BAKER — Three North Okaloosa County passions — hunting, guns and good food — will combine in a duo of fundraisers for the Rotary Club of Crestview.

The 22nd Annual Wild Game Feast — featuring Olympian Roy Jones — and quail hunt at Gum Creek Lodge join a chance to win some shootin’ irons as fundraisers for the Rotary’s community projects.

“It’s 30 guns in 30 days,” Rotary member Allyson Oury said of the raffle. She said with 1,000 $30 raffle tickets available, odds are good for participants to win at least one, if not more, of the 30 weapons.

“There’s a variety of guns,” Oury said. “There are handguns, rifles and a couple shotguns as well. The grand prizes are two custom AR rifles that Precision Tactical has built in house.”

Ticket sales have been brisk, with fewer than 250 of 1,000 total remaining, Oury said. Nightly winning numbers during the 30-day raffle will be the same as those drawn for the Florida Lottery’s nightly CA$H-3 drawing.

“Whatever number comes up is going to be our winning number,” Oury said. “You actually have 30 chances regardless if you’ve already won. Every day you have the same chance.”

HUNTING AND FEASTING

Gum Creek Lodge owner and Rotary member Bill Barnhill said the Wild Game Feast is the Rotary’s biggest annual fundraiser. While individual tickets are available for $65, “most people attend through sponsorships,” he said.

“We raise anywhere from $8,000 to $20,000” at the feast, Barnhill said. “Over the years, our biggest benefactor has been Northwest Florida State College. We’ve given them about $120,000.”

The feast’s guest speaker is Olympic medalist Roy Jones, who boxed with Park Si-Hun in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Participants will feast on a menu including venison and gravy, rice, biscuits, green beans, quail, wild pork and fish, with many selections being bagged on Gum Creek’s preserve, Barnhill said.

GUEST SPEAKER

The Rotary Club of Crestview's Wild Game Feast guest speaker is Olympian boxer Roy Jones, a Pensacola rap singer, actor and silver medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Controversy surrounding the judges’ receipt of food and drink from South Korean boxing officials led many to call for Jones to receive the Olympic gold medal awarded to Park Si-Hun. The International Olympic Committee suspended the judges, but Jones still didn’t receive the top medal.

Jones continues to box, winning both 2014 bouts in which he fought to retain his World Boxing Union Cruiserweight title.

WANT TO GO?

WHAT:Rotary Club of Crestview Wild Game Feast

WHEN:6 p.m. Feb. 6

WHERE:Gum Creek Lodge, 5800 Buck Ward Road, Baker

COST:$65 individual tickets; Gold sponsorship $800 (includes 8 feast tickets and 2-4 person quail hunt); Silver sponsorship $450 (includes six feast tickets) and Bronze sponsorship $275 (includes four feast tickets)

NOTES:Entire proceeds benefit Northwest Florida State College and Rotary Club health, hunger and literacy programs. Tickets available at Day’s Tire and Auto, S&L Auto Body, Saltmarsh, or from any Rotarian.

30 GUNS IN 30 DAYS

WHAT:Rotary Club of Crestview firearm raffle

WHEN:Feb. 6 to March 8

COST:$30 donation per ticket

NOTES:Entire proceeds benefit Rotary Club of Crestview social welfare and community support projects. Winning numbers are those chosen nightly in the Florida Lottery CA$H-3 game. Tickets available from any Rotarian.

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

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Game feast, hunting and guns combine in Rotary fundraisers

CRESTVIEW — After 92 years, Holt native Marlin Bass says the two biggest changes he’s witnessed are advances in communications and transportation.

“Growing up, there was only one radio in the whole community,” Bass said. “My brother and our daddy and I would walk over there — it was about 2 miles — and listen to the ‘Grand Ole Opry’ on Saturdays.”

To supplement the family’s income, his father got a contract to drive a school bus. In those days, school bus contractors had to supply their own bus, so his dad scraped together $640 and bought a new 1936 truck.

“It had a hood and a motor and a windshield. The rest was just a chassis,” Bass said.

Luckily, a relative in Georgiana, Ala., built school bus bodies. Not only did Bass learn to drive in that bus, by his junior and senior year, he was driving his classmates to and from high school in it.

MUSIC LOVER

Bass, who loves music, learned to play a Sears Roebuck guitar his mother bought for him as a young teen.

Today he enjoys plucking out tunes on his dulcimer, an instrument he and his wife of 72 years, Charlotte, built themselves.

Members of the Crestview Community Chorders, based at the Bass’ First Baptist Church, periodically meet at their home to jam.

Until shingles made it uncomfortable to hold properly, Bass was an avid fiddle player as well.

“You know the difference between a violin and a fiddle?” he asked some visitors. “The violin has strings. The fiddle has ‘strangs.’”

WORLD WAR II

Bass first served as an Army Air Corps aircraft recognition instructor in Salt Lake, Utah.

Upon the Battle of the Bulge, Adolf Hitler’s last-ditch 1944 effort to route the imminent Allied invasion of Germany, Bass was thrust into action.

“They were taking band members, instructors, cooks —  whoever they could get their hands on” to replace killed, wounded or captured infantrymen, Bass said.

While patrolling for snipers in a small, mostly destroyed German village, Bass and a comrade came upon a damaged house with a small section still standing.

There they found a closet and realized it’d be a perfect hiding spot for a sniper to shoot them as they walked by.

“I told my partner, ‘I’m going to snatch this door open. You be ready,’” Bass said. “There wasn’t anything in that closet but a brand new tuxedo, a top hat on the shelf, and a cloth bag.”

After poking the bag to make sure it wasn’t a booby trap, Bass unearthed a beautiful mandolin with pearl inlay.

“My buddy said, ‘I want the tuxedo,’” Bass said. “Being a country boy, I had no use for a tuxedo, so I said, ‘I want the mandolin.’”

That souvenir of World War II is still in the Bass’ Crestview home.

BAPTISM IN THE RHEIN

During the war, Bass attended church services wherever his unit’s chaplain could hold them.

“I was baptized in the Rhein River,” Bass said. “There must’ve been 25 of us in that group. Of course, I was baptized again in a church when I got back home.”

Bass said most of his time was spent guarding German prisoners of war and patrolling for snipers. Once, he came just one man away from being shot by a sniper hiding in the woods.

“We were out in the woods eating dinner,” Bass said. “The fellow next to me started to stand up to go back for seconds and a sniper shot him right in the rear. The bullet went through one side and out the other. It didn’t even hit any bone.”

HOSPICE CARE

Bass prepared for his birthday celebration Thursday with the help of his wife and his Covenant Hospice caregivers.

“I told her, ‘Make sure my hair’s parted straight,’” he said to chuckles as he removed a baseball cap to reveal a mostly bald head.

His caregivers love his jovial personality, lively conversation and sense of humor, Covenant’s senior development and communications manager Jenni Perkins said.

“He is a perfect example of someone under Covenant’s care who is making the most of every moment, enjoying the people and the activities he loves most, like playing the dulcimer and sharing his life experiences,” Perkins said. “He’s such a fascinating and sweet man!”

For Thanksgiving, the Bass' three children, eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren gathered at their Pearl Street home.

“We’ve been very blessed,” Charlotte Bass said. “We have a good family.”

“We enjoy life,” Marlin Bass said. “It’s always good to have family and friends come by.”

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

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Holt resident celebrates 92 years with music, memories (VIDEO)

CRESTVIEW — The Okaloosa Seniors vs. Crime group wants volunteers for its Crestview office.

Hours are 10 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Thursdays, and training will be provided.

The group, backed by the Florida Attorney General's Office, assists senior citizens who have been taken  advantage of or scammed. 

"The rewards of helping a senior citizen through such a traumatic event are unbelievable," a spokesperson said.

 Contact Sheila Parish, 306-3176, for more information.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Seniors vs. Crime seeks volunteers

CRESTVIEW — A new bench overlooking Twin Hills Park's east pond honors the memory of a former city and civic leader.

When State Road 85 motorists cross the overpass above the Crestview railroad tracks, they can thank former GFWC Woman’s Club of Crestview President and City Councilwoman Ernestine Barker that they needn’t wait for a train.

Click here for photos from the dedication ceremony>>

“She was the one who pushed for getting the 85 overpass,” current club President Jeanne Gutenmann said. “One day, she was going to a doctor’s appointment and got hung up by a train. She said, ‘I’m going to get an overpass put over this railroad,’ and she did.”

Barker’s son, Bill Barker, her nephew, Byrd Mapoles, and their wives, Donna and Paula Lou, respectively, attended Tuesday's dedication and took a ceremonious seat on the blue metal bench.

The bench is situated east of Northwest Florida State College's Bob Sikes campus, behind a maple tree that the Woman’s Club donated to the park.

Club members and Mayor David Cadle remembered Barker as a no-nonsense, forthright woman.

“Ernestine was a friend of all of us, but she was also a friend of the community,” club Public Issues chairwoman and former City Councilwoman Linda Parker said. “She had a special place in my heart. She always told it like it is.”

“I think it’s important for a city to acknowledge and remember the ones who’ve brought us this far,” Cadle said. “This is a well-deserved accolade for a great lady.”

The highway overpass, completed in 1978, rerouted S.R. 85 traffic from Main Street to its present route on what was once a segment of Pearl Street.

Barker also served as a local school bus driver in the 1960s, during which her firm discipline over her young passengers was well known.

She was on the city council from 1985 until 1986 and served as Woman’s Club president from 1964 to 1966.

“She was a great woman,” Gutenmann 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: Park bench honors former councilwoman, civic leader's memory (PHOTOS)

A memorial service for Grady M. Holmes (Oct. 16, 1917 – Dec. 8, 2014) is 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015 at First Presbyterian Church, 492 N. Ferdon Blvd., Crestview.

Read his life story, sign the guest book and offer condolences at http://bit.ly/1DEspko.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Memorial service planned for Grady Holmes