Children in Crisis Inc.'s new board of directors members includes Don Adams, Okaloosa County undersheriff; Martha Caughey, Pensacola State College; Thomas Remington, retired judge; and Claire Nuckles, business owner.

Board members elected to serve an additional three-year term include: Kitty Johnson, chair; Howard Oakes, treasurer; and Sheila Campbell, Betty Hefner and Judy Wiseman.

Children in Crisis Inc. is a nonprofit that serves abused, neglected and abandoned local children. Call 864-4242 or visit www.childrenincrisisfl.org for more details. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Children in Crisis elects new board members

CRESTVIEW — Retired forester and Florida Forestry Association poet laureate John McMahon “will be sorely missed,” Mayor David Cadle said.

McMahon — who died Monday at age 90 following an illness — was born Jan. 28, 1915 in Fort Myers. He studied at Arkansas State Teachers College, and earned a degree in forestry from the University of Oklahoma-Stillwater.

Drafted into the Army in World War II, McMahon fought in the 1944-45 Battle of the Bulge, the German military’s last-ditch effort to repel the Allied invasion.

His career in Florida forestry began in 1951, but perhaps his largest local impact came upon his retirement when he founded the Hub City Environmental Center in 1989.

“I just like the plants and animals, and decided, ‘Well, let’s turn this into a little nature park so people can enjoy them,’” McMahon told Northwest Florida Daily News writer Tom McLaughlin in a 1990s interview.

The 2-acre park — built on a site formerly occupied by the forestry service for its lookout tower — was later renamed the McMahon Environmental Center.

As recently as last fall, McMahon would delight in guiding school groups and organizations through the park and its accompanying small nature and local industry museum, housed in what was originally the forester's residence. He planted the arboretum with more than 100 species of native trees and shrubs.

As the forestry association’s poet laureate, McMahon penned many lines of verse, but his favorite was “The Woodsman’s Prayer,” written in 1972, which he said then-Gov. Reubin Askew decreed should be displayed in every Florida welcome station.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Whitehurst-Powell Funeral Home. As of now, no date was yet set for family visitation or his funeral service.

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 McMahon Environmental Center founder, namesake dies

CRESTVIEW — Friends and family next month will help raise awareness and funds for a local man who needs a liver transplant.

A community yard sale and barbecue, along with entertainment, are scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 11 in Lifepoint Church's parking lot. Proceeds will benefit Ron Walker.

This is in conjunction with the National Foundation for Transplants. April is Transplant awareness month. 

Donors also can visit the Facebook page or www.transplants.org and search for Ron Walker.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Benefit set for Crestview man's liver transplant

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."

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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