profiles

Northwest St. Johns County resident Caridad Ferrer writes novels for young adult readers. MTV Books published her first novel, Adios to My Old Life, in 2006 and will be releasing her second novel, It's Not About the Accent, in August. MARK PETTUS/My St. Johns Sun

Bill Dillow

Bill Dillow and a buddy went together to join the Army in 1941 under a program that guaranteed to assign them to the same duty station. The Army recruiter was at lunch. Dillow’s buddy wanted to wait, but Dillow didn’t want to wait and enlisted in the Navy.

He joined the Pacific Fleet as a diver and for the next few years was assigned to ships that dodged torpedoes and battled Kamikaze pilots. At 20 years old he became one of the youngest men ever to earn the rank of chief. Although he saw gruesome duty during World War II —Dillow was assigned to enter damaged ships and recover the bodies of sailors killed by a Japanese attack — and he is now deaf in one ear because of a diving accident, he doesn’t regret not waiting for that Army recruiter. Not one bit.

Al Kalter

St. Johns resident Al Kalter believes in the youth of today. In fact, he passionately believes a sharing of cultures and experiences among today’s young people are key to world understanding and peace, and he’s doing what he can to bring young people from diverse worlds together. Kalter heads up the Rotary Youth Exchange program for the Northeast Florida district. The 2007-2008 program will send 25 area kids, including five from Bartram Trail, overseas for a year while host families will welcome 30 kids to the First Coast. The now successful Northeast Florida program has grown in respect under Kalter’s leadership, and is now modeled by other districts across the state. Not bad for an all but defunct program that Kalter started turning around in 1999 after moving to the area.

Mike Mitchell

Mike Mitchell is an artist and though he holds a master’s of fine arts in sculpture from the University of Memphis, his preferred medium is people. He makes his living shaping lives. Mitchell is the program director for the Organization of United Resources (OUR), a community coalition that serves the rural communities of southern St. Johns County. The OUR Center offers everything from GED classes and tutoring to emergency food and clothing to substance abuse referrals. Whether the goal is teaching kids math or helping adults find a way to support themselves, Mitchell believes art is a tool that can help people sculpt a better life. This summer the center is hosting the Hastings Summer Blues Camp. A  total of 115 kids will learn music from blues musicians and before the end of camp, the kids will compose their own music on their own harmonicas — provided free by the center.

By TERRY BROWN / terry.brown@jacksonville.com

Watching ESPN’s Outside the Lines television show last fall with her sons, Cathy Parker was moved by the story of a first-year football team that played on a gravel-laced, tundra field near the frozen top of the world. As the wife of former NFL player and Bartram Trail offensive coordinator Carl Parker, Parker knew the young men of Barrow, Alaska, deserved the same opportunities to excel on and off the football field as those who played alongside her boys at Bartram.