March Events

March 1, 2025

Reserve Here

Our Feature is a Video Interview With John Schumann

About the History of the Press Journal & John's Life in Vero Beach

Tuesday, March 11th

7:00pm - 9:00pm

Women's Club of Vero Beach

1534 21st Street

Vero Beach 32960

$5 per person

Ticket May Also Be Purchased

at the Door

March 14-16

Celebrate the 122nd anniversary of Pelican Island

The first National Wildlife Refuge

Joe Wiegand, aka President Theodore Roosevelt, will be bringing the history of Pelican Island, our nation’s first National Wildlife Refuge, to life. Events are planned at various locations and will feature a wildlife display and other activities.

Due to the possibility of a federal government shutdown on March 14th, which may limit access to facilities at the Refuge, Saturday's daytime festivities, including meet-and-greet with President Roosevelt, will take place at the Environmental Learning Center’s Thomas Shidel Education & Event Pavilion. The Environmental Learning Center is located at 255 Live Oak Drive, Vero Beach, 32963.

Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Named Succat, he was born around 386 A.D. in Roman Britain and, at 16, was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave. History shows he herded sheep for a local chieftain in the north of Ireland.

After 6 years, he escaped. He walked 200 miles to a port where he managed to board a ship to the European Continent. Eventually, he returned to his family in Britain. He was ordained as a deacon and later consecrated as a bishop and given the name Patricius.

He returned to Ireland as a bishop where he worked as a Christian missionary converting Ireland from a Pagan Celtic culture worshipping the sun to Christianity. He died on March 17, 461 A.D. and the Irish began celebrating Saint Patrick from that time on.

Before Saint Patrick Day parades started in Ireland (1903), before Boston (1737) and New York City (1762), the first Saint Patrick's Day festival and parade was in St. Augustine, Florida.

Information found in 2017 by historian Dr. J. Michael Francis in a gunpowder expenditures log in the Archive of the Indies revealed that a feast day in celebration of Saint Patrick was held in 1601 in St. Augustine. The Saint was held in high regard, officially protecting their maize fields. There was no continuation of the parade there although it is now celebrated. Regardless, the Saint Patrick's Day Parades in these US cities were held long before the first one in Waterford Ireland in 1903.