The Boca Banner: Building a Better Community Together

History History Comes Alive During Re-Enactment at Boca Grande Lighthouse
By Linda Fudala-Tucker

Index...
Mommy...........................pg 3
(Printed Edition)

FWC News......................pg 5
(Printed Edition)

Ron Hart..........................pg 6

Publisher's Corner..........pg 7

Gift Shop.........................pg 9

Backstage with Boots.pg 12

Bethlehem Broadcasting................pg 14

Garden Club..................pg 19

Mistletoe.......................pg 20

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The Worlds Richest Tarpon Tournament

Gasparilla Island (Port Boca Grande) Lighthouse

Boca Grande Fishing Guides Association

Gasparilla Island State Park

The Boca Grande
Historical Society

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Chamber of Commerce

Local Official Resource

With the "Lady Chadwick" standing in for the "Mistletoe" on a gray and blustery December afternoon, the reenactment of a day in history

brought to life the landing of a steamship that brought a railroad, workers and so much more to a "spit of sand" called Gasparilla Island on Nov. 28, 1905. Called a "Voyage to the Past"

the endeavor that included the lighting of the lighthouse was the work of the Barrier Island Parks Society and the Boca Grande Historical Society. See more photos on page 20.

Johann Fust Library Grounds Keeper-Gardener Tommy Cost Dies
By Linda Fudala-Tucker

For 52 years, Thomas "Tommy" Cost took pride in keeping the grounds of the Johann Fust Community Library beautifully blooming and meticulously groomed.

On Monday, Tommy Cost died following a long bout with a number of health problems. His only child, Lonnie Turner of Wichita Falls, Texas, spoke about her father. "The library was his life's work for 52 years. He loved it, working with my mother, Pansy," said Lonnie. “And they loved it here. After they got

married in Birmingham, Alabama where my dad was born, they came here where my mother grew up. And like that saying, 'once you get beach sand in your shoes, you can't get it out.' Well, Dad got it in his shoes and he wasn't going to go anywhere else.

"Pansy died early last year after she and Tommy had been married for 63 years. "We know he's gone to be with the Lord and Pansy, and that's the best thing of all," said Lonnie. See obituary on page 8.

Debra Parsons-Drake Becomes National 'Director of Sheltering' for Humane Society
By Linda Fudala-Tucker

After spending seven weeks in Mississippi operating one of the country's largest animal disaster shelters following Hurricane Katrina, Debra Parsons- Drake has been named Director of Sheltering for the Humane Society of the United States.

The former director of the Suncoast Humane Society in Englewood will be relocating to Tallahassee. "I have been asked to create a new position within the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) as the Director of Sheltering in their

Disaster Services Division," said Parsons-Drake. "This is a national position that will include preemptive disaster training, developmental assistance with and/or reviews of shelter plans across the country, training of disaster responders, development of standardized disaster shelter protocols, actual field work in the incident command system, post disaster damage field assessments, along with a myriad of other items. I am honored to have been asked, and proudly became an HSUS Director as of December 1st."