- April 25, 2024
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The African American Cultural Society held its annual gift-giving ceremony at 6 p.m. Dec. 6, at the African American Cultural Center at 4422 N. U.S. Highway 1in Palm Coast.
Jean Tanner, a member of the AACS gift-giving committee said this year's event was a success, with around 120 children in attendance.
"It went very well," Tanner said. "They were all excited when Santa and Mrs. Claus came out."
In addition to the presence of the Clauses, the event featured door prizes, musical performances by local children's choirs and a reading of "The Night Before Christmas" by local teen Edwina Brown.
This was the 26th gift-giving event the AACS has hosted. Tanner said its history goes back to AACS founder Walter Morris, one of the first black U.S. paratroopers, trying to ensure that children in Espanola got something for Christmas.
“In the past, we’ve had a hard time getting parents to bring kids down from Espanola," Tanner said. "We want the kids to be there, we want them to enjoy the experience."
Leading up to the gift-giving, the more than 300 members of the AACS were asked to either bring an unopened toy or send a cash donation so that members of the gift-giving committee could go shopping.
“We only give the teenagers gift cards,” Tanner said. “They don’t want what you pick for them.”
The children don’t unwrap their gifts at the Cultural Center, so none of them compare what they received. All the children receive two gifts.
“The kids were happy, and we were happy they were happy," Tanner said. "It was a good night.”
Dawn Kamen has been promoted from senior community health nurse to clinical team supervisor by the Florida Department of Health.
Over the past five years, Kamen has focused on providing immunizations for infants, children, adolescents, adult and travel customers, while also branching out to support clinic efforts that include Family Planning, prenatal care and sexually transmitted disease testing/treatment. She became the health department’s specialty tuberculosis nurse in late 2018 and volunteered to learn and support the Disease Investigation/Linkage to Care and PREP programs. Though she has trained other nurses to take responsibility for these programs, Kamen continues to assist where and whenever she is needed, including with the department’s clinical Diabetes cases.
A graduate of North Central State College in Ohio, Kamen’s experience before joining the health department includes working in a federally qualified health care setting, as well as sales, customer service and retail management.
“Dawn is an asset to our organization and her promotion to this new supervisory role is well-deserved,” said Bonnie Welter, nursing director. “She has more than demonstrated her knowledge of specialty public health services, and her calm can-do attitude will help her become an outstanding leader for our nursing staff.”
In her new role, Kamen will oversee general clinical services which includes family planning, prenatal, sexually transmitted disease, insulin, and epilepsy services. Her team will manage the medication room, lab and clinical equipment.
Gayle Molesworth passed away Dec 3, 2019. She succumbed to pancreatic cancer. She is proceeded in death by her husband, TD Molesworth from Burwell, NE, and her first husband Lawrence Quignon.
She is survived by all her loving children: Kenneth Quignon, Debbie Ostrander, Brenda Quignon, all of the Omaha, NE area; Larry Quignon of Texarkana, TX; and Nancy Quignon, who was her care-giver in Palm Coast. Her last act of generosity was donating her body to science so memorial services will be held on January 11, 2020.
K9 deputy Troy Cavas from the Flagler County Sheriff's Office and Emma Stanford, the girl behind the EmmaLovesK9s fundraiser, were at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park Dec. 8 for Holiday in the Garden. Visitors had the opportunity to get their own FCSO K9 plushies.
