Editor's Note: Each graduation season, we look back on a senior arts student's accomplishments. This year, as has happened in the past, two students stood out.

CRESTVIEW — Before twists of faith pushed each into the limelight, seniors Angeles Alexander and Wesley Barlow never thought about performing in public.

Wesley was a wrestler in middle school, placing at state competition in his native Arizona. When he moved to Crestview, wrestling for Crestview High seemed like a natural continuation.

Then he got bitten by the performing arts bug and joined Crestview High's jazz band, where in addition to playing piano and percussion he performed vocals.

Meanwhile, Angeles' older sister, Alexis, wary of a potential scene-stealer, begged her to avoid the drama program where Alexis had found her niche.

Angeles instead turned to the chorus, inspired by a high school chorus performance she saw while attending Shoal River Middle School.

"There came a part where someone had a solo and everybody went crazy," Angeles said. "I was like, 'I want to do that.'"

She culminates her senior year as the Chanticleer show choir's president.

Confidence boosters

Unable to resist the stage's lure, Angeles and Wesley hit the boards running their sophomore year.

Angeles acted, stage managed and choreographed. Wesley arrived by way of backstage. When friends discovered he was familiar with tech, "I was basically 'voluntold' to get into theatre," he said.

"I remember him showing up and I was like, 'all right!'" Angeles said.

The next thing he knew, he was cast as a Nazi in "The Sound of Music."

Minor roles followed until Wesley — just to see what would happen — auditioned for the 2013 musical "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." He unexpectedly landed a lead role.

"It was a little jarring to see my name on that cast list after auditions," Wesley said. "I was convinced it was a mistake."

"Being in theatre and chorus and band, they're just real confidence boosters," Angeles said. "Every time I would sing … everybody would say, 'I just love your voice' and it felt so good."

The two performed leads together in their senior spring musical, "Happy Days," with Angeles playing Pinky Tuscadero while Wesley portrayed "The Fonz," her love interest.

'Wonderful, weird kids'

While different vocations call the duo — Angeles hopes to become an EMT; Wesley, an electrical engineer — both intend to continue their love of performing arts.

"I would love to go on Broadway, but that's not a very realistic dream," Wesley said.

No matter where life takes them, both agree their fond memories of countless hours on the Pearl Tyner Auditorium stage will last their lifetimes.

"I could just go on and on about how I love the people in theatre," Angeles said. "Everyone involved with the arts, they're trying to express themselves. We're a mix of just wonderful, weird kids."

"It was one of those things you don't know exactly how it's going to be until you get in the middle of it," Wesley said. "You think it's going to be dumb, but instead it lets you get out there and be something you're not."

Email News Bulletin Staff Arts and Entertainment Editor Brian Hughes at brianh@crestviewbulletin.com, follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Standout Crestview seniors to take love of limelight to college

Free storm mitigation workshops will be available 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. June 9.

The Be Ready Alliance Coordinating for Emergencies has partnered with the Disaster Resistant Communities Group to conduct the one-hour workshops.

During each workshop, participants will learn how homeowners can undertake one or more windstorm mitigation projects on their homes to strengthen it against Florida’s next wind disaster.

Workshops are provided by a grant from the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

See www.BeReadyFlorida.org for more information. Call Okaloosa County Emergency Management Division at Public Safety, 651-7150, to register. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Online storm mitigation workshop set for homeowners

CRESTVIEW — In "Born Again Free as a Butterfly," author Mary C. Bridges offers testimony of how God has orchestrated the past 70 years of trials, tribulations and celebrations for her good.

The author’s birth defects, cleft lip and cleft palate, required 20 surgeries, and participation in Crestview's Senior Circle was a major factor in overcoming problems with grief and depression, she said. The group's warm reception was “just what the doctor ordered," she said.

 In "Born Again…", “I offer the reader the knowledge and wisdom of how to survive life’s ordeals, based on what I  learned  from the Bible, friends and some health professionals,”  Bridges said.

Bridges tells readers how God delights in using ordinary people to perform extraordinary things. His orchestrated blessings helped her overcome cleft lip and palate, bipolar disorder, generational alcoholism, grief over her alcoholic husband’s death, divorcing a drug dealer who allegedly planned to take her life for the inheritance, coping with her mother’s Alzheimer’s Disease and much more.

“What the caterpillar’s cocoon calls the end, God calls it the butterfly!” Bridges said, explaining the book's title.

"Born Again…" is available on Amazon.com.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Author shares seven decades of wisdom to overcome virtually anything

The great thing about self-publishing is that anybody can release their inner novel.

The bad thing is that many wannabe authors do.

Cliché-riddled tomes fraught with improbable scenarios and stilted dialogue often fill such books and e-books.

Fortunately, "The Last Flight of the Electra," a finely wrought tale of nautical adventure and historic conjecture, isn't among them.

Crestview author Paul A. Hinton combated the first-time writer's urge to beleaguer his 360-page adventure with metaphor, mercilessly slaughtering literary darlings in a successful effort to skirt the traps into which many novice authors have tumbled.

"Stephen King tells you to get rid of the adverbs and get rid of the clichés," Hinton said. "You don't realize how much you think in clichés until you start writing. You get trained in them in Southern culture."

Historic conjecture

Hinton, a music minister at the First United Methodist Church, found inspiration for "Last Flight…" 10 years ago on a mission trip to the Marshall Islands.

Since then, his patient wife, Cecily, has put up with another woman in Hinton's life: aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished during a 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

During a tour of Roi-Namur island, Hinton saw the ruins of a secret Japanese mini-submarine program base operational more than four years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"The islanders claim they saw Amelia there," Hinton said. "They said in one of the jail cells they found a brooch or a pin with the initials 'AE' on it."

Taking cues from countless reports, investigations, searches and historic conjectures, Hinton weaves an exciting tale of an elderly Marshallese mariner who constructs an oversized outrigger from the remains of Earhart's Lockheed Electra and sails it to Hawaii to deliver the flyer's journal.

His main characters, including the mariner Truc, the British sailing couple who first encounter him, several Coast Guardsmen, and a Honolulu TV crew, are richly developed and believable.

Forgivable typos

A delightful love story enhances the tale without getting smutty or drippy, and sufficient technical detail makes situations believable  — and exciting — but not ponderous.

There are also quite a few typos, mostly the kind spell check won't snag. The admiral's walking "gate" comes to mind.

And just as Ian Fleming famously issued James Bond the wrong gun in an early 007 novel, experts might find some technical error to quibble over. Like a Honolulu TV station would have a K call sign rather than a W.

I know it, and my TV friends know it. But do I care? Not a whit, because "Last Flight of the Electra" tumbles along with such compelling, page-turning energy that a first-time author's minor errors are easily forgiven as readers enjoy a sensational beach read.

CHECK IT OUT

"Last Flight…" is available to check out at the Crestview Public Library. It also is available for download and in print from Amazon.com, and in print from the author, 797-5314 or at Salon Josephine, 509 N. Ferdon Blvd., Crestview. 

Email News Bulletin Staff Arts and Entertainment Editor Brian Hughes at brianh@crestviewbulletin.com, follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: BOOK REVIEW: Crestview author offers compelling resolution to Amelia Earhart mystery

CRESTVIEW — When Drew Forehand looks at the Vine.co account for his mother's four pugs he can't believe his eyes.

More than 21,000 followers, it says.

“I would have never thought that they would be that popular,” the 23-year-old said. “They definitely have more followers than me.”

Rise to fame

It all started last December when Drew's mother, Amy, shot a brief video of Taz, Bitsy, Gup and Caesar wearing party hats for her birthday. She posted the clip on an account she named "Four Florida Pugs." 

“It got over 8,000 likes and over 6,000 revines,” she said. A revine is when visitors repost the video on their pages. 

The birthday video really set if off for the pugs, which range from 10 to 7 years old.

 “With the first few vines, they didn’t get many (followers), but with the birthday one, I was surprised,” Amy said. “By January they had like 3,000 followers and now nearly 22,000.”

Business deal

Amy, who set up Four Florida Pugs accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, shoots the six-second videos — 172 to date — with her cell phone.

“I try to do (a new post) every two days,” she said. “I just dress them up and have them do silly things.”

The clips caught the attention of Getpetbox.com, a pet supply company.

“In March, we signed a contract for a year,” Amy said. “We have to video them with a (Getpetbox.com) box and post them to (the company’s) social sites.”

Calling Ellen…

As for the future, Amy wants to see the pugs appear on her favorite television programs including the syndicated talk show “Ellen” and “Cesar’s Way” on the National Geographic Channel.

She also hopes to receive more endorsements — and followers.

“We would like to get in the 500,000 (range) eventually,” Amy said.  

So, why pugs?

The Forehand family has always wanted to have pugs since watching the film “Men in Black." The family got the first pug in 2005.

Now, Amy is just happy that her pets are bringing attention to North Okaloosa County.   

“For someone in Crestview to have 21,000 followers (on Vine.co) is pretty cool,” she said.

—

VIDEO: Watch Taz, Bitsy, Gup and Caesar's adventures on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Vine.co.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: POPULAR PUGS: Social media page surprises woman with 21K followers, business opportunity

If you are among the 750,000-plus Florida bass anglers, now is the time to provide your opinion about Florida’s proposed change to largemouth bass conservation by filling out a new online survey.

The change being considered is a five-bass daily bag limit, only one of which may be 16 inches in total length or longer. This means that each person would be allowed to keep up to five largemouth bass less than 16 inches, or four largemouth bass less than 16 inches and one largemouth bass 16 inches or longer each day.

This change would replace current length limits, but would not alter the current statewide bag limit of five bass.

To take the survey and to learn more about largemouth bass, and current and possible future management changes, go to MyFWC.com/Fishing, and select the “Speak out on bass rules!” link under the bass image near the middle of the page. Based on public input and future edits to the proposal, the earliest this rule change is expected to be implemented is July 2016.

“The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) takes public opinions very seriously,” said Tom Champeau, director of the Division of Freshwater Fisheries Management. “Combined with the best science and case studies that we have to go on, public input helps us strive for optimal sustained use of these popular and valuable fish.”

In 2011 the Black Bass Management Plan was approved, based on comments from more than 7,500 anglers and a series of Technical Advisory Group meetings involving Florida guides, tournament anglers, marina owners, trophy bass fishermen, outdoor writers and tourism representatives.

The plan encouraged FWC biologists to develop the least restrictive regulations feasible to enhance trophy bass fisheries, maintain healthy bass populations statewide, and provide diverse angling opportunities. Public input encouraged controlling the number of big bass taken from the wild and enhancing angler satisfaction. Based on a review of biological and sociological data that included almost 6,000 public responses to a preliminary survey and open-house events around the state, the FWC is seeking additional feedback on the proposed change to create a basic statewide regulation for largemouth bass.

Currently, south and east of the Suwannee River there is a 14-inch minimum, and in the Suwannee River and north and west there is a 12-inch minimum size limit for bass. Data show that protecting these smaller fish is not necessary, biologically and that the size limit complicates regulations. What is advantageous is protecting bigger fish, which are rarer and take longer to produce – hence the proposed catch limit of only one bass that is 16 inches or longer. This regulation would also be more lenient in the fishing zone in the south (east of Highway 441 and south of State Road 80), which currently allows only one bass over 14 inches.

Limited exceptions for specific fisheries that have special needs or opportunities would still be possible, such as high-profile, catch-and-release fisheries that need such a management approach, or even a few more liberal regulations where bass may be overabundant. Those would be limited exceptions and generally associated with fish management areas.

In addition, it is important to note that there is no intent to alter the simple Bass Tournament Exemption Permit process (see MyFWC.com/Permits then click on “Freshwater” and “Black Bass Tournament”).

Currently, bass organizations holding tournaments may apply online for a temporary exemption to bass size limits. This is done to ensure the health of Florida freshwater resources while encouraging fishing participation from small clubs to major tournaments. Tournament organizers and sponsors must emphasize proper handling and care of bass to their participants and adhere to live-release guidelines stipulated in the permit. Moreover, in return for the temporary exemption to allow weigh-in prior to live-release of the bass, all tournament participants must forego any harvest. Hence, they are not allowed to keep what would otherwise be their five-fish bag limit. Any fish that accidentally die in a permitted tournament must be donated to charity or for research. Tournaments are not required to have a permit if they choose to abide by existing regulations (e.g., currently one bass longer than 22 inches or the proposed one bass over 16 inches).

Besides filling out the survey, those interested in ensuring quality bass fishing can do two other things: Sign up for our TrophyCatch citizen-science program that rewards anglers for catching, documenting and releasing bass heavier than 8 pounds, and purchase a “Go Fishing” largemouth bass tag for your vehicle or trailer.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: FWC seeks input on proposed largemouth bass-management change