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Despite the nearly 90-degree temperature Wednesday, ice, ice hockey and a winter sports team were at the top of mind at the Ocean City Sports and Civic Center grounds. Hundreds of Philadelphia Flyers fans and families looking for a good time turned out for the team’s Community Caravan local stop. There were Flyers giveaways, free autographs and bobblehead figurines, an autograph table featuring Flyers Alumni legends Bob “the Hound” Kelly, Doug Crossman and Brad Marsh, a live DJ and all types of games. With all due respect to those attractions, there was still no doubt who was the headliner of the day: Gritty, the team’s seven-foot, orange-bearded, wild-eyed mascot.

This is the time of year most Ocean City residents and visitors are thinking about beach, bay and Boardwalk. For football devotees, July means the start of NFL training camps and preparation for the upcoming college and high school seasons. For the Red Raiders of Ocean City High School, it means more than 60 student-athletes toiling at a recently concluded mini-camp, participation in a kids camp held by Philadelphia Eagles star Vinny Curry, and regular workouts in the team weight room. Not too shabby for the so-called off-season.

As the women’s World Cup continues to capture the imagination of soccer fans around the globe, an active wear company with Ocean City roots is generating its own brand of local soccer excitement. Cruise Control Gear, co-owned by sisters Candice Kolins, of Ocean City, and Kristen Vogelbacher, of Somers Point, is celebrating and supporting the good work of the Ocean City Nor’easters soccer team at its new store in town. Cruise Control, which recently opened a retail outlet inside Stainton’s Gallery of Shops, 810 Asbury Ave., will host members of the Nor’easters, an elite amateur club team, from 4-5 p.m. Tuesday at Stainton’s. All are welcome to the free event.

Books and the beach go together like pizza and pepperoni. But what if you forgot to stuff that bestseller into your beach bag? Or perhaps you remembered the book and finished reading it before you’re ready to call it a day? Daniel Millar has you covered. For his Eagle Scout project, he has built a book case that stands at the entrance to the beach at Seaspray Road in the city's Gardens section.

Vinny Curry was talking about playing football. Playing football in general, and playing football for a living. “When football is no longer fun, that’s the day you should stop playing,” said Curry, a Philadelphia Eagles defensive end. From the look of the infectious grin on Curry’s face Saturday at his Fourth Annual Vinny Curry Football Camp, that day might be far into the future. “(NFL players) perform at a high level, but it’s still a game. It’s supposed to be fun,” said Curry, who is preparing for his eighth pro season. “At this level,” he said, gesturing toward the more than 200 kids in attendance at Ocean City's Carey Stadium, it should be all about fun.”

Two Cape May County Sheriff's officers have been recognized for saving the life of an inmate who overdosed. They administered Narcan, an antidote for overdoses of heroin or other opioids, to revive him. Another officer was recognized for academic excellence during an awards ceremony overseen by Sheriff Bob Nolan.

Speak with Chubby Checker for any length of time – the iconic rocker generously spent 50 minutes on the phone with us Tuesday – and it’s impossible not to feel energized. The man who popularized the Twist and other dance moves, and who recorded arguably the biggest selling single in the history of music – “The Twist” – is just as busy today as he was more than 60 years ago when his show biz career first blasted off like a 1960s NASA rocket. Checker, whose real name is Ernest Evans, was excited to discuss his July 12 concert at the Ocean City Music Pier as part of the city’s 60th anniversary celebration of the Night in Venice boat parade.

It was a dog day afternoon on Dog Beach. Friday afternoon’s brisk winds and temperatures in the low 70s were not optimal beach day conditions for humans. That did not stop about 30 people and a dozen pooches from enjoying the area’s only officially dog-friendly beach. “This place is like a really nice dog park, but with a beach attached,” said Leon Rickards of West Deptford, Gloucester County. “It’s a really nice area to visit. We like it and the dogs like it.”

Cystic Fibrosis currently has no known cure. However, the disease can be managed. Ocean City’s Randles boys, Colin and Sean, both diagnosed with CF since birth, are managing just fine. Colin, who will be an Ocean City High School sophomore in September, and younger brother Sean, who will be a freshman, suffer from the chronic genetic disorder that affects the respiratory and digestive systems. That hasn’t stopped the brothers from achieving in the classroom, where they have both been recognized for stellar academic work, and in the community, where they are working to combat their condition and to help others who suffer from CF.

Consider, if you will, the Ocean City Beach Patrol’s lifeguard stand. Never has such a well-known O.C. symbol been so little understood. The white wooden stands with the distinctive blue trim and red lettering are unique to South Jersey’s beach communities, and functionally more useful to the professional men and women who patrol the resort’s 40 guarded beaches. More than that, they are some of the most photographed and romanticized symbols of Ocean City. Credited for the innovative design of the lifeguard stand is Jack Jernee, the Ocean City Beach Patrol captain from 1920 to 1942.