Greene Publishing, Inc.

By Lynette Norris
Greene Publishing, Inc.

It’s been quite a year for the seven different 4H Clubs of Madison County, and Becky Bennett acknowledged the support 4H receives from Kiwanis as well as other civic groups as she recounted some of the year’s highlights in a slideshow presentation and talked about some of the upcoming summer camps that will finish out this year’s 4H calendar. This 4H year ends August 31; the new 4H year begins September 1 and runs through August 31, 2013.

There was the Livestock Show, a horse show, a talent show, last summer’s camp at Cherry Lake, various other camps, sewing classes, painting classes, arts ‘n’ crafts, gardening, face-painting and lots of other fun activities and hands-on projects.

“I guess you could say our theme for this year was getting our hands dirty,” she said.

4H teaches skills in a learn-by-doing environment that primarily focuses on such things as healthy lifestyles, STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) activities, and citizenship/ leadership skills, the latter especially among the older 4H members.

Whether it’s basic sewing skills like sewing on a button that will help the children take care of themselves later in their daily lives, or learning the political processes of government or practicing public speaking skills or developing competence in livestock care and horsemanship or just plain having fun with friends who share their interests, 4H has something of interest for every age group.

For five-to-seven-year-olds, there is “Cloverbuds.” For eight-to-ten-year-olds, there’s the “Junior” division. For 11-to-13-year olds, it’s the “Intermediate” division, and for 14-to-18, the “Senior” division. In some areas, there is even a Collegiate 4H for those who go off to college, but want to continue their affiliation with the organization.

Because Madison is such a small county, local 4H groups don’t adhere quite as strictly to age grouping; however, Bennett told the audience, right now they are trying to build up interest among the Intermediates – the preteen and early teen age group where membership is sometimes a little low.

With summer arriving and school letting out soon, there are several 4H day camps and overnight camps for children ages eight to 18. Since summer of 2012 is also the time of the 2012 Summer Olympics, there will be a 4H Olympics Camp where 4H-ers can bring home the green, and Camp Cherry Lake will be playing up the Olympics and healthy lifestyles with its outdoor activities. STEM – related camps include Space Camp, concentrating on the science of flight and space engineering, and Camp Hard Hats explores the science and technology of the heavy machinery that keeps Madison County operating. There are also beginning and advanced sewing camps and a Camp Cloverbud for the little one ages five to seven.

For a complete schedule of this summer’s 4H camps, registration deadlines and costs, go to http://madison.ifas.ufl.edu/4h_camps.shtml or contact the Madison County Extension Office at (850) 973-4138.

By Lynette Norris
Greene Publishing, Inc.

The roughly kidney-shaped Persian Gulf, surrounded by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudia Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Oman, has long been a leading oil-producing region. Iran alone is the fourth largest producer in the entire world; oil makes up 80 percent of Iran’s exports.

The Gulf region produces about three fourths of the oil Japan imports and half the oil Mainland China uses.

At the southern end of the Gulf is the only outlet, a narrow channel about 20 miles across that resembles a kink in a giant garden hose. On one coast is Iran; on the other, the U.A.E. and Oman. There is enough room for two narrow shipping lanes, incoming and outgoing, used by several thousand commercial/local vessels and about 28 oil tankers on any given day. In 2011, 35 percent of all seaborne-traded oil passed through this one narrow channel.

This is the Strait of Hormuz.
Joe Boyles, military historian and former serviceman, addressed the Rotary Club on the importance of the Strait of Hormuz, not only to American national security, but also to the Asian markets and other countries that depend heavily on oil from the Persian Gulf region.

Hormuz has a troubled history going back at least 35 years, when Iran first threatened to mine that small body of water; recently Iran threatened to do the same. The entire Middle East region has a long, complicated history of unrest that still concerns the US military and national security.

The Iranian military, according to a January 2012 report by Gen. Barry M. McCaffrey, USA (Ret.), is fully capable of carrying out its threat to mine the waters of Hormuz with its small fleet of subs, backed up by shore-based missile batteries and missile-armed aircraft.

Iran’s latest threats have been labeled by some as meaningless saber-rattling, but McCaffrey believes they should be taken seriously. Although Iran would be economically foolish to cut off 80 percent of its foreign trade revenue, the US military looks at an enemy’s capabilities, not its intentions. Iran is politically unstable and it has the capability to close off the Strait, achieve nuclear power in three to five years and sink US aircraft carriers with 5000-plus personnel aboard. Due to Iran’s latest threats, there are now three such carriers in the Gulf.

“In my judgment, we are in a high-risk situation in the Gulf,” McCaffrey’s report states. “With a significant probability of Iranian escalation in the coming 90 days.”

In that event, already steep oil prices would go even higher. Heavily insured oil tankers damaged or destroyed would hit the insurance markets hard.

As alternatives to Hormuz, digging a canal through rocky and sometimes mountainous terrain would be economically out of the question, but options for a pipeline bypass are being rapidly developed as the safest and cheapest solution for moving large quantities of oil to world markets.

Even so, Hormuz is only one of several national security challenges to America, according to McCaffrey’s report. For more information on the Persian Gulf, the Middle East, themilitary/political situations and the potential world-wide impact of conflicts or other events in the region, visit Gen. McCaffrey’s website at www.mccaffreyassociates.com.

By Lynette Norris
Greene Publishing, Inc.

After six days on the job, brand-new Madison City Manager Tim Bennett spoke with the Rotary Club members at their Feb. 24 meeting, to tell them a little about himself and why the City of Madison holds such a special place in his heart…and what he hopes to bring to Madison in return.

Born in New Orleans, Bennett’s family moved to Graceville, near Marianna in Jackson County, in the mid-1950s. Somewhat smaller than Madison, Graceville was a little Florida Panhandle town “known for peanuts, preachers and good fried shrimp,” said Bennett.

His father, a Baptist preacher, preached in Baptist churches up and down Highway 90 in the days before I-10 became a fact of life. Bennett and his wife were high school sweethearts, but they went their separate ways after graduation, only to find each other again 25 years later.

“We were married within the month,” said Bennett. “Because I wasn’t going to wait another 25 years.”

Bennett attended Chipola Junior College and Florida State University; in his early 20s, he covered high school sports, first for the Tallahassee Democrat, and then for the Pensacola News Journal, traveling up and down the panhandle to dozens of little communities. “I grew to know and love the Panhandle of Florida,” he said. “That was why it was so important that I come back.”

Then one day, while transcribing a tape from an interview, he realized he wanted to do something different – so he joined the Marines.

He described a scene where he walked into the USMC recruiting office, a bearded figure in a blue paisley shirt, much to the surprise of the recruiting officer, who asked him, “What the heck do you want?”

“Except he didn’t say ‘heck.’” Bennett told the audience.

He wanted to be a marine, he told the surprised officer. He saw their ad in Reader’s Digest and liked it.

Furthermore, he wanted the hardest job they could give him – that of infantryman, where he served for the next four years, in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

For the following 16 years after that, he was transferred into the public affairs office, becoming the Marine Corps liaison with dozens of local communities. At one point during those 16 years, he was responsible for providing American radio and television fare for U.S. military families stationed in Japan.

After 20 years in the Marines, he transitioned back into civilian life, and began to work directly with local communities, in varying capacities. He worked for a year putting welfare clients into jobs. He worked as a public information officer for Beaufort County, S.C., and then as the Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce for Hilton Island.

In the nearby town of Bluffton, he worked first as an assistant town manager, and then as the deputy town manager. While he was there, he saw that town, historically tagged with the adage “One Square Mile,” suddenly take off in late ‘90s, rapidly growing to 55 square miles within the next few years. “It was a challenge just keeping up with the infrastructure,” he said.

His next position was in Allendale County, S.C., a small, rural, poverty-stricken area with a 25 percent unemployment rate and an extremely high rate of teen pregnancies. In such an environment, it took an outlook that was not just positive, but “aggressively positive…at every level. We got things done.”

The guiding philosophy was “we may be a small, poor county, but we don’t take a back seat to anybody.”

As the new City Manager for Madison, he brings to his new position that same outlook. The County and City of Madison have a lot in common with Allendale County, being small, poor and primarily agricultural, with a high teen pregnancy rate and a significant percentage of families living below the poverty line. The City of Madison has small businesses that struggle in tough economic times, and the city’s budget is tight, as is the county’s.

These are the kind of challenges Bennett is familiar with.

In his first six days as City Manager, Bennett has met with all the department heads to establish a rapport and start building dialogue. He has also had meetings with all the City Commissioners except one. He has attended county commission meetings and chamber of commerce meetings to get a sense of things, and would like to meet with the prison warden, the president of NFCC, the CEO of the hospital and several other officials.

His first few days will be “Look, listen, feel…get a sense of what is going on.” He will be working with many departments and city services, but does not want to change anything unless such changes are warranted.

Acknowledging the challenges ahead, he thanked the City Commissioners and the citizens of Madison for the opportunity to come back and serve in an area he loves.

The City of Madison may be small and poor, he told everyone, but it will not take a back seat to anybody.

By Lynette Norris
Greene Publishing, Inc.

At first, they thought they would have only about 200-300 camellia bushes. “But our involvement got way out of hand once we started growing and showing,” laughed Carol Selph, who with her husband Jerry, talked about their mutual love of, and addiction to, camellias. They now have over 3000 bushes.

Camellias, the roses of winter, the jewels of winter, the official state flower of Alabama, and members of the tea family, originated in China and traveled via ships to Italy, France and Spain in the 1740’s. In 1832, there is a record of a shipment of camellias from France arriving in Hoboken, New Jersey. By the mid 1800s they were making their way into the South via a Philadelphia florist who bought land in Charleston, S.C., and began growing and selling camellias to the Southern landed gentry.

Soon afterwards, they were known in every major southern city. The beautiful camellias of the Hardee Plantation, the historic home of Florida’s 23rd governor, Cary Augustus Hardee (serving 1921 to 1925), arrived by train from New Orleans in the 1860s.

At first, they graced church grounds and plantations almost exclusively, and there was just the single bloom variety, in either red or white.

Now there are over 30,000 different registered varieties, and they can be found anywhere, in private yards and public parks, in formal gardens, in nurseries and garden center and the Selphs grow about 1,100 of those varieties on their land – japonicas, sasanquas, reticulatas, single and double blooms, in all colors of red, white, pink, and everything in between. “These are not your grandmother’s camellias,” said Carol.

Jerry, who grew up in Cherry Lake, spent about 25 years selling fertilizer and other chemicals in Ft. Pierce before retiring and moving back close to home with his wife Carol. They now live about halfway between Cherry Lake and Quitman, Ga., where they took up the hobby that soon became their passion.

Camellias bloom primarily in winter months and are beautiful year round because of their leathery leaves – dark green and usually glossy on top and much paler underneath. They grow into hardy, woody tree-like shrubs.

In the winter, their big, showy flowers are literally showstoppers, and the Selphs constantly prune, dead-head, and de-bud their bushes to produce even bigger blooms. At times, they remove as many as half the buds on a tree in order to get bigger flowers.

However, it’s not only the big flowers that judges love. The ‘Pink Perfection’ a small, delicate pink blossom, still wins a lot of shows, too.

“Judges look for the flower that speaks to them,” said Carol, whether it’s the diminutive ‘Pink Perfection’ or its bigger cousins, the ‘Frank Houser’ or the ‘Leila Gibson.’ There is even a flower called the ‘Henry Lunsford,’ named after an uncle of Mary Ellen Greene of Greene Publishing. Lunsford, a camellia enthusiast, cultivated and registered that variety in the mid-1980s.

People from all walks of life come under the camellias’ charm. Doctors, lawyers, college professors, judges…anyone can become passionate growers of the nearly endless varieties, searching for that perfect blossom that wins the hearts of judges in shows.

For more information on camellias and the dates and times of nearby camellia shows, visit the American Camellia Society website at www.camellias-acs.com/.

By Lynette Norris
Greene Publishing, Inc.

The Madison County Health Department has been a guest presenter in the past at the 55 Plus Club, when its representatives (Bonnie Webb, Nursing Director; Cindy Brown, School Health Coordinator; Craig Wilson, Healthy Start/DIS Investigator; Fran Tuten, IT/Personnel; and Nondis Driggers, Prescription Drug Program) spoke to seniors about all the different services available to Madison residents.

This year, they plan to be back for the 55 Plus March 14 meeting, when the Club will host a presentation by the Administrator for both the Madison County and the Jefferson County Departments of Health, Kim Barnhill.

The word is that most or all of the MCHD representatives might also participate in the presentation, but it is definite that Administrator Barnhill will be the featured speaker.

Barnhill has extensive experience as an administrator in public health care services. Previously, she spent two years as the Statewide Services Director in the State Health Office helping oversee all 67 county health departments as well as the Institutional Review Board. In January of 2002, she took on her current role as Administrator for the Jefferson and Madison County Health Departments. In 2010, she was also Acting Administrator of the Gulf County Health Department.

In her role of overseeing the public health facilities of two poor, rural counties, she has focused on increasing access to dental care, linking Smart Growth principals to public health initiatives, enhancing health care career opportunities for local high school students and increasing the availability of indoor/outdoor physical activity opportunities.

Come out to the March 14 noon meeting of the 55 Plus Club, enjoy a good lunch, and hear her presentation.

The 55 Plus Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month at the United Methodist Cooperative Ministries Center at the corner of NW Dill Street and Colin Kelly Highway, about five miles north of town. Each month, members gather with their friends and acquaintances for a good lunch and a presentation by a group or member of the community on a topic of interest to seniors.

The Club is open to anyone 55 or older and is absolutely free. There are no fees, no dues, no registration. Just come on out.

For directions to the UMCM Center, or more information on 55 Plus or any other outreach ministries of the United Methodist Co-op, contact Deborah Brown at (850) 929-4938.

By Lynette Norris
Greene Publishing, Inc.

Add some blue flowers to the traditional red-and-white floral arrangements usually associated with Valentine’s Day, and the results are Valentine bouquets with a patriotic flair.

The Madison Garden Club added the patriotic elements to the arrangements and table decorations for its February/Valentine meeting and proved that the two were not incompatible. In fact, when combined, the effects were quite striking.

From the wall facing the club house entrance, where a row of red hearts rested atop a large flag, and where a mannequin dressed in stars and stripes stood beside a flag-draped table, to the tables inside, to the very, very large flag draped across the back wall of the stage, the result was that of patriotic valentines honoring American veterans who had served throughout the nation’s history, from colonial times to the present.

Each table represented a different period of American history, all of themValentines dedicated to the American Veterans who had served in the war from that particular era. From the American Revolution, to the Civil War, to WWI and II, to the present, each table with its red white and blue flowers, historical silverware, china, candle- sticks and other accoutrements, evoked the colonial era to the modern. There was the rustic look of pansies in a pewter bowl setting the theme at one table and a magnificent three-tiered red, white and blue arrangement of snapdragons and baby’s breath at another.

Then, there was the more austere decoration of the American Legion table, devoted to the remembrance of POWs and MIAs. Set for one, in recognition of the frailty of one prisoner, alone, the empty chair was covered with the POW/MIA symbol, recognizing that the soldier is not there with friends and family. The table also held a single red rose symbolizing shed blood and remembering the families and loved ones who wait; a red ribbon symbolized the red ribbons worn by the many who do not allow anyone to forget; grains of salt on the plate represent the countless tears shed by loved ones; the lemon slice recognizes the bitterness.

Yet there is hope, as symbolized by the light of the candle. There is also the faith represented by the open Bible that keeps hope alive for all those being held in foreign prison camps and for those whose fate is still unknown.

Valentine’s Day, traditionally a day for cherished loved ones to spend together, thus becomes also a day for remembering those who cannot be with their loved ones, those who have sacrificed so much to defend freedom for their families and friends, as well as millions of other Americans. For those who owe so much to the sacrifice of a few, the patriotic Valentines are a visual reminder that freedom often comes at a pretty steep price.

By Lynette Norris
Greene Publishing, Inc.

The second portion of the Garden Club’s February meeting was a presentation by Bob Bell, of Perry. Introduced by Garden Club President Martha Beggs as a “natural-born designer,” Bell, who has given presentations in several other venues on the essentials of tablescapes and centerpieces in floral design, took the floor to talk about the elements that go into successful designs. In particular, he discussed weight (visually “heavy” objects versus light and airy ones), scale (size of the design in relation to the space it occupies) and texture.

“There’s not really a book you can learn it from,” he said in answer to a question from the audience. “It takes working at it and working with it until you start to understand the mechanics of it.”

There were also some “rules” about design that “you just have to throw out the window,” such as the one about dark colors always being “heavy” and pale colors always being “light,” because they don’t always hold true.

Developing an eye for design doesn’t happen overnight, he added. Even then, “you have to play with things until you get something that looks right. I have cut flowers five and six times and used them over and over in different ways.”

But when he set to work creating five very different floral designs to demonstrate his techniques, he didn’t seem to have much trouble, working smoothly and quickly.

He also showed how even very unusual objects could be incorporated into floral designs. His very first creation used artichokes and sago palm fronds cut into zig-zag patterns, teamed with Asiatic lilies. In place of artichokes, he told the audience, pinecones might also work.

With another creation, he demonstrated the use of complementary colors that played off the color of the vase, and showed that it isn’t always necessary to have a lot of flowers in some design work.

Another arrangement used a palm tree seed pod as vase, with a small plastic bowl glued to it to hold the oasis. Foliage often hides the plastic bowls in such arrangements, so it doesn’t matter what they look like, as long as they work. He added that the Dollar Stores were a great source for them, especially the cheap plastic pet food bowls, because they often had straight sides that were perfect for holding the oasis in place. With the addition of winter honeysuckle and bamboo, he presented an Oriental arrangement “Taylor County style” to a round of applause.

A piece of driftwood was another unusual object that served as a container. It was a piece that had sat out by his shed for several years, “until one day I just saw it in a different way.”

Once he had finished his five very different designs, they were auctioned off to the Garden Club members, one going for $65.