another Makerspace. His goal was to get the marble to run a course from the top to the bottom without jumping the track. When he finally got all of the pieces to cooperate, he was able to drop a series of marbles into the top and have them end up in a reservoir piece at the bottom. He was quite triumphant and explained that he figured out that he had to “move things to make them workout and you have to figure the timing out (between the marbles) not from the top but, from where your marble got stuck.”
He presented his marble course to Mrs. Dorough and proudly told her he had named the marble run, the Spinner McWinga!
Trial and error in a safe environment. Encouragement to try something with no right answer – to instead find YOUR best answer. These ideas are just a start of what can come from time in Makerspaces.
“Escambia County school teachers will be asked this year to try this and then to share their ideas on Pinterest,” said Thomas. “Our district Fine Arts coordinator, Angela Barberi has set up iVision2020 on Pinterest for us, so everyone will have somewhere to post their ideas and photos of their examples. In addition, even I have pinned sites I hope our teachers will find inspiring.”
Another key element of Makerspaces success is “plussing.” Teachers are “plussing” when they borrow what’s good about an idea and make it better. Ideally, there is no limit to the number of times an idea can be plussed.
Creating Makerspaces in libraries, technology labs and classrooms will take thinking out-of-the-box and it will take sometime to select an idea and acquire materials needed to match that idea. All sorts of items can be used in a Makerspace. They are only limited by imagination, space and materials – so really, the sky’s the limit.
“Librarians this year will love donations of fun materials. They can be new or gently used,” added Dorough. “If your kids loved it, our kids will love it as well.”
Some suggestions are Legos, Duplos, K’nex, Imaginex and other building toys; puppets for story creation; dolls with clothes for kids interested in fashion design; magnets and art supplies. Another item schools can use are board games, dice and pieces for students to repurpose and create their own games.
Other items can help schools set up the stations, for example, oil drip pans or large cookie sheets help create a station like the marble run while large dry marker boards can be mounted or even turned into table tops. Another idea is to use flat green Lego building foundation flats and put them side by side on a board that can be safely mounted vertically, so kids can use Legos to build something that will come out from the board allowing them to work in 3D in a new way.
Those interested in helping accomplish this, can contact their favorite school or those interested in helping on a larger scale, can contact the Community Involvement Office by calling 850-469-5676, or by emailing Jo McArthur, ECSD Community Involvement Coordinator, at jmcarthur@escambia.k12.fl.us.
Pictured top: Michael Bui, 5th grader at Pine Meadow Elementary School designed his perfect school using Minecraft on an iPad mini during July meetings of Pine Meadow’s Minecraft Club. At their final meeting on July 29th, club members took turns leading club members on virtual tours of their schools on an AppleTV. The cafeteria in Hui’s school was designed to resemble Sponge Bob’s Crusty Crab. Pictured inset: Griffin Lavallee, a third grader this year at Pine Meadow Elementary School, makes adjustments to the pieces of the marble run. Pictured below: Pine Meadow Elementary School librarian and Makerspace coordinator, Debby Dorough and the Minecraft Club presenters after the virtual tours of their perfect schools designed using Minecraft and presented wirelessly over the AppleTV. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Northview Mini-Cheerleader Camp Begins Thursday
August 4, 2015
The Northview High School cheerleaders will host their annual Mini-Cheer Camp beginning this Thursday.
The camp will be held from 4:30 until 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 3:30 until 5:30 p.m. next Tuesday, August 11 at the Bratt First Baptist Church. This is for age 3 through the eighth grade.
The cost is $25 for camp or $35 for camp and a t-shirt. The mini-cheerleaders will cheer at an upcoming Northview Chiefs football game.
Pictured: Northview mini-cheerleaders perform during a football last season. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Greathouse Retires From Sheriff’s Office After 31 Years
August 3, 2015
Sgt. Jay Greathouse retired Friday from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office after 31 years of service to the citizens of Escambia County. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Molino ‘Day Of Hope’ Provides Hundreds With School Supplies And More
August 2, 2015
A free “Day of Hope” provided free school supplies, food and an encouraging word Saturday in Molino.
Hundreds of people lined up outside Victory Assembly of God Church on Highway 29 to wait for a backpack, groceries and free haircuts. Church members met with each attendee and offered prayer and words of encouragement for the upcoming school year.
Pictured top: A young man picks out that perfect backpack full of school supplies Saturday morning at Victory Assembly of God in Molino. Pictured below: A back to school haircut. Pictured below: Hundreds of people waited for free school supplies and groceries in a line that stretched around the front of the church to back. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Deidra’s Gift: Free School Supplies Distributed In Century
August 2, 2015
Free school supplies were available Saturday in Century for hundreds of children in need, thanks to a family honoring the memory of one of their own, in a program called “Deidra’s Gift”.
The book bags full of supplies were distributed in memory of Dedria Robinson, who was killed in 2005 in an automobile accident at age 11.
‘We wanted to help as many children as we could in her memory,” Deidra’s mother Rita Robinson said. “It’s good to see them get the supplies they need.”
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Langley Bell 4-H Center Earns Environmental, Energy Efficiency Award
July 31, 2015
The new Langley Bell 4-H Center on Stefani Road in Cantonment has received an environmental and energy efficiency award.
The center was awarded a Three Green Globes certificate. Green Globes is an online green building rating and certification tool that can be used for a wide range of commercial, institutional and multi-residential building types including offices, school, hospitals, hotels, academic and industrial facilities, warehouses, laboratories, sports facilities and multi-residential buildings.
The building accomplished an overall rating of 70% demonstrating leadership in applying best practices regarding energy, water and environmental efficiency. Originally, this project was specified to receive only two Green Globes. However, the architect of record, Hernandez Calhoun, and the contractor, A. E. New, Jr., worked together with Escambia County to secure a higher level of certification with the guidance and support of the Green Globes assessor.
Other county buildings with environmental certifications include:
LEED Certified buildings (Levels: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum)
- Central Office Complex (LEED Gold, March 2011)
- Perdido Key Fire Station (LEED Certified, November 2014)
Green Globes (Levels: 1-4 Globes)
- Marie K. Young Wedgwood Community Center (Three-Globes Certified, 2012)
- Molino Tax Collector (Two-Globes Certified, 2012)
- 4-H Center (Three-Globes Certified, 2015)
Energy Star
- Sheriff’s Warrington Precinct (2012)
- Englewood Community Center (2014)
- Perdido Firing Range (2013)
.Pictured: The new Langley Bell 4-H Center on Stefani Road. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
