• Executives from the Chamber’s Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership were in Philadelphia last week to accept the 2006 Economic Development Leadership and Innovation Award at the CoreNet Global Summit. The award recognizes best practices in site selection for economic development projects.
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida received the Cornerstone Chair Award at the regional development group’s Tuesday quarterly luncheon. Cornerstone Chairman Michael Shalley praised the health care provider, which came to Jacksonville in 1944 with four employees. BCBS now employs more than 8,700 in Jacksonville and generated near $7 billion statewide last year.
• While the ACC Baseball Tournament is in town, Suns owner Peter Bragan Sr. has stashed his bell for safe keeping inside the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville’s Stadium Store. The bell is covered in towels near the store’s front door. Bragan rings the bell from his seat after Suns home wins.
• Bob Baldwin, the vice president of small business for the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, is heading for Boston in June, but it’s not to scout a business. He’s heading to Boston College to watch his daughter Heather, a P.H.D. candidate in cultural psychology, defend her thesis. She spent two years studying the impact of combat on Rwandan child soldiers.
• Swedish retailer Ikea is coming closer to Jacksonville with two new Florida stores in the works: Orlando and Sunrise (near Ft. Lauderdale). Right now, the closest Ikea is in Atlanta. The Sunrise store plans to open next summer. Details for the Orlando location should be available on the Ikea Web site soon.
• Abercrombie & Fitch recently sent Dignity U Wear 23,000 men’s T-shirts (another 567,000 are on the way). In order to make room for the shirts, Dignity U Wear plans to donate 100,000 Nautica T-shirts to the Duval County school system for kids on the free and reduced lunch program. In order to complete this project, Dignity U Wear is looking for volunteers to help process the shirts. If interested, call 636-9455.
• Condolences to Miriam Funchness, executive director of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, on the death of her daughter, Emmie.