• The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission’s Film & Television Office recently won a Silver Addy Award for its Production Guide. Local marketing and advertising firm The Marko Group designed and created the publication, which provides information about film and television production in Jacksonville and neighboring counties. It contains categorized listings of local film industry professionals and businesses and is available online at www.filmjax.com.
• Dignity U Wear, a Jacksonville-based national nonprofit that provides new clothing to people in need, recently contributed to the ABC hit TV show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” Filmed in early February in Mobile, Ala., the episode is scheduled to air Sunday evening, March 23rd. Dignity U Wear donated more than 230 pieces of clothing, with an estimated retail value of $10,000, to the family of nine. The items, including jackets, pants, shirts, underwear and shoes, were hung in the closets of the bedrooms of the new home as it was being furnished and completed for the family.
• Bank of America is sponsoring a program to send families to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Over the next year, up to 1,000 low-income families and families with newly adopted children will receive one-year family membership passes. The complimentary memberships will be distributed by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
• The former Bank of North Florida has a new name and is now Florida Bank Jacksonville. Open Downtown since December 2006, the institution also has a branch in Ponte Vedra. Similar name changes are also going into effect at the Florida Bank Group’s other operations in St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Tallahassee.
• Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. and Kellogg’s have donated Lowe’s gift cards valued at $20,000 to Beaches Habitat for Humanity to replace tools stolen from the non-profit agency in a weekend burglary. The donation is an extension of an on-going partnership between Winn-Dixie, Kellogg’s and Habitat for Humanity that has led to the completion of nine homes in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida in the past three years. Work on a tenth home is scheduled to begin in Jacksonville Beach next month.
“You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.”
– Golfer Bobby Jones, on penalizing himself one stroke that cost him a national championship