CRESTVIEW — A 47-year-old motorcyclist was killed Monday night in a wreck on State Road 85, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Tracy Jay Tate was driving northbound around 7:45 p.m. when he approached the traffic signal on Antioch Road. Another vehicle, driven by 37-year-old Kiiya Sherre Dixon of Crestview, was at the traffic signal in the eastbound lane on Antioch Road and pulled forward when the light turned green.

Tate also entered the intersection on a red signal, crossing into the path of Dixon's 2002 Nissan Xtera, according to the FHP report. Dixon's Nissan hit the right front side of Tate's 2006 Yamaha motorcycle, sending both vehicles to the right side of the grass shoulder on State Road 85 north.

Tate's motorcycle sustained $12,000 in damages during the wreck.

It is not known if alcohol played a role, according to the FHP report.

Tate was transported to North Okaloosa Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead as a result of his injuries. Tate was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.

Dixon and Dixon's passenger, 12-year-old Crestview resident Ayajah C. Coleman, were not injured. Both were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.

The Nissan sustained around $5,000 in damages.

The northbound lanes were closed to traffic while emergency responders worked the scene. They were reopened by 11:15 p.m., according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: One killed in State Road 85 wreck in Crestview

FORT WALTON BEACH — The Florida Department of Public Health has issued advisories for Garniers Park of Fort Walton Beach and Rocky Bayou State Park of Niceville. These parks present potential health risks following water quality tests.

Complete results are as follows:

Site Location, Result and Rating

Liza Jackson Park, Fort Walton Beach, Pass, Good

Garniers Park, Fort Walton Beach, Fail, Poor

Marler Park, Okaloosa Island, Pass, Good

Wayside Park, Okaloosa Island, Pass, Good

Poquito Park, Shalimar, Pass, Good

Gulf Islands National Seashore, Okaloosa Island, Pass, Good

East Pass, Okaloosa Island, Pass, Good

Lincoln Park, Valparaiso, Pass, Good

Henderson Beach, Destin, Pass, Good

Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park, Niceville, Fail, Poor

James Lee Park, Destin, Pass, Good

Emerald Promenade, Okaloosa Island, Pass, Good

Clement E. Taylor Park, Destin, Pass, Good

The department conducts weekly saltwater beach water quality monitoring at 13 sites. Water samples are analyzed for enteric bacteria, which indicates fecal pollution.

Water quality classifications are based on United States Environmental Protection Agency standards.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Garniers and Rocky Bayou State Park fail water quality tests

CRESTVIEW — After being diagnosed with lupus more than two years ago, Pam Pursley, 54, wants to spread awareness about the disease.

Lupus, a chronic, autoimmune disease, can cause chest pain, abnormal blood clotting, mouth or nose ulcers, low red blood cell count and extreme fatigue, among symptoms, according to lupus.org.

 An estimated 1.5 million Americans, and 90 percent of women, have some form of the disease, according to the Lupus Foundation of America.

Pursley has systemic lupus, which inflames the body's major internal organs.

"It’s the worst kind you can have; not only does it mess up your skin and joints, but it can also mess up your heart, kidneys and your lungs," she said.

She sells homemade sugar scrub products on Fridays at the curbside market on Main Street. Pursley recently started making and selling the skin care product with her grandchildren’s help.

To honor Lupus Awareness Month, Pursley has donated a portion of proceeds to the Lupus Foundation of America. 

Pursley said she plans to start a support group for those affected by lupus. She would also like to start a community event that would raise awareness and — hopefully — more funding for lupus research.

"I would like to get a chapter going to start the lupus walk…that's my main goal is to raise money for research," she said.

For now, she’s dealing with challenges associated with the disease.

Pursley’s condition can at times leave her in such pain that she must rely on family members’ assistance.

"I can't even get up by myself; my daughter has to physically pull me up because it hurts so bad," she said.

Symptoms, which she takes 14 medications for, forced her to quit her job at Bayside Cleaners in Crestview. She is filing an appeal to receive Social Security disability benefits.

Pursley said she can barely pay utility bills. However, she receives some assistance from family members, and two doctors have helped her find reduced-cost prescriptions.

Despite her illness, Pursley has been on the go with her grandchildren. 

"(Doctors) have told me that I should have been in a wheelchair by now," she said. "I told them, ‘No, I have five little grandbabies… I have no time for a wheelchair.'"

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown at 850-682-6524 or matthewb@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbMatthew.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Dorcas resident wants to raise awareness about lupus

CRESTVIEW — Organizers hope a May 11 family festival will draw attention to a little-understood, often debilitating disease in a fun atmosphere.

Key Lyme Time, to be held in Old Spanish Trail Park, is part of a worldwide Lyme disease awareness effort. Events will include space walks and children's games, a hair cut-a-thon, a key lime pie bake-off competition and pie-eating contest.

Musical performances will feature Crestview High School’s Destiny and Chanticleer show choirs, Triple Threat Dancers and Favored Sons of Tallahassee.

Zumba dancing and other fitness demonstrations will underscore the importance of exercise and a healthy lifestyle in combating Lyme disease.

May is Lyme Awareness Month, organizer Connie Murray said. Carnival proceeds will benefit LymeDisease.org and a fund set up to help pay for Lyme disease treatments for her daughter, Nikki.

Nikki Murray, 26, acquired the disease after she was bitten by a tick in Crestview in 2008.

"If I had taken my Nikki to a doctor who was trained to recognize the symptoms of Lyme disease after her initial tick bite, she could have been blood-tested and treated immediately with antibiotics that may have prevented the suffering I've had to watch her go through," Connie Murray said.

Parents and guardians should check their children, pets and themselves for ticks after spending time outdoors, she said.

Key Lyme Time will hopefully draw attention to the need to watch for ticks, she said.

Want to go?

Key Lyme Time — a Lyme disease awareness fundraiser featuring games, bounce houses, live music, food and fitness demonstrations — is noon to 6 p.m. May 11 at Old Spanish Trail Park.

Admission is free, but games and bounce house require tickets. Contact Connie Murray, murrauc61@gmail.com, or visit www.facebook.com/WorldwideLymeProtestCrestviewfL/events for details.

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Key Lyme Time fundraiser is Saturday in Crestview

CRESTVIEW — Post office employees will collect nonperishable and non-expired food items from area residents.

Leave the food donations in a bag next to your mailbox and the letter carriers will pick them up as they deliver mail on their routes.

This is a United Way event benefitting local food banks.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Letter carriers' Stamp Out Hunger food drive is Saturday in Crestview

CRESTVIEW — Aileen Barley, a longtime area educator and community activist, died Wednesday following a recent illness. She died a day short of her 87th birthday.

During her funeral Saturday, her son, Joe Barley, credited his maternal grandparents for instilling in his mother the desire to help other people.

"She learned how to care for people from her folks," Joe Barley said, relating how his grandparents often invited in down-on-their-luck people who passed by their Ohio farm during the Depression.

"Mother always had her wallet open, whether it was for cats or Sharing and Caring," Barley said, referring to the Crestview food bank that he co-founded.

Aileen Barley joined Sharing and Caring two years after she retired from a 38-year career as an elementary school teacher at Crestview schools.

Her June 1989 retirement from teaching was really just the opportunity for his mother to transition to serving her community full-time for more than 20 years, Joe Barley said.

Serving others

Before Sharing and Caring opened its center off Wilson Street, the Barleys would distribute bags of food from their car to transient or homeless people passing through Crestview.

"Sometimes you have to take the service to where the people are who need it," Joe Barley said.

Even in her later years, Aileen Barley would hand food out of her car window to people she'd see by the side of the road.

"If we didn't have bags of food, we gave them a sandwich," Joe Barley said.

In May 1995, Aileen and Joe Barley and Joe's wife, Cecile, comprised the first contingent from Crestview to venture to what became the community's Sister City, Noirmoutier, France, and remained active in the program for many years.

In addition to visitors from Noirmoutier, Aileen Barley hosted foreign exchange students at her Crestview home.

Return to the classroom

Aileen Barley established a mentorship program at Northwood Elementary School, having been the third-grade teacher of the school's guidance counselor, Martha Barton.

"When the county started doing it (mentoring students), we had already been doing it for 10 years," Joe Barley said. "They wanted us to re-apply and get fingerprinted."

Aileen Barley also mentored students at the former Southside Elementary School and at Laurel Hill School, and was a volunteer for the Guardian Ad Litem program.

She served at the First Presbyterian Church of Crestview's weekly soup kitchen for several years, and taught a Sunday school class for mentally challenged adults at the First United Methodist Church, of which she was a longtime member.

"Mother was always out there trying to help people," Joe Barley said. "My mother had a great life, a life of caring for others."

Aileen Barley was interred in Enterprise, Ala., the home of her late husband, Carl Barley. In addition to their son, Joe, the couple had two daughters, Mary Shaver and Susan Young; and two grandsons, David and Danny.

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Longtime Crestview educator, community activist Aileen Barley dies

CRESTVIEW — As a panicked resident cradled his unresponsive toddler in the front yard, three strangers answered his oldest daughter's cries for help and rushed the family to the hospital.

Jeremy Fouquet was doing homework April 24 as his daughter Alissa, 9, and her best friend Amber Panitzke, 10, played with 3-year-old Elizabeth. Suddenly, Elizabeth began having a seizure.

"She was just giving Elizabeth a hug and she started shaking," Alissa said of her friend. "She was so scared she called my daddy, 'Daddy.'"

"I was like, 'Daddy, Elizabeth's shaking,'" Amber said. "It was scary."

"I went into panic mode because I had never dealt with a seizure before," Fouquet said.

Fouquet said he "did everything wrong," grabbing Elizabeth and running for his truck to take her to the hospital while his father, Ward Fouquet, who lives with the family, called 911.

Discovering that his wife, Jessica, had taken the truck to work, Fouquet started looking for a neighbor with a vehicle while calling out for someone to help them. Alissa and Amber tried to flag down passing motorists.

Jeremy Fouquet said Elizabeth's eyes were wide, fixed, and the girl was "totally out."

"I thought she had died so I started pumping her chest and … everyone that gathered around started to try to stop cars," he said.

Multiple vehicles passed the family's Pearl Street home, one stopping but only to criticize the girls.

"This blonde lady in an SUV stopped and said we were stupid for trying to flag down cars," Alissa said.

Then college students Tahnee Burnette, Carissa Phillips and Lexi Burnette pulled into the driveway and took Jeremy and Elizabeth to North Okaloosa Medical Center.

With Tahnee at the wheel, "I won’t say that they broke any laws but they got me to the hospital in about three minutes flat," Fouquet said.

Jessica Fouquet said that emergency room doctors believe Elizabeth had a virus that led to the seizure. The toddler has now recovered.

"She's doing great now," Jessica said. "She's back to running around and being her own crazy self."

"Out of all those people who drove by, thank God there were three people who weren’t in a hurry for something more important," Jeremy Fouquet said. "They were on their way to do college girl stuff. They didn't have to stop and help."

"Angels never know when they're doing God's work," Ward Fouquet said.

"These girls were unselfish, caring and most of all, heroes," his son added. "I'd count my blessings but there are too many."

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Angels in Crestview: Strangers aid man during daughter's seizure

CRESTVIEW — The Distinguished Young Women of Okaloosa County scholarship program has five Crestview candidates seeking scholarship donations.

Baker School student Emily Parker, Crestview High School students Moriah Brannon, Hayley Marshall and Ashley Guthrie, and Niceville High School student Ashley Grabowski are collecting "fan support" donations for scholarship fund awards.

To make a tax-deductible donation, send a check, payable to DYW of Okaloosa County Inc., to Carole Byrd, DYW Director, 205 Fir Ave., Niceville, FL 32578.

The competition's Northwest Florida portion is 7 p.m. July 27 at Fort Walton Beach Civic Auditorium, 107 Miracle Strip Parkway S.E., Fort Walton Beach. Admission costs $5 per person at the door.

Judges will evaluate participants’ fitness, talent, grades, public speaking and interviews. A minimum of 10 awards, including four-year college scholarships from Troy State University and the University of West Alabama, will be presented to winners.

The winner advances to state competition, and each state winner goes to nationals in June in Mobile, Ala.

The Okaloosa County DYW program credited April Linton of Crestview for supporting Okaloosa participants.

"She is our biggest supporter and active team member," said Carol Byrd, chair of Distinguished Young Women's Okaloosa branch.

For more information on DYW, visit http://distinguishedyw.org.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: DYW Crestview participants seek scholarship donations

CRESTVIEW —  Today's Environmental Conservation Fair, scheduled to take place on Main Street, has been postponed.

Event organizers meet earlier this morning and decided to postpone the event due to the forecasted weather conditions.

No rescheduled date has been announced at this time.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Environmental Fair postponed