ALACHUA ‒ The Alachua Lions Club held their annual White Cane Walk on Saturday, Oct. 10. The walk started at the Alachua Branch Library, just off U.S. Highway 441 and participants walked to the Lions Club at 15115 N.W. 142^nd Terrace, across from Alachua City Hall. The walk is intended to educate the community about Florida’s White Cane Law and the difficulties of being visually impaired. Over the years, the Lions club has partnered with the Alachua Police Department, the local Police Explorers Club and Boy Scout troop 88, Santa Fe High School, Alachua County Council for the Blind and others to provide walkers, escorts, cooking and demonstrations for the walk, which began as an Alachua Troop 88 Eagle Scout project by Adam Boukari.

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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ The COVID-19 pandemic has been disastrous for the economy with multiple business restrictions and shutdowns including a six-week quarantine. It has especially been tough on small locally-owned businesses with little reserve funding. In pre-pandemic times these businesses operated on a thin profit margin and would anticipate when their slow seasonal times were and plan to make up for it with higher volume seasonal sales. Many small businesses have closed their doors permanently, while others continue to struggle to survive.

Despite hard times and an uncertain future, some entrepreneurs have opened new businesses or revived existing businesses. Julie's Pins & Needles and Ms. Jeanne's Hair & Co. are two entirely different business with the same goal—persevering to successfully come through the pandemic.

Julie's Pins & Needles opened for business in May 2014 on Main Street in Alachua. Owner Julie Tucker had wanted to open a quilting store in High Springs, but at the time there were no good locations. Tucker spent her career as an animal nurse caring for everything from dogs and horses to dolphins, and she had also been a quilter for years and sewing for as long as she can remember.

Quilters are a tightknit hobby society, corresponding with others throughout the country and internationally. When Tucker retired, she opened her quilting parlor to create a space for quilters to find supplies and also exchange ideas with quilters locally and visitors from throughout the world. In addition, she also taught classes for beginners and intermediate level sewers and made or repaired quilts for clients.

In December 2019 Tucker found a place closer to home and moved the shop to High Springs, opening in February after it was renovated. She didn't plan on opening a new business during a pandemic. “We were open for two weeks, with people just recognizing our business location and our regulars finding us when the state-wide shutdown occurred. In store business and visiting quilters from other areas disappeared in an instant,” Tucker said.

“We had to reinvent our way of working and survived the shutdown by making masks for individuals and hospitals and online ‘no contact’ sales, placing the orders outside for customers to pick up,” said Tucker. “We got by, but are just beginning to see business return. It’s almost like opening a new business all over again. But overall, the quilting business took a hard hit and a lot of stores have closed down including Suwannee River Quilt in Trenton,” she said.

Quilters prefer a lot of fabric choices and often visit shops when traveling, which accounted for much of Tucker’s business. Because quilters like to have a variety of fabrics to work from, they maintain a surplus selection referred to as a “stash.”

All of these factors affected her business. “Due to the pandemic, we aren't seeing any travelers, and many of our regulars are elderly and more cautious about going out in the current conditions,” said Tucker. “Many quilters are just going through their “stash” and not buying fabric or supplies.” Tucker explained that the store closing in Trenton compounded the problem since they had to liquidate a huge fabric stockpile when they closed at discount prices.

“However, we are beginning to see more business as locals use up their stashes and we are expanding our services,” said Tucker. “We haven't started classes yet but will as soon as allowed by the state.”

In addition to fabric and supplies sales, Julie's Pins and Needles offers other services. The shop is equipped with a long arm sewing machine, which is used to sew together a quilt top, quilt batting and quilt backing into a finished quilt. The longarm sewing machine frame typically ranges from 10 feet to 14 feet in length. With this machine Tucker and her staff can make quilts for clients or repair existing ones in a much shorter and less costly time.

Tucker specializes in repairing heirloom quilts and hers is the only store in a multi-state area that does work on these family heirlooms, which are typically more than 75 years old.

Tucker also works on Memory quilts. These are quilts made from cloth or items that have a special memory for the customer, often comprised of clothing from a deceased loved one. “It’s interesting to do the Memory quilts. You often get to know the personality of the person they are in memory of, based on the items,” said Tucker. “

Julies Pins and Needles is now fully open for in-store business as well as website sales and is located at 18646 Main Street, Suite 10, High Springs. They can also be contacted by phone at 904-214-6633 or email at julspinsandneedles@gmail.com

Ms. Jeanne's Hair & Co.is located next door to Julie’s Pins and Needles and is a new business that opened as the restrictions eased. Located in a small standalone building facing U.S. Highway 27, Ms. Jeanne's Hair & Co. specializes in men and boys’ haircuts.

Jeanne Hodges is a licensed cosmologist and a barber of 24 years, always working for someone else. She was a barbershop manager in Brooksville when she met her husband, a sergeant in the National Guard who worked with a black hawk helicopter unit in Brooksville.

Todd Hodges was originally from High Springs and convinced Jeanne to move with him back to his hometown when he was transferred to Cecil Field in Jacksonville.

While Jeanne Hodges had always wanted to open her own shop, the opportunity never seemed right. “After we moved up here, we were having ice cream at the shop across the street during the shutdown and noticed this vacant renovated building across the street,” she said.

That building had been known for years as the Adventure Outpost, but it had closed the year before and the landlords totally renovate it.

“I had always dreamed of opening my own shop, but didn't plan on making such a decision during the pandemic, but we decided to take a chance,” said Jeanne Hodges. “When God provides an opportunity, you don't want to waste it, so we went for it.”

As it turns out, the pandemic gave them the time to turn the building into a two-chair barbershop that was ready to open as soon as the state allowed. “The regulations for opening didn't really affect our industry as far as health and sanitation, since the industry is already heavily regulated on sanitation and disinfecting between customers,” said Jeanne Hodges. “The main restrictions for us dealt with masks and social distancing.”

Other restrictions included having only one customer in the building at a time and to have 15 minutes between each customer, meaning they would work by appointment only, with no walk-ins. “This is still in place but may change as restrictions are lifted,” Hodges said.

She also said that business has picked up and she is getting repeat customers. “I feel it’s going well and it was a good decision. I finally have my own business.”

The Hodges intend to make High Springs their permanent home, and when Todd Hodges retires from a 20-year Army career, he has another career planned—he wants to become a barber.

Ms. Jeanne's Hair & Co. is open 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and open until 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays. On Saturday she is open 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The shop is located in downtown High Springs next to the Women's Club at 23652 U.S. Highway 27. Appointments can be made by calling 386-454-0220.

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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ On Sept. 26 a new art gallery opened complete with a COVID-19 aware reception for its first exhibit. The art gallery world has been hit hard by the pandemic, where social distancing and indoor spaces limit how many people can attend. Many art galleries no longer hold receptions for the exhibits, and a number of the smaller galleries have been forced to close altogether.

The new art gallery is located at 23352 West Highway 27, Suite 80 in a small strip mall in High Springs. Jessica Caldas, owner of Good News Arts, is taking a different approach to the traditional reception, and staged the event in the parking lot in front of the store. Inside viewing of the exhibits was limited to only six people at a time. All guests were required to wear a mask and practice social distancing. This outdoor/indoor event featured three outside tents with live music, live art making for the children, and refreshments for people to enjoy while waiting to see the inaugural exhibition.

Caldas is a Puerto Rican American, Florida and Georgia based artist, advocate, and activist. Her work deals with connecting personal and community narratives to larger themes and social issues. Originally based in Atlanta where her artistic work is well known, she says she has always wanted to open a gallery that would offer not only art and a place for artists to sell their work, but also offer a community arts center, a place for artists to work and a place for community groups to meet. Caldas moved to High Springs with her husband, Brian Bates, who is from the area and owns Head Waters restaurant in the same plaza.

While Caldas had not planned on opening a gallery in the midst of a pandemic, when the space became available, the couple realized it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Good News Arts will provide space for local, regional, and national artists to show challenging and engaging work tied to relevant contemporary issues.

“Artists will be chosen by the power of their practice and message, rather than the commercial viability of their work,” said Caldas.

Outside of curated exhibitions, Good News Arts will also be an open space for community members to present work via additional exhibitions, musical performances, spoken word, events, and whatever else serves the community’s needs. Caldas also wants to partner with local schools, libraries, nonprofits, and other community organizations to broaden their impact and serve the community better. She also is planning classes and workshops taught by local artists for anyone that would like to learn a particular art form

“Good News Arts is meant to be both a gallery and education space for the arts with justice at its heart,” said Caldas. “We will collaborate with artists to provide community space for creative and cultural output while working towards a more just and equitable society.”

In her advocacy work, Caldas has spent time lobbying for policy at the local level in Georgia and spent time with the YWCA Georgia Women's Policy Institute at the 2016 general assembly to assure the passage of the Rape Kit Bill and in 2016 to stop HB 51 in 2017, a bill that would have harmed the safety of sexual assault survivors on college campuses.

Caldas received her Masters of Fine Arts degree at Georgia State University in 2019 and received her BFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2012. She taught at Georgia State University as an adjunct professor and Chastain Arts Center as a drawing instructor.

“In the first show I wanted to show off the incredible talent and work of the many artists I hope to collaborate with during the initial programming for the space,” said Cadas. “Many of the artists I'll be choosing to work with at Good News Arts imagine a world that is different from our own, a future that is better, or they challenge our present.”

Caldas says that many of the artists she admires draw heavily from past lives, experiences, and histories to inform their work and the creative spaces they imagine. While the first show was large with multiple artists represented, Cadas plans that future shows will focus on either a single artist with a large body of work or a small group on a similar theme.

Due to COVID-19 she also set up a virtual gallery on her website www.goodnewsarts.com where visitors can tour the gallery and view all the art, along with bios for each artist and prices for the purchase of the art. The gallery will not receive profits from the artists by taking a commission, but instead will enable artists to keep all of their sales, while providing information for donations to nonprofits and charitable organizations if the artist chooses to do so.

The first show will run until Nov. 14 and the gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from 12 to 6 p.m. or by appointment. Future shows, classes and workshops will be posted on the goodnewsarts.com website.

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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ Once the pandemic arrived the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe no longer could help children in school. Many other projects and fundraisers also had to be cancelled. But that didn’t stop the club from pursuing its primary focus: young children.

It has been proven that young children learn better when they can see their teacher’s mouth as he/she speaks. The ability to see them speak helps the children with making the correct letter and word sounds and to understand what is said to them. With teachers (and others) required to wear a mask, this was a serious problem for these younger children.

Since the club had to cancel its primary fundraiser (a Murder Mystery dinner) due to the pandemic, they were short of funds for what they wanted to do.

The club was awarded a mini grant from the Florida Kiwanis Foundation to be able to purchase the masks. The Kiwanis club immediately determined the number of teachers and aides who taught Pre-K, K, 1^st and 2^nd graders in Irby Elementary and High Springs Community School.

They ordered clear masks for each of the educators. Those masks were delivered to the schools on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Both Irby Elementary Principal Tayna Floyd and High Springs Community School Principal Lynn McNeill were excited to receive them. Each of them has visited the club’s meeting to tell just how important such masks are and about the enthusiasm of the teachers who will be using them.

Kiwanis clubs around the world know that “Kids need Kiwanis.” By providing clear masks to these educators, one such need of the children has been met.

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