CRESTVIEW — St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated in music and dance March 17 at the Crestview Public Library.

Some of Irish Blend's Northwest Florida members will perform music, and  Katie McCarthy of Crestview will demonstrate Irish dance moves 6:30-7:30 p.m. at 1445 Commerce Drive.

Registration is not required. Evening Library Time is designed for age 4 and up. Call Heather Nitzel, 682-4432, for more information.  

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Next week: Irish music, dance take focus in Crestview

CRESTVIEW — Samuel Deese, who turned 11 on Friday, knew he was getting his biggest birthday present.   

“I told him there weren’t many 11-year-olds who get a house for their birthday,” Okaloosa County Habitat for Humanity secretary Debbie Bodenstine said.

The Deeses' South Savage Street home is the 53rd Habitat house built in the program’s 22 years in the county, Bodenstine said. More than 800 volunteers contributed some 5,000 hours of labor to raise the three-bedroom dwelling for Samuel, his brother, Ethan, 8, and their mom, Stefanie.

It was one of two Habitat homes in the entire nation to benefit from a “blitz build” in 2014. More than 300 volunteers, including about 40 Habitat “Road Trip Crazies,” framed and sheathed the home in three days in October.

Airman 1st Class Michael Sanchez of Eglin Air Force Base was one of the volunteers touring the Deeses' new home during its Monday dedication. “I worked at this multiple weeks,” he said. “I’m looking at the final results and I’m going, ‘Yeah, I did that.’”

During the dedication, Samuel and Ethan showed visitors their rooms, with Samuel indicating exactly where he’d like to see a flat-screen TV mounted. Ethan pointed out the view of their spacious backyard from his room — “I picked it out myself,” he said  —  and a towering oak in which the boys envision a tree fort, or at least a swing.

Ten volunteers, organized by Sharlene Cox of the Exchange Club of Crestview, plan to return to complete fencing in the backyard.

Stefanie Deese said she and her family are still amazed to at last have a home of their own, after being unable to afford a deposit to buy a home. “It’s finally happening," she said.

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview family moves into Habitat for Humanity house for son's birthday

CRESTVIEW — A blue  hatchback. That's all Nikki Patterson can remember about the woman who unknowingly has a precious piece of her family's history.

When Patterson, 28, gave away a 27-inch Sylvania television/VCR/DVD combination at her moving sale on Saturday in the Rolling Pines townhome subdivision, it included something irreplaceable.

A video of her dancing with her father, Ronald Ryman, at his 2001 wedding. He died at 43 years old, three years later after battling brain cancer.

"It's the only recollection I have of us having a father-daughter dance, so it's very sentimental to me," Patterson said. 

It was the first — and last — dance they shared.

LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP

Patterson's mother and stepfather were stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in 1993, so she and her father, who lived in Harvard, Ill., had a long-distance relationship.

"While we were on summer break, I would go up to Illinois and visit him," Patterson said. "Once my brother hit middle school, he moved up with my dad. So my brother lived with my father and I lived with my mom and my stepdad.

"When high school came around, I got busier and busier and was able to spend less time with him — regretfully so," Patterson said. "I was very lucky that he was able to attend my graduation" at Crestview High School.

GIVEN AWAY

The divorced mother and her two children — Autumn, 6, and Lucas, 5 — moved not far from their Crooked Pine Trail home just before they had the moving sale.

She didn't sell the TV that had the video inside, she said.

"Somebody had given it to me out of the kindness of their heart so I asked the lady if she would like it," Patterson said, adding the woman she gave it to — in her late 40s or 50s — may have had blonde or gray hair; she couldn't quite remember. 

"She bought a basket full of young boys' clothes that she said would be for her nephews … a basket of clothes plus the television… driving a blue vehicle with a hatchback trunk. "

Recently, Patterson had tough times and wanted to watch the video, which she played in a TV in her son's former bedroom.

That was the same TV that she gave away, not realizing what happened until after the fact, she said.

'2 PERCENT CHANCE'

Just about 20 people attended Ryman's wedding, so Patterson said it's unlikely that anyone else has the video of him dancing with her.

"There's probably about a 2 percent chance that I'm gonna find a copy of this anywhere," she said.

But she has called her aunt and they're asking friends for any similar video.

Plus, she has help from strangers.

She posted a message about the video on Facebook's Crestview Classifieds, Buy, Sell, Trade page and word rapidly spread on social media.

That offers some comfort.

"So many people have shared this story that I don't even know," she said. "It really touches my heart that so many people care."

—

CAN YOU HELP? Please email News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni if you have the TV with the missing tape>>

EXPLORE DEEPER: See the full story exclusively in the Crestview News Bulletin's March 7-10 edition

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview woman seeks TV with irreplaceable family video

CRESTVIEW — Countryview Estates residents are enjoying more amenities in their neighborhood park.

Residents complained about the park’s lack of seating, missing water fountain and absence of barbecue grills for several months.

Resident Bill Cox brought the issue before the City Council in July 2014. After visiting the city’s other parks, he told the council that Countryview “is the only park that doesn't have the very basic stuff that a citizen would expect of a park.” Cox has since become one of two new city councilmen who will be seated in April.

Here are the improvements:

•The park’s picnic shelter now has four picnic tables with attached benches, augmenting the previous single table.

•Park benches now overlook the basketball court and children’s playground.

•The basketball court has received safety padding around the posts supporting the goals.

•A vandalism-resistant drinking fountain has been installed outside the restrooms.

•Two barbecue grills were installed on a concrete pad adjacent to the picnic shelter.

The new equipment and furnishings were rounded up from materials already on hand, Crestview Public Works Director Steele said.

“Most of it we had leftover from a project here and there,” he said. “The grills were relocated that weren’t used from Old Spanish Trail Park. Moneywise, the only expense was concrete and labor.”

Those costs came to less than $2,000, said Chuck Powell at Public Works.

“It is real nice,” Cox said. “I can tell you right now the park is seeing more use. I feel good about that.”

“The best thing is having a good, positive community effort will help preserve these things,” Steele said. “We had experienced so much vandalism in the past years. More responsible people using the park will help police it.”

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Countryview Park receives upgrades following residents’ complaints

CRESTVIEW — Okaloosa County had scarcely been carved out of eastern Santa Rosa and western Walton counties when Andrew Outlaw opened an outdoor movie show on the site of today’s First Presbyterian Church.

While Andrew cranked his homemade projector, his wife, Bessie, sold popcorn. Patrons of Okaloosa's first picture show sat on split-log benches while enjoying silent films.

Around 1932, the Outlaws built Main Street’s first cinema, the Crestview Theatre, which stood across the alley from today’s Crestview Plumbing and Hardware.

In 1941, Neal and Estelle Robinson Sr. moved their cinema business to Crestview from Okaloosa County's south end, establishing the Eglin Theatre at 190 Main St.

Two years later, they moved the Eglin across the street, near the site of the Outlaws' old Crestview Theatre. In the 1940s, the Robinsons opened the Fox Theatre in the 300 block of Main Street.

Today, only the Fox remains of downtown’s single-screen cinemas. It’s owned by City Councilman Mickey Rytman, who restores it as time and money permits.

In 1949, Hollywood came to Crestview when a 20th-Century Fox production crew arrived to shoot the Gregory Peck World War II adventure “Twelve O’Clock High.”

Lifelong resident J.T. Garrett gained fame among his peers by being hired fresh out of the military as Peck’s stand-in and driver.

When it came time to premiere the film in the South, the studio returned to Crestview and the Fox.

In the late 1950s, the Robinsons erected the Dixie Drive-In on Juke Hill, near the present-day Beall’s Outlet on South Ferdon Boulevard.

Hinson Ward followed suit with the Park Drive-In Theatre on U.S. Highway 90 West.

The opening of the Crestview Cinema 3 Theaters in Mariner Mall in the mid-1970s came as the multi-screen cinema spelled classic downtown movie houses' demise.

Today, movie lovers flock to Richbourg Lane and the Marquis, with its 10 screens, digital picture and surround-sound audio. Movies have come a long way since Andrew Outlaw’s outdoor picture show.

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 100 years of north Okaloosa County movie-going

CRESTVIEW — Eleven area Cub Scouts have "crossed over" to Boy Scouts as local packs celebrate the 105th anniversary of scouting in the U.S.A.

Boys received honors and awards, performed skits, and said farewell to the most senior among their fellow Cub Scouts, the Webelos, during the Feb. 21 Blue and Gold Banquet.

“The senior Webelos Cub Scouts received their Arrow of Light Award for completing all their requirements to move on to Boy Scouts,” Pack 530 volunteer Don Snyder said. “This award is the only Cub Scout award that can be worn on the Boy Scout uniform and follows them onward through their Scouting career.”

Some scout troops perform crossing over ceremonies in which the former Webelos walk across a small bridge, symbolically moving ahead to scouting's next phase.

Pack 530 Arrow of Light recipients are Bruce Shambo, Ryan Rummelt, Dylan Nearbin, Scott Inness, Lucas Hunker, Rodney Butler, Zachery Bullard, Isaac Boyd and Nathan Stuckey.

Pack 799 Arrow of Light recipients are Johnny Humphrey and Theron Lasher. Theron has crossed over to Troop 30 while Johnny has joined Troop 773, Humphrey said.

The Blue and Gold Banquets drew hundreds of family members and friends, Boy Scouts, and guest speakers. The Cub Scouts painted faces, danced, wrote and performed skits, and helped decorate for the gala evening, Humphrey said.

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Eleven Crestview Cub Scouts 'cross over' to Boy Scouts

CRESTVIEW — A family is homeless and uncertain about their future after a Friday night fire scorched a Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard apartment building.

Alicia Isom left her husband, McCordia, asleep when she left for a church revival. Her sister, Pam Morris, who lived with the Isoms, was out for the evening.

Alicia returned from church to find neighbors gathered around her building as smoke billowed out.

“I got home at 10:30 and it was in flames,” she said. “People said, ‘Help us get these people out!’ I looked up and said, ‘This is my apartment!’”

When she opened her front door, “it just blew up,” Isom said. “Fire was just shooting all over.”

She screamed for her husband, who escaped along with Alicia’s beloved bichon frise Cotton Candy.

“By the grace of God, he woke up,” Isom said. “But we lost everything.”

HOMELESS

The American Red Cross housed the family at the Super 8 motel for several days, but they have to move out tomorrow. A small cash donation went toward replacing a few pieces of clothes and paying the hotel pet deposit for Candy.

“We lost everything. We had to get coats to put on our back,” Isom said. “But I’m homeless now. I don’t know where to go. I guess we’ll be sleeping in our cars.”

Isom, who is originally from Crestview, moved back home with her family two years ago from St. Petersburg. She said the family can’t move in with her elderly mother, who lives in a small residence and receives daily dialysis.

Because the family had no renter’s insurance, replacing even the basics is problematic.

“If anybody could help, it would be so, so appreciated,” Isom said. “Mainly, we need a place to stay.”

$50,000 LOSS

A Crestview Fire Department incident report places the value of her apartment and its contents at $50,000. The report stated the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Units on either side of the Isoms’ apartment sustained $15,000 and $5,000 in damage respectively.

The North Okaloosa Fire District, the Baker Volunteer Fire Department, the Eglin Air Force Base Fire Department and Dorcas Volunteer Fire Department also responded to the blaze.

An account to assist the family has been opened at Wells Fargo Bank in Crestview. Donors may request their gifts be deposited in Alicia Isom’s fire account.

WANT TO HELP?

Donations to help the Isom family may be brought to the Wells Fargo Bank's Crestview branch, 320 Ferdon Blvd. N., for deposit in the family’s fire fund.

Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Fire leaves Crestview family homeless; help appreciated

The Crestview Public Library has a selection of popular magazines. You can read here in the library, or check out magazines about cooking, decorating, health and fitness, world and entertainment news, among other topics.

We have titles including People Weekly, Oprah, Sports Illustrated, Time, Essence, Cooking Light and Good Housekeeping. Current issues are on the shelf for you to read in the library. Back issues can be checked out for two weeks.

The library also subscribes to children's and teens' magazines. Teens enjoy reading Rumble, Teen Vogue and Seventeen. The grade school kids can choose from National Geographic Kids or Sports Illustrated Kids.

Parents, this is an excellent opportunity to give kids an opportunity to look at magazines free of charge.

Magazines are great for reluctant readers; they introduce the fun of reading with short stories, games and activities that kids enjoy. Magazines are a stepping stone for kids to become interested, and many different subjects give them information and knowledge other than the textbook curriculum.

Jean Lewis is the Crestview Public Library's director.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Magazines can introduce fun to reluctant readers