Tanisha King wins The San Pedro Sun’s 2011 Easter Egg Hunt

The sixth annual The San Pedro Sun Easter Egg Hunt was quite the success this year. After a false start, the hunt took off without a hitch. Six eggs were hidden by the Easter Bunny within stories/articles – NOT in advertisements or in pictures. It took Tanisha King only a couple of hours after the newspaper hit the streets to call the office of The San Pedro Sun with the winning locations.

The locations were as follows: Page 2 – two eggs under the word “OOPS”, Page 4 – “connection”, Page 8 – “once”, Page 11 – “on”, and on Page 13, under the word “complicated”. According to Tanisha, she overheard a few people discussing the egg hunt while she was visiting the island (which she plans to move to) from the city. She started looking closely at the newspaper she had in her hands and from the moment she noticed the two eggs under “OOPS”, she was off searching for the remaining eggs. Her search helped her win the $50 gift certificate from Rapidito Loans, our sponsors for this year’s hunt. Congratulations Tanisha! To all our readers, look for the next hunt in 2012. This time, the Bunny will be sure to hide them properly!

The San Pedro Sun Turns 20!

Below is a history of The San Pedro Sun, edited from e-mail correspondence from the late Bruce Collins, who passed away in December, 2009. Bruce and Victoria Collins started The Sun in 1991.

The Coconut Wireless was the first paper to be sporadically published on the island and Linda Cornelison was the owner, editor and publisher. Other residents on the island including Victoria and myself [Bruce] and Woody Canady worked with Cornelison to put out the first issue using Linda's computer, with a broken hard drive and only one floppy disc worked. Shortly after, Cornelison had to return to the states for medical reasons and she asked that we and Canady keep printing the paper. We printed thirteen issues and managed to get the publication out of debt. In November, 1990 Cornelison returned to the island and took over publishing the Wireless again. Plagued with personal problems, Cornelison managed to sporadically print The Wireless but ran into legal problems and was incarcerated for some time. Eventually the The Wireless failed to exist.

In the meantime we were in the stage of starting our own newspaper but waited until the inevitable demise of The Wireless. On March 14, 1991 the first issue of The San Pedro Sun was printed. Our first office was in Fido's using a Brother word processor and I kept asking Victoria, "Tell me again we can do this newspaper on a word processor." Well, we did until we bought our first computer from Jeanette Salfeety who was working in San Pedro for her environmental group. It was really cut & paste! (end)

In 1996 the paper was sold to Dan and Eileen Jamison and in 2004 Ron and Tamara Sniffin purchased the paper from them. In 2006 Bruce Collins wrote, “Victoria and I have been talking about what a fine job you and your staff have been doing at The San Pedro Sun. You seem to have the same philosophy as we did and have even figured out how to make money on the web (The Visitor Guide) while promoting the community at the same time. That escaped us at the time we started going on the web. We knew there was a way to do it and you have found it. The Sun looks professional and fulfills a need in the community in a positive, dignified way. We couldn't be more pleased it is in your and your staff's hands. Thank you for continuing to send it to us. We know you will continue to get better and better. Thank you for keeping our love affair with San Pedro and The Sun alive and well. We hope to meet you some day; you're doing a wonderful job. The newspaper is everything we hoped it would be.”

The San Pedro Sun has the community to thank for our years of success and we are proud to be the voice of the people. We look forward to a long and prosperous future and embrace all of those who have helped us along our way as we have grown into what we are today. Thank you all!

We also honor Mr. Collins on this day and he will be remembered always.

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Christmas Raffles make many people happy!!

Shopping during the Christmas rush generally means a chance to enter a special raffle at the various establishments one patronizes. This year was no exception as a variety of items were raffled off close to the Christmas holiday...below are the results of two more raffles that were held recently...

Castillo's Hardware Raffle:

1st Prize - 1 Heavy Duty Washing Machine - Amin Carillo

2nd Prize - 1 Leisure Patio Set - Clarissa Nuñez

3rd Prize - 1 DeWalt Heavy Duty Worksite Radio/Charger - Allan Paz

4th Prize - 1 Microwave - Robert Bailey

Her Worship Mayor Elsa Paz was asked to say a few words on air while at Castillo's during the raffle.

Atlantic Insurance - 19" TV raffle

Winner: Mr. Pete Graniel

"Love Sleigh" parades through town

Love FM had a "Love Sleigh" parade through town tonight spreading Christmas cheer to La Isla Bonita. With golf carts and vehicles, and not one but two, Santas, handing out candy to onlookers, the spirit of Christmas is definitely upon us.

Love FM makes it an annual tradition to spread joy throughout the country - with Love Sleighs visiting various locations countrywide.

Grand Belizean Estates joined in the parade with their very own Santa...

Merry Christmas to all, from the crew at Love FM!!

Ground breaking ceremony held for newly named "John Greif Airport"

A ground breaking ceremony for the rehabilitation and upgrading of the airstrip was held today Thursday, December 16, 2010 on location at the San Pedro Airstrip. On hand for this momentous occasion were Michael Singh (current CEO of Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation & Culture), Captain Carlos Salazar, President of the Board of Directors (COCESNA), Mr. Bayardo Paguada, Executive President (COCESNA), Honorable Manuel Heredia Jr. (Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture) and Mr. Kenworth Tillett (Belize Ports Authority).

Minister Heredia addresses the gathered crowd.

The airstrip’s new name was also announced at the groundbreaking ceremony. What was always known as the San Pedro Airstrip is now going to be called “John Greif Airport”.Read more in the next issue of The San Pedro Sun.

Presidents of Honduras and El Salvador arrive for SICA meeting

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo and El Salvador's President Carlos Mauricio Funes touched down on Ambergris Caye today on their way to the SICA conference being held at Coco Beach Resort.

A press conference is scheduled to take place later this afternoon, and details will be posted/printed after...

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The San Pedro Sun Takes a Vacation

SPSUN Editorial - July 8, 2010 -For the last several weeks the staff at The San Pedro Sun has agreed that we are long over-due for a vacation. Often blurry eyed and sleep deprived, the thought of a vacation has been the dangling carrot that has keep us inspired to get ‘er done. And no wonder we are feeling like we need a vacation, the last full week we had off was almost a year ago in August, 2009. Sure we have had our share of three day weekends and of course
Christmas brought a few days off at a time, but we are good and ready to spend a week doing anything but work.

Unfortunately a true week off is not a reality when it comes to news…as news never knows when to take a holiday. No matter how hard we might try to relax, our news “radar” is always on, and no matter how dedicated we are to properly relaxing we are equally dedicated to reporting the news. It’s in our blood and there’s no denying a breaking story when it happens.

Whatever it is that we chose to do to properly enjoy our time off let’s keep our fingers crossed that it will be a slow news week because it is pure torture for a reporter to sit back and watch news happen without getting involved! You can bet if we hear a screaming fire engine pass us while we are sunning on the beach sipping a cold one our camera-finger will be twitching and the urge to chase the story will pull at our vacation sensibilities. Hopefully the news will take a vacation with us next week and we can all enjoy a holiday!

Ripley the Morelet’s Crocodile Euthanized

Press Release – American Crocodile Education Sanctuary – June 1, 2010 - A bright new bird chirping morning it is in the jungle here in Punta Gorda, but a very sad one too. Ripley, the tortured Morelet’s Crocodile the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary (ACES) and the Belize Forest Department rescued from Corozal in April, will have to be euthanized today.

The stress Ripley endured, along with the severity of his injuries has caused him to contract septicemia. Ripley is now suffering and death is inevitable. ACES takes condolence in knowing that at least Ripley got to spend his last few weeks swimming around and interacting with other crocs, as opposed to dying chained to a tree in the surf of the Corozal Bay as a spectacle. Although he is very sick, he still kept his individual croc personality. Few got to see him, and those that did felt his anguish and prayed he'd recover. One could look beyond Ripley's 'empty eyes' and actually see the life he so effortlessly tried to cling onto, making one feel the need inside them to be alive.

The question we here at ACES now have to ask ourselves, are we holding onto him for his benefit of survival or for our indefinable reasons of selfishness? It is time to say goodbye to one of Gods dearest creatures and we hope and pray that his strength to survive can teach the people of Belize how fortunate they are to have this magnificent species in their waters and to take pride in all the wildlife that is found here; for each species, however minute or dangerous, plays a vital role in their very existence by keeping Belize's precious environment in balance.

ACES asks that everyone who reads this, no matter what country you live in, take a moment today to stop and take in this amazing World we live in; and how just like Ripley, no matter what bad we do to it as humans, it struggles to survive to keep us alive. And remember, that if we don't start changing our behaviors collectively to treat it with more pride, someday, it too will no longer exist.

As a result, and due to being unequipped to properly tend to the severity of Ripley's injuries, combined with the exhausting search of relatively minimal funding available for crocodiles (which I attribute to their lack of fur), ACES is willing to try to start a modern facility in Punta Gorda to treat wildlife and local pets, a HUMANE Society. ACES owners will give the use of a personally owned concrete building in PG Town toward the cause if we can get enough supports to make this facility come true. If humanity to animals is the lesson of this story, let's start with all the neglected pets due to poverty and lack of availability of assistance and materials. And once such a facility is in place, someday it may also save the life a wild croc, or a wild fox like Foxie.

Thank you, with all our aching hearts at ACES, to all of you who assisted with Ripley's rescue, the rescues of all the crocs here at ACES, and all of you who support and have assisted directly and indirectly with ACES's Croc-Crusade.

Rest in peace our dear friend, Ripley.


For more information about ACES and how you can help please visit their website at: http://www.americancrocodilesanctuary.org

Other stories about Ripley can be found at:
http://sanpedrosun.blogspot.com/2010/04/tortured-and-left-for-dead-aces-rescues.html
http://sanpedrosun.blogspot.com/2010/05/ripleys-last-chance.html

Valentine's Poetry Contest a romantic success!

Last night fans of poetry and romance united to enjoy an evening at Blue Iguana Grill where The San Pedro Sun held their annual poetry competition.

SPSUN’s Kainie Manuel (l-r) hosted the event with co-hosts Courtney Sage and Mary Gonzalez. While the many poems submitted were recited to the dining audience, listeners of Reef Radio also had the opportunity to enjoy the program broadcast live from the restaurant.

With over 40 entries, the crowd was delighted with a variety of poems ranging from humorous to romantic to Spanish to foreign entries submitted from as far away as Nigeria.
Guests in attendance were provided with booklets containing the poems along with score sheets and were invited to be a part of the judging process.

Winners will be announced in this Thursday’s issue of The San Pedro Sun. We thank all those who submitted poems and attended the event, it was a great evening!

UPDATE - WINNERS:

*Funniest – The Garbage Man is my Valentine submitted by Lisa Anderson (Lunch for two courtesy of Rico’s Bar and Grill, one Rum Cake courtesy of Rainforest Rumcakes, Gift Certificate courtesy of Liquor Box, $25 Gift Certificate courtesy of Caroline’s Fine Cooking)

*Spanish – Que bonito mi San Pedro submitted by Freddy Nunez ($150 Gift Certificate courtesy of Rapidito Loans, $150 cash courtesy of Grand Belizean Estates, one Rum Cake courtesy of Rainforest Rumcakes, Dinner for two courtesy of Sunset Grill)

*Student – Our devotion to Love submitted by Kadizha Jones of the San Pedro High School (Goody Bag courtesy of Courtney Sage, $100 cash prize courtesy of the Reef Radio, $50 gift certificate courtesy of Aquatic Sports Belize Limited, Round Trip ticket for one courtesy of Tropic Air)

*Most Romantic – If I told you submitted by Lynda Quintanilla (Gift from Graniel’s Dreamland, Hol Chan-Shark Ray Alley for two courtesy of White Sands Dive Shop, Lunch for two courtesy of Lily’s Treasure Chest, one Rum Cake courtesy of Rainforest Rumcakes)

*Lobster – Ode to the Lobster submitted by Jill Mirise (Stone Crab Dinner courtesy of Nautica, Snorkel for two courtesy of Ambergris Divers, Round Trip ticket courtesy of SP Belize Express)

*Honorable Mention – Let Love Live submitted by BB Bashing (Sunset Cruise for two courtesy of Seaduced, Dinner for two courtesy of El Divino)

*Honorable Mention – My only profession submitted by Angel Nuñez (Dinner for two courtesy of Portofino, one Rum Cake courtesy of Rainforest Rumcakes,)

The San Pedro Sun thanks all those who took the time to submit their poems, Blue Iguana Grill for hosting the event, prize sponsors who generously donated wonderful gifts for the winners and the readers who continue to make the contest a success year after year.

Boat accident in San Pedro Town

Authorities in San Pedro Town are still investigating the circumstances that led to a boat accident that occurred sometime after 7 on Saturday night. According to authorities, the boats involved are vessels belonging to Amigos del Mar Dive Shop captained at the time by Andre Paz and the vessel named Dito 2 belonging to Island Ferry and captained at the time 21 year Juanelo Kumul both of San Pedro Town. While four people were injured, none received serious wounds and were all treated and released except for a female seeking further medical attention. Read more in this week’s issue of The San Pedro Sun.

Red Ginger reopens November 4th!!

The delightful Red Ginger restaurant is re-opening on Wednesday, November 4th, after a restful vacation. Owner Kelly McDermott extends her invitation to all to come on by and enjoy delicious food and drinks in a romantic, cozy ambiance. Below are just a few images of the delightful treats you can enjoy at Red Ginger...be sure to come on by and indulge in some yummy food!!
Click here for a full review as done by The San Pedro Sun.