Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in News.
BY SUSAN HANAFEE – Having hundreds of “aunts” and “grandmothers” eager to share in the excitement of your first baby is pretty special, say the Rev. Dr. Matthew and Joy Williams, whose seven-month-old son, Ethan, is still awaiting a debut at his father’s church in Boca Grande. “We wanted to introduce him to the congregation […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Police & Fire.
BY MARCY SHORTUSE – It’s been a busy week of ambulance calls, alarms and water rescues for the Boca Grande Fire Department, but one of the most admirable rescues that took place didn’t even happen on the island. Boca Grande Firefighter Alex Moore was working part-time at a Sarasota gym last weekend when a man […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Entertainment.
BY BOOTS TOLSDORF – With no lines to memorize this year for RPP, (yea!) I have turned to other endeavors, not unlike most of you. One of them was to organize 22 years of Royal Palm Players and me into scrapbooks. Hard to believe that in 2002, I came down the Community Center aisle dressed […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in News.
BY TONYA BRAMLAGE – Although one can never fully know the daily sights that will be seen while spending a day outdoors here on Gasparilla Island, encounters with butterflies, birds, fish, turtles, flowers and exotic plants are quite common. A less common sight was spotted recently under a potted tree at the Boca Grande Post […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Obituaries.
Barbara Ketcham Leiter, age 76, passed from this life March 4, 2021 at the Venice Florida Regional Bayfront Hospital in the care of her family. Barbara was born in Peoria, IL on January 9, 1945 to John Robert and Ellen Shepherdson Ketcham. She died a resident of Peoria, IL and Boca Grande, FL following a […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Profiles.
BY T MICHELE WALKER – When COVID-19 struck our world last year and we were all forced into lockdown, the reactions were as varied as the people themselves, serving as an impromptu Rorschach personality test. Some embraced the much-needed rest and solitude. Others controlled their environment by cleaning and organizing, some exercised and set fitness […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Featured News, Letters to the Editor, News.
To the Editor: Well, hello again to the residents of Boca Grande. We had another power surge/outage on Sunday night at 11 pm! Did anybody call in to register that fact? Either at the time or the next day? Sorry if you ran into a dead end/wall. I called and discovered something relevant to reporting. […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Featured News, News.
At left, Dennis Ross offered up some visual aids to argue for the NHR proposal. Photo by Susan H BY SUSAN HANAFEE – Supporters of the proposal to include a portion of Boca Grande’s residential historic district on the National Register of Historic Places brought out the big guns from Gilchrist Avenue on Wednesday, March […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Featured News, News.
BY MARCY SHORTUSE – It seems as though a local pair we reported on last year named Candy and Aaliyah have exceeded all expectations of the “Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sun Coast” program in 2021. Within the last week they found out that they have been named the top “Big and Little Sister,” […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Featured News, News.
BY SUSAN HANAFEE – Sandy Jacobs will tell you that she is not a woman to mince words. But this summer she let them flow freely as she went through the process of creating her second novel in less than a year – this one called Tropical Disturbances. “I started in July and finished in […]