• The Salvation Army will be serving up traditional hot Thanksgiving Day meals for the homeless Thursday at the Salvation Army’s Towers Social Services Center. They expect to feed more than 400 people during the annual community Thanksgiving Day event. Where will they get turkeys? From Cargill Meat Solutions and Winn-Dixie, which donated vouchers for 3,700 pounds of Honeysuckle White Brand. Some of the turkeys will be served at the annual meal and the remaining will be distributed to families in holiday food baskets. The Salvation Army of Northeast Florida is one of the 29 charities across the country to serve Honeysuckle White turkeys.
• A delegation from Colombia will be at the Jacksonville Port Authority’s cruise terminal today to discuss stimulating business and trade between Northeast Florida and the South American country. In addition to about two dozen business leaders from Bogota, representatives from the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce also will be on hand for lunch and a tour of the Port’s Blount Island Terminal.
• Some of our local real estate agents, led by Judy Hicks of Re/Max, are working with the Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Sales and Marketing Council to ensure the kids at daniel have a good Christmas. The group is collecting gift cards from Wal-Mart, Target, Winn-Dixie and other stores as well as food baskets, clothes, CD players, games, dolls and bicycles.
• Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the Hemming Plaza Farmer’s Market scheduled for Friday has been rescheduled for today from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Sports Illustrated recently put out its NFL mid-season report and it’s mixed news for the Jaguars. The magazine is picking them to finish 10-6, earn a wild-card berth, but bow out in the first round of the playoffs with a 16-14 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Speaking of the Jags, Rashean Mathis’ overtime interception to beat Pittsburgh in week six earned a spot in ESPN’s top five plays of the first half of the season.
• The MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation is well on its way to reaching its goal of raising $3 million for its new Tennis and Education Complex. In fewer than six months of fundraising, the foundation has reached the $2.4 million mark. The new center is scheduled to open next fall.
• The photos from Girls Inc. that have been hanging on the City Council office walls will be coming down soon and you can purchase one for $500. If interested, call Julia Burns, interim CEO of Girls Inc., at 731-9933.
• Mayor John Peyton spent all of last Thursday in Washington, D.C., meeting with Navy officials. Mayoral spokesperson Susie Wiles said he wasn’t there to push the Cecil Field issue anymore, but rather “to let the Navy know we still love them.”