Do your children love Spiderman, Green Lantern, Batman, Iron Man, Superman or the like?
Next week’s comic art camp may be for them.
Andalusia native Kevin Stokes will take children on an adventure that will include a take-home art kit.
The camp, which is held in partnership with Covington County 4-H, will begin June 3 and end June 7, and will take place from noon until 4 p.m. each day at the Covington County Extension auditorium.
The camp is open for campers ages 9 to 19, and is open to a maximum of 25 students.
Cost is $30 and will include all art supplies, a take-home art kit, and art lessons from Stokes.
4-H will also provide a free lunch each day to participants.
Tanya Bales of Covington County 4-H said she’s been working to get Stokes to Andalusia for the past five years because his mother, Susan Stokes, worked with her at the extension office.
“I have been putting a bug into his mother’s ear for like five years,” she said. “I was so excited that it worked out. With his job, he is often here and there, wherever they need him.”
Stokes is a professional artist whose work is published with Dynamite Publishing.
His expertise is in the area of comic-style art although he has experience in other art styles including caricature portraits.
Stokes has worked with DC and Marvel comics and has worked on projects with Stan Lee.
His work has been featured in episodes of the TV series “Smallville,” which was based on the comic book story of Superman.
For more information or to register for this event, visit the Covington County Extension Office or contact Bales at 222-1125.
- Andalusia Star News
Col. (Ret.) Clyde Northrop called upon Americans to “listen to the voices of the dead” whose voices and experiences encourage the living to “keep the liberties for which we fought and died.”
Northrop was the keynote speaker at Saturday morning’s Memorial Day service held in the Covington Veterans Memorial Park.
Standing before the obelisk that bears the names of the county’s war dead, Northrop said, “Those listed on this monument join a great crowd of witnesses,” he said.
“It will never be enough to lay the wreaths, fire the weapons and play the taps,” Northrop said. “Those whose names are carved in granite speak by their heroic actions and perseverance. Their experience ought never be silenced.
“Hear them as they thunder, ‘Keep the liberties for which we fought and died. Honor our faith by the way you live.’ ”
Northrop recounted his own military experiences around the world.
“When I joined the military in 1954, I was issued an Eisenhower jacket,” he said. “I entered a unit replacing a deactivating unit from Korea.
“Thirty-four years later in Korea, I ministered to soldiers still under nightly live fire,” he said. “Today we face a new generation of the same lying tyrant.”
- Andalusia Star News
Willie Jones puts the finishing touches on a landscaping and pressure washing project at the Andalusia Public Library. A marker recognizing the Andalusia Study Club will be unveiled at 3 p.m. today at the library. The Study Club was formed 100 years ago with the express goal of starting a public library.
After its official dedication today, the Miracle League playground will be open to any and all, seven days a week, city officials said Wednesday.
“The playground will be open to the public during daylight hours – that’s dawn to dusk – weekdays and weekends,” said ML committee member and city employee Barbara Tyler.
The handicap-accessible playground is outfitted with a special surface and scores of play components.
Today, a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony of the PowerSouth Miracle League Park will be held at 5:30 p.m.
Tyler said there will be guest speakers from local governmental agencies and project supporters, as well as a proclamation dedicated from the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, a joint initiative of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, and a supporter of the project.
The evening will conclude with a baseball game between the Angels and the Braves on the Miracle League field.
Miracle League removes the barriers that keep children with mental and physical disabilities off the baseball field and lets them experience America’s favorite pastime. Children play on custom-designed, rubberized turf fields that accommodate wheelchairs and other assertive devices. The local field is finished, and many youth league baseball teams are already using it as a practice field.
The league uses a “buddy” system, pairing each player with an able-bodied peer. More than 500 potential Miracle League players have been identified in Covington County. Player registration is currently ongoing, and board members will soon announce when play will begin.
Play has been ongoing for weeks, with some 40-plus children taking the field.
- Andalusia Star News
Alabama head football coach Nick Saban pumped up a crowd of ‘Bama faithful when the Crimson Caravan stopped in Andalusia Tuesday night.
The event featured not only Saban, but also the Voice of the Crimson Tide Eli Gold, behind-the-scenes footage from last year’s championship season, and brand-new UA Athletic Director Bill Battles. All 600 seats were sold.
Saban told candid stories about his wife, the team, his coaching process, and the importance of the energy that fans bring to the game. But like the Crimson Tide team, ‘Bama fans disappointed him at the A-Day game, he said.
“Look, if we lost to Auburn, you all would be on my butt,” he said. “They had more fans that we did at their A-Day game. Now I’m the coach, and I’m getting’ on your butt.”
Saban said fan energy is important even at the spring practice game, which drew 90,000 his first year as coach, because it helps with recruiting.
The coach, who is notorious for his curt responses to the media, took a half-dozen questions from the audience. Andalusia Middle School student Callen Woodard asked the most popular question of the night.
“Coach Saban, when I go to Alabama in five years, are you still gonna be there?”
And Saban gave another answer that made the crowd happy.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Miss Terry loves Alabama, and frankly, I’m not interested in starting over anywhere else.”
He went to say that the couple has made good friends here, and that they have enjoyed their charitable work through Nick’s Kids.
“Nick Saban is always inspiring,” said Wes Laird of Opp.
SalLee Sasser Williams especially enjoyed the video tribute to and remarks made about former Athletic Director Mal Moore, a Dozier native who died this spring.
“He was a very special man, and I loved that they did that,” she said.
Rick Clifton said, “It was great to see him in Andalusia and I hope he’ll come back.”
Like most fans, Tammy Portemont, decked out in houndstooth, said, “I was smiling the whole time.”
Connie Ammons, of Geneva, said, “I thought it was very informative and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
“I wish they would’ve given us an opportunity to get some signatures with him, or something like that,” she said. “I understand that it’s just hard to do that. The thing I enjoyed the most is that he was so comical, and very, very genuine.”
Carson Brackin, also of Geneva, got his first chance to see Saban. He said he enjoyed hearing Saban talking about Andalusia native and former Alabama linebacker Nico Johnson and how he never got in trouble. Johnson recently was drafted Kansas City Chiefs.
Ricky Brackin said he enjoyed hearing Saban talk about how focused he is on the “process.”
“Just his way of being goal-oriented to where it’s a process,” he said. “It’s just like when he gets up there and talks. What you heard from day one is the same way he talks now.
“That’s why he’s so successful because it’s a process,” he said.
Chris Caldwell of Babbie said he enjoyed hearing Saban.
“I liked what he said about hard work and dedication to the players.”
- Andalusia Star News