• The Governor’s Advisory Council on Base Realignment and Closure released a study recently that found Defense Department spending in Florida reached $21.7 billion for the 2002 fiscal year. Total defense spending accounts for 9.8 percent of Florida’s Gross State Product. The study also found the defense industry creates 714,000 jobs in the State, paying an average annual wage of $40,310.
• The Friends of Clara White Mission is sponsoring a bus trip to the Zora Neal Hurston Festival in Orlando on Jan. 31. Hurston, a novelist, folklorist and anthropologist, was one of those responsible for the Harlem Renaissance. Tickets for the bus trip are $40, which covers transportation and entrance into the festival.To buy a ticket, call 354-4162.
• The Springfield arts community is hosting their own New Year’s Eve party at 9th & Main Street in conjunction with an art show opening that night. Guests wanting dinner at the adjacent restaurant can call Henrietta’s at 353-6002 to RSVP. A set menu is available from 7-9 p.m. for $10. The party starts at 9 p.m. with David Luken from Night Flight and DJ Wish spinning songs from the last 100 years. Beer and wine will be served. $10 cover.
• Warren Grymes is the new CEO of Florida Sunrise Big Brothers Big Sisters.
• Gateway Community Services now has two more Ph.D.s on its staff. They are Christine Neuenfeldt, director of research, and Candace Hodgkins, chief of professional services, who earned their degrees at the University of Florida. This brings to six the number of Gateway employees who have Ph.D.s.
• Tickets will go on sale Jan. 5 for the Guns ‘n’ Hoses Fight Night, being held this year at the Veterans Memorial Arena. Police officers will be boxing for the Police Athletic League; the firefighters’ charity is MDA. The FOP-sponsored event is scheduled for Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.
• A lavish Christmas brunch will be spread out from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Adam’s Mark. Diners may sit either in the Bravo! Ristorante or the Riverfront patio.
• Judy Hicks, a former daniel board member, organized her friends with the Northeast Florida Builders Association to draw names for children at Christmas. More than 600 gifts were collected, which comes to about two gifts for each daniel child. Some gifts were distributed at a Dec. 22 Christmas party. The remainder were to be given out on Christmas day.
• JCCI Forward will examine a possible role for ecotourism in Jacksonville’s future next month. JCCI will convene a forum Jan. 7, to look at “the balance of education, preservation and generating revenue.”
• Effective Jan. 12, the Youth Crisis Center’s administrative office will have a new home. They’ll merge with the YCC’s residential facility on Parental Home Road.