Spring in Destin brings to mind many things. Spring is a time of renewal. Our members are the back-bone of the Museum. We need all of you to carry out the plans we have for ex-panding the Museum exhibits and displays. Spring is also the time for the Grant review process. We applied for and took a trip to Tallahassee to defend our General Operat-ing Support Award from the State Division of Cultural Affairs. We scored very high with our grant but at this time there is no money in the state budget for grants so we are unsure if we will receive any funds. The House and Senate are cur-rently meeting to discuss this years budget. We feel preserving Destin’s history is

vital and your membership allows us to continue to pro-vide the community with valuable programs and exhib-its. Please renew your mem-bership today or make an extra donation to help cover the lost funds from our grant programs. -Jean

Director’s Line

Annual Fish Fry Full of Fun! Next Year’s …..March 21, 2009

This year’s Fish Fry Fundraiser was held at Bass Pro Shop in-stead of our back parking lot. The weather cooperated and we

served about 300 people in three hours.

Participants enjoyed home cooked fresh fish and a picnic atmosphere with festive decorations and friends.

Thank you to Lloyd Taylor for cooking all the food and to Mike Long and John Lefler for organizing the event. A special thank you to all the volunteers who helped. Mark

your calendars for next year’s fish fry at the Museum on March 21, 2009!!!

April 2008 Newsletter Volume 2, Issue 2

Destin History & Fishing Museum

Here’s What’s Been Happening at YOUR Museum! • Welcome to Maggie

Roberts.

• Welcome to our new Board President , Rick Lowry and the new Board member, Monica Autrey.

• Destin Forward refur-bished the Wheel-house for the Museum.

• Volunteers always needed to help with fundraisers and on Tues., Wed., and Fri. at the museum. Please call 837-6611 if you can help.

• New search engine Goodsearch.com helps the museum generate donations. (see article in newsletter)

• Gumbo Contest full of fun.

Inside this issue:

President Holcomb 2

Birthday Parties 2

Goodsearch 2

Miss Destin 2

Volunteers 3

Gumbo Contest 3

Civic Service Credits 3

Star Fish Award

Presented to Dotty Bingham

for 300+ Hours of volunteer service to the Museum.

DHFM newsletter

staff writer and Editor:

Donation Challenge

The first five people to do-nate $250 or more to the museum will receive a FREE HAUL from “The Boat Haul” in Fort Walton Beach. The value of the haul is $8 per foot. Act fast as the of-fer for a free haul only goes to the first five who donate $250 or more to the Museum.

+ April 30th Ribbon Cutting ceremony 3-5pm

at the Museum

+ May 3 -May 31, 7—11am Farmers Market

at HarborWalk….. check out our booth display

+ October 18 11-3pm , Carnival Day at the

Museum

+ November 22 High School Curator Contest at

Museum

+ December 13th Museum in Street Parade

+ February 7, 2009 Gumbo Contest

+ March 21, 2009 Fish Fry at the Museum

….Call the Museum with questions and updates….

Calendar of Events

Group Discounts Available Classroom Tours - Birthday Parties - Senior Groups

Family Reunions—and More Call the museum today to schedule your tour. 850-837-6611

850-837-6611

You use GoodSearch.com like any other search engine — the site is powered by Yahoo! —

Type in Destin History and Fishing Museum in the space for charities and each time you use the engine, money is generated for Destin History and Fishing Museum.

With GoodSearch part of advertising revenue will be directed to Destin History and Fishing Museum.

Page 2 Destin History & Fishing Museum

Exiting Destin History & Fishing Museum Execu-tive Board President Timothy O. Holcomb M.D. FAAFP was pre-sented with a thank you gift for his years of ser-vice as president for the Destin History & Fishing Museum’s Board of Di-rectors. We are thank-ful Tim has agreed to stay on as a board mem-ber. Tim’s term as president expired in March and it was bitter-sweet saying goodbye to Tim and welcome to our new Executive board President Rick Lowry. The Board has many exciting things planned for the museum in the near future. The first event being the ribbon cutting for the Wheel House on the 30th of April. Checkout our calendar of events for more information.

This year will be the 51st anniversary of the,

Blessing of the Fleet..

Thursday, May 1st.

Goodsearch Search Engine makes money for Museum

The Destin Fishing Rodeo held their Miss Destin Contest Kick off soda social at the museum. It was an opportunity for the future rep-resentative of the Destin Fishing Rodeo to learn about the history of Destin and the Rodeo. Destin

is fortunate to have so many bright and talented young ladies.

The contestants for 2008 are Taylor Anderson, Lila Dillon ,

Samantha Esteban, Rachel Hayes, J. Murphy, Amelia Mayeham,

Leah Stuart, Samantha Speight, & Brooke Troop.

Congratulations to Leah Stuart Miss Destin 2008

Thank you to the Charterboat Association &

Destin Fishing Rodeo For assisting the Museum

in the sale of the remaining Shark Tournament T-Shirts They helped us raise $500

for the Museum!!

Students– Are you in Need of Civic Service Volunteer Hours?

The museum offers the perfect opportunity for you to earn those hours. We’ll help you fill the requirement for the Bright Futures Scholarship. Volunteer in a fun and educational

atmosphere at the Destin History and Fishing Museum.

Contact us Tuesday thru Friday at 850-837-6611 for more information.

Tim Holcomb

In March the Museum Board of Directors welcomed our new member of the Museum’s staff, Maggie Roberts. Maggie grew up in Destin and received her associate’s de-gree from Berkley University in California. Maggie will be busy conducting tours, researching artifacts, and much more. Stop by the Museum and join us in welcoming her!

Thank you for the difference you make to the Museum!

Area’s Finest Gumbo was sampled at the Museum’s Annual Gumbo Contest!

Next years event February 7th, 2009

Individual Category:

Peoples choice: Julie Brashears Congratulations to all our win-ners it was a tight contest! This tasty annual event also included a silent auction, raffles, a wine toss game, and live enter-tainment provided by Banjorama. Mark your calen-dars and start testing your reci-pes for next years event. You may have the finest gumbo and the trophy to prove it.

This years Gumbo Contest centered around Mardi-Gras with decorations of purple green and gold. Twenty restau-rants and fourteen individuals competed for bragging rites to the area’s finest gumbo. Celeb-rity judges performed blind judg-ing, rating the gumbo on appear-ance, aroma and taste. The steaming gumbo pots were packed with shrimp, crab, chicken, okra, Andouille sausage, rice and secret ingredients like crab claws and special spices. Restaurant Category: 1st place Fisherman’s Wharf , 2nd place AJ’s Seafood & Oys-ter Bar, People’s choice AJ's.

Page 3 Volume 2, Issue 2

Tweak your Recipe and Mark your Calendars for Next Years Contest! February 7, 2009!

The Destin History & Fishing Museum honored their vol-unteers with a luncheon at Fisherman's Wharf Restau-rant. The honored individu-als were Dotty Bingham, Joyce LaFountain, Jerry Na-jarian, and Marguerite Fore-man, (Ellie VanGeenen and Sue Mallette) could not at-tend. Dotty Bingham was presented with the Museum's Starfish award for giving 300+ hours of volunteer service to the Museum.

Each volunteer was presented with appreciation certificates and gift baskets along with the following poem: Making A Difference: A Man was walking along the beach and he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. As he drew nearer he saw hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand and the person was picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf. He said to the person, "You must be crazy. There are hundreds, you can't possibly make a difference.”

Thank you for the difference every member makes to the Museum!

The person looked at the man as he threw one more starfish into the ocean and said," It made a difference to that one!"

Jerry Najarian 2nd Place individual

Destin Forward Chamber group has refurbished the 1944 wheel house

that was donated to the museum. The group has

worked many , many long hours and built a

wonderful exhibit for the visitors to the Museum. They raised the money

and all work was done as a donation to the

Museum! The official ribbon cutting ceremony for the Wheelhouse is

scheduled for April 30th from 3:00 to 5:00pm.

There will games for the kids and refreshments for

all. Stop by the Museum and join us in the celebra-

tion. Barbara Gates

1st Place individual

108 Stahlman Avenue P.O. Box 548 Destin, FL 32540-0548

Phone: 850.837.6611 Fax: 850.837.6609 E-mails: destinhistory@embarqmail.com dhfmuseum@yahoo.com

Support Your

Museum!

Destin History and Fishing Museum Foundation Inc. is a non profit organization whose members are dedicated to preserving, documenting, and sharing the complete history of Destin. There are limitless ways you, your friends, and associates can be part of realizing these efforts. Now more than ever we can use your support. Your dona-tion or membership is tax deductible. Please fill out the form below and mail it to the museum with your check.

Yes, I Give My Support! Name___________________________________________________________________

Address__________________________________________________________________

Phone________________________________________ E-Mail _________________________________ Membership/Amount $20_______ $ 50________ $ 100 ________ $250 _________ $ other ___________ Mail to: Destin History and Fishing Museum P.O. Box 548 Destin, Florida 32541 Thank you. Without your faithful and generous donations and efforts, the museum would not exist today.

Join or Renew Your Membership Today

Preserving the Heritage of the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village

Visit us on the web!

www.destinhistoryand

fishingmuseum.org

Check out the search engine

Goodsearch A new way for the museum to gen-

erate funds.

See story inside

Admission:

Adults: $5

Seniors & Military: $4

Students: $3

Hours of Operation

Tuesday - Saturday

10 to 4

Destin History & Fishing Museum Foundation

Museum Board of Directors

Executive Board President: Rick Lowry Exec. Vice President: Sam Seevers

Treasurer: Helen Donaldson Vice President: Mike Long Secretary: (vacant)

General Board Jack Baker Reddin Brunson Rick Derek Monica Autrey Dave Steele Dr. Tim Holcomb

David Gates Edd Hogeboom Lloyd Taylor John Lefler Sid Braunstien Frances Thomas-Montalvo

Museum Executive Director Jean Melvin Museum Associate Director Janet Chapman Museum Associate Maggie Roberts

DHFM

P.O. Box 548