It was March 6, 2024, when Joy Zuraff returned home from the park with her 5-year-old daughter, Kenlee. The afternoon had been ordinary — swings, sunshine, a brief escape from the medical stress that had shadowed their lives. Then Zuraff’s phone rang. A friend told her the Department of Children and Families planned to stop by, take a quick look at Kenlee and close the case.

What happened next would upend her family’s life.

On Saturday, Jan. 17, people from across Santa Rosa County gathered at Santa Rosa Auditorium in Milton to share a breakfast meal in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Late last month, a Milton resident posted a picture of a river otter swimming through Annie’s Basin near the Blackwater River. The woman was on her dock when a little furry head stuck out of the water.
While not an uncommon sight, river otters are not exactly the poster child for Florida animals. Despite not being as famed as alligators, manatees and Florida panthers, river otters play an important ecological role.

Red clay bluffs that look like they belong in Alabama or Georgia tower over a part of Santa Rosa County’s Juniper Creek.

The Krewe of Airship Pirates took toy drives to a new level this year, hosting a toy drive and a celebration on the drive’s final day that featured circus performers, chili dogs, hot chocolate and Santa Claus arriving in style by helicopter.

Patients and families at Studer Family Children’s hospital received a special visit from two members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron on Dec. 11, just before the holidays.

Santa Rosa County Animal Services (SRCAS) invites the community to attend a holiday adoption event at the Santa Rosa County Animal Shelter, 4451 Pine Forest Rd. in Milton, on Saturday, Dec. 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The City of Milton hosted their first-ever Christmas tree lighting ceremony on December 2 at City Hall, officially kicking off the holiday season with the Milton community.

The cold weather shelter for the homeless and/or heatless will also be open the night of Thursday, Nov. 27 at Ferris Hill Baptist Church, 6848 Chaffin St. in Milton.

A soon-to-be published study on the impacts of watercraft upon sea turtles has found nearly one out of every four sea turtles stranded along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts show signs of vessel-strike injuries (VSI).