Amelia Island Happenings

“What’s In Resale Boutique” SHOP for even MORE bargains on tax free days August 13 and 14

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:28:08 GMT

Amelia Island’s BEST RESALE BOUTIQUE: “What’s In Resale Boutique”

Where there are sales EVERYDAY, huge discounts on current fashions and designer clothing.

Owners, Barbara Sokolowski and Suzanne Rudge invite you to take advantage of even MORE bargains on Florida State Tax Free days:

August 13 and 14!

Sales and discounts are available EVERYDAY!

And with NO SALES TAX, imagine the BARGAINS!!!

Love what you wear and let us help you get there!

Amelia Island Mixed Doubles Tennis Tournament Results!

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:19:25 GMT

The City of Fernandina Beach Parks and Recreation Department held its annual Mixed Doubles tennis tournament.

A total of 18 teams competed in two different tiers to win the championship.

Amelia Island First Tier Champs!

Rich Nye/Julie Dobinski and Susie DeMille/Dennis Harbin

Susie DeMille and Dennis Harbin won: 6-7(4-7)/6-2/6-3

Amelia Island Second Tier Champs!

Bob Morando/Lee Reading defeated Sandy Eldridge and Ed Clifford: 7-5/6-4

Amelia Island Consolation Champs!

Charlotte Bowling and John Bray defeated Frances Blancett and Jerry Gardner to win the consolation championship of the first tier: 7-5/7-6(7-4)

Bob Stine and Patti Clifford defeated Jessica and Trevor Stewart (6-2/6-1) to win the consolation championship of the second tier.

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!

Thank you, Tournament Director, Scott Mikelson!

Tennis Doubles Round Robin: July 24

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:54:20 GMT

Women’s and Men’s Doubles!

Women’s and Men’s Doubles Round Robin:

Fundraiser for Nassau County Junior Team Tennis Playoff!

Saturday, July 24th at Yulee High School

Women’s Doubles from 8:30-10:30

Men’s Doubles from 10:30-12:30

Cost: $10.00 per person…Balls and refreshments provided!

Email entries to michelemaha@msn.com

by Thursday, July 22 at 5pm

Spread the word to all your tennis friends!

"Cabaret" Workshop on Amelia Island!

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:43:12 GMT

Amelia Island’s very own Amelia Community Theatre presents Cabaret – The Play: Revised 1987 Version!

Just so you know:

Cabaret is a musical. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film, as well as numerous subsequent productions.

Set in 1929 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the Kit Kat Klub and revolves around English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with young American writer Cliff Bradshaw.

A sub-plot involves the romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor.

The story is about an American singer, Sally Bowles, who performs in a Berlin night club in 1931 and finds herself caught in a love triangle before the rise of Nazis power.

Amelia Island Performance Dates

Even though the performance dates are not until February 2011, Director and Choreographer Carey Dresser is already putting his talents to use, teaching a Cabaret Dance Workshop to about 35 “Cabaret Wannabe’s!”

Here are just a few of the dancers who are stretching their talents twice a week at KinderStudios:

Gaja Moriconi, Ginger Lindberg, Scott Tinman, Lori Ann Mooney, Renee LaCroix, Jennifer Johnston, Christie Miklas

Second row – Adriana Dunton and Mary Gardner

First row – Diann Schindler

If you are interested in participating, contact cabaretact@gmail.com. And, MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR auditions for ALL roles: August 14th and 15th.

Stay tuned for audition location and times…and more pics. You will NOT want to miss this!

FIVE of the World's 7 Sea Turtles Threatened by Oil Spill

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:04:55 GMT

The BP Gulf oil spill is threatening not only fish (and fishermen), birds and marine mammals, but sea turtles.

As both the slick on the surface and the plumes deep underwater spread across the Gulf of Mexico, and the duration of the spill extends from days into weeks into months, more and more turtles are put at risk. For sea turtles in the Gulf, it’s a threat they can’t necessarily survive.

All of the five species that live out some portion of their lives in the Gulf are endangered or threatened species.

There are only seven species of sea turtle worldwide, making the Gulf’s habitat critically important for the conservation of the world’s turtles.

“Sea turtles can suffer both internal and external injuries from contact with oil or chemical dispersants,” said Elizabeth Wilson, a marine scientist who is the fisheries campaign manager at Oceana, the world’s largest ocean conservation organization.

“In addition to regulating bycatch in commercial fisheries and protecting critical habitat areas, the U.S. government can now add ‘preventing future oil spills’ to its list of essential sea turtle protections.”

Oceana is urging President Obama and Congress to permanently ban further offshore oil drilling, not only in the Gulf of Mexico, but along the Atlantic Coast and in the Arctic off Alaska as well.

What follows are profiles of the turtles at risk. Already nearly three dozen oiled turtles (like the Kemp’s Ripley turtle pictured here) have been found alive since the spill; more than 320 sea turtles have been found dead. While the loss of wildlife from the oil spill is a disaster unfolding relatively swiftly, slow-moving disasters are also a consequence of our reliance on fossil fuels like oil and coal:

Ocean acidification and global warming are two major long-term threats to the health of the oceans as well, including the world’s dwindling sea turtle populations.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration had this to say about sea turtles and oil in a 2006 book: “While the probability of any given spill affecting sea turtles is low, even one spill—if it occurred at just the wrong time and place—could be catastrophic to one of these endangered species.

Sea turtles are likely to be at greatest risk from oil spills, for example, when they are gathering in a particular area to nest, right after hatching, and when foraging in ocean convergence zones.”

The Gulf of Mexico is such a place, and this – nesting and hatching season – is such a time.

Read more

It's the 50th Anniversary of "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:38:13 GMT

Monroeville, Alabama, is throwing a celebration for To Kill a Mockingbird’s 50th anniversary.

Amelia Islanders may want to celebrate in Alabama!

From July 8 to 11 they’ll give tours of the historic downtown, stage a marathon reading, and auction off a signed copy. They’ll do it all cautiously out of respect for (and maybe a little fear of) the town’s most famous resident: Nelle Harper Lee.

Author of a book that has sold more than 30 million copies, won a Pulitzer Prize, and inspired a classic movie, Nelle (if you call her Harper, it means you don’t know her) is famously unhappy about being famous. She rejects requests for interviews, sometimes with a terse “Hell, no” scribbled on the letter requesting one.

Charles J. Shields, author of the 2006 biography Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, had to cobble together his book without a word from her. Now 84, she’s as determined as she ever was to let the book speak for itself.

Maycomb, the setting for the novel, is not on any map of Alabama. It is a made-up place. But if you know where to look, you can find its blueprint in Monroeville (pop. 7,000), whose landmarks—including some lost to time—inspired one of the South’s greatest stories.

Read the rest of this Southern Living Magazine article.

Are you still using and accepting U.S. one dollar bills?

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:25:50 GMT

If so, you are participating in a needless and costly waste of taxpayer money, as well as an attack on our environment.

Each year, we pay to reprint about 4 billion of dollar bills that have worn out, which are either burned or put into landfills.

Every day of the year, 9.7 tons of ink are used to print U.S. currency, 95% of which is to replace existing bills, according to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. Where do you think all that ink goes?

Consider that the average bill lasts 21 months, and then has to be replaced and destroyed. Have you ever considered the amount of fertilizer and pesticides used to grow the cotton whose fibers go into these bills? There must be a lot, based on the cotton industry’s fight to keep the dollar bills, with Trent Lott’s assistance in 2005.

How about the energy used to farm and transport the cotton, harvest the trees, turn the trees into paper, and print the bills? Stopping it would save us all half a billion a year, without even considering the energy use and environmental costs.

On the other side are the obvious costs of mining the ore and producing the golden one dollar coins. But, while the coins cost about twice as much to produce initially, they last 30-50 years, not 21 months.

There are a couple of flimsy excuses for refusal to use the coins:

(1) they’re too bulky and will wear out our pockets. (Ever use a pocket full of quarters for parking meters or laundromats? Ever wonder why the big silver dollars never wore out any pockets?)

(2) they’re too difficult to distinguish from quarters. (Sort of like dimes and pennies—only differences are the different size, different design, different color, and milled edge on one and not the other.)

Charlie Smith’s passion is to increase the use of dollar coins, and he asks for your help:

First, call him 912-882-5678(W) 912 -882-4152(H) or send him an email csmith46@tds.net

He will provide what you can use, at face value, in $25.00 uncirculated rolls—or go by the bank and pick some up, if they have them.

Second, USE THEM…by paying for small purchases, giving tips, purchases in vending machines, or keep them for future collectors. They make great gifts!

Third, ask local merchants for dollar coins in change, rather than one dollar bills. If they’re asked often enough, they’ll start carrying them.

We might even get some national attention for our community if enough people participate!

Where America's Money Is Moving - to Amelia/Nassau County?

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:48:54 GMT

America’s wealthy like warm weather and low taxes! ...No surprises HERE!

That’s the takeaway from IRS data on moves between counties.

Forbes Magazine looked for counties that the rich are moving to in big numbers.

At the top: Collier County, Florida. Tax returns accounting for 15,150 people showed moves to Collier from other parts of the country in 2008.

Average reported income: $76,161/person – equivalent to $304,644 for a family of four. Although slightly more taxpayers moved out of Collier than into it, the departing residents’ average income is just $26,128/person.

In second place is Greene County, Georgia, with a population of just 15,743….

Number FIVE: NASSAU COUNTY, FLORIDA! exactly where Amelia Island is located!....”

See below for what Forbes is saying about Nassau County!

Read the REST of this interesting Forbes Magazine article.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

NASSAU COUNTY, FLORIDA

Arriving average income per capita: $51,833

Departing average income per capita: $29,312

Stationary household average income per capita: $32,306

Total arriving people: 4,785 Total departing people: 3,690

Top origin: Duval County, Fla. (1,721 people)

Fernandina Beach City Tennis Doubles Tournament Results

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:33:59 GMT

Diann Schindler and Nancy Barnes successfully defended their 2009 Women’s Doubles Championship Title to win first place again in 2010!

BK Freeh and Jessie Hiott (mother and daughter) came in second place, after three grueling sets against Schindler and Barnes!

Joyce Menz and Frances Blancett defeated Mary Doyle and Patty Green to win the Consolation Championship of the Women’s Doubles (6-4 / 6-2)

Phil Scanlan, Ric Borum, Larry Elliott, Joe Carlson

Ric Borum and Phil Scanlan defeated Elliott and Carlson to win the Men’s Doubles Championship! 6-4/6-3

Bob(son) and Mike Marando (father), John Bray, Tim Yeager

John and Tim defeated the Marando’s to win the Men’s Doubles Consolation Round 6-0/6-1

_____

Another great tournament!

Thank you, Scott Mikelson, City Tournament Director!

Be sure to register for the Mixed Doubles Tournament

Starts July 16!

"Coastal Closeouts" - New at Palmetto Walk: A Shopping Village

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:26:21 GMT

North Carolina, particularly the area around Hickory and High Point, is the furniture capital of the world. Hundreds of manufacturers, large and small, are based in this region. Many open their doors to consumers, often to buy their products at a substantial discount.

NOW, Amelia Island has COASTAL CLOSEOUTS!...our very own name brand furniture store with lovely pieces direct from North Carolina at closeout prices.

Brands include Tommy Bahama, Lexington, Hammary, Lane Venture and more…right here at Palmetto Walk: Amelia Island Shopping Village!

Palmetto Walk – A Shopping Village is located at 4828 1st Coast Hwy, Amelia Island

Store Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10am-5pm and Sunday, 11am-5pm (904) 925-5526