Community

The Okaloosa County School District held a district-wide professional development day at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center Jan. 6. Superintendent Marcus Chambers spoke to OCSD employees about the hard work they do each and every day to make a positive impact on students. Todd Whitaker, teacher, principal, speaker...

By Kenneth Books In the late 1990s, three teenagers ran their hearts out as members of the Fort Walton Beach High School cross-country team. Today, all three – Mike Lowe, Ken Dwyer and Austin White – are colonels in the armed forces. Lowe and White are in the Air Force,...

By Kenneth Books The longest-serving city manager in Florida will leave office Aug. 1 after 52 years on the job. Lannie Corbin, 80, who was first hired as city clerk in 1971, then made city manager two years later, said he wants to travel with his wife and do other things...

On Christmas Eve, Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Deputy Corporal Ray Hamilton was killed in the line of duty while attempting to arrest a man suspected of domestic violence. Hamilton served as a Special Response Team (SRT) member with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. To honor the memory and sacrifice of Corporal...

The Flying Needles Quilt Guild was started in 1989 by a group of 19 quilters and has grown to more than 100 members. Its goal is to serve the general public by donations to other community service organizations and by serving as a source of information and education through...

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 676 (2021) to help create a new “30A” specialty license plate for Florida motorists. The 30A tags cost $33, with all proceeds being donated to support Scenic Walton, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that promotes projects designed to improve the quality of life in Walton...

By Michelle Ruschman In 2008, The Children’s Neighborhood in Fort Walton Beach opened its doors to provide additional shelter for foster children. Ken Hair, president and CEO of Children in Crisis, Inc spoke of how the neighborhood came to be. “Sharilyn Darnell, our founder, was a retired schoolteacher who was involved...

State Representative Patt Maney convened recently with members of the Florida House of Representatives in Tallahassee for the first week of Legislative Committee meetings for the 2022-2023 Regular Session, as well as Special Legislative Session 2022-A to address rising property insurance costs to Florida families. “For folks in the Panhandle,...

By Lisa Woodrum In a world where we are bombarded with negativity and bad reports, I invite you to pull up a front row seat with me to witness your community’s compassionate heart toward the down and out. In 2006, community leadership met to ask the question, “What are we going...

Northwest Florida State College (NWFSC) is pleased to announce its participation in AWS Academy, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) program that provides higher education institutions with a ready-to-teach cloud computing curriculum. NWFSC’s AWS Academy Cloud Foundations is intended for students who seek an overall understanding of cloud computing concepts to...