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Special Notices
Check this page for special notices to and from FLA members.

Florida lighthouse association members, if you would like to post an announcement on this page, email it to the FLA Webmaster at floridalights@bellsouth.net.

The $5,000 grant funds, along with contributions from the lighthouse associations, will be used to produce a brochure that details a self-directed driving tour of lighthouses along the coast comprising Wakulla, Franklin, and Gulf Counties. Click here for complete story.

The Florida Lighthouse specialty tag is now in production. Metal license plate proofs were shown to members in attendance at the Tampa FLA meeting. The production of the tag is progressing ahead of schedule. Hopefully the tags will be available for sale before the end of the year. There will be a fee of an additional $27 for this tag, $2 for the state and the remaining $25 for the Florida Lighthouse Association. No more that 10% of that will be used for promotion, that balance will all go for the preservation of Florida's 29 historic lighthouses.

The Florida Keys Reef Lights Foundation has a brand new Web site on-line. More content and more to come. Check it out at www.reeflights.org.

NEW BOOK BY TOM TAYLOR

Compiled by Gail Swanson, Florida Keys Historian, from Tom's computer files.

Lore of the Reef Lights: Life in the Florida Keys
                   by Thomas W. Taylor (Infinity Publishing, December, 2006)
                   Full color cover
                   Paperback
                   8 1/2 x 11
                   115 pages
                   index
                   appendices
                   51 photographs or illustrations
                   $ 12.95 plus shipping
                   Available at: http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/ (Infinity Publishing)

                   "The little-known lightships, the lighthouses, and the lives of their keepers are the subjects of Tom Taylor's book. For some thirteen decades beginning in the 1820s and ending with automation there were keepers out there on the isolated vessels and ocean-surrounded structures, facing Indian attack, hurricanes, and even living with a ghost, dutifully tending lights to keep others from danger. Tom Taylor lived on the Keys, frequently boating out to the lighthouses. He met keepers' descendants and even one of the last keepers, collecting for posterity the lore of the reef lights."

A new book, "Shipwrecks, Scalawags, and Scavengers: The Storied Waters of Pigeon Point," by JoAnn Semones is available.

Publisher, Glencannon Press Maritime Books, is offering a 40% discount on order of less than 10 books and 50% on orders of more than 10 books. Please contact Bill Harris at 1-800-711-8985 to take advantage of the discount.

Sailors and lighthouse fans on everyone's shopping list would enjoy a maritime history book with local flavor!

Of interest to lighthouse lovers, a new book, Rowing to the Rescue, has been published based on the true story of 15 year old Ida Lewis who assumed her father's duties as lighthouse keeper after her father suffered a stroke. This book, by Doris Licameli is aimed at an audience of 8 to 12 year old girls. Learn more by going to www.dorislicameli.com.