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... 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... 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... 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

  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... Read More

  By Michelle Ruschman In this ongoing series, What Teens Want Us to Know, we asked the question, “What “adulting” skills do you want to be taught before you leave home? (Consider what you might want to know in the areas of physical and emotional health, relationship building, professional success, lifestyle, creativity, practical skills, and education.)” At school, there’s a focus on social, academic, and extracurricular activities, but what about what they want to know…need to know… as they prepare to launch into life beyond graduation? In the busyness of working jobs, getting kids from one activity to another, church life, etc it’s hard to know what our kids don’t know. One mom mentioned, “My college-age son called me the other day and asked me how to make a grilled cheese sandwich! I didn’t know he didn’t know how to do that until that moment!” It’s easy for a modern family to miss the things that we, as parents and grandparents, took for granted growing up. Back then, there was time to learn how to cook together, we assisted our dads in the workshop or garage, and families lived closer together so elders could pass on what they knew to the younger ones. Kids still need this training and mentorship but there don’t seem to be the same opportunities. When our teens answered, there were clear themes they wanted to learn most: Financial Literacy – How to pay for different expenses, how to do taxes, and how to create a... Read More

  By Sean Dietrich She was trash. At least that’s how she was treated. She was found wandering a rural Mississippi highway. Beneath the stars. It was a wonder the girl hadn’t been hit. This was a busy highway. The kind with transfer trucks. The dog was walking in the center of the road. On the yellow line. Clearly there was something wrong with her. Animals don’t walk open highways. But the black-and-tan dog was moving by feel. Because she is blind. All she knew was that she liked open highway because the surface was smooth, and there were no obstructions. And when you’re blind, no obstructions is a good thing. She was a skeleton. Every rib visible. Every spinal disc showed. There were scars all over her, as though she’d been involved in a host of dog fights. A scar on her face. A scar on her chest. One behind her ear. On her side. Another on her right forelimb. Probably, she had been caged with other hunting dogs. The dogs were probably mistreated and hungry. Hunger makes dogs mean. Nobody knows how the blindness happened. But it didn’t take a rocket engineer to figure it out. “Someone hit this animal with a blunt object,” the veterinarian later said, choking back tears. “Someone beat this poor dog. Maybe with the butt of a rifle. Maybe with rebar.” People say that dogs use smell above all other senses. That’s a lie. A dog doesn’t use her sense of smell to... Read More

  By Pastor David Holland The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:25-37 How can we know we are truly a Christian? Being born into a Christian family doesn’t make you a believer any more than sitting in a McDonald’s makes you a hamburger. Nor can you simply be a good person and earn your way into heaven. Jesus reveals the test of tangible Christian faith through the parable of the Good Samaritan. A young religious lawyer approached Christ asking, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus asks the lawyer about what he believes, and the man shares remarkable insight as he says, “Love God” and “Love others.” These two great commandments are not only a summary of the entire Old Testament, but are the guiding principles of successful living. The lawyer questions Jesus further. “Who is my neighbor?” It’s as if he were saying, “How do I know the kind of love and faith God requires?” Christ answers with a story aimed at challenging the man while assuring him of salvation. The parable begins with a man robbed, beaten and left for dead. The priest walking by is unwilling to get involved with this messy situation. So, he avoids the man in need. Ironically, he was en route to the temple to serve people in need while a man lies suffering right in front of him. A Levite also passes by; but in... Read More