ALACHUA – There was a special staff at Alachua's Mi Apa Restaurant on Feb. 19. The mayor, city commission members and city employees had a new job for the day serving food to customers at the poplar eatery.

They weren't changing careers, instead they were doing it as a fund raiser for cancer research as part of the Annual Relay for Life.

Mi Apa restaurant sponsors the “Stick a Fork In Cancer” day annually and the city employees raised $1,311 in a single day. The City of Alachua staff is one of 19 volunteer teams that help raise funds in advance of the Relay for Life event, which will be held on April 3 at the Hal Brady Recreation Complex. Combined, the 19 teams have already raised $21,098 in advance of the event with 39 fundraising days still to go.

Relay For Life is the signature fundraiser cancer walk for the American Cancer Society. Relay is staffed and coordinated by volunteers in more than 5,200 communities and 20 countries who give their time and effort taking action against cancer by funding research.

Relay For Life is a team-based fundraising cancer walk event where team members take turns walking around a track or designated path. Each event is 6-24 hours in length and each team is asked to have a member on the track at all times to signify that cancer never sleeps. Cancer patients don't stop fighting because they're tired, and the walkers want to symbolize their fight. Each team sets up a themed campsite at the event and continues their fundraising efforts by collecting donations for food, goods, games, and activities. This money will count toward their overall team fundraising goal. Many of the volunteers are cancer survivors in remission, family caregivers or those who have lost loved ones and walk in remembrance. The goal is to continue to fund research to eradicate cancer and to remember those who have lost the battle against a form of cancer.

The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913 by 10 doctors and five laypeople in New York City. It was called the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC). At that time, a cancer diagnosis meant near-certain death. Rarely mentioned in public, this disease was steeped in fear and denial. Doctors sometimes did not tell their patients they had cancer, and patients often did not tell their friends and families that they had been diagnosed with it. The Society’s founders knew they had to raise public awareness about cancer if progress was to be made against this disease. The society started by writing articles for popular magazines and professional journals; publishing a monthly bulletin of cancer information and recruiting doctors throughout the country to help educate the public.

In 1945, the ASCC was reorganized as the American Cancer Society. Philanthropist Mary Lasker and her colleagues helped to raise more than $4 million for the Society in 1946 – $1 million of which was used to establish and fund the Society’s groundbreaking research program. They also helped establish the link between cancer and smoking; demonstrated the effectiveness of the Pap test; developed cancer-fighting drugs; dramatically increased the cure rate for childhood leukemia and promoted the use of mammography to identify breast cancer. Since 1946, the American Cancer Society has invested more than $4.9 billion in research. The Society was instrumental in the development of the Surgeon General’s report on the link between smoking and cancer and pushed for the passage of the National Cancer Act in 1971.

The Relay for Life event began in 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt, wanted to raise awareness of cancer and boost the income of his local cancer charity. He spent 24 hours circulating a track in Tacoma, Washington, and raised over $27,000. This event showed that one person really can make a difference. Since then, Relay For Life has become the largest fundraising event for cancer in the world. Celebrated by more than 4 million people in over 20 countries, this overnight event empowers and unites local communities to fight cancer.

In Alachua there is a series of events and fundraisers leading up to the actual walk. Besides each team separately finding ways to raise money and awareness, there is a Survivor Dinner on April 1 to honor the survivors who have battled cancer and their caregivers. Then, on the evening of April 3, volunteer teams and other community members will gather at the Hal Brady Recreation Complex. Each team, along with other organizations, including student groups from Santa Fe High School, will have a tent or area set up to help continue to raise money. Some will sell food or craft items, others will hold raffles or sponsor activities such as petting zoos or bike races. Each year there is also a dunking booth where local personalities and leaders will give people a chance to dump them in the water tank, with a donation for each try.

But the main focus is the walkers and survivors. At the end of the event, luminaries are lit around the walking path in memory of those who lost their battle. The goal of the Society and the Relay is to try and make sure that these lives were not lost in vain and that one day cancer will be eradicated.

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LAKE CITY – Fifteen miles east of Lake City, Florida, is Olustee, a small town bordering the Osceola National Forest. Usually it is a serene and quiet spot in a rural setting, but once a year on Presidents Day weekend in February, the stirring sounds of bugles and drums mix with the sharp sound of rifle fire and cannons booming. Thousands of reenactors and spectators assemble in the park to experience history and witness the recreated battle.

For the past 44 years, Olustee State Park has been home to a living history event that honors those who fought in the largest and bloodiest Civil War battle in Florida. Olustee State Park, is the state's first park and was dedicated in 1912. The annual event is one of the few reenactment events that is actually carried out on the same ground where the original took place. In the Battle of Olustee, over 10,000 soldiers fought, and in some cases died, 155 years ago.

On Feb. 20, 1864, Union forces marching across the state ran into an equal army of Confederates at the location of the present park. Florida had escaped much of the fighting that had decimated the country. The Union had launched several raids along the coast and had even captured Jacksonville and Key West, but they didn't control the interior.

Union General Truman Seymore landed troops at Jacksonville, aiming to disrupt the Confederate supply line. Florida produced much of the beef and salt supply, which was exported north to the Confederate army. Meeting little resistance, he proceeded toward Tallahassee, which was still under Confederate control. Against orders from his commander, Seymore planned to cut across the state to Tallahassee and cut off the supplies leaving Florida. Assuming he would face only partisans and local militia, Seymore and his 5,500 troops followed the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central rail line west toward Lake City.

But it was not just militia the Union would be facing. Confederate General Joseph Finnegan had assembled an opposing force of battle-seasoned Florida troops, supplemented by additional troops from Georgia. At Olustee Station, east of Lake City, the Union forces ran into Finnegan’s 5,400 men. Seymour made the mistake of assuming he was facing Florida militia units like he had previously routed with ease and committed his troops piecemeal into the battle. Fighting raged all afternoon. Twice the Confederates almost ran out of ammunition. The Union forces attacked, but were repulsed by barrages of rifle and cannon fire. Then, just as Finnegan committed the last of his reserves, the Union line broke and began to retreat. Finnegan did not exploit the retreat, allowing most of the fleeing Union forces to reach Jacksonville.

Union casualties were 203 killed, 1,152 wounded and 506 missing, a total of 1,861 men, which was about 34 percent of the Union forces. Confederate losses were lower, with 93 killed, 847 wounded and 6 missing, a total of 946 casualties in all, which was about 19 percent.

The ratio of Union casualties to the number of troops involved made this the second bloodiest battle of the war for the Union, with 265 casualties per 1,000 troops. It also ended Union attempts to take the state and cut the supply lines. At the end of the war, Tallahassee was the only Confederate capitol that had not been captured. Although the battle is relatively unknown to the general public, it was a defining moment in the history of Florida.

This park where so much violence and bloodshed happened on that single day in 1864 now rests peacefully among the pine forest of North Florida, except for that one weekend in February.

The event is much more than a portrayal of a battle. Reenactors portray not only soldiers of both sides, but civilians as well, educating the public as they walk through the campsites. Some reenactors provide music or medical scenarios, female reenactors teach about the woman's role both in the war and home life. The park service also provides lectures, often taught by reenactors, on many aspects of the Civil War and life in the 1860s, including an actor portraying Frederic Douglas to give the viewpoint and experiences of African Americans, both free and slave.

Lake City also marks the event with a two-day festival with artists, vendors and entertainers beginning Friday afternoon and continuing through Saturday with the addition of a parade by the reenactors at 10:30 a.m. The town also sponsors a battle skirmish and naval reenactment of a battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac, at Lake Desoto in downtown Lake City. Although there was no naval engagement at the battle of Olustee, this is meant to portray the first engagement between two ironclad ships.

When Saturday evening comes and the spectators are gone, the camps at the park become a true step back in time. Reenactors relax in camp around a fire or go to a ball with a full orchestra. The only light is candlelight giving the night a warm glow, with the odor of smoke drifting from the campfires.

Then on Sunday, the Battle of Olustee is re-enacted on the same hallowed ground soldiers fought for over 150 years earlier. Long lines dressed in blue and gray meet in conflict, firing volleys and cannons before an audience of over 1,000 spectators. When the battle ends, all the reenactors assemble in long lines before the audience, no longer in conflict but mingled together, reunited as one nation, as a solitary bugle blows taps to honor those who died here so long ago.

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Learn more about COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) from the Florida Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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HIGH SPRINGS – The High Springs City Commission once again found itself on the hot seat at the Feb, 13 City Commission meeting. At issue was a letter from the City to the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) regarding a Water Permit Application by Seven Springs.

Although the City has no authority to grant or deny the application, some area citizens have appealed to the Commission on several occasions to take a forceful stand to encourage the water management district to deny the Seven Springs permit. Water from Seven Springs wells have, in the past, been sold to Nestle for their water bottling plant.

The proposed permit renewal, if approved, would increase permitted water withdrawal from the Santa Fe River from 270,000 gallons per day, which is what has been taken in the past, to 1.152 million gallons per day

At the Jan. 9 City Commission meeting, residents packed into the commission chambers to voice their opinions on the matter. Some residents expressed their strongly-held views that this permit should be denied. Other residents, many of whom are employed by Nestle, expressed their just as strongly-held views that the permit should be approved.

Initially, the City Commission directed the city attorney to write a firmly worded letter encouraging the SRWMD to deny the permit. When the letter came back to Commissioners at the Jan. 23 meeting for review, Commissioners, who by that time had a chance to review the previous meeting’s minutes, seemed to agree that all of the citizens’ points of view should be shared with the water management district and not just those of the opposing citizens.

Commissioners also asked that the attorney include wording emphasizing the importance of the area springs and rivers to the economic, aesthetic and natural wellbeing of High Springs and surrounding area.

The city attorney was sent back to the drawing board and asked that the revised letter reflect both sides expressed by area residents, and commissioners suggested the attorney refer the SRWMD to the Jan. 9 meeting minutes and to the YouTube video of the actual proceedings.

At the Feb. 13 City Commission meeting, a second letter was presented for Commission consideration. Although the crowd was not as large this time, some area residents in attendance asked Commissioners to approve the original, more strongly written letter.

Some of the same issues were brought up by opponents at this meeting as had been discussed earlier. Concerns included fears about increased truck traffic, noise and air pollution, road damage and reduction of water levels.

City Attorney Scott Walker read the letter out loud as some citizens said they had not seen it. With no further comment from the audience members, commissioners unanimously approved the new letter and authorized Mayor Byran Williams to sign it.

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