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ECOWATCH: Sharks are not bad guys … we are

Florida has topped the global charts in shark bite numbers for decades. The trend continued in 2021 researchers said. Out of 73 reported unprovoked incidents around the world last year, 28 were in Florida, representing 60 percent of the total cases in the U.S. and 38 percent worldwide. That number was consistent with Florida’s most recent five-year annual average of 25-shark attacks.

This Date in the Boca Beacon

FIVE YEARS AGO A Port Charlotte youth visiting with a church group drowned at the south end of the island. In another scenario, two lives were saved from drowning when beachgoers formed a human chain (with some help from a pool noodle) out into the water. This incident occurred in the same spot where the […]

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: A beautiful new license plate option could be available soon 

BTT has partnered with the Columbia County Tax Collector to process online orders. Regardless of where you live in Florida, you can conveniently reserve your voucher by completing the simple form below. After you complete the form and submit payment of $33 the Columbia County Tax Collector will mail you your voucher within 2-3 weeks. You can also use the form below to order a voucher as a gift for someone else! 

Obituaries

Obituaries Boca Beacon is now a partner with Legacy™ Place an obituary in our newspaper and on Legacy.com Family Members Funeral Directors

A summer ‘thank you’

Recently the Boca Grande community said goodbye to Pete Nicholas. In the words of Charles Dickens, “He was as good a friend as the old town ever had.” He is missed by all who knew him and the community issues that benefited from his generosity and vision. From a physician’s point of view, Peter was a pleasure to know. Not only was he a leader in the science of medical engineering, but also he really liked medicine. Not many board members have found it pleasurable to show up in the Clinic, have a cup of mediocre coffee (doctors love free mediocre coffee), and ask what is new or interesting. He would challenge me with “What can we do better for the patients?” He would ask us to “put our thinking caps on.”

Turtle tracks: Turtle facts you might not know

The Boca Grande Sea Turtle Patrol Team volunteers patrol the beach zones watching over the nests and care for them as needed. When the sea turtle season grows to a close, they also document the number of hatchlings hatched and unhatched, the number of hatchlings destroyed, and the number of dead and alive hatchlings in the nests and count the total of all the eggs in the nests. The patrol mainly documents the activity of the loggerhead sea turtle, but has recently documented an uptick in green sea turtle nests as well. The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta) is easily distinguished by its relatively large head. The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) gets its name from the greenish color of its body fat and has the presence of a pair of scales on the front of its forehead. The loggerhead and the green sea turtle alike create specific tracks in the sand providing clues for identification.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Kelly Carpenter

“Children really learn through play. Their play is their work. What we do as teachers is find ways to scaffold and add learning to that play. Kids may be just playing with Clay-Doh, but what they’re doing with it, and the conversations that take place while they’re doing it are important. They might be learning how to count or creating sets of things that go together. They don’t realize what they’re learning at the time. You should fill a child’s day with their interests, and then you can incorporate all these other areas of development. If you’re playing dinosaurs outside, you’re learning gross motor skills.  If you’re painting or drawing dinosaurs, that works on fine motor skills. That’s what a quality preschool strives to do – the teachers see what the kids are interested in and build upon it.” 

OBITUARY: Todd Vaughan

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Todd Kirkpatrick Vaughan on July 11, 2022 at home on Boca Grande.Todd finally succumbed to battling cancer at the age of 80.  Todd is survived by his loving wife, Janie (Susemihl Griffin), his brother, Randolph Meriwether Vaughan (Maureen), his two children Hayley Vaughan Burner […]