Resident: Riverside July 2020

RIVERSIDE . AVONDALE . ORTEGA . MURRAY HILL FIERCELY LOCAL NEWS ... FIERCELY LOYAL READERS

RESIDENTNEWS.NET | JULY 2020, VOL. 14, ISSUE 07

WALKING FOR 50TH GRADUATING CLASS

Dallas Ashley Morgan was one of 16 students in the 50th graduating class of St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School, which held sixth-grade commencement June 5. In her address to the graduating class, Brandi Akerstrom advised her students that “even a small spark can change the world.” READ MORE PAGE 39

As July 4th nears, Riverside’s Memorial Park was patriotically dressed for the occasion. Picnickers Kaylah and Kareem Rutledge enjoy a spot of quiet alone time while keeping a safe distance on Memorial Park’s spacious emerald lawn June 26.

LOCAL ARTISTS CELEBRATE TALBOT AVENUE MURAL

A crowd of 75 residents attended a concert/poetry reading on Talbot Street to celebrate the unveiling of “Swan Dive,” a colorful, eclectic mural painted on a 140-foot fence owned by Ron and Christine Rothburg. Playing at the concert was the band, “Something and the Others,” that includes three musicians that also painted the mural. Bryn Glennon, a local poet who also contributed to the mural, shared some of his work. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Photo submitted by Corey Kreisel

The Young Independents Upwardly mobile young professionals are living through unprecedented times. Despite the challenges posed by the Coronavirus, many have found ways to turn difficulty into a time of reflection. These young, growing adults discuss their careers and some of the unique challenges they have had to overcome during the pandemic. READ MORE, PAGE 22

School board considers name change for Robert E. Lee High By Susan B. Brandenburg Resident Community News

Riverside’s Robert E. Lee High School may soon boast a different moniker. Duval County School Board Members voted unanimously June 16 to move toward considering changing the names of six schools that now honor Confederate soldiers: Joseph Finegan Elementary School, Stonewall Jackson Elementary School, Jefferson Davis Middle School, KirbySmith Middle School, J.E.B. Stuart Middle School, and Robert E. Lee High School. Although members of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville and others recently urged the school district to consider renaming the six schools, this is by no means a new conversation. In November of 2014, after nearly a year of deliberation, the school board changed the

name of Nathan B. Forrest High School to Westside High School in light of the Confederate General’s co-founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Since 2014, activist groups have advocated for changing the names of the other six schools in Duval County named after Confederate soldiers. Fueled by current racial unrest in the nation and Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry’s recent push to eliminate all memorials honoring the Confederacy, the conversation has become heated. School Board Chairman Warren Jones, who previously served on the city’s Civil Rights Task Force that worked to create an index of monuments tied to the confederacy wrote a letter to the board advocating for the namechange process to begin. “This effort can help to heal a city that is fractured,” he wrote.

ROTARIANS FEED HUNGRY

Rotary Coordinator Padraic Mulvihill stands with a handmade handwash station built by the Boy Scouts from materials supplied by Rotary Clubs in Jacksonville during Farm Share’s truck-to-trunk initiative at the Community Health Outreach Center on Timuquana Road June 13. Members of three Rotary Clubs and other charitable organizations were on hand to serve more than 600 families much needed provisions. READ MORE, PAGE 16

THE CLUB NO ONE WANTS TO JOIN

After receiving a dire cancer diagnosis, Gavin Turner describes his day-to-day journey back to health thanks to the medical experts at Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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