CRESTVIEW — The Crestview Public Library honors service members this weekend with a special veterans display. "America's White Table,” a well read book by Margot Theis Raven, inspired the spread.

The white tablecloth symbolizes a soldier's pure heart he or she decides to go off to war. The empty chair symbolizes the soldier’s absence from home. The plate is empty except for one lemon wedge, which represents a soldier's bitter fate. A white candle shines on a nearby rose, which symbolizes hope that missing soldiers will someday return home. A shaker of salt represents the tears shed for missing service members.

"We don't think about what we have; we often take things in the country for granted," said Assistant Librarian Marie Garcia, who has several family members who served in the military. Her father, Michael, is a retired Air Force member who lives in Crestview.  

The display is scheduled to remain open at the library until Veterans Day. The library will be closed in observance of the holiday.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Library displays 'white table' memorial for Veterans Day

Agriculture is the production, processing and marketing of foods and fibers.

Products we use in our everyday lives — like food, surgical sutures, lumber, tires, adhesives, shampoo, leather shoes and soft cotton clothes — come from plant and animal products and byproducts that America's farmers and ranchers produce.

National Farm-City Week celebrates those who produce these products, consume the products, and make them readily available through an efficient production and marketing chain.

Farm workers, researchers, processors, shippers, truck drivers, inspectors, wholesalers, agribusinesses, marketers, advertisers, retailers and consumers play important roles in the productivity that has made our nation’s food and fiber system the envy of the world.

Every year, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, let’s remember the vital farm-city partnerships that have done so much to improve the quality of our lives.

Rural and urban communities working together have made the most of our rich agricultural resources. They have made significant contributions to our health and well-being and to the strength of our nation’s economy.

For this, we can give thanks.

Food drive

This year, to celebrate National Farm-City Week, University of Florida IFAS Okaloosa County Extension has teamed up with Okaloosa County Farm Bureau to collect and distribute fresh vegetables and foods to needy families identified by a local church.

We will collect money, peanut butter and fresh local vegetables until Nov. 15. We will load all donations onto trailers and pull them down Main Street as we make our way to the church parking lot on Nov. 16.

Please help us celebrate National Farm-City Week with your donations.

Send donations to the University of Florida IFAS Okaloosa County Extension office or the Okaloosa County Farm Bureau office.

Call 689-5850 or email heady@ufl.edu for more details.

Jennifer Bearden is an agent at the Okaloosa County Extension office in Crestview.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: EXTENSION CONNECTION: National Farm-City Week Nov. 16-22

CRESTVIEW — The north county honors its many veterans with the Veterans Day Parade, starting at 10 a.m. Saturday morning on Main Street. After last year’s parade was almost cancelled when only five marching units had registered with less than a month to go, organizers from the city and the Disabled American Veterans, which took over the event from the Veterans Affairs Committee, promised this year’s parade will be better organized.

“We have 32 groups that have sent in entry forms, but I’m sure we’ll also have some who didn’t turn in forms and will show up at the parade anyway,” DAV adjutant treasurer Debborah“Pinky” Jimison said. “But we won’t turn them away.”

As an Air Force veteran herself, Jimison said, “Veterans Day, Memorial Day, all those days are very special to me and like to be able to give back to the community.”

On Sunday, the actual date of Veterans Day, the DAV will hold a “Wall Ceremony,” honoring the area’s veterans, at the Okaloosa County Veterans Memorial, located in the plaza on the corner of Main Street and Courthouse Terrace.

“It will be at 11 a.m.,” Jimison said. “It’s always 11/11 at 11.”

See the complete story in Saturday's News Bulletin.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Veterans Day Parade rolls Saturday morning

CRESTVIEW — Covenant Hospice observes November, National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, with this message: it’s never too early to create an advance directive. Advance directives are legal documents (living wills, durable power of attorneys, or health care proxy documents) that state your decisions for end-of-life care.

“It is important for everyone to have an advance directive regardless of present health status,” Covenant Hospice President Dale O. Knee said.

See www.covenanthospice.org/begintheconversation for information about obtaining and filling out an advance directive.

Hospice care provides expert pain management, symptom control, psychosocial support and spiritual care to patients and families when a cure is impossible. Medicines and equipment that keep a patient comfortable can be brought to the home. Palliative care brings these skilled services earlier in an illness and can be provided with other treatments.

More than 1.5 million people with a life-limiting illness annually get help from the nation’s hospice and palliative care providers.

“It’s about quality of life. With the help of hospice and palliative care, patients and families can focus on what’s most important, living as fully as possible in spite of illness,” Knee said.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Advance directives take focus during Hospice and Palliative Care Month

CRESTVIEW — Concord Lodge No. 50 members honored first responders and educators for their service to the Crestview community at their Family Night Oct. 29.

Each individual was nominated by his or her supervisor for exemplary performance.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Concord lodge announces Oct. 29 community service honorees

FORT WALTON BEACH — The Florida State Harley-Davidson Group has decided to bring its annual fall rally back to the Emerald Coast.

The area was a leading contender for the event, which will take place primarily at the Ramada Plaza Beach Resort on Okaloosa Island in October 2013. H.O.G. members selected Okaloosa County last weekend at its 2012 rally in Lake County.

“We sent a contingent down there and won the pitch,” said Dan O’Byrne, director of the county’s tourism development department.

The rally was held in Destin in 2010 and 2011.

O’Byrne and the Tourist Development Council also have gotten approval from county commissioners to provide the H.O.G with a $25,000 sponsorship. Commissioners did not discuss the expenditure before approving it at their meeting Tuesday.

“I think it met the (county’s) standards,” Commissioner Wayne Harris said after the meeting.

Harris said he made inquiries about the event and the sponsorship and “was satisfied with what the TDC was doing.”

Commission Chairman Don Amunds agreed.

“It obviously brings business into the area,” said Amunds, who added that the sponsorship was a reasonable amount to spend.

H.O.G. Rally organizers estimate the event will draw 2,500 visitors and generate 4,625 room nights at local hotels.

If the organization meets that projection, the sponsorship will increase to $30,000.

O’Byrne said the H.O.G. Rally will come during the crucial shoulder season when the area needs large events.

“I’m very excited about it,” he said. “I want to do more. … I think as we begin to look at off-season business, we’re going to have to work very tactically.”

O’Byrne said he and his staff soon will begin meeting with local hoteliers to discuss the rally.

Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa County three-time winner as 2013 H.O.G. Rally site

Election Day has passed, so you can uproot campaign signs, peel off bumper stickers, watch the news for pundits pounding each other and — apparently — engage in Facebook flame wars and cut off childhood friends and classmates because they typed impassioned status messages.

Status messages you disagreed with, that is.

Facebook users unfriend, block or hide friends one-fifth of the time due to politics, according to a Pew Internet and American Life Project survey.

A statistic like that speaks volumes about this country’s political tension and underscores the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed tolerant citizens.

Is it very tolerant to sever ties with someone due to their stances on hot button social issues?

How “united” is this country, or our local community, if we can’t bear the mere sight of differing views — whether they’re Democratic or Republican, or deal with, either way, abortion, gay rights or gun laws. A sight, I might add, that we can easily scroll through and move past, in Facebook’s case.

What does it say about someone who freely gets on a far-reaching digital soapbox and spouts his or her own views willy-nilly, and expects dissenters to ignore the conversation — not weigh in? Someone who, in the worst-case scenario, bans different-minded friends from giving input.

Certainly, many Facebook friends aren’t our close friends at all; they’re former coworkers, friends of exes, high school or college classmates we never spoke to and even some strangers find a way in. However, I have friends whose extended family members and close friends have unfriended them — a symbolic, digital excommunication — based solely on political postings.

It might sound silly, but unfriending someone, especially in Facebook Land, is a big deal. Complex psychological issues — and, ironically, political consequences, if you’re networking — relate to rejection, of course, but we won’t get into that right now.

Unfriending someone over politics is just petty.

After all, who wants to live in an echo chamber? I’ve always actively sought out different opinions. I watch Fox News, MSNBC and CNN to get the whole story and hear interesting opinions from all sides. Reasonable people, whether they lean politically right or left of center, know that contributing to the proverbial marketplace of ideas, and allowing the free flow of information, regardless of its source, only helps things.

Isolation is dangerous because we understand people better when we understand the things that make each of us different. In turn, we have a better chance of getting along with them, despite their differences. That builds community.

Isn’t it funny how children sometimes know more than adults? They can give nicknames like “know it all” and “smarty pants” — or whatever the slang terms are these days — to those who, essentially, are close-minded.

If only their parents, who too quickly call different-minded people backward, pigs, Nazis or even Taliban members, would remember that they, too, are myopic and ultimately ignorant when they stick their heads in the sand.

Thomas Boni is the Editor of the Crestview News Bulletin. Email him at tboni@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @cnbeditor, or call 682-6524.

What's your view? Email news@crestviewbulletin.com with the subject "My view." Letters must be 250 words or less and written on local issues.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: EDITOR'S DESK: The petty practice of unfriending over politics

FORT WALTON BEACH  — Voters on Tuesday returned incumbent Wayne Harris to his District 1 seat on the Okaloosa County Commission.

Harris, a Republican, won 62,430 votes, or 72 percent, to challenger Ron Connor’s 24,108, or 28 percent, according to unofficial election results.

“I’m very thankful to the voters,” Harris said. “I appreciate that they have confidence in me.”

Harris, the executive director of the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce, was first elected to the board in 2008. Connor, a Democrat, lost to Harris that year.

In his second term, Harris said he plans to concentrate on maintaining infrastructure, public safety and security.

“My focus has never changed,” he said. “In my opinion that’s what government is supposed to provide — those things that citizens can’t provide for themselves.”

Harris said his top priority is to build the new access road to Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview. Also on his list is paving Okaloosa Lane and several other dirt roads in the north county.

Harris said he is not “necessarily” focused on quality-of-life issues because the county doesn’t have the money to funnel to those areas.

“It’s hard to go out to eat when you can’t pay the rent,” he added.

UNOFFICIAL VOTE TOTALS

County Commissioner District 1

Harris — 62,430

Connor — 24,108

Baker Fire Commissioner Group 2

Brewer — 786

Cosson — 681

Destin Fire Commissioner Group 2

Moore — 4,820

Scoper — 2,849

East  Niceville Fire Commissioner Group 5

Brunson — 1,572

Martin — 757

North Okaloosa Fire Commissioner Group 1

McGirr — 5,117

Rathbun — 4,496

Skarzynski — 3,625

Sauls — 3,061

Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Harris keeps Okaloosa commission seat with 72 percent of votes

CRESTVIEW — When Buster and Belle come home, they usually bound from the car to the front door. However, unfamiliar with their new home in northeast Crestview, Courtney and Aaron Huffstutler’s pooches bolted into the woods after a day outing.

Giving more meaning to “home delivery,” a pair of nearby Papa John’s Pizza employees helped reunite the dogs with their anxious owners Thursday morning.

“We took them to the beach Sunday and we pulled back up to the house,” said Aaron Huffstutler, who last week moved to Crestview from Gadsden, Ala., with his spouse, Courtney. “For ten years, they usually run straight to the house. I opened the car door and, this time, they bolted straight to the woods.”

“We’ve only been here a week,” Aaron said. “We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know anybody.”

After three days, Buster, a Staffordshire and Labrador mix, and Belle — “she’s kind of a mutt,” Aaron said — were found late Wednesday night by Miranda Garnett and her boss, Scott Winstead.

“She found them all the way over on Airport (Road),” Courtney Huffstutler said. “She knew she better pick them up because that’s a dangerous road.”

“Miranda was on her way to work and I had just got off my shift,” Winstead said. “I helped her get them into the car. Buster was huge! We drove around trying to find someone who lost the dogs. Miranda felt bad enough for them and she wanted to do the right thing. I had just lost my dog recently so I know how they (the Huffstutlers) must feel.”

While Garnett took Buster and Belle home to Baker for safekeeping, Winstead, who had taken photos of the dogs, worked on “found dogs” posters. Aaron Huffstutler worked on posters of his own.

“I put out over 200 fliers around town and put it on Craigslist,” he said. “It’s funny, because I told my wife and she said if I had put on the flier there was an eight-month pregnant lady looking for the dogs, there’d be an APB (all points bulletin) out all over town.”

Courtney, expecting the couple’s first child in January, said her husband’s fliers and website posting paid off.

“(Wednesday) night about 10:30, a lady over in Baker called and said, ‘I know it’s late and I’m sorry, but I got your dogs,’” Aaron said.

Winstead said Garnett’s rescue was typical of her caring nature.

“Miranda is such a sweet girl,” he said. “She’s always trying to help out people.”

The dogs seemed excited to reunite with the couple the next morning, Aaron said.

“Oh my Jesus, they ran around and around for an hour, I think,” he said.

Aaron Huffstutler said the experience has been a crash course in discovering the warmth of their new hometown.

“I met a lot of good people since this happened,” he said. “Everybody we talked to promised to look out for the dogs. One older man said he’d keep an eye out for them during his morning walk.”

As for the adventurous dogs, Buster and Belle won’t be quite as free to explore on their own outdoors.

“I promise you, from now on, I’m hooking them to their leashes and they aren’t running to the house on their own any more,” Aaron said. “I learned my lesson.”

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: Pizza shop workers return Crestview newcomers’ wayward dogs