DESTIN — It’s Snowbird season and this year will be a special one for the club.
The Destin Snowbird Club opened its roost Monday afternoon at the Destin Community Center.
“It feels great (to open the roost),” said George Olsen, president of the Snowbird Club. “My wife and I have been looking forward to this for the whole summer, just saying, ‘I can’t wait to get down here to be involved with Destin and the Destin community.’ It’s just super.
“We enjoy being here,” Olsen added. “We enjoy the community and we enjoy the support we get from the whole community.”
This year marks the 40th anniversary for the Destin Snowbirds. The club was started by Ocean Springs, Miss., residents Red and Virginia Lyons in the winter of 1973. The Lyonses were spending their first winter of retirement in Destin and organized a number of potluck dinners and other activities for themselves and other winter guests. They called themselves the Snowbird Mockingbird Club.
Within six years, the club had officially incorporated and had nearly 300 members.
More than 100 people attended Monday’s ribbon cutting and registration event. Another 100 to 150 members are expected to be registered by the end of the year and more than 2,000 for the season.
“We look forward to coming down,” said Barry Beazley, of Toronto. “We live in a lovely place, but a change of pace is always welcome.”
The Destin Area Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting to officially open the Snowbird roost, at which Destin Mayor Sam Seevers welcomed them back.
“The things that you bring to this city are tremendous,” Seevers said. “You guys volunteer in our schools and our churches; you do things for the community. You donate your time to the Harvest House and a lot of nonprofit organizations here locally. Just by being you, you provide jobs to so many of us who are working here.
“This is your second home,” she added. “It always has been.”
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.
