Category: Featured

By Lori Leath Smith

Are you looking for ways to help our community? As always during the holiday season, there is an ongoing need for giving. Many children don’t have enough food to eat over a weekend, much less over Thanksgiving, and have to return to school hungry. Some don’t even have beds. Many homeless veterans go without a warm meal all year long. Walton County has a food insecurity rate of 14.1 percent among children younger than 18. In Okaloosa County, it is 13.6 percent (source: Feeding America). There are families in our area who are struggling to get by. They can be blessed by an extra boost this holiday season. Fortunately, we live in a compassionate community that pulls together for its own. We have some amazing organizations ready to give this Thanksgiving and you can help them help others.

Caring and Sharing of South Walton will provide holiday food items to local families from Nov. 14-16, the week before Thanksgiving. Families are asked to pre-register by filling out an eligibility form to qualify them for assistance. They must live in Walton County. Families will receive items for a traditional holiday meal and Caring and Sharing’s regular pantry food items. Caring and Sharing is expecting close to 500 families to pick up meals. It is looking for volunteers to help pack Thanksgiving bags and to hand out food the week of pickup. If you’re interested in donating or volunteering, contact them at (850) 267-2866 or email carly@caringandsharingsowal.org for more information.

Have you ever had to sleep without a bed? Put some sparkle into a child’s holiday this year. A Bed 4 Me invites you to help provide beds for children in Walton and Okaloosa counties this season. Five dollars buys a pillow; $50 buys bedding; $125 buys a bed and $250 sponsors a full bed kit and helps with operational expenses. A Bed 4 Me has provided beds to 2,000 children in our community since 2016, but is always in need of our support. To help, visit abed4me.org where you can donate in any amount.

Food For Thought (FFT) provides five year-round programs to bridge the meal gap in the lives of the food-insecure children they serve, but it’s especially needed during the holidays. Last year, our communities gave more than $20,000 to support FFT holiday services! FFT served more than 3,200 children, distributed more than 33,000 food items and was supported by 250 volunteer hours just for Thanksgiving alone. Families supported by Food for Thought programs across Walton and Okaloosa counties will be provided food to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal along with food to support their students’ needs while they are out of school for a week, which is about 10 meals they will miss. To enroll, email support@fftfl.org. To volunteer or donate, please visit www.fftfl.org. You can also sponsor a family at Thanksgiving.

Destiny Worship Center is providing Thanksgiving meals for families in need. You can help by picking up a Thanksgiving bag from Oct. 22 (Saturday) – Nov. 19 (Saturday). Purchase and fill the bag with the list of items on the bag and drop off at the Destiny Campus NO LATER THAN Nov. 13. Thanksgiving bag assembly day is Tuesday, Nov. 15, 9 a.m. in the sanctuary. Consider joining on Saturday, Nov. 19 to deliver to families in our area. Please sign up in the foyer.

Views: 0

It’s time to choose your favorites in the 2023 Perfect in Walton County Awards! The online voting period is open Monday, Sept. 26 until Friday, Oct. 21 at perfectinwaltoncounty.com.

The top five nominees with the highest votes in 30 categories have been selected, and now it’s time for the final vote! Both residents and visitors are encouraged to vote for their favorite businesses, events, and activities online at perfectinwaltoncounty.com.

The finalists with the most votes in each category will be recognized as Diamond, Platinum or Gold winners at the Perfect in Walton County Awards presentation in January 2023. These winners will be promoted in print and online by Visit South Walton throughout the year. For a complete list of last year’s winners, please visit visitsouthwalton.com/2022-perfect-south-walton-awards.

Voting will remain open until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21. Each person is allowed one vote per email address. For more information about the 2023 Perfect in Walton County Awards program, please contact Industry Relations Specialist Lisa Foster at Lisa@visitsouthwalton.com or (850) 333-2728.

Views: 0

By Ed Offley

Do you have a good cause aimed at helping the Walton and Bay County communities?

If so, April Wilkes would like to hear from you. And if your organization qualifies, she would like to provide you with the money to make your endeavor a success.

For nearly a quarter-century, the St. Joe Community Foundation has done just that, providing more than $34 million in grants to scores of community organizations in Bay and Walton Counties. Wilkes, executive director of the foundation since 2018, says it wants to expand its roster of recipients.

“We are always looking for great nonprofits that we haven’t helped before,” she told Life Media.

As the largest landowner in Bay and Walton Counties, the St. Joe Company has long played – and continues to play – a major role in the development of the area. Its 50-year sector plan anchored around the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport promises to transform the Bay-South Walton region by 2045 into a community of over 350,000 people anchored around new town centers, retail centers, major employers and recreational sites.

In addition to land donations for projects as varied as the Northwest Florida International Airport, Publix Sports Complex and major medical facilities and schools, St. Joe Company officials have long been involved in direct support of local charities, other nonprofit organizations and educational programs, Wilkes said.

Established in 1999, the St. Joe Community Foundation is funded exclusively by a 1/2-percent transfer fee on the sale of real estate in certain communities and resorts the company has developed, Wilkes said. This fee applies the first time a property is sold, and on each resale. In recent years, the foundation has received around $2-3 million it can reassign for community grants annually, but with the spike in real estate values since 2020, officials anticipate this year’s intake might top $6 million.

Grant outlays are approved by the foundation’s board of trustees, who meet every two months or so to consider applications, Wilkes said. Current trustees include St. Joe CEO Jorge Gonzalez, Senior Vice President Rhea Goff and company General Counsel Lisa Walters.

Thus far in 2022, the foundation has awarded grants to 75 organizations throughout Bay and Walton Counties. Grants are awarded in four general categories: education, health care, the arts and environmental stewardship. “We’re already up to $2 million [in grant outlays] this year,” Wilkes said. “I have another $2 million in requests before the board.” If the current transfer fee projection holds, the foundation anticipates it will have an additional $2 million available for grants this calendar year.

Wilkes said she is particularly proud that the St. Joe Community Foundation has been able to assist organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life for local residents.

Wilkes said the most unusual grant she recalls the foundation approving was five years ago for the Future Farmers of America program at Bozeman High School. The students had raised a prize-winning heifer but had no way to transport the animal to other FFA events around the state. The foundation awarded the school an $11,000 grant for the club to purchase a covered trailer, she said with a smile. (The trailer has since proved quite valuable in other ways; after Hurricane Michael devastated many local farms, it was used to move livestock to less-damaged farms where the animals could be fed and cared for.)

Wilkes urged local organizations to consider applying for grants if they have a genuine need. The only requirement is that it be currently recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Views: 0

By Michelle Ruschman

Cindy Smith has taught child abuse prevention in schools since the 1990s. This earlier work led her to become an advocate, author, speaker and founder of Living Hope for Today, whose mission is twofold: to teach our kids, even as young as age 3, how to deter a potential sex offender through the X Zone Body Safety Program and to remove the shame of abuse. Cindy knows firsthand the damage generational abuse can have on a family and is now working to be part of the solution.

“I married the wrong man,” she said. “He was physically abusive, and we were only married for three and a half years. When I left him, my children were 18 months and my eldest daughter just turned 3. When she was 3-and-a-half, I found out through things she was saying and doing that he had sexually abused her.

“My daughter, who’s now 40, doesn’t remember the details of what happened and has left my granddaughter alone with my ex-husband. He’s charismatic and manipulative. So, although she knows something happened to her, she says it couldn’t have been him. I have told her, ‘But I’m the one who lived it with you and chose to believe you. I’m the one who was with you through the daily nightmares and acting out. I’m the one that was there when you spoke to the counselor.’ We knew what happened to her.

“When I found out my 4-year-old granddaughter was being left alone with my ex-husband, I decided I needed to get a book to teach my granddaughter body safety rules.”

When Cindy looked, however, she was unable to find a resource that would make sense to young children, and she desperately wanted to give her granddaughter a tool she could use.

With a counselor’s guidance, Cindy wrote her children’s book, “Isabella’s Treasure,” which teaches specific words and actions to deter a potential perpetrator, especially when the potential victim is prompted to keep the abuse a secret. One of the strategies in the book encourages the child not to keep these “sad secrets.” The significance of this comes from studies that reflect that an abuser is deterred when they know a child will tell.

Now including a music video, the book has become part of the “X Zone Body Safety Program.”

Just as important, Cindy wants to support those who, like herself, live with their history of being sexually abused. In her novel for adults, “Whispered Truth,” Cindy shares her abuse through the characters and storytelling. She understands firsthand how important it is for victims to have an outlet for their stories.

“For me, it was very freeing,” she said. “When I first started dealing with my repressed memories from childhood, the first people I told were my husband and my pastor. It was freeing to know I could talk about it and people weren’t going to reject me. I felt like I’d done something wrong, and I was full of shame, that something was wrong with me. When you talk about it, and people respond by sharing their own stories, or by offering you support and encouragement, those chains break off. That’s why we need to talk about it.”

Because child sexual abuse prevention isn’t being taught in most schools, Cindy is passionate about training parents, guardians and professionals how to recognize signs of abuse. If a community decided to make an impact on prevention, the fruit of those efforts would grow exponentially. The results would include better mental health, less addiction, fewer kids in foster care and fewer adults in jail. Cindy Smith will be a guest speaker at the Back to Homeschool Convention at the Crestview Community Center Aug. 13 and 14 from 9 a.m. To 4 p.m. Visit the event’s Facebook page for details. Cindy can also be booked for “Stewards of Children: Darkness to Light” training or other presentations with your school, company, church or organization by calling (513) 505-3690 or emailing clsmith@livinghopefortoday.org. Visit www.livinghopefortoday.org to purchase “Isabella’s Treasure” and “Whispered Truth” and to find additional resources. The best way to support Cindy and her efforts is by connecting her to those who can help children through the education she offers.

Statistics reflect that many reading this article know a victim or, perhaps, are one. The most common perpetrator is someone who is known by the victim, not a stranger. Cindy’s efforts show that we are not helpless and, together, we can equip our children.

For additional resources, go to www.livinghopefortoday.org.

Views: 0