Friday on First Coast Connect, our weekly Media Roundtable. Our panel included Folio Weekly editor Claire Goforth, Florida Times-Union reporter David Bauerlein, blogger Fred Mathews and WJCT business analyst John Burr. We also spoke Jacksonville Library director Barbara Gubbin about the this year’s Jax Reads initiative with the book “The Namesake.” Dr. Amy Pollak from the Mayo Clinic and heart attack survivor Kathy Ellis talked about Go Red for Women Day, as part of Heart Disease Awareness Month and we met Kim Brown, head coach of the newly formed Jacksonville professional female football team the North Florida Pumas.
Media Roundtable
Our panel talked about the recent trend of guns being found in Jacksonville schools. Nine have been discovered since the beginning of the school year. Ten were found all of last year. They also talked about the local reaction and protest to President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries and banning Syrian refugees indefinitely. Jacksonville has one of the largest Syrian-American populations in the country.
Jax Reads
Gubbin talked about why “The Namesake” was chosen as the book to be highlighted through March 11, during the Jax Reads initiative. The book written by Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri tells the story of a boy born in America to Bengali parents. He goes through life trying to find his identity as a first-generation American. Jax Reads includes discussion groups, various activities and a screening of the movie based on the novel.
Go Red for Women
Cardiovascular diseases in the U.S. kill approximately one woman every 80 seconds. Eighty percent of cardiac events can be prevented with education and lifestyle changes.
Friday marked the day nationally that women were asked to dress in red to help raise awareness and help reduce heart attacks and strokes in women. Pollak talked about the different symptoms and how 43 million women in America are affected by cardiovascular disease and ways it can be prevented.
North Florida Pumas
The North Florida Pumas are part of the Women’s Football Alliance with teams across the country.
The team is having tryouts on Saturday. Tryouts are open to any female ages 18 or older. Girls ages 17 and younger need parental consent. Tryouts will be from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the practice fields behind the main field at the Normandy Athletic Association on Normandy Boulevard.
Producer Kevin Meerschaert can be reached at kmeerschaert@wjct.org, 904-358-6334 or on Twitter at @KMeerschaertJax.
