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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ For many Americans, Memorial Day is a three-day weekend to travel, enjoy the outdoors or party. The original meaning of the holiday may be acknowledged, but oftentimes little is done to honor it during their weekend plans. For others, the true meaning of Memorial Day carries a more somber quality as we remember those who served and did not return as well as those who came back but have since passed. This is the real meaning of Memorial Day.

On May 28, the High Springs Lions Club will host a Memorial Day concert to raise funds for a Gold Star Monument in Gainesville. Although all who serve deserve respect and appreciation, those who did not come back deserve more in recognition of a life cut short by war, leaving families and friends to mourn the emptiness of their loss. Their families suddenly belong a singular group that no one wants to join, known as a Gold Star Family.

What sets Gold Star families apart and makes them special is the sacrifice they have made and the loved one they have lost in military service to the country. That death is not only a devastating loss of their loved one – it can often also seem like the loss of an identity, of a community, changing lives forever. There is another group that is strongly affected by these lives lost, and that group is their fellow soldiers who survived, remembering the comrades who didn’t come home.

Hershel “Woody” Williams was born on a dairy farm in 1923 in Quiet Dell, West Virginia. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Williams’ actions, commitment to his fellow service members, and heroism during Iwo Jima were recognized on Oct. 5, 1945, when he received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Truman at the White House. Williams is now the sole surviving Marine from WWII to wear the Medal of Honor.

As War II began, Williams came into direct contact with families in his own community when he delivered Western Union telegrams informing the Gold Star families of the death of their loved one. Williams says that those experiences gave him a “greater appreciation for life and an understanding of a difference in death in the normal world as expected in life, and those lost serving in the military for their country.”

Williams noted that “consideration and recognition of the families of those lost in military service was very inadequate.” This observation and his personal commitment to veterans and their families brought about the creation of the Woody Williams Foundation The foundation’s goal is to honor these families by creating large granite Gold Star Monuments in every state. To date, Williams and his foundation are responsible for establishing 96 Gold Star Families Memorial Monuments across the United States with more than 79 additional monuments underway in 50 states and one U.S. Territory. They are currently building one in Gainesville.

Eric “Roscoe” Mattingly is a 100 percent disabled veteran of the Iraq War who was injured during the battle for Taji. When he returned from the war and mindful of his injuries, he sought a career that was achievable. Mattingly had always loved music and earned a degree in Live Show Production from Full Sail University. He has continued producing music shows and as a veteran he became involved with the Woody Williams Foundation and their Gainesville project. By organizing a benefit concert to raise funds for the Gold Star Monument.

The High Springs Lions Club and the Military Vets MC Club have a large stage and plenty of audience space. They have hosted a number of benefit concerts at their location and were happy to coordinate with Mattingly to produce the show. Mattingly contacted regional bands he had worked with who would provide their time and talent for a concert. The concert will be dedicated in honor of four local soldiers who paid the ultimate price—including Sergeant Campbell, Lance Corporal Clark and Staff Sergeant Reiners.

On May 28, the High Springs Lions Club will host Mattingly's “Roscoe's Memorial Day Celebra-Jam” featuring four Florida bands. Starting at 2 p.m., The Huligans from Jacksonville will take the stage. Dustin Monk and the Hustle are another Jacksonville band. Trae Pierce and the T-Stones are based in Miami and are four-time Grammy winners. Jesse Smith is originally from High Springs but is now based in New Orleans and New York. His band, Jasper Smitty & Gumbo Funk will close out the concert.

The show costs $25, which, after expenses, will go to fund the Gainesville Gold Star Monument. The concert takes place at 26900 U.S. Hwy 27 in High Springs. Gates open at noon in an outdoor venue and chairs are suggested. On this Memorial Day weekend, this is a concert for a good cause to honor the soldiers who paid the supreme price and the shattered families they left behind.

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ALACHUA ‒ The Alachua City Commission approved at its May 9 meeting a voluntary annexation request by William and Margaret Kirkland. The property, located in the 15000 block of Peggy Road, is currently a vacant .54-acre parcel with an Alachua County Future Land Use Map (FLUM) designation of Agricultural and Alachua County Zoning designation of Rural Agriculture. Property annexed into the City retains its current unincorporated zone district classifications until a Future Land Use Map Amendment and change to the Official Zoning Atlas is adopted, and no development, redevelopment or expansion can be done until the amendments have been adopted.

In other business, the Commission approved a request by Tomoka Hills Farms, Inc, to amend the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) on 25.48 acres from Agriculture (6.42 acres) and Moderate Density Residential (19.08 acres) located east of CR 235A/Northwest 173rd Street and south of Northwest 162nd Lane.

The approved amendment changed the FLUM Designation to Moderate Density Residential on approximately 13.81 acres and Medium Density Residential on approximately 11.67 acres. The Moderate Density Residential FLUM Designation permits a density of up to four dwelling units per acre or a maximum of 55 dwelling units for the property; the Medium Density Residential FLUM Designation permits a density of four to eight dwelling units per acre or a maximum of 93 dwelling units for this property.

In related action, the Commission approved rezoning the 25.48-acre property to Residential Single Family – 4 (RSF-4) on 13.81 acres and Residential Multiple Family – 8 (RMF-8) on the remaining 11.67 acres. The Commission approved both requests on first readings with a second reading to be scheduled for a future meeting.

The City of Alachua has been awarded the Florida League of Cities 2021 Hometown Health Award for the third straight year. Lindsey Larson, Health Account Executive and Gwen Mahabir, Hometown Health Manager, presented the Hometown Health Award to the City Commission.

The award signifies that the City of Alachua has demonstrated commitment to employee well-being and has played a vital role in creating a workplace that supports a healthy environment and health-conscious culture.

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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ Giving back to the community and supporting children are the forces behind the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe. And on May 14 under a sunny Saturday morning sky, the club held their second annual Kids & Family Mini Golf Tournament at the Pink Flamingo Diner in High Springs. The event is organized to help raise funds for projects the Kiwanis support for the children of High Springs and Alachua.

After the Pink Flamingo Diner opened last year with a nine-hole miniature golf course, the club saw it as an entertaining way to raise funds and involve the community. Last year’s event featured teams divided into two categories of adults and children, but this year the groups were combined with no age limits. Eight teams played for high scores, prizes and bragging rights. The teams signed up in groups for an $8 entry fee for each adult and $6 for kids under 13. The Pink Flamingo kicked in half the entry fee to the club, raising $2,750 for Kiwanis projects.

The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe is one local club out of the Kiwanis International, which was founded in 1915 by a group of businessmen in Detroit, Michigan. The name "Kiwanis" was coined from an American Indian expression, “Nunc Kee-wanis,” which means, “We trade.” In 1920, the motto of Kiwanis became “We Build.” It remained the motto until 2005, when members voted to change it to “Serving the children of the world.” In the early years, members focused on business networking, but in 1919 the organization changed its focus to service — specifically service to children. The organization now has more than 550,000 members in 80 countries. Worldwide the Kiwanis host nearly 150,000 service projects each year.

At Saturday's competition, the teams consisted of local residents, along with two teams from the fire and police departments in a friendly rivalry between city employees. The fire department won the competition and was awarded a trophy that is returned each year for the city employee team competitions. Local residents filled out the remaining teams, which they named.

The community effort had a number of local sponsors that provided services or funding. This year’s event sponsors included Pink Flamingo, Porta Serve, Campus USA, Waste Pro, Hampton Inn, Great Outdoors Restaurant, Winn Dixie, Capitol City Bank, and Thomas Weller, attorney. Prizes for first, second and third place were provided by Publix, Pink Flamingo Diner, Hitchcocks and Hardee’s.

The Gator Boys team took first place and a $100 gift card from Publix, a $50 Hitchcock gift card and Payday candy bars. Second place was won by the Dough Boys who received a $75 Pink Flamingo Diner gift card and a $25 Hardee’s gift card. The fire department took third place and received a $50 gift card from the Pink Flamingo Diner. A tie between the first and second place team forced a third-round playoff with the Gator Boys coming out on top with the last putt.

“This event has been a great success in helping raise funding for our projects” said Kiwanis President Tom Hewlett. “It's a fun event where the community can have a friendly competition and enjoy playing at this unique miniature golf field. We are grateful to all the volunteers, teams and sponsors, especially to the Pink Flamingo for providing the course to make this possible and we look forward to continuing the tradition yearly.”

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ALACHUA ‒ At Santa Fe High School, being at the top of their graduating classes is a family affair—or rather, a ‘families’ affair—for two current and two past students.

Rylie Tam has been named the school’s 2022 valedictorian, while Megan Walls is this year’s salutatorian. Earning those tops spots is certainly a significant achievement. But what makes them even more noteworthy is that just two years ago, Rylie’s older brother Ethan was the school’s valedictorian, while Megan’s sister Lacey was the salutatorian.

Principal Dr. Tim Wright says he’s not surprised by the students’ success. He says their families were certainly focused on education and encouraged their children to make the most of their opportunities. But he says the students were also very self-motivated—for example, taking many challenging Advanced Placement courses while at SFHS.

“They all took command of their learning and were always seeking out opportunities to challenge themselves,” said Wright.

Rylie admits she’s always been very competitive, which made the news about being at the top of her class even more gratifying.

“It was always a joke that I would never let Ethan beat me at anything, and so when I found out I was super happy that I accomplished that,” she said. She added that he was also happy to hear the news.

Lacey learned about her younger sister earning salutatorian honors as she was wrapping up the semester at Tuft’s University in Boston, where she’s majoring in economics and sociology.

“I thought it was really hilarious that it worked out that way,” she said. “We all knew each other growing up, we were at High Springs (Community School) together, so it’s cool to see it pan out like this.”

Did her older sister’s salutatorian status in 2020 have an impact on Megan?

“It was motivating, but there was also pressure on top of that,” said Megan, who will be going to Boston University this fall to study environmental science and sociology. “I feel like everyone thought Lacey was the more ‘book smart’ sister, so it was reassuring for me to make it as salutatorian too.”

Rylie said her brother’s achievements motivated her as well.

“Growing up with an older brother, I always wanted to be like him and accomplish what he did, so being able to follow in his footsteps was really cool,” she said.

Rylie has earned a full scholarship to Butler University in Indianapolis to play Division 1 Volleyball and study biology. Her brother Ethan is currently studying anthropology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

“I think all four of them will attack college just like they did high school,” said Principal Wright. “There are no limits to what they can achieve because they’ve always set such high standards for themselves.”

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HIGH SPRINGS – Opponents of the controversial mural project in High Springs spoke at the May 12 High Springs City Commission meeting to express their concerns about the pending project and related ordinance. Earlier in the week on May 9, a private meeting was held to discuss ways they could make sure City Commissioners were aware that the group objected to allowing murals in the city.

At the commission meeting, Wallace Simmons, Lance Verner, Deborah Simone, Janet Evans, and John Sterpe expressed their viewpoints, which included admonitions for the City to use the City of New Smyrna Beach’s guidelines for a mural ordinance and asking for guidelines on who would be responsible for maintenance of murals already in existence. Individuals also asked Commissioners not to allow murals or Walldogs to “desecrate our historic buildings,” and not allow the “enemy coming from outside High Springs” to paint murals.

Concern was also raised that Commissioner Ross Ambrose should recuse himself from voting on a mural ordinance because he is also on the Heart of High Springs board.

Heart of High Springs President Nancy Lavin phoned in to update everyone on projects and issues relating to the group. She said they would make sure everyone abides by historic preservation principles and that the group has raised money for replacement of the four “Entrance to High Springs” signs. “We are working with the downtown merchants in their Artwalk program and started a program to allow students looking for Bright Futures hours to work with their different programs and projects.”

Lavin also said that the group has raised $90,000 in pledges from individuals and businesses in High Springs that are in favor of the murals and $20,000 for the sign projects. Lavin also said the organization has already put in their order for the first of four entrance signs.

Ambrose addressed several issues that were listed in a handout provided to Commissioners. He read, “The Heart of High Springs has essentially forced the City to implement a mural ordinance to protect itself.” Ambrose said he thinks the City could have used it [a mural ordinance] to have kept the “Goggle Girl” mural from happening, something many citizens have said they dislike. “We could have used it then.”

Ambrose denied a conflict of interest, saying, “Because someone supports something passionately is not necessarily a conflict of a moral thing. You should have elected officials that are for certain things and advocating...Since I do not personally benefit, it’s hard for me to not do my job to represent part of a voice here in the community that does think that a mural project in the community is worth exploring.”

Ambrose added that he didn’t attend the meeting held earlier in the week because it was listed as a private meeting only to the people who were invited, and once he learned that Commissioner Jones would be in attendance, he thought it might not be good for two commissioners to attend.

City Attorney Andrea Parker responded that Ambrose could have attended as long as they didn’t discuss how they would vote on the ordinance being proposed.

Kristy Swilley addressed Commissioners and said she would have appreciated it if Ambrose had presented the potential conflict to the Board on Ethics and received a written response saying there was no conflict. Parker responded that she had presented the issue to the Commission on Ethics and was told there was no conflict of interest since there was no financial benefit to Ambrose.

Swilley said she would like to see a paper trail to that effect directly from the Ethics Commission.

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Former High Springs resident and business owner Suzie Ann Clark passed away on April 1, 2022, at the age of 82.

After earning a degree in massage therapy, Clark moved to High Springs in 1995 where she opened the Wellness Spa of High Springs.

She was a member of the High Springs Chamber of Commerce, volunteered for the High Springs Historic Society and created items for the Historic Museum to sell to earn money. Clark served on the High Springs Parks and Recreation Board from 2002 – 2021.

She was also a member of the League of Women Voters. Her philosophy was, “If you want to make a change, then you needed to be involved, be educated and vote.”

She joined the GFWC High Springs New Century Woman's Club in October 2001 and served in many positions and as president from 2004 – 2007.

Clark also held sewing sessions with a group of avid seamstresses in her spa facility to create burial outfits from bridal gowns for babies who were born but didn’t survive childbirth or who died very young.

“She was a staunch supporter of first responders, always smiling and embracing High Springs police officers with a hug and ensuring that we were wearing our protective ballistic vests,” said High Springs Police Chief Antoine Sheppard.

Clark was active with senior programs in High Springs and throughout the area. Clark participated in Senior Recreation Center events in Gainesville, where she showed off her humbug bags, quilts and other stitched items. She spearheaded Zumba classes at the High Springs Civic Center that continued for almost two decades (pre-COVID) and continued the program at her spa in later years.

She was also one of the founding members of the High Springs Garden Club and Community Garden.

An early morning telephone call would find Clark on a walk for exercise with friends and to enjoy the morning air and get caught up on what her walking friends were doing. If she wasn’t out taking a walk in town, she would be walking along the beach collecting driftwood. She was also a member of the High Springs Yellow Belly Sliders Bicycle Club.

She was passionate about quilting and adored collecting unusual and interesting materials for her creations. A display of her quilt work is currently at the Historic High Springs Elementary School and Community Center located behind City Hall.

Clark was an active member of the Tri-City Quilters Guild and also loved to make clothes. Each year for Christmas she would make her granddaughters all sorts of clothes including vests, shirts, and sweaters. She also loved to make humbug bags, mug rugs and cross-stitched bookmarks. Clark always said quilting was a stress reliever and described it as “therapeutic.”

She ushered in the Quilt Trail program into High Springs and made sure other quilters knew about the program so they would come and view the quilts on buildings around High Springs.

Clark was a soft touch for any cat or kitten who was hungry or didn’t have a home. For years she would gather up feral cats and have them spayed/neutered. Many of the cats stayed to become her own. She fed many of them outside and accepted some who were tame enough to be house cats into the house.

She was especially fond of and bragged constantly about her grandkids and their accomplishments. She created gifts for them throughout the year and enjoyed sharing stories about how well they were doing in their chosen areas.

In her formative years Clark graduated high school in 1957 from Kenmoore West in Buffalo, New York. From there she went on to graduate in 1961 From Buffalo State Teachers College with a bachelors’ degree in home economics. She eventually returned to school for a degree in recreation and gerontology from Brockport College.

During her college years, Clark married and became a mother to her only child, Monica.

She worked in a variety of jobs including Western New York Child Care and Catholic Family Center at Holy Cross and St. Michaels. Clark was not only a Girl Scout leader, but also, she was a paid Girl Scout who taught women how to be Girl Scout leaders. She was also an inspector of day camps and camps.

A woman of many talents, Clark worked at the Strong Museum constructing exhibits as well as teaching recreation at St John Fisher College for over 20 years.

As if her career and being a mother wasn’t busy enough, in 1969 her farm was the first licensed organic farm in Orleans County. She was also a very talented folk musician, who played a variety of instruments including the Hammer dulcimer, auto harp, mountain dulcimer, and the spoons.

In 1971 Clark started the Turtle Hill Folk Festival in Rush, New York, which just celebrated its 50th year in 2021 and Clark was proud to be in attendance for the 50th year anniversary of this festival. Turtle Hill got its name because it was first held on her farm behind the garage where there was a hill that resembled a turtle.

For over 20 years Clark was a member of the Golden Eagle String Band and during that time the band worked on five records, two videos, one tap, two song books and a CD. The band had a national recording contract with Folkways Records and two of their records are now part of the American History Museum at the Smithsonian Institution.

Clark also loved to garden and composted before composting was popular. Her family acknowledged that she could grow some amazing strawberries. She had a large coy fish pond that made her garden extra special. She was multi-talented and crafty. One of her projects was to make Faberge-style eggs and she also built furniture.

Clark always had a smile on her face and loved to laugh and joke. She used to say, “My 4 F’s keep me going: Family, friends, fabric and felines.”

She will be deeply missed by family and friends.

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