MaggieFitzRoy's blog

Rainy gloomy weather didn't keep hundreds of people away from the annual Wavemasters Polar Plunge in Jacksonville Beach today, New Year's Day. I attend the event, now in its 17th year, almost every year, and this year it was as popular as ever. I've participated in it, dashing into the ocean, diving into a wave, and then running out. I have also covered it as a reporter/photographer as I did this year. Either way, it's a fun way to kick off the new year, surrounded by joyous throngs of people of all ages who all love to usher in January first by being at the beach. See my photos in a photo gallery posted here at shorelines.com and at jacksonville.com.  

In the Saturday, January 2, 2010 Shorelines editions, stories and photos will capture key happenings and scenes from around the Beaches in 2009. For a preview, see photos from January through December in the shorelines.com photo gallery.

Hey Shorelines readers, check out the 2010 Shorelines Beaches Community Calendar that comes with today's Wednesday, Dec. 30 Beaches Shorelines and Ponte Vedra Shorelines editions. It's the first time The Florida Times Union has created a Shorelines calendar, which includes photos taken at Beaches events through 2009, and notes dates for key upcoming events in 2010. You can pick up a calendar in Shorelines papers in today's Florida Times Union papers sold at the Beaches, or stop by the Shorelines office at 910 N. Third Street Suite B in Neptune Beach. Call me at 249-4947, ext. 6320 for more information. 

This story ran in Shorelines on Saturday, June 27:

By MAGGIE FITZROY
maggie.fitzroy@shorelines.com

When 30 kids with family ties to Korea, China, Peru, Venezuela, Cuba, Burma and Africa met two weeks ago at Fletcher Middle School, they were strangers.
When they leave today, after attending a Children’s International Summer Villages residential camp at the school, many will be lifelong friends.
They’ve bunked together in classrooms converted into bedrooms. They ate meals together. And they played games that exercised them socially, emotionally and physically.
The aim was for the kids, who are all 11 years old, to understand other cultures in ways that few kids their age ever could.
“It changes your perspective on things,” said Betty Lu, 17, a junior counselor who was born in China and now lives in Jacksonville.
Since she participated as a camper five years ago, Lu said she’s kept in touch with the friends she made.
“The people you meet are amazing,” she said. “Everyone looks different and are from different countries. But inside, they all want the same goal: love, peace and happiness.”
Children’s International Summer Villages is a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that promotes peace education.
The organization offers several camp programs in the Jacksonville area every summer.
One of the camps is a four-week program for kids from a variety of foreign countries.
Various community organizations nominate campers for the program, said director Susan Gordon.
Guided by a live-in staff of counselors and junior counselors, the kids participated in daily planned activities, including silly games such as “Jungle Fever” Wednesday morning.
They ran around shaking hands, and one person, who was “it,” infected others, causing them to keel over “dead.”
Other activities were more “intense, and serious.”
That afternoon they were slated to participate in a role-playing game that teaches how it feels to be stereotyped.
The kids were to wear signs on their backs, labeling them as “homeless,” or “rock star” or “new immigrant.”
The game features four festive parties, and each kid has to try to join the parties.
Some kids get upset, Gordon said. Some might cry.
“For an 11-year old, it’s hard to understand the world,” she said. “But this way, they feel it.”

Maggie FitzRoy can also be reached at (904) 249-4947, ext. 6320.

It's been hot here at the Jacksonville Beaches, but that's not a surprise to anyone since we're in Florida and it's summer time. But as I went around this week taking pictures of people staying cool by staying wet, I realized how lucky we are here that we have so many fun and free or almost free options. We have our pick of beaches and can enjoy the cool Atlantic Ocean waves for free. Just have to walk, bike there, or drive and find a parking spot. The Wimpy Sutton Pool at Fletcher High School is also free every afternoon to the public courtesy of the city of Jacksonville, which staffs it with lifeguards.

As a Yankee from New Jersey who moved to the Jacksonville area almost 20 years ago, I still get a kick out of celebrating the beginning of the summer beach season in April.
As a now- long-time Beaches resident, I always look forward to the Beaches Festival Parade, which just took place Sunday, April 26, because it symbolizes the fact that warm, sunny days are here -- and the lazy, hazy, glorious days of summer are not far behind.

Up north, Memorial Day at the end of May always launched the beginning of fun days in the sizzling summer sun. We didn’t consider it summer until then.
When I told my sister Wendy in New Jersey that I covered the parade Sunday, and what it symbolizes, she was jealous. They have to wait a whole month more to celebrate summer up there.
I love the beach parade, and it seems thousands do too.
I don’t know whether it was because Sunday’s weather was particularly wonderful, with clear sunny skies, no humidity, and balmy breezes with just- right temperatures.
I don’t know if it was because we’ve had a long winter, and memories of hot sticky days are faint and far behind me.
But it seemed this year that the thousands of spectators who lined the parade route were particularly joyous this year.
They cheered for every float, scooter, mini car, police car, fire engine, band, antique auto and costumed character who marched by.
It was a day to remember, so I took lots of photos to remember the joy by.
Check out my photo gallery, and others featuring the parade on shorelines.com.

Rustic shrimping boats tied to docks bob up and down in the breeze. As other fishing boats pull into port, workers on deck fasten nets and scramble to get the day's catch ready to be unloaded onto shore. The historic fishing village of Mayport, as it is now, is a photographer's dream. Especially at sunrise or sunset or when the fog rolls in. But many of the town's long time residents and those who work there worry that one day soon the ambience of the place will be gone, replaced with shiny new large ocean going cruise ships and the passengers they carry. Now is the time for photographers to head to Mayport, to capture it before the tides of time change it forever. Check out my photo essay in the Saturday, Jan. 31 issue of Beaches Shorelines and Ponte Vedra Shorelines, or below in the shorelines.com photo gallery, which has even more pictures.

I was sorry to learn this week that Grace Hayes, editor of the Ponte Vedra Recorder, died Wed. Jan. 28 after a brief illness. Ten years ago, she was a mentor to me and I learned a lot about how to write human interest feature stories from her. She was an enthusiastic supporter of Ponte Vedra Beach and will be missed by many in the community, including me. I will always be grateful for her support and encouragement when I began my career in journalism after a career as a special education teacher. Ten years ago, when I was fairly new to the journalism business, Grace was the first editor who encouraged me to write.

I expected to be cold, hungry and tired. As it turned out, I froze, was too cold to worry about being hungry, and was exhausted by the time the Inauguration ceremony ended Tuesday, January 20. But it was all worth it. As one of the estimated 1.8 million people on the mall in front of the U.S. Capitol for the Inauguration of the 44th US President, Barack Obama, I witnessed history in the making and it's something I will never forget. I took a few days off to go, so I didn't go as a reporter or photographer for the newspaper, rather as an ordinary American who just wanted to be there. When my sister Janet called me a couple of months ago and asked if I would go with her, I didn't hesitate to say "yes."She knew someone in Cape May NJ, near where she lives, who was organizing a charter bus to Washington DC, and so I flew to Philadelphia to visit my Mom and another sister for a few days then joined the bus ride south.

This year on Tuesday Nov. 11 the 10th annual Veterans Day ceremony was held at Ponte Vedra Valley Funeral Home and Cemetery. Many people of all ages came from around the Beaches for the hour long ceremony, just as they have been doing for a decade now. The ceremony is always moving, and this year was held under beautiful sunny skies. See my story in the Saturday, Nov. 15 issue of Shorelines with many photos in the Shorelines gallery pages, and here in a photo gallery on shorelines.com.