Community Archive

Before every performance, Pamela Strecker made one final walk.
She moved through the backstage area from one side to the other, checking on every actor, calling out final cues, making sure nothing had been missed. Then, just before heading up to the booth, she would turn around, look out at the cast and raise a hand in the air.
“Be brilliant.”
It caught on. Cast members started saying it to each other.
Strecker,61, who served as stage manager and eight-year president of Stage Crafters Community Theater in Fort Walton Beach, died earlier this month after a battle with cancer. She had been part of the organization for more than two decades, arriving as a shy backstage helper in 1999 and becoming the heartbeat of one of Northwest Florida’s most beloved volunteer arts organizations.

Members of Pace High’s Class of 2026 punctuated their academic careers Friday with their graduation at the Bay Center in Pensacola.

While heavy rain may have forced event organizers to change the venue to the Gracey Community Center on Memorial Day, the City of Milton still showed up to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

As temperatures rise this summer, it’s important for the elderly to stay cool.

With that in mind, Pete Moore Automotive Team is once again partnering with Council on Aging of West Florida for the Senior Chill Out, an annual one-day donation drive.

A student-run fundraiser at Milton High School raised $4,000 for the Santa Rosa Kids House, a local nonprofit that provides trauma therapy and support to child abuse victims in the area.

Santa Rosa County Animal Services will host a low-cost pet vaccination and microchip clinic on Saturday, May 30, from 9-11 a.m. at Santa Rosa County Animal Services, 4451 Pine Forest Road in Milton. Only cats and dogs are eligible to be microchipped and vaccinated.

Memorial Day will be held Monday, May 25, this year. In recognition of the holiday, there are multiple ceremonies planned in Santa Rosa County.

For retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. David Post, getting from the bedroom to the bathroom used to mean crawling on his hand and knees.
Post lost his left foot to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2011. A recent ankle fusion has made him rely more on a wheelchair to get around. In a regular home, that meant narrow doorways his chair couldn’t clear and a bathroom that felt more of an obstacle course than a relaxing getaway.
“I’ve crawled on my hands and knees to safely transition into a shower and then crawled back on the same floor to exit, in situations more than I’d like to admit,” Post said in a presentation outside his new home.
With help from a national nonprofit, those instances are now a memory.

Every school morning, Margaret Bailey and her brother walked from East Milton to J.V. Turner School on Susan Street. Cold, raining, hot, it didn’t matter. The bus rolled past them on the road and kept going.

It’s never too early to have a plan. This weekend, residents across Santa Rosa County are invited to a free Disaster Services Expo on Sunday, April 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Bayview Community Center, located at 2001 E. Lloyd St. in Pensacola.