Features

Call it a working man’s respect for earning a living, call it a blue collar vacation, Jim Jackson of International Falls, Minnesota likes to spend vacations meeting new people and experiencing their professions. Jim spent the first six days of vacation hauling three poplar logs 1800 miles from the Canadian border to Cedar Key for a friend he made last year - local furniture maker Herman Wells.

“I can‘t sit on the beach or anything like that,” Jim said of his taste in vacations.

As the sun dries the final traces of moisture left from a damp night, 10 prescribed fire specialists make their way into the meeting room at the Cedar Key and Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge headquarters for the morning briefing.

Resident Willie Brown is making his own recycling initiative happen. He’s been visiting many Cedar Key businesses up to four times a week to pick up cardboard and transport it to the recycling trailer on 3rd Street.

“My wife and I have always recycled our stuff when the trailer was out at the laundry mat,” he said. “We just sort of fell into this.”

“Sometimes she helps me out, too,” Willie added.

The Cedar Key Woman’s Club will host a fashion show luncheon and shopping event Wednesday March 18 at 11:30 at the Community Center.

“It’s turned out to be serious fashion with a comical side. Partly serious, partly fun,” said Ways and Means Chair Jane Moore who coordinates fundraising. “It isn’t just for women.” Everyone is invited to come and enjoy the fun for a good cause, she said.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) kicked off Nature Coast Fishing for Youth, its first class of the summer, last week in Cedar Key.

After an hour and a half bus ride, Taylor County kids scrambled off of the bus and under the open breezeway beneath the research facility’s offices and classroom.

The class started off with a 10 minute fish matching game and a welcome from instructor and FWC Environmental Specialist Missy Jackson and her assistant Thomas Zimmerman.

Lillian Kathleen Bishop Baker, known simply as “Great” by her many descendents, celebrated her 85th birthday last weekend, surrounded by generations of family at the Cedar Key City Park.

Kathleen greeted well-wishers sporting a name tag that read, “Great.”

“All the grandchildren call her that,” said her daughter Rita Bishop. “Great” seems an appropriate word to describe the octogenarian: great grandmother Kathleen is the matriarch of a great big family that traces its ties to Cedar Key for a great many generations.

“You get out of education what you put into it,” said native Beth Davis who was recently sworn in for a third term as school board member of Levy County representing district 2 Cedar Key. “If you’re there to get an education, you’re going to get it.”

And Beth should know.

Island local Linda Cook Flynn is the feature artist this month at the Cedar Key Arts Center Members’ Gallery.

“This is joy,” said the multimedia artist regarding the opportunity to show at the Center.

Flynn, a native Floridian, found her calling with acrylic paints just two years ago, after studying watercolor for two years. She often uses mediums, a glue-like substance, to add texture and shape to her creations. Other texturizers she is fond of include burlap and linen cloth.

In 2002 a Mission Committee of the Cedar Key United Methodist Church invited representatives from other churches as well as community members to identify a need for assistance. Everyone agreed that the need was local and the Food Pantry was born.

Housed in the new Faith Center Building of the Cedar Key UMC on 2nd St., the Food Pantry is supported by a cross section of the community: part time and full time residents, area churches, local businesses, civic organizations, Cedar Key School, public agencies, and the proceeds of festival bake sales.