Community group teaches safety
Safety Team for Escambia and Santa Rosa County (CTST), led by Margaret Cunningham, sponsored the Walk Your Child to School Day event on Thursday Oct. 11, at 9 a.m. at Gulf Breeze Elementary School (GBES). This is CTST's seventh year to support this experience and many people representing many organizations helped CTST make this GBES walk a successful endeavor. When the second and third grade students accompanied by GBES teachers lined up for their walk, representatives from the CTST, the City of Gulf Breeze, Santa Rosa County, Gulf Breeze Area Chamber of Commerce, Gulf Breeze Police Department, Santa Rosa County School Board, FedEx and Midway Fire District were there to greet and escort them on their stroll around the school grounds.

Submitted photo Gulf Breeze Elementary School second and third grade students participated in Walk Your Child to School day and finished their walk in front of the school's sign Oct. 11.

Many of the students were wearing walk safe shirts and FedEx representatives Connie Sutton and Kurt Martin handed them a pair of sunglasses.

It was huge march by the GBES students promoting walking, exercising and safety. Many of the kids were carrying signs that emphasized safety measures.

The walk began at 9 am and lasted approximately 45 minutes. The walk demonstrated the community's concern about the safety of kids. CTST wants to encourage walking as a great exercise. However, walking can also be dangerous so, according to members of CTST, the rules for walking are:

Always walk on the sidewalk.

Always walk facing traffic, espicially if there is no sidewalk.

Dress to be seen and wear brightly colored clothing.

Wear special reflective material on your shoes, cap or jacket to reflect the headlights of cars at night.

Tips for crossing the street are:

Cross only at corners or marked crosswalks.

Stop at the curb, or the edge of the road and look left, then right, then left again, before you step into the street and wait until the traffic is clear.

Check parked cars for drivers. Then go to the edge of the car and look left-right-left until no cars are coming. Keep looking for cars while you are crossing, and remember, walk, don't run.

Betty Archer Allen/Gulf Breeze News Members of the Santa Rosa Women's Club (SRWC) International Department are Bettie Lee Sundstrom, Pat Landfair Brenda Sadler, Lolly Sandfort, Jane Parker, Anna Campbell and Linda White-Spunner (Helen Antonacci, Betty Allen and Fayne Todd not pictured). SRWC met Oct. 2 at Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church on Pensacola Beach. Pat Quinn, director emeritus and founder of the Zoo - Northwest Florida, gave a presentation about the zoo's financial status. The next SRWC meeting will be at the same location on Nov.6.

CTST is a safety team that is committed to making it safer for all students to walk and bike to school. The CTST members feel that this event has given them a chance to make a difference in the safety of the walking and biking public. It has brought attention and changes to hazardous conditions which are now being corrected and were overlooked in the past. Next year celebrate "Walk Your Child to School Day" by attending one of these events. Gulf Breeze Library Book Club

The Gulf Breeze Library Book Club holds meetings on the third Wednesday of each month, at 5:30 p.m. in the small conference room of the Gulf Breeze Library, located at 1060 Shoreline Drive. Book selections are both fiction and non-fiction, some are classics and some are recent best sellers. The October book selection is "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway.

Betty Archer Allen/Gulf Breeze News Linda Hartman with the Wildlife Sanctuary holds a full grown screech owl that is blind in one eye as Pat Franzke looks on.

The group tries to get as much variety in the books as possible to make it enlightening and fun. The book selection list is printed out for anyone to see at the library desk. The staff will help if you ask. The Club welcomes everyone who likes to read to join the discussion. For more information, please contact Donna Jones at 850-932-8620 or donnaljones@hotmail.com.

Santa Rosa Shores Women's Club

The Santa Rosa women's Cub has its October meeting at Tina Tormes' lovely sound side home on Harbor Lane. Tina Tormes was hostess along with co-hostesses Darlene Richards and Pat Franzke with approximate 20 members in attendance. The program featured Carol Sturdevant and Linda Hartman of the Wildlife Sanctuary who gave an interesting program on the sanctuary. Sturdevant and Hartman brought two of their animals, a baby squirrel and an adult screech owl that the group was able to pet and observe. The Sanctuary takes care of injured native birds, mammals and reptiles and then releases them back into the wild. The speakers explained the need for household items, food, money and volunteers. The Sanctuary is located behind the Humane Society on S Street in Pensacola. Club members also celebrated with member, Gail Mags, who had just received her American citizenship.

November's program will be wine tasting and appetizers and will be held at Trish Tracy's house on Harbor lane. This program is designed to prepare everyone for the holidays with food and great holiday ideas. Santa Rosa Shores Women's Club is a Social Club open to women in the Santa Rosa Shores community. They meet on the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. and the dues are $20. Please call Julia Russell at 850-934- 5698 or Margaret Cunningham at 850-932-2914 if interested. Attention Publicity Chairmen:

Archer Allen

Send emails to Betty Archer Allen at betty@gulf breezenews.com or write to Talk of the Town at Gulf Breeze News P.O. Box 1414, Gulf Breeze, FL32562, subject :

"Talk of the Town"