MADEIRA BEACH 14u Riptide Softball Team takes home World Series Title
The Madeira Beach 14u Riptide softball team was undefeated at the Babe Ruth World Series July 15-23 in Jensen Beach. They played eight games allowing only 12 runs while scoring 59. They won the championship game 7-3 against last year’s World Series Champions, JPRD from Louisiana. Angie Ballew the pitcher took home the most awards of all players. Kate McClellan EP (extra player), Randi Tubbs, first base, Savanna Lanier, catcher and Hailey Copechal, short stop, all won awards. A special thank you to the City of Madeira Beach for being the title sponsor and to all the sponsors who made traveling possible for the team. For more information or for interviews please call Madeira Beach 14u Manager Ben Tubbs at 727.479.5620.
front row: Kate McClellan, Madison Winther, Payton Pope, Davia Schweitzer, Madison Strong, Jessica Trafford, second row: Randi Tubbs, Bella Christensen, Jenna Martin, Lexie McDougal, Savanna Lanier, Enslie Lloyd, Hailey Copechal, Angie Ballewback row: Coach Darren McClellan, Manager Ben Tubbs, Coach Don Barker, Coach Dave Ballew
ECKERD COLLEGE SEARCH & RESCUE HONORED
U.S.COAST GUARD TO HONOR COLLEGE SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM U.S. Coast Guard St. Petersburg Sector Commander will present the second-highest public service award, the Meritorious Public Service Award to the Eckerd College Search and Rescue (EC-SAR) team during an on-campus ceremony at the Eckerd College Waterfront Complex. The award is given to recognize unusual courage in advancing a Coast Guard mission, substantial contributions to the Coast Guard that produced tangible results and specific individual accomplishments that provide a unique benefi to the public. Eckerd College Search and Rescue (EC-SAR) is the nation’s only year-round, 24-hour, daily, volunteer, maritime aid organization almost exclusively staffed by undergraduate students.
Founded in 1971 to provide safety services for the College’s watersports activities, the program extended its rescue services to the Tampa Bay boating community six years later. Student volunteers respond to more than 500 maritime distress calls annually—providing free services including towing; dewatering vessels; firefighting; pulling vessels from aground Pinellas County 911 Basic Life Support; and search and rescue services for missing persons, overdue vessels and people who fall from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and other bridges. In 2012, EC-SAR developed a search pattern for locating people in the water surrounding the Skyway Bridge, which increased the success of finding survivors and remains and has been acknowledged by the U.S. Coast Guard National Search and Rescue School as well as several local emergency response agencies.
TORTOISE POPULATION STUDY
Grant funding helps professor study tortoise population in St. Petersburg Eckerd College’s Assistant Biology Professor Jeff Goessling might very well prove there is more than one accurate way to determine the population of a species, thanks to a $2,500 grant from the American Wildlife Conservation Foundation Inc. Goessling used the funds to purchase a burrow cam—a boxy, durable machine connected to a camera on the end of a long hose. He and his student researchers put the camera into burrows of gopher tortoises on St. Petersburg’s Boyd Hill Nature Preserve to see if anyone was home.
“There are multiple ways to count a species population. Two are mark and recapture, which basically is finding the animals and tagging them to keepcount, and line transect, where you draw a straight line of a certain length and count the animals you see along that line and then use the number to estimate the total number of animals in the area,” Goessling explained. The team encountered 129 individual tortoises that they have captured, marked and released; and they scoped 85 burrows, Goessling said.
Conversely, they also have done 3.6 miles of line transects at Boyd Hill, and based on their observations, the formula estimates there are 129 tortoises on the preserve, Goessling said. “That’s amazing because if it holds, it will prove that line transects (the faster method of population estimation) are just as accurate,” he explained. Final study results will be presented in 2021, after the team has been able to count the animals with both methods, in various seasons.
ST PETERSBURG ARTS ALLIANCE
Announced the recipient of the 2nd annual Jim Rolston Memorial Professional Development Grant, Wendy Durand, who will be honored during the evening of the Artful Wine Pairings Benefit Dinne. “I am thrilled to be awarded the Jim Rolston Professional Development Grant. I am looking forward to expanding the scope of my work by learning some new techniques from a nationally known potter. Thank you to the St Petersburg Arts Alliance and the Rolston family for making this wonderful opportunity available,” said Wendy, a professional full-time potter for 12 years.