Seventy-two golfers swung into action to raise funds for Wayside House, a Delray Beach addiction-treatment center

for women that has operated for more than four decades. While the golfers were busy on the course,

80 bridge players faced off in the clubhouse. ABOVE: (l-r) participants George McElroy,

Tod Ortlip, Jay Wheatley and Perry O’Neal.

Photo provided

More than 175 women gathered for Impact 100 Palm Beach County’s annual membership event.

Prospective and current members of the charity, which awards high-impact grants

to local nonprofits, enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres as they listened to success stories

of past grant recipients. ABOVE: Karen Rogers and Susan Brockway.

BELOW: (l-r) Janice Florin, Dr. Nicole Edeiken, Sharon DaBrusco and Laura Stoltz.

Photos provided

Parents, students and city officials attended the celebratory welcoming of the learning facility’s new campus.

During the event, families planted sunflower seeds, made clay ‘peace seeds’ and contributed to community artwork.

The day ended in the nature playground with a sing-along. ABOVE: (l-r) Lela Ahles, 4, dances

while Clarence Jackson, 12, Joe Snider and Sunflower Creative Arts founder Susan Caruso play.

Photo provided

Naoma Donnelley Haggin Boys & Girls Club celebrated its 13th-annual fundraising event,

which generated about $85,000 to support programming for more than 400 local children.

ABOVE: (l-r)Co-Chairwomen Kari Shipley and Susan Mullin, with committee member Hopie Kelly.

BELOW: (l-r) Greg Reynolds, Tom Stanley and committee member Beau Delafield.

Photos provided

Boca Ballet Theatre’s fundraising luncheon welcomed more than 450 guests, the largest audience

in event history, raising awareness and community support for the nonprofit. The festivities began with a mimosa social hour,

raffle and silent auction, followed by dance performances. ABOVE: Executive Director Dan Guin,

Honorary Chairwoman Aubrey Heathcott, Andrea Doyle, Event Chairs Jim and Susan Fedele,

Co-Artistic Director Jane Tyree, Forrest Heathcott, mistress of ceremonies Cindy Surman

and Honorary Chairwoman Chris Heathcott.

Photo provided by Silvia Pangaro

Boca Raton Deputy Mayor Robert Weinroth served as honorary chairman of a special reception

recognizing community mental-health advocates, including individuals and businesses that support Faulk Center

for Counseling’s mission of providing free and low-cost services to the public. ABOVE: (l-r) Honorees Barbara Schmidt,

Debra Ainbinder, Kim Nutter and Lois Weisman.

Photo provided

Soroptimist International of Boca Raton/Deerfield Beach had its annual Thanksgiving buffet,

catered by Boca Helping Hands, to honor 2015 Women of Distinction nominees, as well as the chairs,

sponsors and volunteers who contributed to its success. ABOVE: (l-r) Cynthia Cummings,

Elke Schmidt, Ximena Bustamente and Judith Hinsch.

Photo provided

An evening of celebration and keynote presentation by Ehud Barak, former Israeli prime minister,

entertained nearly 150 donors to the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County

who gathered for an elegant cocktail reception and dinner. ABOVE: Barbara Schwartz and Barbara Werner.

Photo provided

For the 22nd time, Hospice by the Sea Foundation and Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation

held their signature event — a Hawaiian-themed gala with tropical everything. The evening raised

awareness of the full spectrum of grief support services offered by foundations that support

end-of-life care. ABOVE: Fern and Bill Martin are flanked by professional hula dancers.

Photo provided

Andy Scott, a longtime supporter of the George Snow Scholarship Fund,

is honorary chairman of the ball with Robin Trompeter as honorary chairwoman.

Photo provided

By Amy Woods

    Tommy Bahama shirts will meet Stetson western hats, and tropical sundresses will meet leather boots at the 23rd annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball on Jan. 30.
    Tropical flair and rugged accessories always set a festively fun tone for the George Snow Scholarship Fund’s signature charity event — a fan favorite.
    “People are in jeans and cowboy boots and cowboy hats,” said Debi Feiler, the fund’s vice president of program services. “There’s line dancing, an open bar, our live auction. It’s a party, for sure.”
    Close to 550 guests are expected to fill two tents set up at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton for an evening of dinner, entertainment and fundraising to help financially needy students attend college. This year’s goal is $125,000.
    Money primarily is generated through the live auction, which boasts elaborate — and expensive — items such as an airboat ride to the Everglades for six with a gourmet meal at a secluded ranch.
    “You see nothing but birds and sawgrass,” Feiler said of the experience, titled “Camp Deliverance” after the Burt Reynolds movie. “There are several things that are exclusive to the cowboy ball that you’re just never going to find anyplace else.”
    Andy Scott is a longtime supporter of the fund and has been named honorary chairman of the event with girlfriend Robin Trompeter, honorary chairwoman.
    “Robin and I have been regular contributors,” Scott said. “It’s the right thing to do. I really like the fact that, during the course of four years, they’re really staying in touch with these kids — and on a weekly basis. It’s not like they give them a check and say, ‘See you later.’”
    In addition to the scholarship, the nonprofit offers several support programs aimed at ensuring academic success.
The Monday Morning Motivational Message is weekly communication consisting of inspirational stories and quotes. The College Supply Program is a gift bag of products scholars receive to use throughout their college careers.
    The Summer Jobs Program is designed to help young adults enter the workplace.
    “A lot of these kids, they don’t have that foundation at home,” Scott said. “You couldn’t ask for a more worthy cause.”

Jan. 6: Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County will feature U.S. humanitarian-aid worker Alan Gross

and accomplished diplomat Dennis Ross at an event that celebrates the federation’s top donors.

Time is 6 p.m. Cover charge is $135. Call 852-6084 or visit www.jewishboca.org.

ABOVE: (l-r) Don and Linda Brodie and Robin and Neil Baritz.

Photo provided

Organizers in their 10th year of planning

this fun fundraiser have had a few giggles

of their own along the way

Heidi Sargeant (left) and Becky Walsh again serve

as co-chairs of the Laugh with the Library benefit

for the Delray Beach Public Library. It’s scheduled for Feb. 5.

Photos by Tim Stepien/Illustration by Scott Simmons/The Coastal Star

By Emily J. Minor  

    Have you heard the one about the comedian who went missing five minutes before he was supposed to take the stage?
    He was standing at the back of the room, hiding in plain sight.
    “We were running around like maniacs trying to find him,” says Bonnie Stelzer, director of community relations at the Delray Beach Public Library.
    “It was bad,” says Becky Walsh, who has co-chaired the Delray Beach Public Library’s Laugh with the Library event for the last 10 years.
    “I think one of the gals even went in the men’s room trying to find him,” Stelzer remembers.
    And then Stelzer looked over, and there he was, that adorably zany Sebastian Maniscalco, standing next to her along the rear wall.
    “It’s almost like he was in a trance,” Stelzer said. “These guys are really in the zone before they take the stage.”
    If you can find ’em.
    Ba-dum-bum.

Heidi Sargeant (left) and Becky Walsh stand before a mural at the Delray Beach Public Library.

The two are co-chairing the  Laugh with the Library benefit.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    Or how about the year — Was it 2013? Yes, 2013! — when comedian Tom Cotter, known for breaking through the year before as runner-up on America’s Got Talent — was tight as a drum from all the travel. “He wanted to get a massage,” says Heidi Sargeant, the event’s other co-chair.
    Oh, he got his massage all right.  
    “He had some sort of cupping procedure and that night, he lifted his shirt and showed us,” Walsh says.
    Turns out the cupping technique — where the masseuse puts powerful suction cups on the body to increase blood flow and re-energize the muscles — does more than relax. It can litter the skin with creepy red circles.
    Talk about a gig leaving a real mark on you.
    Ba-dum, ching.
    Of course, this business of raising money for a good cause is serious stuff, to be sure — especially this time of year, and in these parts.  
    Who doesn’t love a gala with a 334-something ZIP code?
    But Walsh and Sargeant, who 10 years ago put together the first Laugh with the Library fundraiser, say their annual event is beloved because it’s a relaxed night of belly laughs. (Yes, someone usually spits out beer at a punch line.) There are no sequined gowns or bow ties.

    “And the food is always really, really good,” Sargeant says.  
    On Feb. 5, the women are set to pull off “Chapter 10” of this fundraiser that benefits children’s and teens programs and services at the Delray Beach Public Library. (Chapter 10. Books. Library fundraiser. Get it?)  
    Each year they’ve brought in a different comedian, served up dinner and drinks — one year, the signature cocktail was called “The Luscious Librarian” — and had a great time.
    “Ours is a pretty simple affair, and that’s why everybody loves it,” Walsh says.
    Since Laugh with the Library started a decade ago, the event has helped to raise nearly $1 million. “It’s not that stressful anymore (to plan),” says Walsh. (Except for the year they changed the invitation format from a horizontal envelope to a vertical one, and all the invites started bouncing back, “delivered” to the return address, which was the library.)
    But the beauty of this event, say organizers, is its simplicity. Entertained by comedians and other oddballs of entertainment, library supporters can relax, wear something casual, even drink a Budweiser.  
    Just remember, there’s always something peculiar (i.e. funny, i.e. worrisome) going on behind the scenes.
    Like the year Dennis Regan showed up really sick with the flu. The planning committee went bonkers with worry. “We were like, how is he going to be able to perform?” Walsh remembers. “He didn’t even want to talk to anyone. He looked terrible.”
    And then, there he went, right on cue. “When he got out there, he was funny and as chipper as can be,” Stelzer said.

    That also might have been the year they filmed library director Alan Kornblau getting a pie in the face. (“It was mostly whipped cream,” Stelzer notes.) The hilarious ladies on the Laugh committee thought the gag might add a little zing to that year’s otherwise dry promotional video. So as Kornblau was giving a tour of the library, out came the pie.

    “We actually had to do it twice, because the first time it didn’t hit him squarely in the face,” Stelzer recalls.
    “We all get a tremendous kick out of it.”
    Badda bing. Badda bang.

Simple practice
relaxes body, eases mind

Boynton Beach resident Mitch Marx assumes the Anjali mudra position, or prayer position,

prior to a yoga nidra session at Simply Yoga in Delray Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lona O’Connor
    
    Of all the types of yoga, only one is associated with lying on the floor under a cozy blanket in a quiet room listening to a soft voice and music: yoga nidra.
    “I figured this was one kind of yoga that I could do,” joked Betti Adams of Delray Beach. Adams first tried yoga nidra about a year ago at a session led by Kim Hough.
    Yoga teachers often say that the hardest pose is to lie still doing absolutely nothing. This is the sole responsibility of a yoga nidra participant, to receive relaxation instructions from the teacher, who then invokes positive images during a session.
    Before the lights go down at Yoga Sol, everyone in the room is asked to decide on one personal statement, called a sankalpa, that he or she will repeat silently at the beginning and the end of the session.
    The sankalpa is brief, positive and stated in the present tense, such as “I am love” or “I create happiness in others.” It is meant to set the emotional tone for the yoga nidra session — and possibly for the future.
    Almost immediately, a few light snores can be heard.
    “Afterward, people say, ‘Oh, I don’t remember a thing!’” Hough said. However, the relaxation — and sometimes revelations — happen awake or asleep or in between.
    Besides relaxing the body, yoga nidra can allow the practitioner to open up emotionally.
    “Through the practice of yoga nidra we are restructuring and reforming our whole personality from within,” said  Hough.

Julie Murphy watches over a yoga nidra class at Simply Yoga in Delray Beach.

Photo courtesy of Julie Murphy

    During the session, the leader takes clients through eight stages of deepening relaxation.
    “In that space, you are able to manifest the sankalpa, the key part of the practice. You can get out of your own way,” Hough noted.
    Hough, who also teaches yoga and meditation, participated in her first yoga nidra session about 10 years ago.
    Unlike a New Year’s resolution, which often focuses on correcting specific bad habits, the sankalpa “should honor the deeper meaning of our life,” Hough said.
    Some people experience a relaxing hour, nothing more. Practitioners say that an hour of yoga nidra is equivalent to four hours of deep sleep.
    Others have profound experiences, during or after the session. One woman said she recovered from writer’s block during a session.
    Patty Flynn, of Boynton Beach, called her session with yoga teacher Julie Murphy “totally different” from other forms of meditation she practices. “I was able to see myself from outside. At one time I was laughing, smiling ear to ear, another time there were tears rolling down my face.”
    Betti Adams did a yoga nidra session after a too-busy day and four hours of sleep. Later that evening, she visited her mother, who was recovering from surgery, in pain, and also not sleeping well.
    “In spite of all that, we had our best visit ever,” said Adams. “We reminisced and shared feelings. And the next morning she told me she had her best night’s sleep since the surgery and amazingly, no pain. She was in a great mood and was puzzled about how suddenly the change had taken place.”
    Those who lead a yoga nidra session can also reap its benefits.
    Murphy, who has a melodious South African accent, always thought her voice was too deep. When her yoga students asked her to record a yoga nidra CD, she resisted.
    “I thought, what if it’s a disaster? I had all that crazy self-doubt. Then I thought, what if I just do it anyway?”
    During her period of self-doubt, a dear friend was dying of emphysema. She practiced yoga nidra with him.
    “His anxiety and panic dissolved within a few minutes,” Murphy said. “Yoga nidra made him feel more at ease than he’d been in years.”
    The friend died as Murphy was beginning to record Calm, her CD, which she dedicated to him.

More Information
• Kim Hough’s next yoga nidra session is 4-5:45 p.m. Jan. 17 at Yoga Sol, 215 NE 22nd St.,  Delray Beach. Cost is $25. For Hough’s full schedule and her relaxation CDs, visit www.balancedlivingwithkim.com.
• Julie Murphy’s next yoga nidra session is at 4 p.m. Jan. 3 at Simply Yoga, 2275 N Federal Hwy., No. 150, Delray Beach. Murphy also leads yoga nidra in hammocks every third Monday of the month at Defy Gravity Yoga, 5821 N. Federal Hwy., Boca Raton. The next hammock session is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Jan. 18. Cost is $20. For information, call 809-0348. Julie’s Yoga Nidra CD is available at Shining Through and The Nutrition Cottage, and can be downloaded at www.yogaressa.com.

By Janis Fontaine

    We asked people at local churches and synagogues to tell us their hopes and dreams, plans and wishes, for 2016. Here they are:

    “My hopes, plans, dreams or desires for 2016 are that we learn to love each other more; 2015 was a year of needless cruelty, hatred and killings.” — Jay Blotcher, publicist for Congregation Beit Kulam
    
    “My hopes: Peace in Syria. This war is at the root of most of our current problems including terrorism and refugees. My plans: Spend three weeks in India teaching at a mission school. Go to the Bruce Springsteen concert with my grown-up kids. Make some epic home brews. And paint the driveway.” — Pastor Andrew Hagen, Advent Boca Raton
    
    “I am optimistic about 2016. Technology and medical science seem to be having new breakthroughs weekly. I pray this will be a ‘year of hope’ for those with cancer, muscular dystrophy and other devastating diseases, with some real cures available to the average consumer.  On a personal level, I hope my ‘sandwich’ of young adult children and an elderly mother and mother-in-law, continue to thrive and find joy in their respective lives. And that events for my synagogue will surpass our financial goals and allow us to offer even more programs to the community.” — Betti Adams, co-vice president of fundraising for Temple Sinai

    “To grow in my love for Jesus, my wife, my children, my church, and my city … and thus become a blessing to the world.” — Pastor Casey Cleveland, The Avenue Church in Delray Beach
    
    “Peace in our community, nation and the world as a whole. As I think about this, I am reminded of the song, ‘Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.’ My goal is to strive to be at peace with the people that come my way, starting with my son, family members, friends and even those I may not see eye-to-eye with. May I look for the many things that we have in common, and, if need be, agree to disagree.” — Ruth Mageria, executive director, CROS Ministries
    
    “My desire for 2016 is to enjoy and look for the little things in life — like a sunset, a smile, and kindness!” — Gibbie Nauman, director of development and community relations, CROS Ministries
    
    “To make the community a better place by reaching out one hand at a time to make a difference no matter how big or small.” — Emily Zarzycki, CROS Ministries camp director
    
    “I left a full-time job in a very busy workplace full of very needy clients in 2015. This world filled up my personal and public space. My responsibility as a Jew tells me to continue to spend time in my community, shouting out that it is unacceptable that children are hungry, that housing is unaffordable and that medical care is still out of reach of many. My hopes, plans, dreams and desires for 2016 are for today and not tomorrow: continue learning about my religious heritage, so full of humanity and empathy for the other, extend a needed hand, live with trust and faith in a world in which I have little control, and haul out that backpack to travel to the other and say hello.” — Sammy Alzofon, publicist, Temple Sinai
    
    “My hopes for 2016 are for more food-insecure residents of our county to find the help they need and move out of poverty.” — the Rev. Juanita Bryant Goode, director of engagement, CROS Ministries
    
    “My hopes, dreams … to be a better man, listener, leader, husband and father. To learn more in my walk with God.” — Steven Wright, a member of Advent Lutheran
    
    “My potential improvements might be to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier and return fully to morning person status; bring thoughts of the business home with me less, possibly much less; and learn to pray better.” — Sandy Jack, a member of Advent Lutheran
    
    “My goal for 2016 is to start a blog that will inspire or mentor other women to achieve their dreams, and that there is no limit when you want to succeed. (I’m a single mom, and I completed my bachelor’s degree at Palm Beach Atlantic University this fall — at age 48!)
    “As a Christ follower, my wish is to help those people around me, by listening without judging, encouraging them, and reminding them there is hope. We all have the ability to do wonderful things, and to make this world more peaceful, just by respecting and loving each other.” — Claudia Rosada, administrative assistant, CROS Ministries.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.

Here are some of the stories about how the money was used, in ways both large and small. The donors want to remain anonymous:
 
    • I started a “Go-Fund-Me” website with my $20 and to date have raised $1,000 for the Village of Hope in Haiti.

    • We quadrupled the $20 Advent gift we received in our brick and purchased a large gift basket which was delivered to the city of Delray Police Department with the note reading “Blue Lives Matter, you have our support and prayers.”

    • We received $20. We are adding our own money and sponsoring and cooking a pancake and sausage breakfast for our “Bring a Friend to Church Sunday.”

    • I am using my brick money as seed money to make “care bags” for the homeless: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, water bottles, cookies, toothbrushes, etc.

    • I doubled my $20 brick money and sent it to Project HOPE for a special appeal which multiplied it 105 times, providing $9,450 in medical supplies.  

    • The $20 that was in my brick was matched with an extra $20 I had this past month. To date, I have been able to grow the original $20 into $160, with a promise of another $40 to add to it from my photo sales. This might not seem like much, but to someone on Social Security, I think it’s a lot.

    • I deliver meals for Boca Helping Hands on Saturdays. I took the $50 bill I received in my brick and turned it into five $10 bills. I put $10 in five envelopes and gave them to five of the families I deliver meals to. I explained where the money came from and prayed with each family.

    • We added $20 to the $20 and used that $40 to buy $79.80 worth of food at Publix (with buy-one-get-one and coupons) to donate to the food drive at my son’s elementary school.

    • We used the money from our second brick to provide dinner to our local firehouse, Squad 54. I wish you could have been there to see how surprised and grateful they were. They had been out on calls all day and were wondering what they were going to do for dinner when we showed up. God is always in the right place at the right time! The owner of Davito’s was so impressed about our “Church Without Walls” campaign that he donated salad and rolls to go along with the meatballs and ziti.
 
    • Wonderful Patty works shampooing clients at a modest hair salon and has for many years. She lives paycheck to paycheck and yet always has a beautiful, warm smile for clients, never complaining. If she is having a bad day, you would never know. She always thanks God for what she has and for her large family. Patty had tears in her eyes when I hugged her and gave her our “Tear Down the Walls” money.

    • “We gave 4½ times our initial money to a single mom with a little girl who had surgery. She will be out of work for four weeks and does not get that much sick and vacation time so this will help with some of those days she won’t get paid for.

    • We multiplied the amount received to make it a total of $140. We then put $20 in seven envelopes with the following note: “We were given a gift and we decided to share it with others. Please accept this $20 as a gift to you. May it make you smile and brighten your day. If this has brought you joy, please share these feelings with others!!” Then we went to Publix in Delray and (after clearing this with the assistant manager of the store) we walked around the store handing out the envelopes to people. Everyone was surprised. Of course, we were the ones who gained the most from this experience.

— Janis Fontaine

Robert Knapp is retired from practice, but still teaches.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lona O’Connor
    
    Robert Knapp’s medical career spans more than five crucial decades of women’s reproductive health. As a young medical resident back in the 1950s, Knapp was an early advocate for safe, legal abortions. The majority of his career has been spent as a researcher into the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer.
    Now, at 88, he is retired, but still teaching — between walks along A1A and weightlifting at a gym near his home in Manalapan. And he is looking forward to the possibility that a diagnostic tool he co-discovered will prove to aid early diagnosis for ovarian cancer, which usually is far advanced when discovered.
    On Jan. 25, he will attend a fundraising luncheon for PBC H.O.W. (Hearing the Ovarian Cancer Whisper, the organization he founded). PBC H.O.W.  offers a three-year, $50,000-per-year research fellowship to gynecologists. It also offers the Robert C. Knapp Medical Student Award and sponsors an “angel fund” to defray expenses for families of ovarian cancer patients.

    “Let’s face it, when you realize that one in 70 women will get ovarian cancer, certainly one of those students will be the doctor taking care of them,” said Knapp.
    In 2015, 14,000 of the 21,000 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer died, according to the American Cancer Society, a higher mortality rate than for either cervical or uterine cancer.
    Early in his career, in emergency rooms, Knapp treated many women who later died from the effects of illegal abortions, often performed at home or under unsafe conditions.
    The death rate from infection was “appalling,” he said. “I was terribly upset that these women died.” After treating those cases, he joined the board of Planned Parenthood.
    He has spent much of his distinguished medical, teaching and research career at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
    In the early 1960s, he began working on a way to detect ovarian cancer. He wanted to know why patients who seemed to be in stage 1 cancer died even after their ovaries were removed.
    In the 1970s, he and another collaborator, Daniel Friedman, also discovered how ovarian cancer spreads to the lymph nodes.
    Then Knapp, the expert on ovarian cancer, joined forces with Robert Bast, an immunological specialist, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
    “When I became an assistant professor at the DFCI, Bob and I set up our laboratories next to one another and pooled our resources to collaborate on immunotherapy in mice and in women with ovarian cancer,” wrote Bast in an email.
    In their studies of ovarian cancer in mice, Knapp and Bast used cancer cells from one of Knapp’s patients. A sign of past times and an indication of his focus on doctor-patient relationships, Knapp made regular Thursday night house calls to his cancer patients.
    “Bast sat there with the patience of a saint,” said Knapp of his younger colleague.
Bast tested cancer antigens (CA) one after another, until, his 125th try  — CA 125 — provided the basis of a test for signs of ovarian cancer.
    Besides the CA 125 test, the two doctors worked on using immunotherapy to form antibodies that would contain the cancer. Bast, now a professor at the University of Texas and researcher at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, is also on the medical advisory board of PBC H.O.W. Bast called their years working together “a wonderful collaboration.”        “Bob has been an exceptional mentor for many young physicians and scholars over the years who have made significant contributions to our understanding of ovarian cancer and to the care of women with this disease,” said Bast.
    The CA 125 test is used as a follow-up tool, to see whether chemotherapy has been effective. A rising level of CA 125 is considered highly significant in such cases, said Knapp.
    In the next few weeks, Knapp hopes to read the results of CA 125 tests expected to be published in the Lancet, the prominent British medical journal.
    The study in Britian looked at 200,000 post-menopausal women, who are at greater risk than younger women of contracting ovarian cancer.  It should show whether using CA 125 would work as a way of detecting ovarian cancer in the earlier, more treatable stages.
    Knapp teaches a session on ovarian cancer at the Weill medical school of Cornell University and another seminar on how patients and doctors interact. He is the author and co-author of numerous publications on obstetric cancers.

If You Go
    Sherry Lansing, former chairwoman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, is the guest speaker at the Time is of the Essence luncheon, 11:30 a.m. Jan. 25 at Mar-a-Lago Club Palm Beach, 1100 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach. Pamela Fiori, former editor of Town & Country magazine, is the moderator.  For more information, e-mail Jennifer@howflorida.org.

Parishioners turn a Boca church’s $8,000

into $30,000 in donations to others in need

The Munson family, (clockwise from front) Pierce, Emerson, Melinda, Ken and Paula,

hold their bricks. Members of Advent Lutheran Church were given play bricks

containing cash ranging from $20 to $100, with the sole instruction to use it to ‘break down a wall.’

Photo provided

Related story: Parishioners share stories of how they used the money

By Janis Fontaine

    In November, the leadership at Advent Lutheran Church in Boca Raton came up with a clever way to shake things up among its congregation.
    One Sunday morning, church members and visitors arrived to find a wall of brightly colored cardboard preschool bricks stacked in the sanctuary. During the service, members were invited up to choose a brick. Inside, they found money — cash! — in amounts varying from $20 to $100.
    “The pastors told the congregation that $8,000 in benevolence dollars were being handed out to them to do with as they were led by God,” Pastor Andrew Hagen said. “The only rule was that they had to use the money to ‘break down a wall’ that was preventing someone from experiencing the abundant life Jesus came to bring us.
    “They could keep the money if they needed it. They could donate the money to their favorite cause, inside or outside the church. Or they could find a way to build it into more money.”
    It wasn’t the first time this had happened, but it was the first time at Advent.
    “A lot of churches do this,” Hagen said. “We had a pretty good year and our theme for the year was ‘A Church Without Walls.’ We wanted to really get people involved with making the decisions about where the money should go.”
    What they did was jump-start an explosion of random acts of kindness.
    People immediately began talking about it, Hagen said. “It was like, ‘We’re all in this together.’”
    It built a bond among the church members.
    Over the next month, the church continued buzzing with people talking about how and when and where to use their dollars. There was a lot of discussion about what “wall-breaking” meant. Families sat down together and debated the best way to use the money.
    People behaved very differently toward that free $20 bill than they did with an identical bill out of their wallet, Hagen said. “It was like it was sacred money, and they had to take great care to give it back.”
    Some people made the decision quickly, in most cases matching the funds with their own and donating the money to known church charities, including Lutheran World Relief, the Village of Hope in Haiti, and Lutheran Church of South Sudan for its “$40 for 40 Seminarians Campaign.”
    Others returned the money to the church, often with an additional donation of their own, because they trusted the pastors to make the best use of the money.  
    Some people used the money to help people in their own community, while some helped people continents away.
    “It’s impossible to assess the total impact of this program,” Hagen said. “But we believe that the $8,000 was multiplied to over $30,000 in donations to this point.”
    And some plans haven’t yet come to fruition. That number still could grow.

Ruff Tales Rescue regularly saves animals such as Christian (above)

from bleak lives in South Florida cages. After being fostered and medically cleared,

the pets are driven to Miami-Opa Locka Airport by Melanie Malanowski (below),

where they board an Ameriflight plane (bottom) for their new homes in New England.

Photos provided

By Arden Moore

    Hunter, Dickens, Missy and Zenna headline the latest list of dogs rescued from kill shelters in South Florida and who now enjoy loving homes in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
    They owe their second chance for quality lives to a Boca Raton resident named Melanie Malanowski, who literally is reaching new heights when it comes to transforming shelter dogs into welcomed members of families.
    That’s because instead of driving dogs to new homes, she flies them there.
    Her day job is operations manager for Jet Lease Capital, a West Palm Beach-based aviation company that deals with the lending and financing of aircraft — from turboprops to large cabin aircraft.
    This complements her other job: spearheading a nonprofit group called Ruff Tales Rescue that is committed to saving animal lives. Since 2014, Malanowski and a dedicated corps of volunteers have been plucking animals from overcrowded shelters in South Florida, putting them in foster homes temporarily, and then after receiving health clearances from veterinarians, flying these lucky dogs to New England, where they spend a brief time adjusting after their flights before landing in homes.
    “Many New England states have strict spay and neuter laws, so they do not have the overpopulation problems that we have in animal shelters in South Florida,” says Malanowski. “A lot of the dogs I pull from a shelter here are about to be euthanized. We have been fortunate to place puppies and seniors up to 14 years old in new homes in New England.”
    Malanowski was inspired to create Ruff Tales Rescue while volunteering to direct dog play groups at the West Palm Beach Animal Shelter.
    “In the play groups, you get the chance to really know these dogs and get a good read on them, which helps a lot in knowing how to place them in the right homes,” she says. “For example, I pulled one brindle-colored pit bull named Pepper from the shelter. She was a superstar in the play group and I’m happy to report that she has been adopted in New England and she is doing awesome.”
    Tapping into her connections in the airline industry, Malanowski worked out an arrangement with Ameriflight, a cargo airline company. It turns out that an Ameriflight plane full of medical supplies lands at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport every Friday. It would then turn around and fly empty back to Bedford, Mass., to retrieve more medical supplies.
    So, Malanowski approached Ameriflight officials about filling its cargo plane with pets in need of homes in New England. On most Friday afternoons, you can find her arriving at the airport with crates of dogs. Once the pets are on board, she and her rescue group track the flight and pinpoint when the plane of the about-to-be-adopted pets arrives in Bedford.
    “We are very grateful to Ameriflight — they don’t charge us,” she says. “They are very good with the pets and have even held the plane for me when I was late arriving due to traffic delays.”
    To ensure all of these animals are healthy enough to fly, local foster volunteers bring them in for complete medical examinations by veterinarians and then take them into their homes for about 10 days.
    “Before these shelter animals board, they must be parasite-free and have no health issues,” Malanowaski says. “And even if we have an approved adopter in New England, the dog does not go directly to the adopted person. They stay with a foster team member there for a couple days to adjust after the flight and must be examined and issued another health certificate by a New England veterinarian. We want to make sure shelter animals from South Florida are not bringing any diseases into New England.”  
    The adoption fee of $375 covers the animal’s spay/neuter surgery, de-worming, necessary vaccinations, microchipping for identification, the flight and, per laws in New England states, a mandatory 48-hour quarantine period and health certificate.
    Fundraising events like the Yappy Hour event held last month in West Palm Beach are enabling Malanowski and her team of volunteers to meet the Ruff Tales Rescue motto: “Changing lives four paws at a time.”
    When she isn’t saving the lives of shelter animals or directing operations at Jet Lease Capital, Malanowski revels in hanging out with her rescued dogs: three young pit bull mixes answering to the names of Ty, Dante and Lucy, plus Daisy, a boxer with maternal instincts who serves as “momma dog” to the other three.
To me, Malanowski gives new meaning to the motto “flying the friendly skies.”
    
Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor.

Candy Evans waters her plot at Cason Community Garden. She and a friend got the garden started

in 2008 with 20 gardeners and 2,500 square feet; now there are 40 participants

and 5,000 square feet of thriving vegetable gardens.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
    
    It’s early on a rainy weekday but that doesn’t keep Rob Sparro from inspecting the curly kale and tomato vines thriving in his well-tended plot at the Cason Community Garden in Delray Beach.
    He bends over to shake his bean vines to remove the water that is weighing them down. As he does, you can see the delicate white blooms that will soon be beans ready for harvest.
    Elsewhere in his bountiful garden bed, purple blooms turn into white eggplants, some of which hang from stems like Christmas tree ornaments.
    “There’s good unity and fellowship in working here and putting things in the ground,” says Sparro, who used to be in the landscape business.
    Nearby, Abbey Weiss untangles her tomato vines and looks for a ripe fruit so I can have a taste. She, like me, is a transplanted New Jersey girl who knows a good tomato. As she hands me a small yellow orb, she invites me to enjoy this “mouthful of sunshine.”
    Sweet and juicy it truly is.
    “Gardening is a great way to connect with the community and the earth,” says Weiss. “It’s satisfying to grow food that you can eat and give to others.”
    Since the garden’s inception, participants have been donating at least 10 percent of their harvest to Caring Kitchen in Delray Beach, which feeds the poor. Over the years the gardeners have contributed more than two tons of produce.
    From the neatly mulched footpaths, to the wood-defined beds tended by dedicated members, to the bountiful crops, this is a model community garden. But getting here has been a journey.
    It started in 2007 when Cason United Methodist Church was struggling to bring people to its ministry.

    “We were in a big decline and brainstorming about how to resuscitate our church that was on the edge of being closed,” says Candy Evans, who has been coming to Cason United since 1993 — when she was a new mom of triplets and the women of the church rallied to help her.
    Today she is here with her 1-year-old granddaughter, Lilly Denhart, who gleefully fills her stroller with mulch gleaned from the paths.
    It was Evans who got to thinking about the five grassy acres sitting next to the church. “For 40 years nothing had been done with them,” she says. And that’s when she had her “light bulb moment.”
    Evans, with her friend Lori Robbins, got the garden off the ground by rounding up donations of compost, weed cloth and a sign. It was Evans who brought a hose from home.
    In 2008, they opened the garden to 20 members who first planted vegetables in the designated 2,500 square feet. “The rest is history,” says Evans. Since then the garden has doubled to include 40 gardeners and 5,000 square feet of land.
    “Everyone is welcome,” says Evans.  
    The garden members range from children who are being home schooled, all the way up to seniors such as Mable McDonough, 88, who has been with the church since 1948. She had never gardened before she played in the dirt here at the community garden.
“The garden is not only a real source of joy for our church community, but anyone can get their hands dirty in our plots,” she says. She shares her plot with the Rev. C. Alexis Talbott.
    Michael Lorne, owner of Lorne and Sons Funeral Home in Delray Beach and a master gardener, has been involved since the beginning.
    Each gardener is supplied with a planting bed filled with rich, dark compost and a spigot for water. To be sure new participants get off on the right foot, Lorne uses his gardening skills to provide a one-on-one introductory session.
    “This garden is a great way for us to connect with the earth, our spirituality and our community,” says Evans.

    Delray Beach Children’s Garden, the first of its kind in Palm Beach County, opens Jan. 3 in downtown Delray Beach. A year in the making, the garden, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit project, was planted by children as well as civic leaders, landscape designs and horticulturalists. The grand opening, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is free.
    The garden is at 137 SW 2nd Avenue in Delray Beach.
    For more information, call Shelly Zacks at 561-716-8342.

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener. Reach her at debhartz@att.net.

Story and photos by Mary Thurwachter
 
    Plaza del Mar, at the southwest corner of East Ocean Avenue and South Ocean Boulevard in Manalapan, is music to the ears of islanders who really don’t want to cross the bridge to shop. Visitors will find an assortment of restaurants, boutiques and other businesses that can help them book their next vacation, purchase a home, have their nails done, find casual clothing, buy one-of-a kind art or jewelry or even catch a play or film at The Palm Beaches Theatre.
    Parking is free and there’s no long walk to hunt for your car. Many of the shops and restaurants are Fido-friendly, so you don’t have to leave a pampered pooch whimpering at home.
    Here are five not-to-miss spots at Plaza del Mar:

1. Evelyn & Arthur

    There are several lovely clothing shops in the Plaza, but the one that has been around for the longest is Evelyn & Arthur (above), a family-owned business in the plaza for 30 years. With nine locations across Florida, the store offers casual, often colorful clothes designed for women who want a stylish fit, but don’t want to look like their teenage daughters. A section of the store is devoted to unique cards and gifts.

2. Sheila Payne Gallery

    Sheila Payne’s works are called “off the wall” and “outlandish,” and she’s fine with that. The former stocks and bonds trader has no formal art background and admits she didn’t even know she was an artist until she tried it a few years ago. Payne (right) makes jewelry and three-dimensional pieces with ordinary materials, including chains, keys, shards of mirrors and seashells. Buy something here and you have a conversation starter. Or just visit her gallery and Sheila will tell you the stories behind each piece. You won’t be bored.

3. The restaurants

    John G’s, a casual, family-owned restaurant (below), has been a local hot spot for breakfast and lunch since it opened in 1973. Seating is available inside and out, and the fried fish is scrumptious. If you go for breakfast, try the almond-encrusted French toast.
    The little pizza, pasta and wine restaurant called Manalapan Pizza and its Basil Bar take full advantage of the courtyard setting as they serve Italian fare all day. At night, music adds to the allure. On Friday nights, it’s Motown, soul and rock ’n’ roll, and on Tuesdays, it’s karaoke with Jacqie Jackson, a fun-loving local cross-dresser.
    At the newly remodeled Asian restaurant Thaikyo, favorite dishes include unique blends of flavors from Thailand along with an exotic and modern sushi bar. On Thursday nights, Thaikyo offers specialty sushi and drink deals and musical entertainment in its Buddha Lounge.

4. Jewelry Artisans Inc.

    This little gem of a jewelry store, which has been at the plaza since 1991 after a move from Palm Beach, simply sparkles. Inside, you’ll find the “dream team” — master jeweler Pedro Maldonado and gemologist Emi Ebben. Maldonado created the world’s most valuable dreidel for the Chabad of South Palm Beach (also located in the plaza). One-of-a-kind bracelets, necklaces and rings are designed and created here in Maldonado’s workshop, which is visible from the store. Customers range from the rich and famous to locals with good taste. If you go, prepare to be wowed.

5. The Ice Cream Club

    No membership needed here. Just come on in and pick out your favorite flavor. Take your cone outside and watch people sprint across the street from the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa to have a taste. When the Ice Cream Club opened in 1982, Eau (formerly the Ritz-Carlton) wasn’t even built. The ice cream shop’s appeal isn’t limited to tourists and islanders: Folks from the west side of the bridge come over for licks, too, as do sunbathers who wander over from Lantana’s beach.