Community

At a recent ceremony, five exemplary women were inducted in the 2023 Okaloosa County Women’s Hall of Fame. Sponsored by the Okaloosa County Commission on the Status of Women, the annual induction ceremony is held in conjunction with Women’s Equality Day and is the Commission’s oldest and most prestigious...

On Sept. 6, Sharing & Caring of Okaloosa County, Inc. commemorated the completion of its recent building expansion project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house to show off Fort Walton Beach food bank’s new facilities. The project included a 900-square-foot addition to the east end of the building...

Welcome to a brand-new year in the Okaloosa County School District! I cannot begin my thoughts and hopes for this year without thanking our students, parents and staff for an outstanding 2022-2023 school year. In a year that brought new, more rigorous statewide assessments in English Language Arts (ELA)...

By Carolyn Newcomer Ketchel, Okaloosa County Commissioner, District 2 In 2014, when I first became a commissioner, Okaloosa County had a minimum level of funds in reserve for disasters and other rainy days. We now have the recommended level of reserve funds to achieve a strong financial rating and obtain...

By Julie A. Martin, Licensed Agent FL It’s the middle of summer, and you just heard on the radio that a Category 4 storm is about to hit in your area. What should you do to prepare? Stocking up on non-perishable food and bottled water is a given and also batteries. Those...

By Barbara Palmgren Some people have a vision of success that turns their dream into a legend for the ages. Did Peter Bos envision that his dream of a community built with one of the finest golf courses in the country would become just that…legendary? His company, Legendary, Inc., began...

The 3rd Annual Wentz Brothers’ Festival of Fears Continues to Become Bigger & Better The Wentz Brothers invite one and all to their third annual Festival of Fears haunted attraction in Fort Walton Beach. This year’s event promises to be bigger and better than the last, opening in a new facility at...

By Lori Leath Smith Publisher Note: It is always an honor to write about a Hometown Hero. For many, the word hero brings a particular image or personality to mind. Yet, our heroes vary in age and are as unique and special as the life they have lived and the...

Chamber Life: Stories from the life and times of Fort Walton Beach Chamber members… By Kelly Murphy-Redd Toasting fallen comrades is a military tradition going back thousands of years to the Vikings, Roman Legions and King Arthur’s Roundtable. At the Doolittle Raider’s annual reunion in 1959, the city of Tucson, Arizona, presented...

By Kenneth Books The average human body contains about 60 percent water. And we die after about three days without ingesting liquids. Yet, most of us take water, the most crucial element in the world, for granted. The Choctawhatchee Bay Estuary Program is designed to create awareness of that body of water and how...