Go-Givers: Mary Swart
By Julie Kerns Garmendia After retirement from Bellsouth’s Human Resources department in 2003, Mary Swart’s years of volunteering meant that her charities just moved higher on her priority list. She refers to husband Michael, a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Reserves who also worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, as her dependable […]
Go-Givers: Kevin Kuzel
By Julie Kerns Garmendia In 2001 Kevin Kuzel, a former U.S. Navy Pilot who heartily calls himself a diehard Texan, moved to Jacksonville from Dallas. His roots in a Dallas historic district neighborhood meant that Commander Kuzel was immediately drawn to the Avondale Riverside area. The Kuzels are currently in the midst of a […]
Summer’s here, surf’s up: Time for a beach safari
By Jessica Basham Therriault Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Not everyone has a green backyard with bushes and trees. Florida is a peninsula, with the longest coastline of all states in the continental United States. Most of Florida’s nearly 19 million residents live less than 60 miles from the Atlantic Ocean or the […]
Lobster season: Catch the family fun this season in the Keys
By Nathan and Ted Miller Everyone loves to eat fresh lobster tail, and there are several different ways in Florida to harvest your own. One way is to become a certified diver, and head out 30+ miles off the First Coast into 100+ feet of water. If you are bold enough, you can dive […]
San Jose looks to defend swim league championship title
By Mike Bonts The annual River City Swim League (RCSL) Championships will be held July 26-29 at the Cecil Aquatic Center on Normandy Boulevard. The league is comprised of 18 teams with approximately 2,100 swimmers ranging in ages three to 18 — including many neighborhood swimmers who have been training daily this summer. San Jose Country Club has […]
Avondale resident named USTA Florida tennis volunteer of the month
Charlie Parker’s memories of junior tennis include father-son events, trips with other kids to weekend tournaments, and group tennis drills and games that ended with exhausted smiles and laughter. Now with a son and daughter, the elementary school physical education teacher is introducing his own children to the game through 10 and Under Tennis as […]
Around the Parks
By Mike Bonts On May 12, players, coaches and families of NOL (Navy-Ortega-Lakeshore) Little League stopped play and left the ball fields, stands and concessions to honor U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Dick Lee, who died in Afghanistan. Tommy Brooke, president of NOL, asked players, coaches and families to be part of a NAS Jacksonville tribute along […]
Go-Giver: Melissa Bartley
By Julie Kerns Garmendia Volunteers commit to charities for a variety of reasons. In Melissa Bartley’s case, it was her grandfather. Henry Solomon’s rapid diagnosis and death from brain cancer led Bartley to the Northeast Florida American Cancer Society. After a difficult experience with hospice and Bartley’s personal feelings of loss and grief, she […]
