Thirteen nonprofits serving Northwest Florida are celebrating after they each received $101,000 from a local organization.

The funds came from IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area, a women’s philanthropy group that collects donations and distributes them to nonprofits each year through grants. Most of the organization’s money comes from its members, each of whom pays $1,000 annually.

Sheena Locklin was driving back to Jay from Milton on the Monday after Hurricane Isaias hit the region hard as a Category 2 storm. She looked out at the blanket of darkness covering the country roads.

Locklin is from Jay. Her family goes back a few generations here in this rural Santa Rosa County town. So, the emotion of seeing darkness hit a little harder.

Eight additional harvest days have been added to the 2026 Gulf private recreational red snapper season, allowing harvest to remain open continuously from Oct. 9 through Oct. 22.

These additional days will align recreational red snapper fishing opportunities across Florida’s Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Another bear hunt is in the works for December.

Last year, a bear hunt was held in four specified hunting zones. The zones were within four of the seven Bear Management Units across the state. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), which approved and regulated the hunt, approximately 52 black bears were harvested, or killed.

During September and October, a traveling exhibit featuring artifacts from the first Spanish settlement in the New World will shine a light on Pensacola’s connection to the Aztec people.

“Indios Amigos: Aztec Allies and the (New) Spanish Conquest of La Florida” features artifacts from the 1559 Tristan De Luna expedition and settlement in Pensacola.

The grant finalists for IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area’s annual meeting have been announced.

The philanthropic women’s organization has selected 20 nonprofit organizations for 2026. According to IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area, 13 of the 20 finalists will receive a grant of $101,000 during the annual meeting. The meeting will be held Oct. 11.

Each September serves as National Suicide Prevention Month, a time to bring awareness to mental health issues and the resources that could save people’s lives.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide was responsible for 48,824 deaths in 2024, the most recent year the agency has statistics for. While this amounts to a little over 1.5 percent of the total deaths across the U.S., CDC stats show a profound increase in the suicide rate per 100,000 from 2001 to 2024.

On Sept. 11, 2001, former U.S. Marshal Dominic Guadagnoli was in a morning briefing a few blocks from the World Trade Center when the first plane hit.

At that moment, an ordinary September day would be etched forever into Guadagnoli’s memory — and America’s.

Wendell Hall had been sheriff of Santa Rosa County for about eight months when he walked out of a hotel breakfast in Ocala and found a crowd of Florida sheriffs standing around a television.

Benny Russell is a name many in the community may be familiar with. Football stadiums, sports fields, a park, an elementary school and a section of highway bear his name.