By Jack Smith I met Jim Corr at the Panama City Beach Senior Center where he was attending a woodworking class. He had just completed an exquisite bowl. He and his wife Judy were kind enough to tell me his remarkable story. Unfortunately, I was not the first newspaperman to conduct an interview with Jim. It seems my predecessor was uninformed about how to interview combat Marines. I learned from my own family that it is not acceptable to ask questions about personal feelings during actual combat. Jim was so upset with this journalist that he offered to demonstrate the art of hand-to-hand combat. Jim warmed up when told that my Grandfather had received his wings at Pensacola prior to World War I. Turns out, Jim received his wings in Pensacola at the start of World War II. Jim grew up in Selma, Alabama, playing football and baseball like most kids his age. After high school graduation he attended Georgetown University until the start of the war. He decided that if he had to go to war, it might as well be with the toughest outfit, The United States Marines. After Pensacola, Jim and his group were sent to North Carolina for Advanced Fighter Training. On leave, he remembers, “I met one of the nicest ladies I ever met.” She invited Jim and two other pilots to Sunday dinner, a tradition that continued for their time in North Carolina. After training, Jim and his squadron VMF 221 were sent to... Read More

 By Paul Bonnette Walt Disney World. Just the name conjures up images of exciting rides, hilarious characters, delicious snacks, and fun with family and friends. If you haven’t been to Disney World in the past few years, and are looking to make a trip back to the “Most Magical Place on Earth,” it may be a bit different than you remember. Park Hopping, fast passes, and even reservations have all changed in the past few years after Covid forced many businesses including Disney to change their operating method. Before you gas up the car to head down to Orlando, here are a few things you should know about planning your Disney vacation. My Disney Experience App is extremely important. Wait times, ride and park photos, reservations, and more are all managed on the app called “My Disney Experience.” Whether you want to mobile order from a quick service restaurant, check how long the wait time is for Pirates of the Caribbean, or even use it as a map, this app will help make sure you get the most from your vacation. Park Reservations. Unfortunately, you will not be able to hop down there with a ticket and waltz through the gates to get in line for Haunted Mansion as you might be used to doing. Park reservations are required for each of the four parks such as Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. The best way to make and manage your park reservation is through the My Disney... Read More

 My name is Lorraine Frasier. I am the owner of Coastal Wildlife Adventures. Here is a little bit about my business. We are a small company consisting of three, 25-foot center console style boats in Panama City Beach, departing from Pirates Cove Marina, and one boat departing out of Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe. Coastal Wildlife Adventures specializes in small private group boat tours. Our tours are generally 6 guests or less. On every tour, we set out to watch dolphins and other wildlife in their natural home. What I love most about doing tours in this area is that the wildlife we get to see changes daily. Sometimes we see one hundred dolphins, other days we see only one or two. We may get a chance to see sharks, rays, different fish, sea birds, birds of prey, sea horses, turtles, and even land animals along the coast such as armadillos, tortoises, and deer. Whenever I think I have seen everything there is to see in our waterways, I am always humbled by seeing things I have never seen before. On our adventures we also stop on Shell Island, a beautiful, secluded island nature preserve great for sightseeing, wildlife viewing, exploring, walking, snorkeling around the coast, and shelling. On our tours leaving from Port St. Joe, we stop on St. Joseph Peninsula, which is even more secluded than Shell Island. These places are pretty enough to be on a postcard! We change our snorkeling sites up from day to... Read More

 April 13th Benefit to Raise Funds for Suicide Awareness and Resources The Tatissa Foundation for Suicide Prevention in support of Okaloosa Suicide Prevention and Support (Okaloosa SPS) is honored to announce its first fundraiser on April 13, 2023, from 7-9pm, at the Edge Seafood Restaurant and Bar in Destin, FL. This is the group’s inaugural fundraiser and seeks to raise funds for suicide prevention awareness and improved access to support and resources in Okaloosa County. Tickets for the event are $50 per person and may be purchased online at Suicide Prevention Fundraiser. The event will feature a dinner buffet, local and national guest speakers, and a silent auction. Funds from the event will be used to pay for QPR (Question, Persuade and Refer) Gatekeeper training and other suicide prevention, intervention and postvention trainings, as well as informational materials, speakers, and other suicide prevention resources and events. Okaloosa SPS was established in collaboration with concerned local residents in January 2023 as a program of The Tatissa Foundation, https://www.thetatissafoundation.org. While many organizations focus on prevention within certain age groups or populations, Okaloosa SPS recognizes the need for broader outreach and suicide prevention activities and is dedicated to raising awareness to everyone in the county. Sabina and Louis Zunguze, founders of the Tatissa Foundation and Okaloosa SPS, said “from our personal experience, suicide is a complex issue that can affect anyone and, as such, it is everyone’s business. We are all touched by suicide in unique ways that require community-wide well-coordinated, affordable and... Read More

  On Saturday, April 15th, The Watersound Origins community will host an Outdoor Adventure Film Night at Village Commons featuring “Ground Swell: The Other Side of Fear” is an in-depth look at the 2021-22 big wave season. Beginning at 7PM, this event is free and open to the public. Attendees are invited to bring low back chairs or blankets. Coolers are permitted. Pets are not permitted. Event is suggested for those ages 10 and up. OUTDOOR ADVENTURE FILM NIGHT | April 15 @ 7PM   Read More

  Celebrate Easter weekend in Alys Beach. There’s something fun for everyone! Visit alysbeach.com/events for more information. Friday, April 7 10AM | Amphitheatre | Alys Improv Hour 10AM – 7PM | Alys Shoppe | L.A. Stein Trunk Show   Read More

 By Christopher Manson Scott Rude calls himself “the founding member” of 100 Men Who Care Emerald Coast. Rude (pronounced Rudy) is “semi-retired” and spent three years teaching business management at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. After leaving the university, he worked for Shell Oil in New Orleans. He and his family visited our beaches on the weekends and decided this is where they wanted to live. Jean, Rude’s wife of 24 years, was very happy with the choice they made. In Iowa, Rude was a member of the Hawkeye chapter of 100 Men Who Care. Upon relocating, he looked for a local chapter, but there wasn’t one around. “The only thing to do was start one,” he says. In 2021, 100 Men Who Care Emerald Coast launched with considerable help from Fort Walton Beach’s 100+ Women Who Care honcho Kelly Bomar-Fuller. Rude recently attended a check presentation for Healing Hoof Steps. “I hadn’t heard of them,” he says. “I had no idea how many organizations there were in Okaloosa and Walton counties that are trying to help people in our community.” The Crestview-based nonprofit offers horse therapy to veterans with PTSD, as well as young children who have autism. The 100 Men Who Care have given to Crossroads Medical Center, too. The Valparaiso free clinic serves homeless people and folks trying to make ends meet. “They do an unbelievable service,” says Rude. “We gave them a little over $3,000 and they showed us how they could turn it... Read More

 By Anna Fisher, Associate Artistic Director, ECTC Raise your hand if you’ve ever come upon an open grassy field and spread your arms out while twirling and singing, “The hills are alive, with the sound of music?” No one? Just me? Okay even if you ignored that impulse, I know you wanted to breathe in the fresh spring air and twirl with abandon as you embodied one of your favorite moments from “Sound of Music.” We all have our favorite memories from this beautiful Rodgers and Hammerstein classic stage play and movie. Everyone learned to sing the notes along to “doe, a deer, a female deer” and find our dreams when we “climb every mountain.” I am so excited to bring this beautiful, based-on-true-events story to life this spring at Emerald Coast Theatre Company. We have a cast of extremely talented adult and child actors who are already working hard in rehearsals to bring this gorgeous musical to our stage. One of the greatest challenges of casting is finding the right actress to play Maria. She has to not only be able to sing like an angel, but to also be angelic in her demeanor. We have to believe that she would come to love a group of children as her own and embrace a life that she did not plan for herself. If you have met Anna Joy Powell, you know that she is the perfect actress to tell this story of love, family and overcoming. She is a... Read More

 With his final novel, Time’s Orphan, officially launched this month, Niceville local award-winning author Hayley Reese Chow now offers the complete Odriel’s Heirs series, a fast-paced, young adult fantasy adventure. The Odriel’s Heirs series tells the story of a world in which the powers of fire, invisibility and healing are passed down to three Heirs to protect their land from a demon necromancer and his armies of undead. Spanning decades and generations, the Odriel’s Heirs series features three stand-alone novels connected by two bridge novellas to comprise a darkly epic saga across a new world both extraordinary and perilous. Walking in the footsteps of Sabriel, Graceling, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, Odriel’s Heirs features strong female protagonists, slow burn romance and high stakes fantasy in a new world of magic, monsters and the undead, where the lives of all depend on the strength of three. Hayley Reese Chow is an Air Force veteran, reservist, engineer, ex-ultramarathoner, retired fencer, mother of two and up-and-coming author, publishing seven books in the last three years. Her books have won the Florida Author Project, a Literary Titan Gold Award, a Book Reader’s Appreciation Group Medallion, and have been finalists in the Book Blogger Novel of the Year Awards and the Wishing Shelf Book Awards. For more information, visit hayleyreeschow.com. The post Local Author Bookshelf: Author Project Winner Launches Fantasy Series appeared first on South Walton Life | 30A News, Events and Community Information.  Read More