Allegra filming for The Voice in Coral Bay. Image credit: Allegra Miles Fan Group
Hi all! I just wanted to post a quick reminder that Allegra Miles will be singing live tonight on NBC’s The Voice. Tonight is the semi-finals, and your votes can help get Allegra to the finals.
Allegra grew up on St. John and now calls South Florida home. She is amazingly talented as you can see in the clip below:
Allegra will appear on The Voice on NBC tonight, May 11, beginning at 8 p.m. Here is what’s happening straight from Allegra’s mother This Muilenburg:
“Tonight is the semi finals. There are nine singers that will perform, two on each team. America will vote and the winners will be revealed tomorrow night on the results show. Only one artist from each team will make it through to the next show, the finale. After the winners are revealed On the Tuesday night show, there will be an instant save vote. The remaining five artists will each sing a song, then America will have only five minutes to vote at approximately 8:40 PM. The singer with the most votes will go through to the finale. Next week May 18 and 19th are the very last shows. One winner will be picked out of the five remaining artists, solely by America’s votes.”
Wow, how impressive is it that she has made it this far??!! Now here is how you can vote for Allegra:
You can vote three ways (10 votes per method allowed, 30 votes total):
Download the Voice App (10 votes with each email address)
NBC.Com/voicevote (10 votes with each email address)
Xfinity.com/voicevote or use your Xfinity X1 voice remote (10 votes)
Voting windows (be sure to vote both nights):
Opens Monday, May 11 – 8pm EDT /7pm CT / 8pm PDT; Closes Tuesday May 12th – 7am EDT
“Instant Save” voting window opens Tuesday, May 12 for 5 minutes at approx. 8:40 Eastern
People in the USVI are blocked from voting due to our USVI-based IP addresses. You can work around that by installing an app called Tunnelbear on your computer. Tunnelbear encrypts your internet connection and allows you to use a IP address attached to the continental USA. In a nutshell, you can make it look like you are logging on from the United States as opposed to the United State Virgin Islands.
Fingers crossed that Allegra makes it to the finals! I’ll be watching and voting tonight, and I hope you all do too!
You can hear Allegra sing and learn more about her at Allegramiles.com.
This story was originally published in July 2019. We’re re-posting some of our favorite News of St. John stories.
St. John is the home to countless amazing residents. Some were born and raised here, while others made a choice to move to the island and create a life. Everyone has a story whether it be from their past, present or what their future plans include. Today, we’d like to introduce you to one of our favorites – Charles.
Charles Jackson was born and raised on the island, and has spent the past 11 years working as the gardener at the Annaberg Plantation. I’ve had the privilege of spending ample time with Charles, wandering through his garden and sampling a variety of fruits, herbs and sugarcane over the years. For the past few years, I’ve routinely taken my island tour guests to meet Charles. He’s a special person and one of our island’s treasures.
You may be wondering what motivates Charles to tend to the plantation’s garden year after year. For him, it’s quite simple.
“I like plants. I’m a plant person. I like to feed people. I like to be in charge. Land and food, you get woman. Land and food. So I do it,” Charles says with a smile. “I feel happy. You don’t work, you don’t get paid. I like it. It makes me happy.”
“When you plant a tree, it’s growing,” he continued. “It makes my work over. It’s finished.”
But it’s really not that simple. Charles doesn’t just plant something and move on. He tends to it, cares for it and he really knows a lot about what’s growing in his garden. Sure he has delicious fruits like mangoes, genips and papaya. But there is so much more happening behind the fences.
Recently I brought an island tour guest to the garden who had neck pain. He grabbed a leaf from a Noni tree and handed to my guest. “Put it on your skin to work the body,” he said. Charles refers to the tree as the “Painkiller Bush.” He also said when its fruit is soft and mushy that you can blend it and “it makes you feel healthy.”
The Noni tree at Annaberg
Recently I complained to Charles about my one-year-old son and how he thinks thinks sleep is the enemy. He wandered over to a soursop bush, grabbed a leaf and handed it to me. He told me to crush up just a bit and put it into the baby’s bottle. He said it would help him sleep. Perhaps it was a coincidence but Dalton actually slept well that night.
Soursop
Charles also believes that soursop can help cure cancer. And you know what? I believe him.
Please be sure to stop by Annaberg on your next trip and say hello. The garden is located on your right as you walk up the hill at Annaberg.
The garden at Annaberg is to the right of this path.
News of St. John is holding a raffle! For just $20, you can enter to win a five-night stay at Aquamare at Grande Bay plus $1,000 courtesy of 340 Real Estate Co. All proceeds will support the Animal Care Center. Please visit www.newsofstjohn.com/raffle for more information.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms reading today! Today is such a great day for so many of us, so I thought it would be the ideal time to do something I love… launch another raffle!
For those of you who read News of St. John often (and a big THANK YOU to those of you who do!), you know I love a good raffle. Our last one, held in September 2019, raised a whopping $200,000! Unbelievable! Over the years, you have helped us donate nearly half a million dollars to a variety of nonprofits and well-deserving organizations. I cannot thank you all enough.
We planned to launch our latest raffle back in March, and then COVID-19 started to dramatically affect all of our lives. So we opted to put the raffle on the back burner. Until now…
Today I am excited to tell you that we are officially launching our 2020 raffle, and it will benefit an organization near and heart to my heart – the Animal Care Center.
As you know, tourism is currently on hold here in the US Virgin Islands. But despite that, the folks at the Animal Care Center continue to love, support and house numerous cats and dogs, and they really can use some monetary support.
For just $20, you can enter to win a five-night stay for up to six people at Aquamare at Grande Bay, a luxurious two bedroom condo located directly across from the beach in Cruz Bay. And even better? Our friends over at 340 Real Estate Co. are donating $1,000 which can be used for airfare or, truthfully, however you please! Because Aquamare is located right in the heart of Cruz Bay, just steps from some of the island’s great shops and restaurants, you won’t need to rent a vehicle should you win. You can easily walk, hike or take a taxi nearly everywhere.
Here are a few of the Animal Care Center’s current needs that we’re hoping to support:
The ACC would like to repair the front railing of its building. The cost of this project is $100 or just five raffle tickets!
The ACC would like to create, print and distribute pet hurricane preparedness educational materials. The cost of this is $200 or 20 raffle tickets.
The ACC would like to purchase new cat traps for its feral cat program. The cost of this is $300.
The ACC would like to install a new, redesigned outdoor play area for the dogs to improve their quality of life including a raised platform, turf for comfort, kiddie pool, digging area and shade tarp. The cost of this project is $600.
The ACC would like to give its building a mini makeover, including a new coat of paint, deck sealant, new plants, and building awnings for the comfort of dogs and visitors. The cost of this project is $700.
The ACC would like to install 14 new dog houses with wheels and machine washable comfort pads. The cost of this project is $1,800
The ACC would like to implement a free spay and neuter scholarship program for the community, including door-to-door transportation of pets. The cost of this project is $5,000.
Such a great cause. So many great projects to support.
The timeframe for use is very generous on this raffle, as we understand that many of you have no intention of traveling anytime soon. The five-night stay can be used for any available dates this year through October 31, 2020; It can also be used between June 1, 2021 and October 31, 2021.
You can win a 5-night stay at Aquamare while supporting the Animal Care Center.
Again, tickets are just $20. There will not be a limit on entries, because we are trying to raise as much money as possible for the Animal Care Center.
To purchase a ticket, please choose the number of tickets below. You can buy up to 10 at a time. Then click the Buy Now button. This will bring you to a secure PayPal page where you can check out. Please make certain the your correct email is used, as we plan to notify the winner by email. (All entries will be treated as donations to the Animal Care Center. Your transaction will appear on your bank/credit card statement as STJDONATION.)
The raffle has ended.
All entrants should receive a confirmation email from PayPal after purchasing your ticket/s provided you are a registered PayPal user. Because of the expected high volume of entries, we cannot personally email each entrant. Your email from PayPal will serve as your confirmation of entry into the drawing.
How the drawing works: Once the entry period is over, we will pull a file of all the entrants and number of entries directly from PayPal. The raffle committee will personally write/type the names of each entrant on a raffle ticket. If you bought one ticket, we will write/type your name on one ticket. If you bought two tickets, we will write/type your name on two tickets. And so forth. All of the names will be placed into a secure bucket/basket/box. Once all of the names are written on tickets, we will draw the winner live on video. The drawing will be announced on newsofstjohn.com. A video of the drawing will also be posted on newsofstjohn.com. The raffle period will end on Sunday, May 24, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. AST (which is currently the same as EST). The winner will be announced on newsofstjohn.com on or about May 26, 2020. Now go ahead and enter! Good luck!! And thank you for helping us support the Animal Care Center!
The Fine Print:
The winner must adhere to the individual property/business rules and restrictions.
The five-night stay at Aquamare at Grande Bay is good for any available dates between June 1, 2020 and October 31, 2020, or between June 1, 2021 and October 31, 2021. The property has a six person maximum.
In the event that the property/business becomes uninhabitable due to a storm, fire, or Act of God, the winner agrees to forfeit the prize.
We strongly encourage the winner to purchase travel insurance.
The prize is not transferrable without the business owner’s consent.
Hello everyone, and happy Saturday! I hear it’s pretty chilly in many parts of the country today. I just read that it snowed in New York City this morning… so crazy! So I figured that many of you really, really need to take a Virtual Vacation today. So to make this easier for all of you, we’re sharing all of our recent Virtual Vacations in one spot.
Pick your favorite spot, crank the heat (if you’re somewhere chilly), turn on your favorite island tunes, and enjoy!
Klein Bay
Hawksnest
St. John’s Overlooks
Frank Bay
Jumbie
Trunk Bay Overlook
Salomon & Honeymoon (sorry about the typo on the video!!)
If there is a place you’d like to take a Virtual Vacation, please let me know in the Comments section. Have a wonderful day everyone!
Hello everyone, and happy Thursday! Who wants to take a Virtual Vacation today??! Well let’s get right to it!
Today’s Virtual Vacation will take you over to Frank Bay, which is just a short, five-minute walk from the ferry dock in Cruz Bay. Frank Bay is located beside Gallows Point and is also where Coconut Coast Studios is located. It’s a great spot to dip your feet in the water or take a nice little snorkel. It’s also a pretty amazing spot to watch sunset, especially during the winter months when the sun sets directly across the water.
Now without further ado, please enjoy a couple of minutes of Frank Bay…
Hello everyone, and happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all doing well wherever in the world you are reading this from! It’s been more than six weeks since guests have been able to check into accommodations on St. John and the entire Virgin Islands, and I am pretty certain that many of you miss your favorite island tremendously. I also know that many of you dream about moving to St. John once day, so we plan to help you put that dream into overdrive today!
Today we’d like to tell you about a home that’s been listed for sale for a bit. It’s a great new villa with a wonderful location in Fish Bay – it’s close to town, but far enough to be quiet and private. I’m actually surprised that it’s still on the market. And with the way things are going on St. John, I can’t imagine it will last that much longer. (Since mid-March, there have been eight home closings. Eleven houses are currently under contract.)
Now let’s get right to it! Please join me and check out Montana By the Sea…
Montana By The Sea is a new, beautifully finished villa located near the entrance of Fish Bay on St. John’s south shore. This three bedroom, three bathroom home features a large 10x15x5 pool, beautiful plantings and an additional 220 square-foot room that can be converted into a fourth bedroom or bathroom. Montana By the Sea has both covered and uncovered porches which will allow the lucky buyer to enjoy the gentles breezes and beautiful views of Fish Bay and beyond. This home is located right across from the bay and is a 10-minute drive from Cruz Bay. It even includes permitted plans to build an additional guest cottage behind the main house.
Check out a few pics and video:
Beautiful, isn’t it? And it’s a solid house, which is a must for the Caribbean.
Montana By the Sea is being offered for $1.195 million. For more information, please contact Tammy Donnelly of 340 Real Estate Co. at [email protected]. Want to see more of Tammy’s listings? Please visit www.340realestateco.com to search the current MLS listings.
And as a side note: I took a wonderful couple on an island tour earlier this year. They were interested in learning more about the island as they sought to purchase a home in the Caribbean, although they weren’t certain which island they liked the best. I am happy to announce that they closed on a beautiful home in Chocolate Hole last month!
Want to see the island with me? I’d love to show you around! Learn more about my island tours at www.newsofstjohn.com/islandtour
Allegra Miles will perform live on The Voice tonight & you can vote to help her win. Image credit: Thia Muilenburg
Hello everyone, and happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend wherever you are… I know I did!
You may recall back in March when we introduced you to Allegra Miles. Allegra is a teenager who grew up on St. John, but now calls south Florida home. She tried out for NBC’s The Voice and made it. So exciting! She’s an unbelievably talented young woman, and we’re excited to tell you that she will return to the airwaves tonight when The Voice goes live. These live rounds determine the winner, and you can vote to help her win. Here are all the details…
The Voice’s Live Rounds are usually performed live in front of a studio audience in California. Well everything has changed due to COVID-19, so Allegra and the other finalists will perform live from their homes. Allegra’s mother, Thia Muilenburg, has posted some behind the scenes photos on Allegra’s Facebook fan page, and it looks pretty cool. Check them out:
The new set at Allegra’s home – Image credit: Thia MuilenburgAllegra prepares for the Live Rounds at home. Image credit: Thia MuilenburgAllegra rehearses with her coach, Nick Jonas, via the internet. Image credit: Thia Muilenburg
Pretty neat, isn’t it?
The Live Rounds will happen every Monday and Tuesday night at 8 p.m. EST on NBC for the next three weeks. At the end of the three weeks, a winner will be chosen. Up until this point, the show’s coaches chose who continued to the next round. Beginning tonight, the public gets to decide by vote.
In order to vote, you must create an account on NBC.com or on the NBC app on your smartphone. You are allowed to vote up to 10 times per account. If you have multiple email addresses, you can have multiple accounts, and again, each account can vote up to 10 times. Voting ends at 7 a.m. EST the morning after the show. Unfortunately Virgin Islands residents are not allowed to vote (Virgin Islands IP addresses are blocked), but those of you who live stateside can. (Those of you who live in the Virgin Islands and are savvy enough to know how to make your IP address appear like you’re in the United States can vote.) 😉
I don’t know about all of you, but I know exactly what I will be doing this evening at 8 p.m. Good luck Allegra!!
Hello everyone, and happy Saturday! As you may know, the Governor said earlier this week that he anticipates the US Virgin Islands will reopen for tourism on June 1. The keyword in that statement is anticipates. If the number of COVID-19 cases remains low – as of May 2, there are 66 cases in the US Virgin Islands (St. John, St. Thomas and St. Croix) – the US Virgin Islands will reopen June 1. If we see a spike in cases between now and then, the Governor will consider extending that date. (He made that statement during a Facebook live chat Thursday evening.) As of today, there have been two confirmed cases on St. John, and both were travel-related. There is currently one pending test.
Some people who live on St. John are happy about the June 1 date; some people are not. Some are excited to see tourism resume, thus boosting our economy, and others are concerned that the return of tourism will bring additional cases to the Territory which already has a fragile health care system.
That being said, the airlines are preparing to add additional flights to the Territory in light of this announcement. (The number of flights coming into the Territory was reduced significantly in late March/early April.)
The following is updated flight information per the the VI Consortium (which is a great online news publication):
American is offering one flight a day through Miami. During the month of May, there will be no flights on Tuesdays. There will not be any flights on May 6th either (on American).
Delta resumes service between Atlanta and St. Thomas today, May 2. Its calendar is a bit trickier. According to Delta’s Price Calendar, it will offer daily flights June 2 through June 7. From June 12 though June 25, it will offer flights on Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. It will resume daily flights from Atlanta on June 26.
Spirit resumed service between Ft. Lauderdale and St. Thomas yesterday, May 1.
United will offer service between Houston and St. Thomas beginning on May 8.
JetBlue is providing service between San Juan and St. Thomas.
Cape Air is providing service between San Juan and St. Thomas.
Silver Airways (formerly Seaborne) is offering service between San Juan and St. Thomas.
As I mentioned above, the June 1 date is subject to change. We will keep you all posted. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ok everyone, I know how many of you miss sports. I miss sports. I think the world misses sports at this point. Well guess what? We’re all in luck because there’s a major sporting event happening this weekend! Ok, so it’s not that major, but it’s pretty awesome. And a smart, super fun move by our friends at The Tap Room.
This Saturday, Kevin ‘King Cup’ Chipman will compete against Tim ‘The Throttler’ Hanley in the beer pong game of the century! It’s happening live on The Tap Room’s Facebook and Instagram pages at 7 p.m. EST on Saturday, May 2. Kevin and Tim are cousins, roommates and coworkers, so no social distancing rules are being violated by this tournament… Just wanted to answer that question before it arose. 🙂
And even better, one of you can win a $50 Tap Room gift card as a result of this game of the century… Yes, it’s true! All you have to do is go over to The Tap Room’s Facebook or Instagram page and cast your vote for the winner. It’s that easy!
Well folks, the Governor just concluded a press conference and we have lots of information to share with you!
Let’s start with the topic I know you all want to know about the most – when can you return to St. John. According to the Governor, tourists will likely be able to return to the US Virgin Islands beginning on June 1.
The Governor announced a five tier alert system Wednesday afternoon, which will help manage the Territory’s reopening. The system is color coded and can be seen below:
St. John is operating as “Orange” as of April 29, 2020.St. John will move to “Yellow” on May 4, 2020 and is anticipated to being operating as “Blue” on June 1, 2020.
As of today, April 29, 2020, St. John (and the entire Virgin Islands) is operating as Orange. Beginning Monday, May 4, 2020, St. John will move to Yellow. It is anticipated, per the Governor, that St. John will move to Blue on June 1, 2020.
“We anticipate moving from this yellow Safer at Home status to the blue Open Door status on June 1st,” the Governor said Wednesday afternoon. “That’s when we will be opening up the reservation systems, and welcoming tourists back, leisure travelers into our Territory. We figure this month we will be able to see where our weak points are, reinforce our airports which we have found to be where the virus is coming onto the Territory. At the same time, being able to get more reinforcement at both hospitals…”
When St. John begins operating under the Blue status, restaurants will be able to offer dine-in services once again. Currently, restaurants are only able to offer take out, delivery or drive through. For the time being, all bars remain closed.
There seems to be an outstanding question regarding whether or not people entering the US Virgin Islands are required to quarantine. I reached out to Government House via Facebook and was told:
“Temperatures are taken at the time of arrival to the Territory and those individuals are also monitored. The 14-day quarantine following travel is not mandatory.”
Beginning Monday, May 4, 2020, face coverings will be required when entering all commercial establishments. It is uncertain whether that will continue or expire when travelers are invited to return June 1.
Not everyone will agree with the Governor’s plan. Some think the reopening is too soon; some think it is too late. Whatever your feelings may be, let’s be kind to one another. Love always wins. Hate does not.
