CRESTVIEW — Emerald Coast Toys for Tots collected 16,906 toys that were distributed to 10,204 Okaloosa and Walton County children, according to an Emerald Coast Association of Realtors task force that spearheaded the toy drive.

The goal was to provide each child with two toys, according to Ashley Botelho, Emerald Coast Toys for Tots coordinator. The drive fell just short of goal, providing an average 1.66 toys per child. But the need for toys in the two-county area rose more than 20 percent between the 2013 and 2014 holiday seasons. 

Additionally, 91.67 percent of every dollar raised locally was used to purchase toys for local children. The goal for the group was 85 percent.

Learn more here or email EmeraldCoastToysforTots@gmail.com. 

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Emerald Coast Toys for Tots finishes strong

CRESTVIEW — Cabana Way describes a leisurely loop off Lloyd Street North, peacefully removed from the bustle of U.S. Highway 90, yet close to shops and services.

Kids ride bikes in Ridgecrest Estates’ main street, which provides the subdivision’s only entrance and exit. Sometimes, they go exploring in woods adjacent to the development.

But a father's discovery of a tent encampment while hiking with his children in the woods has residents nervous.

“Because of this, I can’t let my kids play in the woods,” James Rowley said. “We’ve had a lot of break-ins and robberies. We watched a truck get stolen live on our surveillance.”

Crestview Police Department spokesman Lt. Don Fountain said two recent arrests, including that of a juvenile on Feb. 1, could be related to the vehicle burglaries.

'THEY'RE GOOD PEOPLE'

Neighbors are still concerned about who might live in tents in the 53-acre woods owned by Banktrust of Santa Rosa Beach.

Rowley worried that with the 2014 closure of Harvest Ministries’ residential treatment center on Main Street, former Harvest residents, including possible sex offenders, could be living in the tents.

Until he met one of them.

Returning to check out the tent encampment Tuesday morning, Rowley met Daniel, a homeless man from Santa Rosa Beach who has applied for low-rent housing under Section 8.

Daniel lives on monthly Social Security and gets some of his meals from area homeless shelters and church food pantries. He said the homeless in the area behave and police themselves.

“I don’t know everything that goes on in these woods, but I know the people and they’re good people,” Daniel said. “I don’t know of anybody doing anything bad. There’s no drugs or nothing. We don’t put up with anything bad.”

KEEP TO THEMSELVES

Rowley’s wife, Alison, said she doesn’t want to jump to conclusions about the homeless people who live in the tents.

“I’m not saying the people living in the tents are the ones responsible for the thefts,” she said. “I am concerned for the safety of my children and others in the neighborhood.”

Daniel said he and other homeless people enter the woods from behind businesses on U.S. 90. They don’t want to intrude by walking through residential neighborhoods, he said.

“I’m the last one to bother anybody,” he said.

Crestview Police Community Services Officer Sam Kimmons said the homeless generally like to be left alone and do not tend to commit vehicle burglaries.

“Most of them panhandle,” Kimmons said. “That’s kind of their job. If they have a disability, they use it to get sympathy. But their situations are all kind of different.”

WORK AND HELP

As for Rowley, after visiting Daniel at his camp site, he learned the homeless man had skills he could employ while renovating a home he owns.

“I’m too old to do hard work,” Daniel said, but added he regularly visits CareerSource Okaloosa Walton to look for employment.

Rowley offered to bring Daniel some basic supplies, including clothes and a new cell phone charger to replace the one another homeless person had stolen.

After visiting with Daniel, Rowley said he felt more comfortable knowing who was in the woods, though he will still supervise his children when they play there. Daniel assured him the kids are safe from predators.

“I’m not harming anyone,” he said. “I just want to be left alone.”

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

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Tent encampment discovery worries residents (VIDEO)

FLORALA, Ala. — When classic cars converge this weekend at Lake Jackson in Florala for the annual Cancer Freeze fundraiser, Crestview auto buffs’ vehicles will be among the glistening chrome.

“This is something I can support because I know all the money goes to helping people with cancer,” Shoal River Mustangs Club member Russ Chamberlain said. “It doesn’t go to huge office staffs.”

While the event includes the car show, a bass tournament, pancake breakfast, 5-kilometer run and walk and chili cook-off, water events in chilly Lake Jackson give the event its name.

With the theme “Freezin’ for a Reason,” participants water ski, tube, wake board and plunge into the lake, raising money for South Alabama and Northwest Florida cancer patients as they splash and shiver.

Bounce houses and slides for kids are available.

Caleb Davidson and Brad Norris started Cancer Freeze in January 2007 as an American Cancer Society fundraiser, but Davidson said he believes God wanted the event to benefit local cancer patients.

In 2009, the first year a local cancer patient was the benefactor, the event raised $10,000 for a girl with eye cancer.

Last year, Cancer Freeze raised $54,000 that was distributed among nine regional cancer patients.

WANT TO GO?

WHAT:Cancer Freeze “Freezin’ for a Reason”

WHEN:10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday

WHERE:Lake Jackson, Florala, Ala.

COST:Car show entry, $20 — register at the event; other events priced as indicated at the fundraiser

NOTES:All proceeds benefit Northwest Florida and South Alabama cancer patients. Contact Caleb Davidson, calebadavidson@yahoo.com, 978-3726, or Jennifer Davidson, jenniferhdavidson@yahoo.com, 334-470-0491. For car show information, contact Kim Adams, 974-1730 or John Adams, dewy_lokey@hotmail.com. Visit www.cancerfreeze.net.

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

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Car show, chili cook-off, and cold water events raise money for cancer patients

During National Black History Month, take time to read about outstanding African-American women.

My list of must-reads includes stories about 20th-century black women's achievements. You will be awestruck by how they survived gender and race division.

Here are some examples:

•“In Search of Nella Larsen, a Biography of the Color Line,” George Hutchinson, B. Larsen

Noted writer Nella Larsen (1891-1964) was the “mystery woman of the Harlem Renaissance," the author says. Her mother’s Danish heritage and her father’s West Indian heritage put her firmly on the color line; and she lived on both sides, sometimes passing as white and other times settling into black culture.

Larsen — a Harlem librarian who used the pen names Nella Larsen Imes or Allen Semi, which reversed her names' spelling — wrote short stories about life on both sides. Her work — featuring characters facing situations that could happen to someone of any race — appeared in a number of prestigious magazines.

•“Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters,” Donald Bogle

This is a beautifully written and well-researched book revealing entertainer Ethel Waters' heartbreaking, successful life.

The story starts with Ethel's birth to a young mother living below the poverty level in Chester, Penn. Ethel became the woman who could do everything: sing, dance and act.

Her career as a blues and pop singer featured memorable songs such as “Stormy Weather” and “Heat Wave.” Her performance in the 1949 film “Pinky" received an Academy Award nomination.

Bogle's book follows Ethel’s good and bad times, and describes the tough relationships and racial undertones she experienced with actors.

And her perseverance through it all, as she excelled in her career.

•“The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou,” Maya Angelou

We can’t study black women without looking at author and poet Maya Angelou, an amazing woman of the times.

This book incorporates six books that she wrote about her life growing up in the South. It spans the years, depicting the good and bad times.

If you have read “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” you will want to read the continuing stories of her life — and you can do so in this one collected one-volume book.

•"Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years,” Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany, with Amy Hill Hearth: Bessie and Sadie Delany, at age 101 and 103, respectively, give eye-opening accounts of life after emancipation, including the Jim Crow era and legal segregation.

The sisters' parents considered education as means of aspiring to a higher level. For many years after the Civil War, black women found it difficult to pursue an education, because women were expected to marry and become mothers.

Education was considered unnecessary.

Those who could afford college were barred from admission. When black colleges emerged — many of which started under religious organizations' guidance — the Delany sisters were encouraged to pursue a higher education.

Stop by the Crestview Public Library to learn about the Delanys' success as students, and to check out our collection of African-American biographies.

Jean Lewis is the Crestview Public Library's director.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: CHECK IT OUT: Biographies offer glimpse of African-American history

CRESTVIEW — The number of homeless Florida children spiked by 13,000 from 2012 to 2013, according to a new study from the National Center on Family Homelessness.

Overall, almost 140,000 Florida children were homeless in 2013, the latest year for available data, according to the center. The study cites homelessness risk factors such as Florida's 28 births per 1,000 teens, a high likelihood of home foreclosure and that 10.9 percent of children lack health insurance.

Lutheran Services Florida, a statewide nonprofit, is on a mission to help 10- to 17-year-olds who are homeless, runaways or having other difficulties. Hope House, LSF's northwest branch in Crestview, works to provide "hot meals, a caring environment and a safe place to sleep for children as long as it is needed," Patty Leonard, LSF vice president of programs, stated via email.

The 17-year-old shelter, located at 5127 Eastland Street, annually serves up to 150 residential at-risk youths with eight beds and counseling to non-residents from age 6 and up.

"We serve probably closer to 500 individuals annually, not just specifically shelter, but all the services together," Leonard said. "Crestview has been quite a generous community. They keep pretty good track of us and donating in support of the shelter."

Where do the kids come from?

"A lot of referrals come from schools, the Department of Juvenile Justice and designated Safe Places," or sites where employees "have been trained to keep children safe until a shelter can pick them up and get them unified with their families," said Sherry Swann, Hope House's clinical director.

Sometimes, parents who are having conflicts with their children will call Hope House themselves. "Sometimes the parents are so overwhelmed by their own concerns, (their children) get sidelined," Swann said.

Once residents' basic needs are met, a plan is formed to deal with other issues. Counseling, intervention, and follow-up programs from LSFand other agencies help keep most residents out of trouble after their stay.

"We have a very high success rate of over 85 percent of youths who leave the shelter are discharged to their families or another appropriate placement and they do not return to DJJ," Leonard said.

"That's our goal, to keep them out of those systems," Swann said.

Email Editorial Assistant Renee Bell, follow her on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Shelter helps as child homelessness spikes

CRESTVIEW — If you drive south on Ferdon Boulevard and turn east on James Lee Boulevard, you’ll shortly come to Mapoles Street.

As long as there’ve been influential, great and maybe — after history’s had a chance to re-examine them — not-so-great people, humans have been inclined to name something public after them. Often, it’s a street.

Okaloosa County and its Crestview county seat are no different, with roads honoring area politicians, founding fathers, military leaders, national heroes, community leaders and other notable figures.

While their names are familiar on street signs, GPS’s and maps, some, including newcomers, often wonder who the honorees were whose names and deeds were deemed important enough to immortalize on our roads.

Here’s a partial list:

•Bowers Avenue(Crestview): John Wesley Bowers was one of Crestview’s earliest businessmen, owning two downtown grocery stores.

•Brackin Street(Crestview): State senator and former senate president Newman C. Brackin was also a local druggist. He is also immortalized by Newman C. Brackin Wayside Park on Okaloosa Island.

•Earl Campbell Road(Laurel Hill): Earl Campbell played trombone in the first Okaloosa School Band, which evolved into Crestview High School's Big Red Machine.

•Conyers Street: James and Velma Conyers were community leaders and members of the Crestview Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star. Velma is still active in her church at age 101.

•Enzor Road(Crestview): Brothers Dr. Olin and Dr. Justus Enzor established the city’s first hospital in 1926. When Dr. Jut retired, their younger brother, Dr. Rhett Enzor, joined the hospital.

•Ferdon Boulevard(Crestview): Where State Road 85 passes through Crestview, it honors Clarence Bentley Ferdon, a World War I Marine Corps veteran who owned a turpentine still on the road when it was still Highway 33. He was an officer in the Crestview Land Company and a vice president of the Bank of Crestview.

•James Lee Boulevard (Crestview): the local portion of U.S. Highway 90 was named for 1931 Baker School graduate, auto dealership owner, the area’s representative on the State Road Board, two-time president of the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce, Boy Scouts Gulf Coast Council director, member of the Board of Stewards of the First Methodist Church, and director of the First National Bank of Crestview. He also served 10 years, three as chairman, of the Okaloosa Island Authority Board.

•Ludlum Road(Laurel Hill): Alma and Porter Ludlum owned a popular grocery store and community gathering spot between Laurel Hill and Svea. Alma was renowned for her up-selling skills.

•Bill Lundy Road(Garden City and Campton): named for “Uncle Bill” Lundy, once reputed the last surviving Florida Confederate War veteran. His claim has since been discredited.

•Mapoles Street(Crestview): Named for state Sen. William Mapoles, a newspaperman originally from Laurel Hill, considered “the father of Okaloosa County.”

•Richbourg Lane(Crestview): Named for former Chicago Cubs professional baseball player and later educator Lance Richbourg, for whom Richbourg Middle School, now Richbourg E.S.L. School,  in Crestview is also named.

•Shoffner Boulevardand Shoffner Avenue (Crestview): One of the Crestview area’s foremost post-war land developers and real estate dealers, Col. A.R. Shoffner founded Shoffner City, which still has several of his affordable single-story bungalows.

•Bob Sikes Drive(Crestview), Bob Sikes Highway (S.R. 85 south of Crestview), Bob Sikes Boulevard (Fort Walton Beach) and Bob Sikes Bridge (Gulf Breeze): Named for U.S. Rep. Bob Sikes, who served the area for decades. His name also graces a Crestview elementary school, the public library and municipal airport.

Wilson Street(Crestview): Lester Wilson, an early entrepreneur, was also the city’s first police chief. Concerned about rising crime, he sold his grocery store and ran for sheriff. During his campaign, he was murdered at age 50 when shot through his front door while listening to the radio. His son, Ray Wilson, was elected sheriff 16 years later and solved the crime.

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

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: County forefathers commemorated in local street names

CRESTVIEW — Retired forester John McMahon's contributions to his city, state and country are significant, Mayor David Cadle said.

The Florida Forestry Association poet laureate helped establish the Hub City Environmental Center, which the city renamed the McMahon Environmental Center in his honor. The park contains more than 100 native species of trees and plants, as well as a natural history museum and pavilion used for picnics and educational presentations.

McMahon served in World War II, during which he fought in the 1944-45 Battle of the Bulge, the German military’s last-ditch effort to repel the Allied invasion. “They sent him to boot camp and straight to the front,” his wife, Doris McMahon said. “He still doesn’t talk much about it, but I know it had a big impact on him.”

And as forestry poet laureate, McMahon penned a poem that helped welcome visitors and newcomers to Florida.

“My best poem was ‘The Woodsman’s Prayer,’” McMahon said. “Gov. (Reubin) Askew had them put it in all the welcome stations.”

Considering all these achievements, Cadle proclaimed Wednesday, the veteran's 90th birthday, John McMahon Day in Crestview.

“He deserves recognition and it’s important for the city to do this for him,” Cadle said during a visit with McMahon and his wife at Shoal Creek Rehabilitation.

John and Doris McMahon celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary on Dec. 29.

“We met at the First Methodist Church,” Doris said. “He was a junior high Sunday school leader and I was singing in the choir.”

She said the mayor’s visit and proclamation, and the recognition of John McMahon’s service to the city, meant a lot to her and her husband.

THE WOODSMAN'S PRAYER

Retired forester John McMahon considers this poem, penned in 1972, his best. Gov. Reubin Askew had the poem displayed at all Florida welcome stations.

Lord, let me be as a tall green tree

Upright and pleasing unto thee

Thankful for my humble birth

And for my time upon the earth.

Lord, as I reach to touch the sky

Keep me in your watchful eye

And if I grow too tall and wide

Prune away my foolish pride.

Be with me Lord, as the seasons pass

And my dreams fade like the grass

The years will help me understand

That my life is in your hands

I know time’s axe will cut me down

And lay my bones upon the ground

Then Lord, I pray, remember me

In gardens of your memory.

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

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Mayor honors veteran and retired forester John McMahon (VIDEO)

CRESTVIEW — A memorial service for Kathryn Little Ballard, 89, is 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, with visitation one hour before at the First Presbyterian Church, 492 N. Ferdon Blvd., Crestview.

Formerly of Crestview and Tallahassee, Mrs. Ballard died Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014 at Cordele Health & Rehab, Cordele, Ga.  She was born Feb. 15, 1925 in Butler County, Alabama.

Her husband of 61 years, Raymond L. Ballard, preceded her in death.

Mrs. Ballard is survived by her son, Ronald D. Ballard of Niceville, and daughter, Barbara B. Cromer (Ray “Eddie”) of Cordele;  two brothers, three sisters, four grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Thornwell Home for Children, PO Box 60, Clinton, SC 29325; Reflections Hospice of Crisp Regional, 202 East 4th Avenue, Cordele, GA 31015 or to Alzheimer’s Association, PO Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Memorial service planned for Kathryn Ballard