Welcome to May 2024, the fifth monthly issue of our 30th year publishing Paradise News. We managed to take a week away from Paradise to visit friends in Arkansas and Missouri, who joined us at the Historic 1886 Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to watch the midday sun disappear from the U.S. sky for the last time in 20 years. It was memorable and a lot of fun. May brings us Cinco de Mayo on Sunday, May 5, National Nurses Week starts May 6 and ends on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 12. Memorial Day is observed on May 27, the last Monday in May. It honors the men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. military. Many people in Florida observe this holiday with ceremonies, parades, and visits to cemeteries to honor fallen soldiers. Our May cover story is a salute to the investments being made in our readership area for the future of our tourism industry, and an opportunity to own a spot of your own in up-and-coming “downtown Madeira Beach.”
Our May issue also contains the first of hopefully many Artist Spotlight columns by Andrea Martone, an experienced arts editor who is new to Paradise News. Caron Schwartz continues her excellent work with Art News and a column by and about her, called Hanging Around. This month she is hanging around boutiques. Marlene Shaw brings us current on Gulfport Matters. Steve Traiman is back, celebrating 20 years of feature writing for Paradise News. This month, he updates a history story he contributed in 2004 about local journalist and author, Pass-a-Grille realtor, historian and statesman, Frank T. Hurley. Elli Baldwin’s Caregiver Corner is about the “Sandwich Generation,” who are caring for parents or grandparents while still raising children. We also have the skinny on Sea Turtle Nesting, St. Pete Pride, Summer Camps, a Pinellas County Trail Guide, and news about Skin Cancer in our Health and Wellness column by Claire Brinsden Jordan, and Kelly Rouse who contributed a super Dining column about seafood last month, now writes about area steakhouses. The ECO column this month is about Brown Pelicans. For national shrimp day on May 10, Cooking Corner presents a Shrimp Ceviche recipe. Our next two issues are bimonthly, June/July and August/ September. For these two issues, our Arts and Leisure and Events columns extending from around page 45, covers 10 weeks of summer fun. Hurricane Season officially kicks off June 1. A two-page feature in our May issue gets you thinking “What If?” so you can be prepared in advance. All of the foregoing and more are custom written each month by locals who are paid by Paradise News to write exclusively for you. We also occasionally include a column from Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, like this month’s Motorcycle Safety Month reminder. In addition, Our Children Have Rights helps our readers understand Navigating Child Support in Florida, our Elder Law/Property Rights Attorney, Anthony Velardi Esq. writes about the need for a “durable power of attorney,” and our favorite vet columnist has a new pet subject for us.
Our next two summer issues are bimonthly. Advertising deadline is the 15th of the month before. New issues can be found on our website www.paradisenewsfl.com on the first of June and August respectively. Print copies can be found on most racks and stacks starting between the 6th and the 10th of most months. Home delivery is generally the 12th to the 15th. If you hang on to the last one until the next one comes, you will always have what you need. Our website www.paradisenewsfl.com is an amazing searchable resource of the past 10 years of local history. You can read, download and print from anything we have published in the past 10 years using the past issues button, under the current issue tab. In this digital age, people do not always give us enough notice about their upcoming activities, so we also publish a weekly digital newsletter to which you can subscribe online for free. Containing our top five things going on each weekend, and a new set of tidbits each week on Thursdays, the most recent one is online under the weekly tab. If you would like a print copy mailed to you, subscribe online or using the form in this issue, for less than $2 a copy, $1.50/each on a 5-year subscription. Thanks for reading Paradise News.