• The Children’s Miracle Network and Re/Max Specialists are hosting the second annual Artists Making Miracles Art Show on Nov. 16 and 17 at the Villas Continental & Yacht Club in Orange Park. Local artists will exhibit work for sale, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the Children’s Miracle Network. The event will also include musical performances, Miracle Child stories and a silent auction, with all money raised benefiting pediatric programs at Shands Jacksonville and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. For more information, call 269-8100.
• The Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office is hosting the 2008 Mock Convention: The Political Convention for the Next Generation, on Nov. 13 and 14 from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at the University of North Florida University Center. More than a thousand high school and college students are expected to attend to learn how a convention is run and to debate platform issues.
• Speaking of the Mock Convention, the League of Women Voters Jacksonville First Coast is looking for volunteers to help run a table display at the convention. To help, call Helen Ludwig at 743-6042.
• Declan Reiley, the former business development chief for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, is now in the same capacity with the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission.
• The cover story in the new Florida Trend is about the business side of college football in the state and the numbers are staggering. The University of Florida’s overall athletic budget in 2006 was $78.6 million and the football team generates $48.4 million of that. After expenses, the school made $32.4 million. Florida State’s athletic budget was $67 million with football accounting for $21 million. The Seminoles turned a profit of $8.9 million.
• The University of Central Florida is now the state’s second-biggest public school with a fall 2006 enrollment of 46,907. UF is tops with 51,314 students.
• Zurich Insurance President Tom Petway recently served as the chairman of the 31st Annual Joint Meeting Japan-Southeast United States in Tokyo. He’ll be recognized for his efforts at next year’s meeting in Raleigh, N.C. Oct. 19-21.
• At its Board of Directors meeting in Jacksonville Wednesday, Space Florida approved the appointment of Howard Haug as treasurer and CFO. From 2003-07, he was senior vice president for Administration and CEO of Enterprise Florida and managed all financial operations for the organization. Space Florida is a public-private organization created in 2006 by the state legislature to strengthen Florida’s position as a leader in aerospace research, investment, exploration and commerce.
• If you find yourself at the beach late Friday afternoon, keep your eyes on the sky out over the Atlantic Ocean. The Navy’s Blue Angels may be performing for real Saturday and Sunday during the Sea & Sky Spectacular, but Friday they’ll practice their entire show. The show is at 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself—for it is from the soil, both from its depth and from its surface, that a river has its beginning.”
– Laura Gilpin, U.S. photographer.