It was 10:30 p.m. and the end of a long day of moving for Matthew Williams, the new pastor at the Lighthouse United Methodist Church of Boca Grande. He was grimy and exhausted. He sat on the steps leading to the church office, contemplating the new life he and his young wife, Joy, were facing. Would this be the paradise it seemed when they crossed the bridge onto Gasparilla Island for the first time weeks earlier? Or something else?
Dick Stem, a World War II veteran who built a successful Sarasota-area building supply company, died surrounded by family at his Boca Grande home on April 13, 2022. He was 94. The patriarch of a multigenerational Florida family, Dick was a character whose quick smile and love for telling a good joke endeared him to […]
Boca Beacon backpages 4.22.2022 FIVE YEARS AGO The United Methodist Women of Boca Grande announced they raised $80,000 at the Strawberry Festival, which would be split among 25 charitable organizations. TEN YEARS AGO The Bag Lady was back at Boca Bargains, GIBA was talking about a smaller tender house and a change to catwalks, […]
The many wonderful voices of RPP were on offer, among them those of Julia Pierce, Alice Court, Kimberly Whipple, Jeff Lehrian and Peter Powell, as was the delightfully dramatic crooning of James Martin and comic bemoaning of Elaine Skypala. Jim Grant tweeted like a bluebird singing out “that it’s always darkest just before they turn on the lights.” Posturing humor was richly delivered as always by Jim Grace, Lynda Grant, Sally B Johnson, Cori Palmere, Erica Ress Martin, Priscilla Masselink, Sarah McDonald, Linda Rollyson, Nancy Ryan and Boots Tolsdorf. Kris Doubles brought down the house with his hysterical rendition as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh from Anything Goes! Four routines by Tappers Patty Brink, Carol Forrester, Robbin Gilligan, Mary Hancur and Ned Lehrian were highlighted, to the great delight of the audience, and accentuated following each routine by the deadpan delivery of “that’s a hard act to follow” by David Jenkins, who got laughs every time.
A BIG THANK YOU to Patricia Bossey, Debby & Duncan Cross, Sue Fuller, Kris Ganong, Jane & Clark Hinkley, Lori Hunter, Marge Laughlin, Anne Lyons, Rebecca Martin, Madonna Merritt and Karen Zarse, as they spent quite a bit of time stuffing over 400 boxes filled with treats for the kids. On the day of the hunt, Georgia & Maddy Aguilar, Debby & Duncan Cross, Lori Hunter, Trent Keisling, Louise Martin, Mary Ann McGowan, Honey Skinner and Karen Zarse provided assistance where needed. Special recognition goes out to Pat Chapman, who when called upon, does anything and everything that is asked of her when it comes to the children. Pat spent her 22nd year volunteering for the hunt by filling goodie boxes on Thursday and supervising the prize table on Saturday. She was wearing her 2004 Smarty Jones winning Kentucky Derby hat too. YOU ARE THE BEST, PAT!
Meet the finest page in the paper, filled with dogs up for adoption and all of the future wisdom about your life that you need to know. Boca Beacon backpages 4-22-22
It has been 52 years since the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 in Washington, D.C., and college campuses held rallies throughout America. It was a time of awakening. Many had said that Rachel Carson’s book, “Silent Spring,” which documented the adverse environmental effect caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides, and the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, one of the largest oil spills in the U.S. at the time, killing over 3,500 birds and marine animals, were the catalysts for Earth Day.