The Big Buzz - August 2015 - The Shoofly Magazine

The Big Buzz - August 2015

8/1/2015

This month:

Mississippi in running for national food trail contest
Local artist/businesswoman tapped for state advisory panel
Country Roads magazine features BSL
Waveland resident places in national track competition

Ground-breaking new website empowers Hancock voters

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Country Roads Magazine Features Bay St. Louis

In the August 2015 issue of Country Roads, writer Jyl Benson takes a fresh look at "new" Bay St. Louis. The article features Nikki Moon, owner of the Bay Town Inn.

The Bay Town Inn was one of several local businesses featured in this Country Roads article

The reopening of the inn is largely credited with igniting the spark that has driven the recovery of the old town and beachfront communities. Retail shops, restaurants, and bars now dot the not-so-long-ago barren frontage, and more are on the way. There’s palpable pride and ebullience among the members of the close-knit community as they enthusiastically greet visitors, many of them alighting from yachts and boats docked in the $21 million harbor glistening across Beach Boulevard from the Bay Town Inn.
Welcome back to “A Place Apart.”

Mississippi Coast in Running For Country's Best Seafood
Easy Online Voting Ends August 17th!

The Mississippi Gulf Seafood Trail is currently (8/1) in second place in a national contest affiliated with USA Today. The Trail includes several Bay-Waveland restaurants including The Mockingbird Cafe, 200 North Beach, Cuz's Seafood and the Diamondhead Country Club.

The Readers' Choice contest allows easy online voting (without registration). Voters may cast a ballot once a day. Click on this link to go directly to the page to vote for Mississippi.

The Mississippi Seafood Trail is up against national heavy-hitters, like Alabama's BBQ Trail, the Wisconsin Cheese Tour and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

Read the full article here!

Local Artist and Businesswoman Tapped for State Advisory Panel

- by Ana Balka

Martha Whitney Butler at her shop and studio, The French Potager, 213 Main Street. Martha is a veteran Cleaver columnist, writing "Vintage Vignette" each month.

Mississippi’s Bureau of Creative Economy & Culture has asked BSL's Martha Whitney Butler to serve on an advisory panel for Mississippi’s Creative Economy Program.

Since Governor Phil Bryant’s “Year of the Creative Economy” was announced in 2014, members of the Bureau of Creative Economy & Culture have been working to build a program that supports creative endeavors throughout the state. With the formation of the Mississippi Creative Economy Advisory Panel, the Bureau intends to develop programs that foster the relationship of the creative sector to economic development and better living in Mississippi.

Butler moved to Bay St. Louis in 2009, after accepting a job at the Alice Moseley Folk Art Museum. She opened The French Potager in 2012, an antique/collectibles show and floral design studio located at 213 Main Street in Old Town. Her floral art projects range from fashion accessories to dramatic floral installations. She also creates sculpture and collage from found objects, often on commission. She writes a popular monthly column on antiques and collectibles for the Cleaver, "Vintage Vignette."

Butler serves on the board of The Arts, Hancock County, is a major organizer for The Arts’ annual “ArtsAlive” and "Tarts and Tramps” events, and is a recent graduate of the Hancock Leadership program. She also runs the Big Sleazy Speakeasy, an invite-only dinner club, and founded the Raw Oyster Marching Club, a dance performance group.

The breadth of Butler's commitment to her own and other artists’ work, to her business, and to spearheading creative events in Bay St. Louis is an ideal illustration of the Mississippi Creative Economy Program’s mission. An informational statement points out that while independent artists and non-profit entities have clear roles in the creative economy, for-profit businesses factor in the equation as well, as part of a community-wide “value chain” that includes services and products relating to “design, development, production, distribution, marketing, sales, and equipment."

“I was driving around last month getting ready for Frida Fest,” Martha says, “and realized it was a perfect example of the creative economy at work. I was going to Froogel's, stopping at the hardware store, going places to buy things we need to have a good time. At the French Potager, I sold all kinds of Frida-themed items for the event."

"Frida Fest attracted people from as far away as Dallas, while locals came out in droves. There’s sales tax from those exchanges, and revenue coming in. Everyone is making money, and we’re all putting that money back into the local economy. That’s the creative economy.”

Waveland Resident Places in National Sprinting Competitions

Impson at photo finish

The Mississippi Gulf Coast was well represented at the 2015 National Senior Games held in Minnesota recently. John Impson, a Waveland resident, and Inez Kelleher MD, from Biloxi, competed in the 50, 100 and 200 meter sprints. Impson and Kelleher began sprint training together last year and chronicle their training on their web site.

Impson, who competed in the men’s 75-79 age group, ran in the 50 meter preliminaries, qualified for the finals and finished in 7th place with a time of 8.52 seconds, just nine-tenths of a second behind the first place runner. In the 100 meter, Impson ran in the first of five heats along side the national record holder, which he admitted was intimidating at first, but ultimately found challenging. Again, Impson qualified to go on to the finals, where he placed 8th overall.

The 200 meter proved to be his best event. Impson not only qualified to go to the finals, he went on to place 5th overall in a photo finish. His wife, Gwen, was filming the race and remarked proudly “You should have seen the grin on John’s face as he edged out his nearest opponents. I am so proud of him!”

Kelleher in blue, finishing second

Kelleher, who competed in the women’s 60-64 age group, made it to the finals in the 100m, 200m and 50m races. She took a close 2nd place in both the 100m and 200m finals, earning a silver medal for each. In the 50 meter she finished in 4th place overall. She gained another silver medal in the relay event.

A Celebration of Athletes was held at the St. Paul Saints Stadium. Impson was chosen to be the Mississippi state flag bearer as he, Kelleher and other Mississippi athletes marched onto the field with thousands of other senior competitors. The event ended with music, entertainment and the passing of the NSG flag to a representative of the 2017 National Senior Games host city, Birmingham, AL.

New Voter Empowerment Website Launched by Cleaver Volunteers

A new online forum for local candidates in Hancock County, Mississippi may be the first of its kind in the state, said volunteers who created the website.

According to ServeHancock.com, the community project aims to help voters “make decisions based on information instead of advertising.”

In addition to offering lists of candidates, district maps, and voter information, the mobile-friendly website features an online forum. Twenty-eight local candidates running for office in the Gulf Coast county were given a free opportunity to reach voters through the site.

The forum consists of two parts. Part One gave candidates a chance to introduce themselves. Part Two offered forum participants an opportunity to answer a list of questions. Part Two responses were posted on July 21st.

Serve Hancock was created by volunteers associated with The Fourth Ward Cleaver, including Ana Balka, Karen West, Larry Jaubert, and in the conceptual phase LiLi Stahler and Donald Murphy. Read more here!