Mayor Ashton Hayward

March 3, 2015

Reading is Fundamental Presidents Day Event

Reading is Fundamental and Local Officials Honor Past Presidents

Reading is Fundamental and Barnes & Noble booksellers featured a Presidents Day event in Pensacola. During this event local officials, including Mayor Ashton Hayward, Assistant Superintendent of Escambia County Schools, Steve Marcanio, and the co-president of the Pensacola Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Mike Clapsadl, shared fun facts about past United States Presidents.

Students from local Middle Schools, dressed as their favorite U.S. Presidents, competed in a costume contest. The winners were rewarded with their choice of featured President books from Barnes & Noble.

In addition, retired Washington, D.C. police officer and U.S. Deputy Federal Marshall, Robert Nicholson discussed the protective detail for U.S. Presidents and included facts about legal currency, one of the original reasons for the creation of the Secret Service.

Bugler Scotty Mills, sounded "Attention to Colors" and a closing "Taps." — Bugler Scotty Mills, sounded “Attention to Colors” and closed the program with “Taps.”

Boy Scout Troop 628 and Bugler, Scotty Mills, added patriotic touches providing the presentation of colors and “Taps.”

Reading is Fundamental, Pensacola Chapter, is the longest functioning literacy chapter in the state of Florida. Their program is strongly endorsed by the Escambia County School system. “Putting a book in the hands of a child means transforming the life of that child and everyone around them,” said Escambia Co. Superintendent of Schools, Malcolm Thomas. Federal funding for this program, designed to provide free books to the economically disadvantaged, was eliminated during 2011 budget cuts. All funds for these programs are collected on a local basis. If you would like to donate to this program, contact: rifofPensacola@gmail.com.

February 12, 2015

Reading is Fundamental Presidents Day Event at Barnes & Noble

Program Celebrating Presidents Day

Pensacola, FL – Local officials including the Mayor of Pensacola, Ashton Hayward, and Escambia County Superintendent of Schools, Malcolm Thomas, will participate in a special Presidents Day read-along for children and adults at the annual Presidents Day Book Fair at Barnes & Noble in Pensacola on Saturday, February 14, 2015.

Benefits Reading is Fundamental

The Free event, which benefits the Reading Is Fundamental literacy program for children by providing free books to children in impoverished areas, begins at 2:00 PM, at the Barnes & Noble store in Pensacola located at 1200 Airport Blvd.

Student readers chosen from Ferry Pass Middle School, Newpoint Pensacola Academy and Bellview Middle School will read story excerpts about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. Special guests will include Secret Service Agent Jonathan Woolcock and former Washington, DC Police Officer and US Marshall Robert Nicholson.

Programs like Reading is Fundamental are Critical

“Programs like this one are so important to our community.” says Superintendent Thomas. “Putting a book in the hand of a child means transforming the life of that child and everyone around them.”

A talk about the American Presidency and the President’s job will be given by Mike Clapsadl, Co-President of the Pensacola Chapter of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. Boy Scout Troop 628 Honor Guard will post colors at the program with bugle calls provided by Military Bugler, Scotty Mills.

James Loyd, Community Relations Manager for Barnes & Noble, says his staff are always excited about these events with Reading Is Fundamental. Free books and prizes will be provided for children who attend the event dressed as their favorite President.

Note: The opportunity to learn to read for every child in the United States has become a critical issue in the success of our education programs. Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is the largest and most effective literacy program in the United States. Each year RIF provides 4.5 million children with 16 million new, free books together with literacy resources for impoverished children from birth to age 8 years. In addition to schools, RIF provides books to shelters, HEADSTART programs and rural areas. www.rif.org

Story Credit: Dianna Roberts

January 21, 2015

Remembering Pearl Harbor, the Day and It’s Heroes

Pearl Harbor Survivors Honored

Hundreds turned out at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida on Saturday morning, January 17, 2015, to pay an emotional tribute and farewell to the remaining Pearl Harbor Survivors from the Pensacola area. Local authors and Pearl Harbor historians, Billie and Robert Nicholson, who chronicled the survivors’ return to Pearl Harbor in 2011, were also honored.

As part of the Museum’s Discovery Saturday series, called Remembering Pearl Harbor, the Day and Its Heroes, the program opened with an Invocation offered by retired Navy pilot, Christopher Robinson, Pastor of Deliverance Tabernacle Church in Milton, Florida, followed by the singing of The National Anthem by gospel singer Richard Long, Pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Pensacola.

There was standing room only in the Museum’s Blue Angels atrium hanger as a rapt audience listened to tributes and presentations by Lt. Gen Duane D. Thiessen, USMC (Ret), President and CEO of the Museum’s Foundation, Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward and Pensacola NAS Commanding Officer Capt. Keith Hoskins, USN.

Surrounded by the Museum’s vintage aircraft hanging overhead, the actual morning of the attack was described in vivid eyewitness accounts by remaining Pearl Harbor Survivors, William Braddock, 92, Cass Phillips, 94, Frank Emond, 96, and Jay Carraway, 92.

Survivor Cass Phillips said when he first noticed the “meatballs” painted on the side of the airplanes flying in, he thought it was just another Sunday morning exercise and commented about how realistic they were – until they started dropping bombs. Over two thousand four hundred Americans lost their lives in the attack.

WCOA 1370 Talk Radio Host Don Parker’s talk, Attack on Battleship Row, December 7^th, 1941, included original archival footage and a description of the Japanese high command.

Publicist and emcee Dianna Roberts read the national winning Pearl Harbor essay by 7^th grader, Jenny Anderson from Camano Island, WA entitled, Ingenuity, Sacrifice and Teamwork.

Pensacola Naval Air Station commanding officer Capt. Keith Hoskins, USN, spoke about NAS Pensacola during WW II just after the attack when Pensacola NAS mobilized to become the world’s foremost military aviation training center. Hoskins, a former lead solo pilot with the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, called the men, “heroes”, and admitted he was “humbled to be on the same stage as them.”

Pearl Harbor Survivors Receive Proclamations from Mayor

Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward read a city proclamation honoring the men for their bravery and courage under fire and how they had all sacrificed and fought “so we can sleep well every night.” Recently deceased Pearl Harbor survivors Jim Landis and George Mills were honored posthumously with the sounding of Taps by veteran bugler, Scotty Mills.

Boy Scout Troop Read Survivors Stories

The highlight for the men was the reading of their stories from the Nicholson’s book, Pearl Harbor Honor Flight: One Last Goodbye, by Pensacola honor scouts from Boy Scout Troop 628 and Venture Crew 628 while standing on the stage next to the survivors. “We should remember the motto of these Boy Scouts – ‘Be Prepared’, said survivor Cass Phillips. “We were not prepared for what happened that day. People need to hear these stories and remember our history and learn from it.”

Story Credit: Dianna Roberts