Gulf Breeze Hospital Auxiliary member Sally Stanford recently was selected as Northwest Florida District Director at the Association of Florida Healthcare Auxiliaries / Volunteers (AFHAV) Annual Conference in Orlando.

The AFHAV was created to

assist member auxiliaries and volunteer organizations to better serve and support their hospital or healthcare facilities by a mutual exchange of ideas and assistance with organizations of new volunteer groups. The motto of AFHAV is “Serving those who serve.”

The responsibilities of the District Director include aiding member hospital auxiliaries in planning educational meetings as well as smaller gatherings to encourage the vital exchange of ideas within area hospital groups. Stanford’s first official act was to install the new Gulf Breeze Hospital Auxiliary officers at their annual meeting in September. The AFHAV Northwest District covers the Florida Panhandle, stretching west from Tallahassee to the Alabama line.

Stanford Local toastmaster earns Triple Crown

Moonstone Star White, local author, artist and entrepreneur, recently received the Advanced Leader Silver and the Advanced Communicator Bronze awards from Toastmaster International.

To earn a Triple Crown of awards, she completed a High Performance Leadership Project and is now on the path to becoming a Distinguished Toastmaster, the highest designation awarded by Toastmaster’s International. Toward this goal, she completed a one-year term as a Toastmasters Area Governor, serving clubs in the Destin and Fort Walton Beach areas while maintaining an officer position in her home club at Gulf Breeze Toastmasters.

White, a 15-year resident of Navarre, has been a member of Gulf Breeze Toastmasters since 2007. Her eclectic background reflects her desire for change and personal growth. Currently a jewelry-maker and silversmith, she does art and craft fairs with her husband, Skip White, from south Florida to Virginia Beach and Michigan. She also is a licensed massage therapist. In 2006, she formed her own publishing company, Spirit Wind Publishing. She published her own book, ‘High Way From Hell, Using Emotion to Fan the Fire of Enlightenment,’ a personalgrowth memoir. The book won eight national awards and was translated into Spanish by a publisher in Madrid that purchased worldwide Spanish rights.

Moonstone Star White recently received the Advanced Leader Silver and the Advanced Communicator Bronze awards from Toastmaster International. “I’ve always been afraid to speak up in front of groups, whether the situation was a relatively small meeting with peers or a large seminar,” White said. “Participating actively in Toastmasters has really changed all that. By rehearsing in front of the club, where it’s safe to make mistakes and learn, I developed a great deal more confidence about this. I’ve even been a featured speaker at a couple of local events.”

The Driftwood Garden Club hostesses for the Oct. 28 meeting were Sarah Whitesell and Bettie Kahn. The two were responsible for the gathering’s Halloween decor. Driftwood Garden Club

The Driftwood Garden Club met Oct. 28 at the Tiger Point Golf Club. The hostesses were Sarah Whitesell and Bettie Kahn, who decorated with a Halloween theme using mums and Halloween figures on each table.

The meeting began with a short business meeting with President Martha Herrington presiding. Margaret James gave the Treasurer’s report; Jackie Zachem reported on birds and butterflies; Ann Hunt reported on environmental issues; and Pat Lott reported on civics concerns, chiefly the upgrading of the Gulf Breeze Recreation Center.

Vice President Marti Vickery introduced the program entitled ‘Bugs We Hate to Love’ with speakers Meta Seltzer and Katie Tankersley, master gardeners.

Seltzer is a former U.S. Army Colonel who served in the Army Combat Hospital and is a retired director in College of Nursing in Phoenix, Ariz. Tankersley is former elementary school teacher who spent the last 15 years teaching in long-term residential wilderness programs for committed delinquents in the Blackwater Forest in Santa Rosa County.

This program was created and operated by the Jack Eckerd foundation. The speakers gave an entertaining presentation on how to tell good bugs from bad bugs. Good bugs eat other bugs; bad bugs eat plants. They used large bug replicas to demonstrate how to recognize individual bugs.

Before the meeting adjourned for lunch, Herrington reminded the group that the Christmas party will be held Dec. 9 at home of Mona and Jerry Brown.