Sailfish City - Stuart Florida Community Site

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Michael Roberts

772-215-3470

Cadets for Vets Invite the Community to Help

What:

The Cadets for Vets from Victory Forge Military Academy and members of the Road to Victory Military Museum are planning a series of community work days to help build the 2000 plus wooden memorial markers required for the Memorial Day Tribute in May.

The Cadets are inviting everyone in the community to be a part of the Treasure Coast’s largest tribute and event to honor our local Veterans. Last year the Cadets erected 224 wooden markers comprised of crosses and stars honoring those killed in action during WWI for Memorial Day. Because of the tremendous interest generated by the memorial and the importance of the project to our veteran community the Cadets will erect 1,925 more – representing all those killed in action from WWII to present day conflicts who called South East Florida home (from Volusia County in the north to Monroe County in the south.)

It takes a great deal of effort to construct each memorial marker by hand. That is why they are asking for community support to complete this tribute. This is not a fundraising campaign; the Cadets are merely attempting to gather help and/or raise the funds and materials to cover the costs associated with building and setting up this tribute. Each wooden memorial marker will cost approximately $4, plus the expenses associated with producing this event. Should there be a surplus of funds generated from this Memorial excess proceeds will go to the scholarship program at Victory Forge.

Contributions of volunteer time, building supplies, and financial contributions will be accepted at the event. The Cadets hope that everyone will consider being a part of this important project.

When:

Friday May 2 through Sunday May 4

11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Where:

Memorial Park on East Ocean Blvd, Stuart Florida 34994

Who:

Victory Forge Military Academy is a 501 (c) 3 not for profit organization based in Port St. Lucie Florida. Victory Forge is an Intensive, Residential, Academic and Behavior Modification Program that utilizes military style components for the establishment of a “Doctrine of Discipline” in the lives of the teens who come to the school. The objective of Victory Forge is to provide a tough, highly structured, high impact program that will remold and turn around the lives of rebellious and troubled teenagers. Similar to the military, the program objectives are facilitated through the use of a “Code of Conduct” that contains the seven core values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Self Sacrifice, Honor, Integrity, & Personal Courage.

Road to Victory Military Museum is a 501 (c) 3 organization based in Stuart Florida. This unique and highly interactive museum’s mission is to honor and pay tribute to all the brave men and women who have served and are presently serving our country in the Armed Forces. By displaying historical artifacts, uniforms, militaria, photographs and vehicles we are able to pay homage to those heroes while informing and educating the public of their noble endeavors and our freedoms as Americans.

Public Info:

Michael Roberts at 772-215-3470 or Inez Frid at 772-370-4571

inez@iproductions.us

A few days ago I was just writing about neighboring Saint Lucie Counties push for turning the area into the Research Coast.  They are spending tax payer dollars to help attract biotech researchers and their employees to the Treasure Coast.  The push will help to create additional high paying jobs in our area with trickle down economic effects.

Today Martin County Commissioners preliminarily voted 3-2 to turn the east-west thoroughfare into a bio-tech corridor.  Along the corridor, 35 acres of rural land is slated to become commercial to allow the creation of the Willoughby Research Park.  The park will house office space for businesses looking to take advantage of possible partnerships with larger institutions such as the Scripps Research Institute or Torrey Pines in Saint Lucie County.

The plan isn’t final though, the state Department of Community Affairs still has to approve the project before it can continue.  The state department has shot down previous expansion plans for this stretch of road in the past due to already congested roadways that can not support the additional traffic load.  A group of land owners and developers is offering to pay three million dollars to make improvements to Kanner Highway to help smooth the traffic problems and allow construction to begin.

Stuart Florida - The Department of Homeland Security is analyzing a new threat to national security - recreational boaters.  That’s right, at the top of the list of potential threats to the country and it’s more than 95,000 miles of coastline and inland waterways.  The government has already spent millions and made significant progress in tightening up security on large cargo ships and cargo containers coming into the country but small boats are another story.

According to the feds, there is little protection right now from al-Qaida or other terrorist organizations using small boats to attack the United States.  Not only is the threat real that al-Qaida could use a small boat to deliver a nuclear or dirty bomb, but a more likely threat is they could use small boats to attack public infrastructure like bridges and dams.  Not to mention more critical infrastructure always located near water - nuclear power plants.

The feds are not planning a major crackdown on boaters, instead they are trying to enlist the help of local boaters who know their area and are familiar with other boats they typically see out on the water.  Local boaters will know the usual fishing spots and typical boat behaviour around things like bridges.  They are encouraging boaters to keep an eye out, like a neighborhood watch on the water, for suspicious behavior.  Boaters are encouraged to report suspicious activity to authorities.

There are discussions in the works of additional requirements on recreational boaters to help authorities mitigate the threat.  Many boaters will no doubt feel that the threat of national security is just an excuse to police recreational boaters but there are real benefits to the extra safety measures.  For example, less drunken boaters on the water is a plus everyone could live with.  Boats that are going out on the water will have to be checked to make sure they are sea worthy and hopefully the boaters will have to learn some boating safety guidelines to operate safely on the water ways of our city of Stuart.