In 1959, Truman Capote happened upon a brief article in The New York Times that reported the murders of four members of a Kansas family at their farmhouse outside the tiny town of Holcomb. Capote immediately sensed that there was a larger story to be told, one of a sort that he had been looking for.

Six years later, In Cold Blood, one of the foremost examples of the nonfiction novel, was published.

It is quaint to think about an author paging through a printed newspaper and landing on an item that would occasion a hugely consequential work. Sixty years later, however, much the same thing may have happened.

Chucha Barber, a documentary filmmaker, was turning the pages of the Tallahassee Democrat when an article about the Florida State University Marine Lab caught her eye.

Triumph Gulf Coast, the nonprofit responsible for making grant awards from damages paid by BP owing to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, had approved the lab’s application for $8 million to fund a study, the Apalachicola Bay System Initiative. The aim of the study would be to develop and implement strategies for restoring a sustainable oyster fishery in the bay.

Barber thought there might be a larger story there. She called Josh McLawhorn of Level Up Digital Media with whom she had done projects in the past. The pair checked in with Gary Ostrander, then the vice president for research at FSU, who turned them on to a 2007 book by Mark Kurlansky, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. They then visited the marine lab, where a shark study was nearing completion and where the oyster research would be conducted.

Barber and McLawhorn would soon gain an appreciation for the global extent of the oyster collapse problem. Worldwide, some 90 percent of the planet’s oyster reefs have been lost, Barber said.

“At every turn, we learned something more about oysters, and the subject became more and more intriguing,” Barber said.

As plans for a documentary about oysters came into focus, producer Barber and director McLawhorn envisioned traveling to Chesapeake Bay as an example of successful restoration and also New York, which historically had been a leading oyster producer.

“If we have a regret about the project, it is that COVID clipped our wings,” Barber said. “People weren’t excited about a film crew flying in from Florida — especially Florida — and conducting interviews. And, equally, we weren’t thrilled about getting on a plane.”

As a result, Unfiltered: The Truth About Oysters is concerned primarily with Apalachicola Bay — and that’s not necessarily a bad result. The narrow focus made for a project that was manageable in scope and is more highly personal than it might otherwise have been.

The film’s title, itself, is layered with meaning. Oysters are filter feeders, which serve to remove impurities from water, making it cleaner and clearer. Waters without oysters may be said to be unfiltered. Documentarians, meanwhile, endeavor to present unfiltered truths.

To do so, the Unfiltered team, which includes McLawhorn’s wife, Gaby Rodeiro, who served as an editor, and Kurlansky, a consultant to the film, permits sources to tell their own stories and offer assessments of problems and solutions. They include government officials, members of the scientific community and displaced oyster harvesters. Apalachicola Bay, per state mandate, is currently closed to the harvest of wild oysters.

The film is at turns maddening and saddening and is illuminating throughout. Barber hopes that even as it refrains from specific calls to action, it results in pressure on government agencies and elected officials to do more to protect marine habitats and marine life.

While former oyster habitat in New York may be impossible to restore given all the PCBs and heavy metals present in waters there, and Chesapeake Bay has substantially been brought back. Apalachicola Bay, McLawhorn said, is an example of a bay that might go either way.

“Oyster reef restoration has been made necessary by human activity,” McLawhorn said. “We have to own the negative and change those actions. If we are doing a little restoration and a lot of destruction, it’s still a negative.”

The Apalachicola Bay wild oyster harvest moratorium will be revisited in 2025. Nobody can say for sure what will happen then.

“The state may conclude that we need to keep the bay closed longer,” Barber said. “Harvests may be limited to prescribed areas. But you can’t let wild harvesting levels come back to what they once were. The days are gone when you crossed the Eastpoint bridge and you saw so many oyster boats that it looked like you could walk across the water.”

Is tonging, the means by which wild oysters are collected from bay bottoms, a thing of the past in Apalachicola Bay?

“I hate to say yes, but I think so,” Barber said. “For a lot of reasons. You can’t wait out a five-year closure doing nothing. People move away. And Apalachicola is changing. It’s the Florida Gulf Coast. Property values are rising and the cost of living along with them. At some point, the economics won’t work for the shucker or the oysterman.”

Barber said the experience of making the film was emotional.

“We met an older man who talks about how he can’t do what his pappy and grandpappy did,” she said. “He can barely talk because his lip is quivering and his eyes are tearing up. It was a powerful thing. How are you going to give a way of life back to the people? When you are at the bottom of the pipeline, you are at a serious disadvantage.”

Barber is from South Florida, worked for the Miami Herald for a time and lived aboard a wooden boat. She did the never-ending work of teak maintenance and showered in a swimsuit beneath a hose. She never knew if the kerosene was going to run out before her coffee was ready.

She enjoyed success as a fundraiser for the Miami Science Museum. When Japanese exhibitors brought mechanical dinosaurs to town, she was inspired to make her first film about the giant lizards that once roamed the earth.

Told that she belongs in a Carl Hiaasen novel, she replied, “Yes, I do.”

McLawhorn and Rodeiro both majored in biochemistry at the University of Florida, where they met. Each at one point had plans to become a medical doctor. She was born in Cuba and grew up in Canada and Florida. After college, he bicycled across the country as an advocate for Bike & Build, a nonprofit whose cause is affordable housing. When he came off the road, he reclaimed an old job at a pet food and supplies store in Gainesville. He embarked on his current path upon landing a job with a Tallahassee video production company. There, he met Barber.

All agree that there has been no single cause of the collapse of the Apalachicola Bay oyster reefs.

Before launching the Unfiltered project, Barber believed that the collapse resulted from the diminished flow of freshwater from the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint rivers system to the bay. She would find out later that oysters can tolerate increased salinity levels. The problem is that amped up salinity also invites predators such as the oyster drill. Septic system runoff and the channelization of rivers have played roles. And, in 2010, when the state believed the bay was going to be fouled by oil and dispersant from the Deepwater Horizon blowout, it allowed an unlimited oyster harvest.

“One of the themes in the documentary is that if you leave things alone, nature will take care of itself,” McLawhorn said. “To me that implies that there is a certain inertia in nature. Things are the way they are and developed the way they did because the rivers want to flow to the sea. We humans have expended significant effort and capital to fight against natural processes, but nature seems to come out on top time after time.”

“It’s not all gloom and doom,” Barber added. “I believe that Florida could become a global leader for restoration and become the model for how to do it. It’s just going to take political will.”

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Oysters on the Big Screen

→ Unfiltered: The Truth About Oysters was screened at the Sarasota Film Festival in March and was scheduled to be included in the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in November. An application for acceptance has been made to the Redfish Film Festival, which will take place in Panama City in spring 2024. In addition, the film was shown at the Tallahassee Film Festival, held in September at venues in the city’s Gaines Street and Railroad Square district.

In addition, the film will be shown at the Tallahassee Film Festival, slated for Sept. 2–3 at venues in the city’s Gaines Street and Railroad Square district.

“I am honored to spotlight this captivating film on an important topic that unfortunately lies just below the surface for most people, but has overarching environmental and economic impacts,” said Chris Faupel, the creative director for the Tallahassee Film Festival. “Chucha Barber and her team have created a masterful and expertly sourced documentary about the work being done and the work still ahead to restore and protect precious Florida habitat.”

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When her husband suddenly died in 2012, Mary Carmichael couldn’t let the business he’d spent over a decade building founder.

In 1998, Marcus Carmichael and his business partner, David Hoskins, received an order to plan, test and evaluate support for an upgraded Doppler sonar on a SEAL delivery vehicle. Subsequently, their business, DMR Consulting, continued to offer engineering support and technical services to defense logistics agencies and Northwest Florida’s military bases.

“We had 42 employees at the time of my husband’s passing, and I couldn’t let them down,” said DMR president and CEO Mary Carmichael. “Despite not being an engineer, I decided I was going to step in, and we were going to continue providing our services.”

With over 30 years of executive leadership experience overseeing the development of public facilities for municipal, state and federal government agencies, Carmichael felt prepared to handle the “business side” of DMR. She knew what was expected from a contractor and had a feel for the military.

“My father was in the Air Force, so I knew how important it was to support the war fighter,” Carmichael said.

She relied on the support of her daughter, Rachael Carmichael, who became vice president and CFO and officially cemented DMR as a women-owned small business.

When she was 15, Rachael Carmichael, “the technical brains of the operations,” her mother joked, began working summers at DMR as a student intern. She earned an associate degree at Gulf Coast State College and a bachelor’s degree in management information systems at the University of South Florida.

“We are women in a man’s world,” Carmichael acknowledged. “But we make a good team. Rachael is great at what she does, and I can handle the bigger picture and long-term planning.”

Planning is essential when you’re awarded a five-year, $48 million contract with the U.S. Navy, DMR’s biggest project to date and one related to the Navy’s MK-105 airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM) system. That system involves helicopters that carry hydrofoil sleds capable of detecting explosive mines.

DMR initially specialized in surface mine countermeasures and, according to Carmichael, was one of the first companies to establish an off-base repair depot for such systems. That depot is currently equipped to support all military needs, but DMR began leasing another repair depot dedicated to AMCM systems.

“It’s a system that saves lives, and we’re so proud to be a part of it,” Carmichael said. “We like to say we carry a project from the womb to the tomb because it’s about the life cycle of a system. Every aspect of the military has aging legacy systems where you either have to figure out a way to make them work, or you have to design a new one. Then, new systems need to be tested. Our services allow these legacy systems to continue to function until the new ones are ready to implement, so there is no gap in time for the soldier or airman who’s out there performing their duty.”

Carmichael said many components of these legacy systems have become obsolescent. Parts are outdated and no longer commercially available. For that reason, DMR is equipped with a fabrication facility capable of manufacturing custom parts for the military. It recently became a certified welding agency.

“We do projects for the Naval Experimental Diving Unit that involve SEAL delivery vehicles (small, crewed submarines) where we have redesigned and fabricated parts for the equipment they’re working with right away,” Carmichael said. “As a small company, we feel like we can really jump in there with a technical solution. We’re very responsive to our clients’ repair needs and try to get equipment fixed and back to them as soon as possible.”

That rapid response time, as well as a resourceful and experienced staff, accounts for the success of DMR, which was among the top 500 companies in the Inc. 5,000 list of the most successful companies in America for 2022. It ranked No. 2 among engineering companies.

“I think it’s because we focus on the resources we have,” Carmichael said of the award. “Many of our staff are veterans we hire straight out of the military fleets or squadrons and match them with subject matter experts and young engineers, so it’s really a team effort. It pays to have former users of these systems who get it.”

Carmichael said ratings from Inc. were based on a three-year period, during which time DMR experienced growth of 1,683%, much of it attributable to the Mk-105 contract procured in 2021.

“What’s most important is to not just focus on a single contract but all areas of our services,” Carmichael said. “Going forward, we’d love to spread our wings and fly high with the Air Force. We are very excited to support them in 2023 as the squadrons return to Tyndall and would love to get a bigger contract with them to help out.”

DMR recently began supporting the U.S. Navy through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). It is furnishing the DLA with custom parts to ensure systems are mission ready.

“Our region is so strong with the military that we want to support all aspects of it,” Carmichael said. “To us, it’s personal and we are proud of our country. We want to continue to grow and serve.”

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It was definitely a journey,” said Stephanie White of the road that led her to open one of Pensacola’s first adoption-centered law firms. 

White is the founding attorney of Florida Loving Adoptions/Berkowitz & White PLLC. She is a wife and mother of four children, a Sunday school teacher and an advocate for children in her community. 

She was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the Escambia Children’s Trust Board, which she now chairs. She serves on the University of West Florida’s board of trustees. And she serves on boards of several nonprofits including Secret Place, which offers services to survivors of human trafficking. 

Her plate is full. 

“I was raised to give back,” said White. “My faith teaches that we’re called to help others.”

Growing up, White knew as a student at Pensacola High School participating in mock trials and preparing for college that being a lawyer was her calling. 

She earned her law degree at the Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas, where she met her now husband, Frank, and worked in commercial litigation. 

“This sounds corny, but when I went to law school, I knew I wanted to do something to help people,” she said. But commercial litigation didn’t turn out to be what she’d expected. “It was not why I went to law school. And I did not feel fulfilled. That’s when I decided, I’ve got to do something that impacts people.”

White switched gears and worked as a foster care attorney in Dallas. But when she became pregnant, she and her husband departed the big-city rat race and moved to her hometown of Pensacola.

“I took some time off of work and when I realized that there was no adoption attorney here in Pensacola, I said, ‘Why don’t I start my own practice?’” White recalled. “I spent a lot of time talking to attorneys from around the state. I went to Orlando and met with an attorney who does adoptions, and I got involved in the Florida Adoption Council.”

She launched her practice in 2017. Expansion followed in 2021 when she opened a second firm in North Palm Beach with partner Elizabeth Berkowitz. 

“We find the birth mothers, we help with the adoptive parents to make their profiles, we vet the adoptive parents,” White said. “We get lots of inquiries from parents who want to adopt. And we have a process where we talk to them and make sure they are actually capable of adopting.”

The firm specializes in private placement adoptions and works with foster care adoptions, too. At an adoption agency, a lawyer is arranged for, but an adoption firm eliminates the need for a third party.

“Any attorney who’s licensed in the state of Florida can do it. However, it is a very statute-specific process. So that’s why it’s highly recommended that you go with an attorney who has specialized in adoption,” White explained.

White has found great joy in helping parents, both birth and adoptive, in addition to children. And her firm makes the well-being of the birth mothers a top priority. 

“You need to honor these birth mothers — they’re giving up a baby so you can raise their child,” she said. “There’s a lot of power for the birth mother. And that’s what we tell them. They drive the train; they really do.”

Birth mothers choose the adoptive parents for their child and they get to choose the type of post-communication agreement, too — fully open, semi-open or fully closed. 

“Our goal is to place the children with a family that will love them forever and to make sure that the birth mom feels loved and cared for while she’s going through the adoption process,” White said. “We work really closely with our moms who decide
to place.”

The connections White makes would be atypical for most, but for her they are inevitable. In a recent adoption, she was called to the bedside of a birth mother in labor and responded immediately. She stays in touch with many of the birth mothers she meets.

“I feel like we are unique because we do get to know the birth mothers,” White said. “But I think that helps them to feel comfortable. It helps them to feel comfortable with the adoptive parents. It just helps with the grieving process, too.”

Florida law allows assistance to be provided to birth mothers throughout the entire pregnancy and up to six weeks after birth. And Florida Loving Adoptions prioritizes counseling for them. 

“There’s lots of grief in adoption that people don’t see and people don’t realize unless you’re in it and working it,” White said. “There’s lots of grief, but there’s also lots of joy and lots of hope.

“It’s challenging. It’s rewarding. Especially when you’re able to hand a baby to a family who hasn’t been able to have a child for years. And it’s also rewarding to get to know the birth mothers who are placing for adoption. Some of these moms are incredible. The strength they have is amazing.”

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Escambia County Community Profile

Total Population: 322,699

Age Distribution

1–9 = 34,724
10–19 = 39,630
20–29 = 47,255
30–39 = 38,260
40–45 = 36,460
50–55 = 42,186
60–64 = 22,113
65+ = 62,069

Educations Attainment

<Grade 9 = 2.48%
Grade 9–12 = 7.09%
High School = 26.93%
Some College = 24.63%
Associate Degree = 11.78%
Bachelor’s Degree = 16.88%
Graduate Degree = 10.2%

Labor Force

Top Jobs by Occupation

Office/Admin Support – 14.49%
Sales – 10.72%
Management/Admin – 9.53%
Health Diagnosing and Treating Practitioners – 6.74%
Food Prep Serving – 5.99%

Top Industries by Jobs

Health and Social Services – 31,534
Retail – 18,049
Public Administration – 14,387
Education – 13,436

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The American Business Women’s Association (ABWA), Emerald Coast Chapter announced Emily Hedrick as their 2022 Woman of the Year. The chapter hosted the annual Woman of the Year celebration during their monthly meeting at The Event Room in Fort Walton Beach on March 1, 2022. Woman of the Year is a long-standing tradition in ABWA to recognize a member that has made a notable contribution to the success of her chapter, her business, and her community.

Hedrick has held several positions in the chapter, currently serving as the Vice President and Membership Committee Chair for 2021-2022; Secretary from 2019-2021; and was the Hospitality Committee Chair and Fundraising Committee Chair in 2018-2019. She has also participated in the Women Empowering Women Symposium Committee four out of the five years of existence, as well as Newsletter and Publicity and Promotions Committees during her four-year membership. She has completed 12 continuing education credits through ABWA and attended two National Conferences.

Hedrick currently serves as the Marketing Lead for Bookkeep, an automation platform for accountants, bookkeepers, and business owners, as well as, a communications consultant for Best Gurl, Inc. After winning a full-tuition scholarship from ABWA National in November 2021, she is currently a student at Northcentral University pursuing her Master’s of Business Administration.

“I am so honored to be named 2022 Woman of the Year for my chapter. I have so much I could say about my four years in the chapter and organization and how much I have grown and developed, personally and professionally, because of it. Ultimately, take advantage of the opportunities you are given because you never know where they will take you,” said Hedrick. “Thank you to my amazing chapter sisters that have been role models, teammates, colleagues, clients, and friends.”

Past Women of the Year, Jeanne Rief (1990), Becky Belcher (1996), Sherry Smith (2005), Gayle Charmichael (2000), Jackie Picher (2014), Sallye Belton (2015), Mary Florence (2016), Barbara Britt (2018), Tracy McCreary (2019), and Dawn Novy (2021) were all in attendance for the Woman of the Year Celebration.

Southern Star Printing provided the programs, Baskets by Mary provided the table centerpieces, and The Beauty Experts sponsored the event.

“I’m so pleased to announce Emily Hedrick as our Woman of the Year. We have seen the hard work, detail, and intention she puts into everything she does. Emily embodies the mission of ABWA, is a great representative for our chapter, and a wonderful ambassador for the organization” said Diane Fraser, American Business Women’s Association Emerald Coast Chapter President.

As Woman of the Year, Hedrick will participate in local and national events, including the ABWA District 1 panel discussion on March 21. She will be invited by the national organization to be an ambassador for ABWA and recognized as a representative for the Emerald Coast Chapter and will work to build next year’s Woman of the Year program and event.

The Emerald Coast Chapter meets on the first Tuesday of the month, at The Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce. Meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and offer networking opportunities and excellent educational opportunities through guest speakers. If you are interested in becoming a member, or just learning more about the chapter, visit www.abwa-ecc.org.

The Health and Hope Clinic is bringing supplies, emergency response training and a public education program to Santa Rosa and Escambia counties in an effort to combat the opioid epidemic and save lives.

Pensacola’s First City Art Center is expanding its Youth Art Program building to accommodate new classrooms and a technology center.

Manna Food Pantries is installing a generator that will prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds of food in the event of power outages.

While they are diverse, these projects have something in common. All have been made possible by the generosity of the 1,006 women who make up IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area Inc., a philanthropic organization devoted to awarding transformative grants to nonprofit organizations in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

The IMPACT idea was born in 2003 when 100 women in Cincinnati, Ohio, each donated $1,000 toward a $100,000 communal grant.

Pensacola Bay Area IMPACT 100 was founded in 2004 by 233 women and today is the largest IMPACT organization in the world.

As of late 2019, it had bestowed 109 grants to 78 nonprofits.

“IMPACT demonstrates the power of collective giving,” said Pensacola Bay Area IMPACT 100 president Brigette Brooks.

“Pensacola is a small community, but it is not without its poverty and socioeconomic challenges. We have been fortunate to grow our membership every year since our founding, and it’s those numbers that determine how many grants we can afford to award.”

IMPACT’s success, Brooks said, stems from the fact that 100% of its $1,000 membership fees goes toward funding the program activities of nonprofits not administrative expenses.

In that way, grants, in amounts of $100,000 or more, benefit sustainable projects that further the organizations’ missions.

IMPACT receives grant applications in the spring.

The criteria are simple: A qualifying nonprofit must be a locally sourced 501(c)(3) organization registered with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; must show proof of filing an annual report to the Florida Department of State; and must submit a letter of intent.

“The letter of intent is an opportunity to furnish us with the project’s specifics,” said Brooks. “When will it commence? What’s the budget? What is the need in the community for this project, and how will it sustain that fulfillment?”

IMPACT 100 grant review comittees relate to five areas of focus: arts and culture; education; environment; recreation and preservation; and family and health/wellness.

“Some may argue that there is a greater need in health and wellness than there is for arts and culture,” said Brooks.

“But we believe an investment in all five areas is what creates a balanced, well-rounded community.”

Review committees assess applications, conduct site visits and select three finalists.

For disappointed applicants, IMPACT provides a “wish list” on its website, allowing nonprofits to submit requests for specific items or volunteers.

By monitoring wishes, Brooks said, IMPACT members become aware of a range of initiatives.

“This sometimes leads to us losing members because these women fall in love and go on to become major contributors or members of these other organizations’ boards,” laughed Brooks, “but that’s the impact of IMPACT, and I love that.”

At IMPACT’s annual meeting, finalists make 5-minute presentations about their projects and the effect they would have on the areas and people served.

Brooks said about 400 women participate in final voting.

“We are one woman, one vote,” said Brooks. “We are very devoted to, from an integrity standpoint, ensuring every part of this process is vetted.”

Elections offices personnel from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties provide voting machines and report the results.

Last year, IMPACT contributed a total of $1,166,000 to 11 beneficiaries.

“To see someone’s $1,000 transform into $1 million is amazing,” Brooks said. “Our membership is very diverse, ranging from the woman who can easily write a check to those who put back a little bit each month to do their part. For the woman who maybe doesn’t have the time to be as involved in her community as she’d like, she can feel comfortable knowing her money has been well invested.”

IMPACT board liaisons are assigned to each recipient organization.

They monitor progress and ensure that grant money is expended in accordance with applications.

The more evident Impact’s influence on communities becomes, the more its membership rolls grow.

“I can still remember when I first heard IMPACT’s president at the time being interviewed on a local radio station,” Brooks said.

“And that moment has led me to a wonderful group of like-minded, philanthropic women. What we do is a labor of love, and the generosity it spurs consistently amazes me.”  

Rowland Publishing Inc., the leader in publishing for Northwest Florida, is preparing for a milestone year. In 2019-2020 all three of the company’s major titles will mark major anniversaries.

Tallahassee Magazine marks 40, Emerald Coast Magazine marks 20, 850 Business magazine marks 10 and Northwest Florida Weddings magazine marks 5.

As part of the company’s continued synergistic growth plan, RPI has added and reorganized its senior editorial team.

Rowland Publishing, Inc. welcomes back Zandra Wolfgram as editor of Emerald Coast magazine, Rowland’s consumer lifestyle magazine that was first launched in 2000.

Wolfgram first served as editor from 2010 to 2016. She succeeds Steve Bornhoft, who will remain editor of 850 Business magazine. Rounding out the senior editorial team is Pete Reinwald, editor of Tallahassee magazine.

In her role, Wolfgram also will serve as editor and lead writer for the company’s custom resort publications.

“We are thrilled to welcome Zandra Wolfgram back to our creative team in an expanded role. We have worked with her on numerous publishing projects for nearly two decades and are looking forward to her passion, professionalism and creative vision. The fact that this is a major anniversary year for three large publications makes this reunion that much more exciting for all of us,” said Brian Rowland, president and CEO of Rowland Publishing, Inc.

Wolfgram, who holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio Wesleyan University, has enjoyed a successful career in marketing communications for more than 30 years.

Her professional experience in the Emerald Coast market is extensive. Most recently she led the marketing efforts for Wyndham Vacation Rentals Gulf Region.

Part of contribution to the executive team, included the revamp of the company’s four primary brand publications: Beach Dreams, Destin Pointe Living, Tops’l Life and Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Vacation Guide.

She has held marketing leadership roles with several major local resorts including Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, where she launched Sandestin magazine, the Sandestin Globe newspaper and the Sandestin TV channel – all award-winning projects.

She also has led the marketing and public relations efforts for Seaside, including serving as editor of The Seaside Times, and held the same role for Premier Island Management Group, which included a complete image rebrand for Portofino Island.

In 2009 Wolfgram launched Wordplay Ink, a marketing communications firm specializing in tourism and arts marketing.

Her work has appeared in 850, Emerald Coast, Tallahassee, Bay Life magazines as well as in specialty tourist publications for The St. Joe Company, Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, Newman-Dailey, Reort Collection, Panama City Beach, among others.

She has contributed travel stories to Forbes travel, Legends magazine, Visit Florida publications and was the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Insider for VIsitSouth.com.

Wolfgram is an active member of the local community serving as a board member of Emerald Coast Theatre Company, a member of Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation, the Arts & Design Society and the Cultural Art Alliance among others.

Born a “military brat” in California, Wolfgram has lived on each coast of the U.S. She relocated to the Emerald Coast area in 1999, and makes her home in Fort Walton Beach with her husband, two teenagers and a handsome American bulldog, a precious cat and cheery cockatiel named Ozy.

“It is a thrill to return to the Rowland family. I love writing and editing. To be able to join this amazing team to help mine and craft stories of the people, places and things that make the Emerald Coast such a wonderful place we get to call home is truly an honor, “ Wolfgram said.

Rowland Publishing is an award-winning full-service publishing company in Northwest Florida that prides itself on delivering attractive high-quality publications, with an emphasis on superior creative services and graphic design, as well as unrivaled customer service.

The 1970s vintage commercial opened on a woman who had reached her stress limit.

“The traffic, the boss, the baby, the dog — that does it,” she fairly screamed, beseeching Calgon to “take me away.”

Cut to the woman submerged in a bubble bath. She points her toes, lifts a foot to a height above her head and admires her leg as the spot’s narrator intones in a bass voice, “Calgon softens the water to leave your skin silky smooth as it lifts your spirits.”

As the mother to four children, Margie Raffield found that the only breaks she got were in the bathroom and, even then, she might be interrupted.

“The time I spent in the evening in the tub was my only time alone,” she recalled.

And Calgon notwithstanding, she preferred handmade bath products — whenever she could find them — to a chemical bath.

Never had she forgotten her childhood experience of learning, at her grandmother Lorene Roberson’s house in Leeds, Alabama, how to make soap — a pursuit that she and “Nanny” enjoyed when not shelling peas on the porch.

She learned that there is a lot of heart and a lot of work that goes into items made by hand.

Raffield’s youngest son, Spencer, was a senior in high school when she picked back up a book on soapmaking she had purchased years earlier.

She had tried making soap in her kitchen one time when her children were small, but she was uncomfortable working with lye in a small space with kids and dogs about. Then, three years ago, she and her husband, Eugene, built a new home in Port St. Joe that included a heated and cooled outbuilding off the carport. Eugene planned to make it his man cave.

Instead, Raffield began experimenting with soapmaking in that little building. In February 2017, she made her first batch including a half-dozen personal recipes.

When at last the bars were cured, she shared them with friends and family members and enjoyed feedback so positive that she became convinced she could make a go of it with a soap business.

Close friends Sharon and Scott Hoffman prevailed upon Eugene to let her give it a try, and the man cave became something impossible to pronounce: a “she soap shed.”

There are easier ways to make money.

Steps in the process include:

1. Prepare lye solution.
2. Add natural oils (Raffield favors olive oil, coconut oil and shea butter).
3. Add fragrance oils or essential oils.
4. When the mixture reaches “trace,” the point at which the oils and lye solution have emulsified, pour it into 2-pound loaf pans.
5. Cover the loaves with cling wrap and towels and let them cool for a day or two.
6. When the mixture becomes a gel, cut the loaves into bars. (Each loaf yields nine bars.)
7. Put bars on racks and let cure for about 40 days.

.

Slowly at first, the business, St. Joe Soaps & Essentials, gained traction.

Prohibited by city ordinances from operating a retail operation at her home, Raffield wholesaled her products first to the Anchored South boutique on Reid Avenue in Port St. Joe and then added more local shops and a few out of town.

Her husband became her production advisor and efficiency expert. When she grew frustrated trying to make bath bombs — her mixture would dry out before she could mold it into balls — Eugene bought her something she didn’t know existed: a bath bomb press.

(Bath bombs, which are made with baking soda, citric acid, natural oils and fragrance or essential oils, fizz when they hit the water, releasing oils that moisturize skin.)

Owing to a connection supplied by Eugene, who is a vice president at Raffield Fisheries, Margie shipped a pallet of soap from Port Panama City to Progreso, Mexico.

And the woman who built her website (stjoesoaps.com) led her to God’s Glory Box, a business that sends faith-based and other items on a monthly basis to subscribers.

The March 2019 mailing of 10,500 boxes will include half-bars of soap produced by Raffield.

That giant order has been so consuming — Raffield has just two part-time employees at this writing — that she has had to postpone plans to expand her product line that already includes Epsom salt cakes, sugar scrubs and lotions to include a dog shampoo and other products.

Still, the business has outgrown Man Cave I and has now overtaken a pole barn that Eugene had built recently intending that it serve as, well, his man cave.

Raffield said that her products are unlike high-volume commercial products because she uses natural ingredients. Her oils are food grade.

Lye is the only harmful agent used, and it evaporates from the product. Commercial producers take the moisturizing glycerin out of soap and use it in the manufacturing of cosmetics.

Raffield leaves it in so that her soaps do not have the effect of drying skin.

Users of St. Joe soaps report that they prevent cracked heels, make toe fungus go away and, in the case of Tupelo Honey soap, soothe burns and cuts.

Today, Raffield finds herself at a crossroads. She can stand pat and continue to make bath products at her current pace.

Or, knowing that her business has great growth potential, she can take it to a new level by investing in employees, equipment and a delivery truck and by continuing to overtake man caves.

You may be curious to know whether Eugene reclaimed Man Cave I.

Nope.

“It’s now my inventory shop,” Margie Raffield said.