ALACHUA ‒ Monthlong seasonal festivities are in full swing in Alachua. Merrymaking kicked off last Friday evening at 6 p.m. with crowds gathering around the towering Christmas tree across from Alachua’s Skinner Field. The annual tree lighting tradition began in 2006 when the City of Alachua began holding a number of events to celebrate the Christmas season with the community. Every year, on the first Friday of December, the tree lighting ceremony is held followed by a visit from Santa Claus. This year Alachua will enjoy multiple events to make the whole month a celebration of the holiday season.

Friday’s official tree lighting ceremony was the center of attention as all eyes were on the larger-than-life Christmas tree as crowds gathered under strings of colorful Christmas lights as excited children awaited the arrival of Santa Claus in his horse drawn carriage. Helping to keep the experience alive long after the event ended, a cheerful background display with chairs for Santa and Mrs. Claus was available to offer free photos by Magnolia Lane Photography. Children also enjoyed boxes of treat-filled boxes after having their photo taken with the jolly couple from the North Poole.

A popular activity for the children was the ornament making stations for youngsters to create their own paper Christmas ornaments. Refreshments were abundant as Capital City Bank provided popcorn and costumed characters wandering in the park for children to greet and take photos with. Alachua’s Boy Scout Troop 88 provided steaming hot chocolate with marshmallows for the crowd. Dollar General provided free candies and cookies and Walmart provided juice boxes for the children.

Another highlight of the event was the snow blowing machine that created imaginary snow flurries for the children to play in. While all these activities provided the crowd with the Christmas feel, the big event was the tree lighting and arrival of Santa.

After short speeches by Mayor Gib Coerper and City Manager Mike DaRoza, all attention turned toward Main Street as police cars with lights flashing escorted a shiny white carriage with Santa, Mrs. Claus and two elves. Children excitedly lined the street for a glimpse of the carriage and its occupants.

DaRoza joined Santa in the street to lead a countdown for the tree to light up filling the park with shimmering multicolored illuminations. Families gathered around the tree to photograph their children as excited children waited in anticipation to sit on Santa's lap and tell him their Christmas wishes.

Alachua’s holiday celebrations will continue with a parade down Main Street on Saturday, Dec. 10 starting at 2 p.m. And for the next two Saturdays, “Holiday Nights” sponsored by the City of Alachua are also on tap on Saturday, Dec. 10 and Saturday, Dec. 17 with a variety of activities in the historic downtown area. Free showings of The Santa Claus film series will be happening downtown as well as free carriage rides up and down Main Street. Free Christmas gift wrapping will be provided and Santa will again be set up near Magnolia Lane Photography for additional photos. Two stages will feature acoustic musicians playing Christmas music as well as a performance by the Gainesville Youth Choir.

Wrapping up the season’s activities is a performance of The Nutcracker by Dance Alive. This special event hosted by the City of Alachua takes place Friday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. at Legacy Park, 15400 Peggy Road. This free event is not to be missed, and the public is encouraged to bring a bag chair and a blanket to enjoy this family tradition under a canopy of stars. Hot chocolate and popcorn will be available while supplies last, and a meet and greet the dancers will follow the performance.

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ALACHUA ‒ Two public presentations highlighted the Nov. 28 Alachua City Commission meeting.  A large crowd was on hand to witness the presentation of a remembrance quilt and to recognize elementary students for their art work.

The Alachua County Community Remembrance Quilt Project Committee (ACCRPQC) presented a remembrance quilt to the commission honoring those who lost their lives to lynchings in Newnansville in the years after the Civil War. 

The ACCRPQC collaborated with the City of Alachua Youth Advisory Council to create and sew the quilt in remembrance of the lives lost in Newnansville, a once thriving town situated along Bellamy Road that has now faded into history.  Alachua County Commissioner and former State Representative Charles Chestnut spoke about the work of the Alachua County Community Remembrance Project.

The goal of the Committee is to keep the history of segregation and the lynchings alive for future generations to understand the past. The effort began in January 2020 in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative from Montgomery, Ala.

Lynching of black Americans in the time of segregation was sadly a common method of intimidating the black population.  Between 1867 and 1926, there were 45 documented lynchings in Alachua County, but the actual figure is probably higher. Of these victims, 15 lynchings occurred in Newbery, but Newnansville was not far behind with 10 known cases.

ACCRPQC Chair Dawn Beachy presented the quilt to the City Commission as members of the quilt committee and Youth Advisory Board held up the quilt, displaying it for the audience to view. It contained 12 squares featuring the names of victims in the Newnansville area.

Across the top of the quilt was a quote, “The right way to right a wrong is to shine the light of truth upon them.” The back of the quilt contained pockets for viewers to put notes in about the victims.

In other business, students from W.W. Irby Elementary who had their artwork featured on display in City Hall as part of the Art in City Hall program were recognized.  Mayor Gib Coerper and Rose Magarino read the names of each student for them to come forward and receive a certificate and show their art work.  After the certificates were presented, the entire City Commission gathered with the students for a group photograph.

The Commission closed the books on the City’s Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget which ended Sept. 30, by amending the General Fund budget to account for unanticipated revenues.  The City’s Finance and Administrative Services Department performs an end of year review of actual receipts and expenditures as part of its end-of-year procedures. The amendment increased the City’s FY 2021-22 budget from $48,738,643 to $48,743,643.

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ALACHUA ‒ It was a weekend for celebrations as the A.L. Mebane High School Alumni Association held its annual homecoming reunion starting on Friday and continuing into Sunday. Each year on the weekend after Thanksgiving former students and family members from A.L. Mebane High School hold a multi-day homecoming celebration and parade for a school that no longer exists.

Sponsored by the A.L. Mebane High School Alumni Association, the event has become a community tradition to keep the school's history alive and to remember the struggle for equal education and the achievements of African American students over the past 150 years.

While the Civil War may have ended slavery, it did little to resolve the divisions between the races in the South or bring equality. Prior to 1924, there were no organized institutions of learning for the black community. In that year, the Alachua County Training School (ACT) was opened by the state to provide education for African American children.

For the next 32 years, ACT was the main educational institution for the African American community in Alachua. In 1956 the school was replaced by the Mebane School, named after Albert Leonidas Mebane who had been principle at the ACT school. The school covered all grades including high school. Due to segregation policies, the school remained an all-black school with its first class graduating in 1960.

In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It also prohibited racial segregation in schools, but it would be 1970 before Alachua County schools were integrated by Federal law. Public schools in the county were reorganized and Mebane became an integrated middle school. Mebane high school students were transferred to Santa Fe High School. There would be no more graduating seniors after the class of 1970.

But the unity and spirit of those 14 graduating classes remained strong and the Alumni Association was created. In 1996 the Association held their first Homecoming event. For the Alumni Association, keeping their history alive is a matter of community pride and an eye to the future. Each year since 1996, the community gathers to remember the old Mebane High School. Activities begin on the Friday after Thanksgiving as the Alumni and families from the 14 classes attend activities leading up to the longstanding parade through downtown Alachua.

On Saturday, Nov. 26, the crowd began to gather on the sidewalks along Main Street as overcast skies and mild temperatures made a pleasant day for a parade. Each alumni class designed a float or decorated a car, along with some community organizations and churches that also participated. Led by a police escort, the parade kicked off with sirens wailing and lights flashing.

Sidewalks were lined with spectators as cars and trucks carrying homecoming queens and dignitaries were interspersed with floats sponsored by the various alumni classes, many tossing candy for the excited children attending the parade. A variety of other vehicles, including a large group of motorcycle riders, added to the cacophony of celebratory sounds.

Entertainment was interspersed between the vehicles with the 352 Marching Band performing along the way. The Heart and Soul Line Dancers entertained with style and energy along the parade route.

While the parade started with the deafening howl of police sirens, it ended softly with a nod to the past as a group of horse mounted cowboys and farmers closed out this year’s procession.

Each year the Alumni classes get smaller as the students of 50 years ago get older. But what started as a small group of former students wanting to keep a connection with their classmates, has become a community event spanning multiple generations celebrating their history, culture and achievements.

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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ It has been a long journey—one that Clarence Hope Sr. had never imagined. A truck driver by trade, a husband, and a father to three young children, Hope had no inkling of what was to come and how it would change his life. But in January 2010 he began having health problems including trouble breathing and extreme fatigue causing multiple trips to the Emergency Room (ER).

Over the next 12 years Hope would go through a series of tests, misdiagnosis, and multiple hospital stays. At one point he was told by hospital doctors that he had only days to live. But thanks to the UF Health Heart and Vascular Care unit, High Springs resident Hope has a new lease on life after receiving a heart transplant in October 2022.

When his health problems first appeared in 2010, Hope was initially diagnosed as having pneumonia, but the problems persisted and the symptoms worsened including swelling of the legs, dizziness, rapid heartbeats, chest discomfort and issues with internal organs.

Continued tests and hospital stays were inconclusive and he was diagnosed with a variety of ailments with no conclusive proof and no relief. At one point they claimed it was caused by STD's or AIDS, which Hope knew was wrong.

Finally, after a year of tests and frustrations, another doctor said the hospital had been reading the signs wrong and that the issue was his heart, a condition termed cardiomyopathy, which is a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body.

Ultimately, cardiomyopathy can lead to heart failure and death. At first Hope was being treated with medications. Later, his medical team put in a pacemaker, a small device that's surgically implanted in the chest to help control the heartbeat and to prevent the heart from beating too slowly.

For a while, things seem to improve. Hope’s primary care physician, Doctor Nasir Ahmed of High Springs Pediatric and Primary Care, monitored his condition in between hospital stays and tests. Hope was able to return to work part time and do activities with his family, watching the kids while his wife Marion worked.

But this came to an end one day when Hope was talking to friends while sitting on his riding lawnmower. Suddenly, the pacemaker seized up, sending a shock through his body and knocking him unconscious onto the ground.

After another extended hospital stay and repairs to the pacemaker, Hope developed gout, which was treated with steroids, but other issues complicated the problem. During another trip to the ER, his blood sugar registered high at 138 although Hope had no history of diabetes. He developed gall bladder problems due to his enlarged heart, which was pressing against the gallbladder. Also, his other organs were being affected and beginning to fail.

In 2017, due to gall bladder issues, doctors installed a biliary drain. Also called a biliary stint, it is a thin, hollow, flexible tube with several small holes along the sides that is used when too much bile collects in the bile ducts. If something is blocking the bile duct, bile can back up into the liver and start causing multiple organ failures.

As time passed, his condition did not improve and actually worsened. As 2018 began, Hope received devastating news. Doctors at the hospital said he was septic and nothing could be done. They suggested he gather his family and friends to say goodbye and he would probably not last the weekend.

“That news was gut wrenching,” Hope said. “I was suddenly facing my own mortality and would never have a chance to see my children grow.” Not wanting to die in the hospital, Hope’s wife took him home to be with family.

One of his first stops to say goodbye was to his physician, Nasir Ahmed, who had monitored Hope’s health for eight years. Ahmed refused to accept the hospital’s diagnosis and was dismayed that they couldn’t diagnose the problem. Ahmed reached out to a friend, Mustafa Ahmed, a leading cardiology surgeon at Shands.

The following day, Hope received a call from the surgeon stating that if he could go to Shands ER the following day, his team would reevaluate his situation and admit him to Shands’ cardiology unit. The next day after that, Hope awoke in the hospital to find himself in a room full of doctors. The lead doctor asked Hope if he wanted to live. When Hope replied, “of course,” the doctor fist bumped Hope and told his team, “Let’s go guys, we got work to do.”

With Hope's heart only working at two percent, doctors installed an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), which is a therapeutic device that helps the heart pump more blood as a temporary fix. Their realization was that Hope’s heart had to be replaced, but unfortunately there were no donor hearts available.

To keep Hope alive, a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) was surgically installed until a heart could become available. A LAVD is a pump that for patients who have reached end-stage heart failure. The battery-operated mechanical pump helps the left ventricle pump blood to the rest of the body to keep the patient alive. During this time in 2018, Hope spent almost five months in the hospital.

It would be almost four years of being on the wait list for a heart transplant, when on Oct. 2, 2022, Hope received a call that a transplant was available. Within an hour he was at Shands with the operating room ready.

Within three weeks from the surgery, Hope is up with no problems and no signs of rejection of the new heart. Marion Hope expressed their gratitude to all the medical staff at Shands and their primary care physician who refused to give up on him.

“We are also eternally grateful to the family that provided the donor heart,” said Marion Hope. “We know it was a great loss to their family, but they provided life to another family.”

Marion Hope said that the rules of donorship prevent both the donor and the recipient from knowing each other’s identity for a year. “We can correspond with letters and they can decide after the year whether to establish contact with us,” said Marion Hope. “We hope they will so we can tell them how much this meant to our family”.

Now, Clarence Hope, Sr., has a new lease on life and the future with his wife and children that he dreamed of.

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