By Emily J. Minor

    HIGHLAND BEACH — Hank Peters, a longtime Major League Baseball executive whose gut instincts about young talent helped the long-deprived Cleveland Indians reach the World Series in 1995, died Jan. 4 in hospice care near his Highland Beach home. He was 90.
    Mr. Peters’ daughter, Sharon, of Delray Beach, said her father had suffered a stroke about two weeks prior, and could just not recuperate.
    Dorothy Peters, Mr. Peters’ wife of 60 years, had died in 2010.
    Mr. Peters was born Henry John Peters in St. Louis on Sept. 16, 1924. He and his sister, Virginia, were raised by their mother, Estelle, who cleaned houses to support the family. Mr. Peters joined the U.S. Army after high school, served in Europe during World War II, then briefly attended business school until answering a newspaper ad for a job with the St. Louis Browns’ minor league baseball system. After that, baseball was his life.
    For 47 years, until his retirement in 1991, Mr. Peters lived the often nomadic life of a front-office executive, spending time with the now-defunct Browns and Kansas City Athletics, before landing with the Baltimore Orioles and, finally, the Cleveland Indians.
    Mr. Peters had a knack, it seemed, for trusting his instincts when he saw a young, green player try out. And when the Indians went to the World Series in 1995, they went there with players Mr. Peters had recruited — baseball greats like Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Charles Nagy, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Carlos Baerga.
    Mr. Peters also drafted a guy named Cal Ripkin Jr. while with the Orioles front office.
    His daughter remembers her father’s baseball career with fondness, but admits they missed him growing up. There were no cell phones. No text messages. No emails. Just pay phones. If they were lucky, her dad would find one that worked.
    “It could be a little rough on the family,” she said. “Two weeks would go by, and we wouldn’t talk to him.”
    Still, her father often folded family vacations into Florida business trips, said Sharon Peters, who said the family began coming to spring training in Florida back in the 1950s.
    “And when he was home, he never took up tennis or golf or anything,” she said. “When he was home, he was home.”
    Hank and Dorothy Peters began coming to Highland Beach as part-time residents after his retirement, soon buying an oceanfront place. But they continued to return to their home in Baltimore each summer.
    After his wife’s death in 2010, Mr Peters began living in Highland Beach full-time.
    Sharon Peters said her father loved the ocean, and enjoyed sitting on his condo balcony, reading. He always kept up with sports, often complaining about too much football news in the sports section.
    Mr. Peters is also survived by his son Steven, of Boynton Beach, and two grandchildren. His funeral was Jan. 7.

Pascale Troupin-Castania displays her gourmet product line at the Delray Beach Green Market.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Pascale Troupin-Castania lives in a jam-filled world in Delray Beach.
    From the bounty of her backyard mango trees, she created a company, Pascale’s Confitures Artisanales, that sells jams and chutneys online, in 27 stores and at the Delray Beach Green Market and the West Palm Beach GreenMarket. Her company’s slogan is “The Delray Beach Jam Company.”
    “All of our neighbors know us as the Mango House,” she said. After she and her husband, Michael, bought the home in April 2000, they were overwhelmed with the fruit produced by their two large mango trees. They shared the mangoes with their neighbors.
    Troupin-Castania, 57,  makes all the products with the prep help of a part-time worker who cleans and chops produce for four hours daily. Her husband does the sales and deliveries. He staffs the West Palm Beach booth, while she runs the Delray Beach stand.
    Her company produces about 1,000 jars monthly of jams, preserves, chutneys, hot sauces and fruit syrups.
    She comes from a long line of chefs and became a private chef at age 18 while still living in France. She later worked on private yachts as a chef, including one that docked in the Caribbean during the winter months and in the Mediterranean during the summer. She enjoyed buying fresh produce at the ports and fell in love with the variety of spices.
    “I always made jam since I was young,” she said.
    In 2010, she took three cases of her jam to the West Palm Beach GreenMarket and was surprised when everything sold in a matter of hours.
    From that start, another friend who was a baker asked if she wanted to share a professional kitchen. She later took over the kitchen, switching out the electric stove for a gas one to better control the heat. “It’s more efficient,” she said.
    To make the jams, she selected French copper pots because they heat more quickly. The chutneys, which contain vinegar and would react with copper, are made in stainless steel pots.
    She now brings only five or six different products to the green markets because she found that customers were overwhelmed when they had more choices.
    “People in Delray have a sweeter tooth,” she said, making her Pear Vanilla Cardamom and Apricot Lavender preserves top sellers.
    Her biggest challenge is finding good quality fruits at reasonable prices.

    Pascale’s Confitures Artisanales, 706-2646; www.Mangohouse.net

The Olivia Kiebach Garden is a delight to visitors from any angle. Here, a child is dwarfed by the hugh buttressed roots of the kapok tree.

Munching on the leaf of a milkweed, these caterpillars will mature into monarch butterflies.

Brown seeds dangle from fakahatchee grass.

Four water sprays and a central water spout create a beautiful water feature between the chapel and the Intracoastal Waterway.

Photos by Nell Ann McGee/The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    If you head south from the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, taking the waterfront Lake Trail, you’ll soon arrive at the Olivia Kiebach Garden.
    And you’ll know it when you see the towering kapok tree that bursts into full red bloom as the spring approaches.
    It stands sentinel over a sweeping expanse of lawn leading up a gentle slope and the garden itself. Here, three richly landscaped terraces sit behind the Royal Poinciana Chapel that opened in 1895 on land donated by Henry Flagler.
     “For this garden, I wanted to create a multi-use space that is broken up into private areas that people can enjoy for relaxation and contemplation,” says landscape architect Mario Nievera, who volunteered his time for this community project. “There can be a lot of activities in this one space but nobody need feel like they are on top of each other,” he adds.   
    When he first started working on the garden in 2010, there wasn’t much here but St. Augustine grass, eight date palms that he moved to new locations and, of course, that famous kapok tree that probably was collected by Flagler who lived just next door in Whitehall, his Gilded Age estate.
    For the garden, Nievera chose low-maintenance and drought-resistant plants such as the Thai hybrid crown of thorns that has oversized coral and pink flowers. He avoided annuals that would have to be replaced.
    Instead he chose natives such as sea grape, cocoplum and pigeon plum trees, as well as exotics such as hibiscus and pink razzleberry that add color year-round.
    Spherical topiaries are fashioned from Green Island ficus trees, and the Japanese blueberries are carefully trimmed into conical shapes that help bring a sense of order to an otherwise lush landscape.
    To attract butterflies and other bits of nature, Nievera — who co-owns the firm of Nievera Williams Design in Palm Beach and New York —  chose plants such as milkweed, red jatropha and yellow cassia trees.
    But you won’t hear much from the birds and the bees as the air is filled with the noise of a powerful stone fountain that has four water sprays set in obeisance around a central water spout.
    Much of the stone used in the fountain and the garden is either from Florida or at least made here, including the cast stone with shells imbedded, the small gray bricks and the coquina used in the stairs.
    For those who have trouble climbing stairs, a system of hidden side pathways offers easy access to any part of the garden. And as you walk these paths, you’ll find low-maintenance concrete benches that actually look like they are made of wood tucked in among the plants.
    Sit for a few moments and enjoy the view down to the moored  boats in the Intracoastal Waterway and across to the West Palm Beach skyline. It just doesn’t get prettier than this.
    And for those who arrive by car, don’t miss the small garden at the back of the parking lot that leads to the historic Seagull Cottage. Erected in 1886, this is the oldest house in Palm Beach. Today it serves as the Parish House for the Poinciana Chapel.
    Here Nievera has planted fakahatchee grass, cardboard palms, crinum lilies, pigeon plums, coconut palms and plenty of orange-flowered firebush. He believes these would have been in the garden when the gray-shingled cottage was built and later sold to Flagler in 1893.

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net when she’s not in her garden.

Philanthropist Lois Pope sponsored an event organized by the American Humane Association

to honor Hollywood animal ‘actors’ Crystal and Hudson. Tova Leidesdorf made

a surprise donation of $50,000. Photo: Hudson, Pope,

American Humane Association President and CEO Robin Ganzert and Crystal.

Capehart Photography

Dr. Seth Baum

By Linda Haase

    Let’s get to the heart of the matter. After all, February is American Heart Month.
    And while lots of heart-shaped boxes have infiltrated stores nationwide, there are some not-so-sweet statistics:
    • Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in this country.
    • Every minute in the United States, someone’s wife, mother, daughter or sister dies from heart disease, stroke or another form of cardiovascular disease.
    • Heart attacks and strokes kill 11 times as many women as does breast cancer.
    •  Almost two-thirds of women who die suddenly of coronary heart disease display no previous symptoms.
    This is startling — and scary — data. It’s enough to make your heart palpitate. That’s why cardiologist Dr. Seth Baum wants women to learn all they can about this disease — and how to prevent, detect and treat it.
    “Cardiovascular disease in women is under recognized and undertreated. As a consequence often the patient herself or her physician may downplay certain symptoms that could be clues to a cardiovascular event,” says Baum, director of women’s preventive cardiology at Boca Raton Regional Hospital’s Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute.
    He’ll be offering his expertise — and providing women with information on preventing, diagnosing and treating heart disease at BRRH’s Passport to Health Program at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Wyndham Event Center in Boca Raton.
    “Women are the ones who control health care. Educating them about cardiovascular risks, signs, and symptoms will empower them to be better equipped to spread the word,” notes Baum, president elect of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology. “The motto ‘an educated consumer is our best customer’ is true in medicine, too.”
    Baum’s lecture is part of BRRH’s Spirit of Women program.
    “At Spirit of Women, we believe that women are the lifelines of our families, of our relationships and of our communities,” notes the institute’s program development manager, Lauren Puleo. “We know that while women make 80 percent of health care decisions for their loved ones, they often push themselves too hard, and forget to care for themselves. We want to educate and excite the community about their health.”  
    The free program, which began in July 2014, has about 2,000 members. It offers advance notice and invitations to events and lectures, raffle prizes, monthly women’s health educational e-blasts and quarterly health e-newsletters.
    It also helps acquaint the community with the hospital’s Wellness Institute, whose services include breast and pelvic care, minimally invasive robotic surgery, preventive cardiology, imaging, weight management and cardiac risk assessments (the institute is expanding and adding new services — a 46,000-square-foot building  is scheduled to open in June).
    Spirit of Women also participated in the Boca Raton Chamber’s Live Your Best Boca Life event with a booth and raffles. Past lectures have focused on topics including breast cancer screening, genetic testing, pelvic health and urinary incontinence.  
    Baum’s lecture, which will include a Q&A, will come on the heels of the 11th annual National Wear Red Day. The event, founded by the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, was designed to “take action against a disease that was claiming the lives of nearly 500,000 American women each year — a disease that women weren’t paying attention to. A disease they truly believed, and many still believe to this day, affects more men than women,” according to the National Wear Red Day website.
    That’s one of the messages Baum hopes to get across. He’ll also discuss gender-specific risk factors — such as pregnancy-related problems including high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar, and even the size or prematurity of one’s baby — that increase the chance of a woman having a cardiovascular event in the future.
    “I want to clear up some myths and help women understand the disease and how to stave it off,” says Baum.   
    One of those myths: Heart disease is for the older generation. Not so. Risk factors such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes are becoming more common in younger women. And he notes: “Patients with a common genetic cholesterol disorder, familial hypercholesterolemia, can experience heart disease at extraordinarily young ages.”
    The differences between men’s and women’s bodies are apparent during a heart attack as well as during treatments for heart disease, he says.
    “Women typically have classic chest pain when they are having a heart attack, but they can also have other symptoms. Some women think if they get chest pains they don’t have to worry. This misconception has made women believe they can’t experience classic angina,” Baum explains. “Women’s small vessels respond differently from those of men. Some of those responses may lead to differences in how they manifest symptoms.”
    Here’s another startling fact, just in time for Valentine’s Day: Married men have a lower likelihood of having a cardiovascular event than single men. But married women? Not so much.
    “They have more of a likelihood of a cardiovascular event than single women. This distinction may relate to women as caretakers; they don’t take of themselves because they are busy taking care of others,” says Baum, a Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons grad.
    To register for Dr. Baum’s lecture, call Puleo 955-5348 or email lpuleo@brrh.com.
    For more information about the Spirit of Women program, visit www.brrh.com/Spirit_Of_Women.aspx

Myth vs. fact: Heart disease misconceptions
    As easy as it is to make small changes for a big impact on your heart health, experts say one of the challenges is common misconceptions about heart disease. Here are three myths that doctors want to bust about heart disease.
    Myth: “I don’t have to worry because I’m still young. Isn’t heart disease for old people?”
    Fact: Obesity, Type 2 diabetes and other heart health risk factors are becoming more common in younger people. And if you use birth control pills or smoke, you need to be even more aware of your heart health.
    Myth: “Heart attacks happen mostly to men.”
    Fact: Heart disease actually kills more women than men, and more than all types of cancer combined. One in three American women’s deaths is from heart disease or stroke every year.
    Myth: “I’ll know if I’m having heart problems because I’ll feel it in my chest.”
    Fact: Many people, particularly women, have heart attack symptoms that are less obvious.
Source: Spirit of Women monthly e-newsletter (November issue)
    
Linda Haase is a freelance writer on a quest to learn — and share — all she can about how to get and stay healthy. Reach her at lindwrites76@gmail.com.

At Valentine’s, hearts beat with the power of pet affection

Potter, a Boston bull terrier and the canine companion of Zoanne and Neil Hennigan

of Ocean Ridge, looks forward to his Valentine’s treats.

Photo by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Arden Moore

    Among all types of love, puppy love ranks among the purest. Little wonder why pet industry surveys report that one in five  Americans plan to deliver gifts to their pets this Valentine’s Day, spending a collective $815 million.
    In addition to the gifts, expect plenty of Valentine’s Day cards for two-legged sweethearts to include the name of the couple’s beloved pet in the signature. And, in Palm Beach County as well as across the country, Valentine’s Day-themed events for pets are scheduled to promote adoptions and raise money for pet charities.
    To me, it feels like Valentine’s Day 365 days a year, thanks to sharing my home with my lovable Furry Fab Four: rescued dogs Chipper and Cleo,  and cats, Murphy and Casey. Frustrated moods quickly disappear when they greet me with tail wags and purrs.      And in our county lives a gal named Karen Roberts who is bringing the power of pet love into homes and hearts. What makes her tale even more special is how this Wellington resident has learned how to turn personal loss and tragedy into love and hope for countless animals in shelters looking for loving homes.
    Roberts happily wears many “collars” in the pet world: pet humane educator, award-winning children’s book author, T-shirt designer, event organizer and proud pet parent to six rescued dogs (Louie, Jackson, Mackie, Roxie, Ainsley and Tucker) plus one in-charge senior cat named Mia.   
    On Feb. 15, she is hosting a special Valentine’s Day-themed brunch at the Darbster Restaurant in Boca Raton to raise money for a small foster-in-the-home rescue group based in Broward County called Get a Life Pet Rescue as well as for the Darbster Foundation (the philanthropic offshoot of this restaurant).  
    Here’s your chance to create a special Valentine’s Day memory by bringing your sweet leashed canine and dining on this vegan-cuisine brunch. Consider purchasing one of her custom-designed T-shirts or an autographed copy of Roberts’ children’s books that promote animal kindness and humane pet adoption: The Little Blue Dog and A Terrier’s Tale.

Karen Roberts sits with Louie, a Chihuahua-Italian greyhound mix that inspired her book.

Photo by Melissa McDaniels

    A shy rescued Chihuahua-Italian greyhound named Louie inspired Roberts to craft The Little Blue Dog book a few years ago when she was struggling to cope with the loss of her parents, Irene and Bill, who both succumbed to cancer in 2011.
    Louie, now about 7, was surrendered by his original owner to a Los Angeles shelter already filled with Chihuahuas. He was then flown to a shelter in Boston to up his chances for adoption. When Roberts learned about Louie, she was drawn to his plight and adopted him.
    “After my parents passed away, I was struggling,” she recalls. “When I learned about Louie’s back story, I thought this dog needs my attention. He took all the focus off my grief and much more. He inspired me to write a children’s book and help me heal during this difficult time in my life.”
    Although she works full-time as an information technologist for a medical imaging lab, she pours all spare hours into educating people of all generations, especially children, on the many pluses of pet adoption. She donates book proceeds to various pet charities and sponsors pet events.  
    “It was very difficult to see the two people you care about most in your life pass away, and I felt that the best way to honor them was to live the best, most authentic life I could,” she says. “I found my authentic calling in life — making a difference for dogs, children and my community.”
    Some fourth-graders from Grassy Waters Elementary School in West Palm Beach are scheduled to join Roberts in touring the Peggy Adams Animal Shelter on April 17. The students will participate in a humane education project that involves writing and posting poems about each shelter animal in hopes of motivating people to adopt them.
    Her newest book, A Terrier’s Tale, is inspired by her latest adoptee, Tucker, a rat terrier she describes as “gentleman extraordinaire and a well-mannered guy.” This toy-loving dog tallied 45 days at the county shelter without a single toy and was one day away from being euthanatized.
     “He has become the face of the kill shelter world,” says Roberts. “He motivates me to continue writing books, advocating for animals and conducing humane education programs.”
    On the morning of Valentine’s Day, Roberts will be waking up to her Magnificent Seven, each one eager to put a smile on her face.  
    “On a daily basis, they provide companionship, love, laughter and joy and ask so little of me but give so much,” she says. “I look into their faces and feel happiness.”
    Now that’s a Valentine’s Day gift that keeps on giving.

Valentine’s brunch
    Bring your well-mannered, leashed dog for the special ‘Adopt Some Love Valentine’s Brunch’ set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 15 at Darbster, 6299 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Admission is free, with a portion of the brunch proceeds being donated to Get a Life Pet Rescue and the Darbster Foundation.

    Award-winning children’s book author and pet humane educator Karen Roberts will host the event at this vegan-cuisine restaurant. Copies of her books and T-shirts will be available for purchase.

    For more brunch details, contact Darbster restaurant at 561-586-2622. And to learn more about Karen Roberts, visit  www.thelittlebluedog.com.
    
Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

Ocean Ridge resident Pat Kropp’s Clerodendrum flowers

have been attracting attention from passersby. If you know

of a distinctive plant display in your neighborhood,

please contact The Coastal Star at news@thecoastalstar.com.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The Grass River Garden Club provided beautiful holiday floral arrangements for the pediatric staff

at Bethesda Health. ‘I know the flowers brightened the nurses’ day,’ said Andrea H. Lambrakis,

community relations coordinator for Betheda Health, in a thank-you letter.

‘Your club’s generosity and thoughtfulness is very much appreciated.’

Photo provided

Members of the Grass River Garden Club recently helped the students at Paul’s Place

replant their vegetable garden. Paul’s Place is an after-school program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

in Delray Beach that serves children from the neighborhood. When the vegetables are harvested,

they are incorporated into the students’ dinners at the after-school facility.

Photo: (front row, l-r) Ruxane Jean, Dave Auguste, Vanessa Pierre, Giovanni August and Paul’s Place director Kathy Fazio; (middle row) Tanicha Emilcar, Ayana Michel, Brandon Simervil; (back row) garden club members Jean Copp and Susan Vicinelli and Paul’s Place teacher Mark DeLorenzo.

Photo provided by Hawley McAuliffe

A snorkeler explores the remains of the Lofthus, located in 15 to 20 feet of water

off Manalapan. The ship, which wrecked 117 years ago, is a state-designated underwater archaeological preserve.

Photo by Dan Volker/South Florida Dive Journal

By Willie Howard

    Rocky hard-bottom spots and wrecks along the beaches of southern Palm Beach County offer snorkelers the opportunity to find a wide variety of fish and other marine life.
    There’s also maritime history to be explored under the waves in 15 to 25 feet of water off the beaches of Delray Beach and Manalapan.
    The easiest to find among the near-shore wrecks is the SS Inchulva, better known as the Delray wreck because the remains of the 386-foot British steamship can be found in 25 feet of water about 150 yards off the south end of Delray’s public beach. (Coordinates: 26/27.213 N and 80/03.037 W).
    The Inchulva was carrying lumber, wheat and cotton from Texas to Virginia when it sank during a hurricane on Sept. 11, 1903, killing 9 of its 28-member crew.
    A state historical marker on the beach-side approach to Casuarina Road commemorates the wreck, which is scattered in five sections.
    If you plan to swim out to the Delray wreck from the beach, bring a float-mounted dive flag.
    Snorkelers are required by law to use dive flags on floats outside of guarded swimming areas so they are visible to passing boaters.— and the Delray wreck is outside the beach swimming area that is protected by city lifeguards.
    Dan Volker, editor and publisher of the South Florida Dive Journal, suggests snorkeling with a kayak or inflatable beach float in addition to towing a dive flag. Larger floating objects are easier to spot than the dive flag alone, and they give snorkelers a place to rest.
    Snorkelers interested in fish can bring a plastic-coated fish identification guide with them — or study a book such as Reef Fish Identification by Paul Humann and Ned DeLoach before heading out.
    Volker enjoys photographing the colorful blennies he finds when snorkeling and diving because he says the small tropical fish have such human-like faces.
    When choosing a day for snorkeling, look for a west wind or calm day that leaves the ocean flat near the beach. If possible, consult a lifeguard before heading out.
    In the waters off Manalapan, the remains of the 222-foot Lofthus can be found in 15 to 20 feet of water about three-quarters of a mile north of Boynton Inlet. The best access to the state-designated underwater archaeological preserve is by boat.
    The Lofthus is about 175 yards off the beach. Its parts are scattered over an area measuring 80 yards by 15 yards, with the ship’s bow oriented northeast. (Coordinates: 26/33.776 N and 80/02.309 W).
    Three main sections of the Lofthus rise as much as 6 feet off the bottom. Built of iron and steel, the Lofthus washed ashore on Feb. 4, 1898, while carrying lumber.
    The Norwegian ship was blown apart with dynamite so the lumber could be salvaged. Some 117 years later, divers and snorkelers find fish around its twisted remains.
    “It’s a pretty dive, and it has a lot of fish on it,” Volker said.
    Veteran dive boat operator Lynn Simmons of Splashdown Divers, based at Boynton Harbor Marina, often takes divers and snorkelers to the Lofthus.
    “We are blessed with lots of good stuff out here,” Simmons said.
    Parents with young snorkelers can try searching for fish in the waters off Gulfstream Park. Wave action has exposed fish-attracting hard bottom near the beach.
    Capt. Phil Wotton of Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue said a calm day and high tide create the best conditions for snorkeling along the shoreline at the park.
    Gulfstream Park, located at 4489 N. Ocean Blvd., is open from sunrise to sunset daily. Parking is free.
                                 ***
    Blue marlin released: Justin Cohen, 15, of Morganville, N.J., caught a small blue marlin Jan. 10 while fishing with Capt. Geno Pratt on the Geno IV charter boat based at Boynton Harbor Marina. The marlin, which was released, hit a trolled ballyhoo in 550 feet of water east of Boynton Inlet.
                                 ***
     Captains, crew members to be honored: The International Game Fish Association will honor talented boat captains and crew members during its Legendary Captains and Crew ceremony set for 6 p.m. Feb. 11 at the IGFA in Dania Beach. Tickets are $75. Call Denise Hartman at (954) 924-4243 or email: Dhartman@igfa.org.

Scott Robins of Miami Beach won most outstanding catch
in the Silver Sailfish Derby tournament for this 138.8-pound
yellowfin tuna caught Jan. 9 off Boynton Beach.

He fought the tuna for 90 minutes on 20-pound-test line.

Photo courtesy of Weez in the Keys

    Big yellowfin tuna taken off Boynton: Scott Robins of Miami Beach was fishing for sailfish Jan. 9 during the Silver Sailfish Derby tournament when he hooked something unexpected — a 138.8-pound yellowfin tuna.
    Robins was fishing in 100 feet of exceptionally blue water off the Boynton Beach water tower when the big tuna hit a live goggle-eye dangled under a fishing kite.
    Robins, fishing aboard Weez in the Keys with Capt. Chris Zielinski, fought the tuna for 90 minutes using 20-pound-test line. His tuna won the Louis S. Boski Trophy for most outstanding catch in this year’s Derby.
                                 ***
    Tip of the Month: Fish offshore for kingfish, which often begin to school during February. Check with drift boats and other anglers to find out whether kingfish are being caught and, if so, where they are holding.
    If you’re planning to eat kingfish, target the smaller fish ranging from 24 to 32 inches. Try fishing with dead sardines on triple hooks tied to 50-pound-test leader. Use a quarter-ounce of weight and a colorful “duster” that covers the weight directly above the hook. Kingfish have sharp teeth, so bring pliers to remove the hooks (after the fish stops moving) or cut the leader above the hooks.
    While drifting, let your bait out and bring it in frequently. Kingfish like moving baits. Kingfish will also hit trolled spoons, vertical jigs and live baits such as blue runners, sardines or threadfin herring (greenies).
    Minimum size: 24 inches (to the fork of the tail). Daily bag limit: Two per person.

More information
To see diving photos from the Lofthus, go to www.splashdowndivers.com/wrecks/lofthus.
Underwater photos also can be found at www.facebook.com/wild.diving.
The locations of artificial reefs and mooring buoys that give boaters access to snorkeling areas can be found at www.pbcgov.com/erm/coastal/reef/.
Snorkeling and dive sites around Palm Beach County will be featured in the online video show Beyond the Beach at www.bylnetwork.com.

Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Reach him at tiowillie@bellsouth.net.

The Ferris wheel provides a nice view of the crowd, church, school grounds and the
neighborhood surrounding St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church and School.

Photo provided

By Tim Pallesen

    The big festival at St. Vincent Ferrer this month isn’t just great family fun — it also is a fundraiser projected to raise $300,000 for the parish school.
    More than 1,000 volunteers pitch in Feb. 20-22 to produce an annual event expected to draw 10,000 adults and children.
    The carnival midway with 20 thrill rides such as Rock Star and Power Surge is the biggest attraction for kids.
    Live entertainment includes Irish step dancers, an Elvis impersonator and tribute concerts to Jimmy Buffett and the Eagles.
    Food varies each day, starting with a Friday night fish fry where Monsignor Tom Skindelski serves his signature New England clam chowder. Saturday is barbecue day, and  corned beef and cabbage are slated for Sunday.
    “It’s a weekend where adults can have as much fun as the kids,” said Lola Swanson, a school parent.
    Cafe SVF serves iced coffees, and the vodka booth has margaritas. New this year is the Man Cave, where men can play bocce ball and watch basketball on big-screen TVs.
    The Delray Beach festival — now in its 48th year and by far the largest for any Catholic parish in the diocese — is the largest source of revenue for the school.
    The festival includes a popular flea market projected to raise $37,000 alone. Maria Sesto teams with Skindelski after every Mass to sell $100 raffle tickets projected to raise another $70,000.
    “Between me and the monsignor, we try to get everyone to buy tickets,” Sesto said. “Who is going to say no to the monsignor?”
    Admission and festival parking are free at the parish, at 840 George Bush Blvd. Call 276-6892 for more information.
                                    ***
    Family Promise, the heralded ecumenical effort that rescues homeless families with children, is losing two key leaders from its board of directors.
    The terms of board president Michael Diamant and local founder the Rev. Andrew Sherman ended this year.
    Extraordinary Charities of Palm Beach County recently named Family Promise of South Palm Beach County as one of the most successful and effective charities.
    Family Promise was launched in 2008 just as a recession caused widespread unemployment and loss of housing for many families with small children.
    Congregations of all faiths joined together to temporarily house families in churches and synagogues while helping the parents find a job and get a permanent home.
    The dozen Boca Raton and Delray Beach congregations that banded together are Advent Lutheran, B’nai Torah, Cason United Methodist, B’nai Israel, First United Methodist, Grace Community, St. Gregory’s Episcopal, St. Paul Lutheran, St. Paul’s Episcopal, Temple Beth El, the Chapel of St. Andrew and Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
    Each congregation needs 50 to 70 volunteers to host up to four homeless families for a week. Additional volunteers help out from other congregations that include the Islamic Center of Boca Raton.
    “We’re taking our faith and bringing it to life,” Family Promise executive director Kokie Dinnen said. “We don’t let theology get in the way.”
    Cindy Winter, a vice president of Iberia Bank in Boca Raton, takes over as board president. Diamant and Sherman will stay involved on a new advisory board.
    “We’re not riding off into the sunset,” said Sherman, the rector of St. Gregory’s Episcopal in Boca Raton.
                                    ***
    The music programs of Family Promise congregations join together on Feb. 8, for the third annual Sounds of Promise concert.
    The 3 p.m. concert will be hosted by First United Methodist Church, 625 NE Mizner Blvd., behind the Mizner Park amphitheater in Boca Raton.
    Choirs from First Methodist, B’nai Torah and the Abundant Life Christian Center will perform in addition to musicians from other congregations.
    Tickets are $20 for adults with children age 12 and younger for free.
                                    ***
     Jewish and Christian teenagers will glean vegetable fields west of Delray Beach together on Feb. 16 in a unique interfaith event.
    The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County has teamed with Christians Reaching Out to Society Ministries in hopes the teens of different faith will “get to know each other and build bridges of respect” as they harvest the fields to feed the poor.
    Call CROS gleaning director Keith Cutshall at 233-9009 for more information.
                                    ***
    Advent Lutheran became a “church without walls” on Jan. 25, as members fanned out to eight places in the community to make a difference in the lives of others.
    The Rev. Richard Barbour challenged his Boca Raton congregation to emulate the ancient church that didn’t have buildings.
    “They were not insulated or isolated from the world around them,” Barbour said. “They shared the good news with anyone who would listen and helped anyone in need.”
    So teams of volunteers packed grocery bags for the poor, hosted a pancake breakfast for at-risk youths, visited the elderly, cleaned the beach, beautified the Family Promise day house and Tri-County Animal Shelter plus other tasks for the community instead of their normal Sunday morning worship service.
                                    ***
    The search to find a new rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach has been unsuccessful.
    The lengthy search began after the Rev. Chip Stokes left in May 2013 to become Bishop of New Jersey. Two finalists who visited the church last month were not offered the job.
    “The sense of the search committee and the vestry is that we haven’t found a new rector yet,” committee chairman Mike Armstrong said.
    A second search will begin after Easter.

Tim Pallesen writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Email him at tcpallesen@ aol.com.

Alexis Base of Boynton Beach enjoys going to Ocean Inlet Park

with her family. The eighth-grader’s latest science project focuses on using

autonomous underwater vehicles to recognize and potentially harvest

non-native lionfish, which  damage Florida’s reefs and the native fish populations.

Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    In today’s world, divers help control invasive lionfish on South Florida reefs by spearing them, handling them carefully and bringing them home for dinner.
    Middle school student Alexis Base of Boynton Beach envisions a more high-tech system for controlling lionfish.
    She’s developing an image-recognition program that would allow autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, to recognize — and possibly capture or kill — invasive lionfish on Florida’s reefs.
    Alexis, 13, of Boynton Beach, is an eighth-grade student at A.D. Henderson University School on the campus of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where she studies ocean engineering.
    Her lionfish image-recognition project idea recently won first place in computer science, excellence in marine biology and a host of other awards at the Palm Beach Regional Science and Engineering Fair. Her project advances to the state science fair in Lakeland in late March.
    “Alexis chose a project involving an invasive species to Florida to help solve this intense problem,” said Suzette Milu, a middle school science teacher at A.D. Henderson. “The cool thing is she not only followed the science method taught in all schools but learned to use software to design a model camera to carry out her hypothesis and further research.”
    Her science fair project focused on using AUVs to recognize lionfish by comparing them to stock photos of lionfish using Google image processing.
    She found that the Google system was able to correctly identify her lionfish photos 67 percent of the time and was able to identify lionfish in videos 13 percent of the time.
    Her conclusion: There’s still work to be done on lionfish image recognition, but she believes there is potential for using AUVs to track down lionfish in places that are hard for humans to reach — such as the bottom in 300 feet of water.
    Alexis began thinking of how to use AUVs to control nonnative fish when one of her instructors explained the problem of reef-invading lionfish — fish transplanted from the Pacific and Indian oceans that prey on more than 70 Florida native fish and invertebrates, including yellowtail snapper, Nassau grouper and parrotfish.
    Alexis is not new to submersible technology.
    As a member of A.D. Henderson’s underwater robotics team, she competed with fellow students in a national underwater robotics competition last year with an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) the size of a shoebox that was required to swim through hoops, open a gate and pick up objects on the bottom.
    “Alexis is passionate about science and in the past two years has grown to be a leader and mentor to many students,” Milu said.
    She writes programs in the ROBOTC language and learned about three-dimensional  design during the Tech Garage summer program at FAU.
    “When she talks to me, it’s like another language,” said Alexis’ mom, Michelle Base. “We’re very proud of her.”
    Alexis’ sister, Hailey, a sixth-grader at A.D. Henderson, is no slouch in the science department either.
    Hailey’s science fair project, focusing on the gregarious nature of Atala caterpillars, won fourth place in zoology at the Palm Beach County science fair. She concluded that juvenile caterpillars are more social than their adult counterparts.
    Alexis hopes to continue developing her lionfish image-recognition project if she is accepted to FAU High School next year.
    She hopes to earn college credit while attending high school at FAU, finish her undergraduate degree by age 18,  and go to work for Lockheed Martin or Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, where she already has taught other students as part of the Sea Perch underwater robotics program.

At right, Igor Bobkov, tennis pro, works with Temur Ismailov,

currently ranked 522, Tuesday at the Pro World Tennis Center in Delray.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Pike

    For the uninitiated, tennis (except for doubles) is rarely viewed as a team sport. But in reality, the majority of the game’s most successful players have had a strong coach in their backgrounds. Andre Agassi and Monica Seles, for example, each rose to the top with the help of legendary coach Nick Bollettieri; Boca Raton’s Andy Roddick became one of the world’s top players under the guidance of Brad Gilbert.
    Meet the team of Igor Bobkov and Timur Ismailov. The duo certainly isn’t in the “household name’’ category of say, Gilbert and Roddick, but each is working hard in Delray Beach to establish himself in the world of professional tennis.
    Actually, Bobkov already has a solid reputation as a coach in his native Ukraine, where he has coached seven players to “Master of Sport” titles in the past 20 years. Bobkov, who has coached with Alex Demidenko — the former No. 1-ranked singles and doubles player for the Soviet Union — discovered and coached fellow Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko, who has won more than $2 million in prize money since 2000, as well as developed the career of Russia’s Nadeza Petrova, who has won 13 WTA titles and more than $12 million prize money in 15 years on the pro circuit.
    Teaching out of ProWorld Tennis in Delray Beach, Bobkov’s current protégé is Ismailov, a hard-hitting 20-year-old from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who hopes to qualify for the Delray Beach Open, Feb. 13-15 at the Delray Beach Tennis Center. Ismailov, a member of Uzbekistan’s 2014 Davis Cup team, has been ranked as high as No. 504 in the ATP world ranking and currently is No. 522.
    “Tim is a guy who can easily be in the Top 100,’’ said Bobkov, who in the 1980s was ranked the No. 10 singles player in the Soviet Union and No. 5 in the Ukraine. “He’s a hard worker with a good all-around game.’’
    Undoubtedly Bobkov, 48, sees a lot of himself — and what could have been for him — in Ismailov. In the ’80s, there were essentially no professional sports in the Ukraine — then part of the Soviet Union. Players with world-class potential were denied most opportunities to compete internationally for fear they would defect, as Czech star Martina Navratilova did in 1975.
    Bobkov, whose 18-year-old son lives in war-torn Ukraine, shrugged slightly when he thought about those lost days.
    “I think I would have done pretty well,’’ he said.
    These days, however, Bobkov is focusing on Ismailov, whom  he first saw play two years ago in Uzbekistan. When Ismailov came to Delray Beach two months ago to live with a family friend and hone his tennis game, he contacted Bobkov to come from China, where he was teaching, to Delray Beach.
    As sports synchronicity works, Bobkov’s friend, psychologist Dr. Ira Schwartz, lives part-time in Delray Beach. Bobkov met Schwartz and his wife, Anne, a few years at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Racquet Club and has served as the couple’s tennis partner and teacher.
    “Igor is an incredible tennis player,’’ Schwartz said. “He’s also very knowledgeable and has a wonderful talent for being able to relate to students and teach things in a gentle way.’’
    What Bobkov is trying to relate to Ismailov, is more of the power game that was popular in men’s tennis when he was growing up.
    “We’re working a lot on serve and volley,’’ Bobkov said. “Not that many players play a serve and volley game anymore. Tennis has become a little boring with all the baseline play. It can be a more exciting game and I think Tim can be an exciting player.’’

Florida’s environmental disaster hits the beaches

Sea Angels created a sculpture from garbage found along the shore.

Volunteers filled a plastic hardhat they found with drinking straws, fishing line and rope they picked up along the shore.

Photos provided

Volunteers scout Ocean Inlet Park for trash to clear.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Cheryl Blackerby

Early on a beautiful Saturday morning, 59 people hit the beach at Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge, but this event, sponsored by the Sea Angels, was all business and not at all pleasurable.

With buckets and hand-held grabbers, they picked up debris, the vast majority of which was plastic.

After only two-and-half hours, they had collected a mound of plastic fishing line, nets, lures and bobbers, and had filled a 5-gallon container with plastic bottle caps; a bucket with Mylar balloons; and a 5-gallon jug with plastic straws. A 5-gallon container overflowed with cigarette butts, made of a plastic called cellulose acetate.

The trash also included 12- and 20-gauge shotgun shells, plastic containers from the Bahamas, a complete IV kit with syringe traced back to New Jersey and plastic medical waste from Haiti.

 That trash haul was the tip of the iceberg of the ocean’s plastic garbage, which tumbles onto South Florida’s beaches with every wave.

A week later, the plastic trash was back. Even the Sea Angels’ organizers, Robin and Mike Halasz, agree it’s a futile effort.“The primary purpose of the clean-ups is to educate people,” said Mike Halasz. “We want people to see what’s being thrown into the ocean.”

The plastic debris is more than unsightly, it is killing birds, turtles, marine mammals and coral reefs.

Annual reaf cleanups sponsored by the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative and the state Department of Environmental Protection, reveal reefs choked with plastic bags and fishing nets, and coral slashed by fishing line and destroyed by larger plastic items such as lawn chairs and, ironically, plastic garbage bins.

In only 60 years since plastics have been mass-produced, it has caused incalculable damage:

  • A state study, done 10 to 20 miles offshore from Palm Beach County, collected  turtle post-hatchlings, and found 80 percent had plastic in their stomachs, said Dr. Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.  Plastic usually kills turtles if not treated. He showed a photo of a hatchling turtle 20 miles off the coast resting on sargassum inundated with plastic shards of bottles that once held cleaning fluid.

  • In the world’s oceans, scientists estimate there are six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton, Rusenko said. Whales consume the plastic, lose weight and die. And scientists are worried about the toxins in plastic released as they break down in the food chain.

  • Sea birds die after swallowing fishhooks and plastic monofilament fishing line. Dead pelicans hang in the mangroves on islands off Hypoluxo Island. Pelicans injured by plastic fishing line wrapped around wings and feet is a familiar problem for the South Florida Wildlife Center in Fort Lauderdale, says Sherry Schlueter, the center’s executive director.

   • In the Pacific, scientists estimate about 50 percent of boobies and other seabirds   die from plastic ingestion. “The parents collect plastic in the ocean and bring it back and feed it to the chicks. Probably the same thing is happening with seabirds here,” said Rusenko.

Varied sources of debris

Most commonly-used plastics, including so-called biodegradable bags, do not go away in the ocean and instead break down into smaller pieces called “microplastics,” less than 5mm long, according to a report released last month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study. Experts speculate that the vast majority of plastics made in the last 60 years are still with us.

A state study showed 80 percent of the plastic in the Atlantic off the South Florida coast comes from inland sources via rivers and waterways; 20 percent from coastal cities, boats and other states and countries, according to NOAA. The sources of the garbage are individuals throwing it in the water, one soda bottle or cup at a time, and illegal trash dumping on a larger, institutional scale.

Debris gets pulled from the west through the gates of nine canals from Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade, especially after a lot of rain, said Randy Smith, spokesperson for South Florida Water Management District.

His office got numerous complaints in January and February from Boca Raton residents who saw piles of white plastic gallon-jugs, plastic lawn chairs and water bottles in the Hillsboro Canal. All of it ends up in the ocean.

The piles of plastic in the canal in February prompted Susan Whelchel, Boca’s mayor at the time, to write to Gov. Rick Scott for help.

“This situation has become critical,” she said. “The impacts to the water system, the disturbance to the environment, and the unsightly accumulations are not acceptable.”

But the district’s primary concern, said Smith, is that nothing interferes with the flow of water out, not how much plastic goes into the ocean.

Floating garbage patches

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous trash vortex about the size of Texas, is well-known, but the Atlantic Ocean, too, has a huge gyre that collects an unfathomable amount of plastic from the East Coast.  Although its east-west span is unknown, the patch covers a huge region roughly between between Cuba and Virginia, according to National Geographic.

The Sea Education Association has been doing extensive research on the Atlantic Garbage Patch. Nearly 7,000 students from the SEA semester program have dragged nets through the Atlantic for more than 22 years and found plastic marine pollution similar to that in the Pacific.

The most common sources of plastic debris, according to NOAA are: Illegal dumping, accidental losses at sea, unsecured garbage bins, improper disposal, cumulative small-scale sources, carelessness, onshore industries, fishing, offshore oil and gas operations, recreational boaters, commercial vessels and event balloon releases.

“We’re kind of behind the game and need to catch up quickly,” said Lourdes Ferris, executive director of Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, which sponsors coastal cleanups and recently drafted a position statement for the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs called “Reduce Marine Plastic Pollution.”

“More research from NOAA and the Ocean Conservancy is coming out and a lot of groups are concerned about the issue,” she said.

Plastics have a very short history; they’ve been mass-produced only since the 1940s and 1950s. Dow Chemical invented polystyrene in 1954, which is one of the most widely manufactured plastics in the world, used for building insulation, packaging, cups and Styrofoam take-out food containers.

Polystyrene does not biodegrade for hundreds of years, say experts, and is resistant to photolysis (chemical decomposition induced by light or other radiant energy).  Scientists say the oceans are full of it.

What can we do about plastic pollution, an environmental disaster off Florida’s coast? Most experts say ban it. Miami Beach has banned Styrofoam containers and plastic straws at restaurants. California has banned plastic bags, which have a lifespan of centuries, according to NOAA. 

More oversight and harsher penalties for illegal dumping and littering; and education about the harm of plastic garbage are other options. In the Pacific, scientists are considering harvesting plastic with big conveyer barges, but they can't do that in the Atlantic without scooping up sargassum and turtles.

Environmentalists say the answer is simple: Don’t throw plastic into drains and water; don’t use it, and don’t buy it.

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Plastics — The effect on Florida wildlife and what to do about it

Lifespans of plastic products,

according to NOAA:

Six-pack holder (plastic rings): 400 years
Plastic bottle: 450 years
Monofilament fishing line: 600 years
Cigarette butt: centuries
Plastic grocery bag: centuries
Mylar balloon: centuries
Fishing nets: decades to centuries
Styrofoam buoy: 80 years

By Rich Pollack

    Plans to install license plate recognition systems in several coastal communities along State Road A1A are moving forward, with local law enforcement officials exploring the possibility of having a shared database housed in Delray Beach.
    During a meeting last month in Ocean Ridge, residents and town leaders from several municipalities had an opportunity to hear about successes the Broward County community of Lighthouse Point is having with automatic license plate scanners and to raise concerns ranging from costs to privacy.
    While several local governments still need to give approval to plans to install cameras — and to fund the efforts — Ocean Ridge Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi believes some cameras might be installed along A1A before the end of 2015. At least one town, Highland Beach, has already budgeted money for license-plate recognition cameras in its current budget.
    Yannuzzi, who has been leading a multi-agency team exploring the possibility of coastal communities working together to share costs associated with scanners, said there is a strong possibility the Delray Beach Police Department could house a database that would be shared by participating police departments.
    License-plate scanning systems operate by scanning and photographing license plates and comparing those plate numbers with information in a law-enforcement database. When a match is found, for a stolen vehicle for example, the appropriate police department is notified and after verification, officers then may be dispatched for further investigation.
    License-plate scanning systems are also being used by law enforcement agencies as an investigative tool to solve crimes.
    Currently the towns of Palm Beach and Manalapan have license-plate scanner systems operating.
    During the meeting last month, Lighthouse Point Police Chief Ross Licata said that he believes a system in which agencies policing the coastal area worked together would be beneficial. “You are geographically ideal for a system like this,” he said.
    Throughout a presentation by Lighthouse Point Police Commander Michael Oh, residents raised questions, among them whether the cameras are used to catch speeders.
    Oh told the small group that was not the case and not the purpose of the cameras, which only capture tag numbers of cars passing by. He also said the cameras are used strictly for law enforcement purposes and by law cannot be used by private individuals or businesses to keep track of a teenager, a spouse or customers.
    In Lighthouse Point, according to Oh and Licata, more than $1 million in stolen property has been recovered — including 85 stolen vehicles — since 2010, when the system was installed.
    Over the past two years, Licata said, crime has fallen dramatically, dropping 20 percent in 2013 and an estimated 30 percent last year.
    Asked whether the drop in the crime rate can be attributed to word getting out about the cameras, Oh said his department doesn’t have signs advising that the system is in use but doesn’t hide the fact either.
    “It’s not a secret,” he said. “We do let the media know about our successes.”
    Residents were told the system costs about $20,000 per two-camera installation but learned communities might see a reduction of cost by banding together and buying a larger quantity.
    In Ocean Ridge, resident Bob Merkel said he believes there is overwhelming support for installing license plate scanners in the town and hopes commissioners will support the idea.
    “There is no question in my mind that this will make the community safer,” he said.
    Merkel said residents of his neighborhood off of Island Drive, are so supportive of the idea that they are willing to fund the cameras themselves.
    “We already have $20,000 in verbal commitments,” he said.
    During last month’s presentation, Licata was asked how the cameras are being received by Lighthouse Point residents.
    “We haven’t had any complaints,” he said. “To the contrary, people are happy to have them.”

    There was a time I’d stopped going because the checkout line sometimes smelled like urine and the parking lot hosted panhandlers. Still, the location was convenient and there were a few items I preferred over the Publix across the street. So I will miss the Winn-Dixie just across the Woolbright Road bridge, on the Intracoastal in Boynton Beach.  
    I have fond memories of the place when my mother was alive. While she lived in Briny Breezes, she could push her small cart over to do her shopping. Without a car (she hadn’t driven in years), this gave her a sense of freedom that she cherished. She loved the walk across the bridge and the lovely, friendly cashier who was always singing church songs.
    They looked after Mom there. When her memory began to fade, they would help her with her debit card or call to say she’d forgotten a bag of groceries or her wallet. It was a neighborhood place and they knew their regular customers.
    Of course, that’s been a long time ago, and as much as I would love to see a friendly, neighborhood Whole Foods take its place, I suppose a grocery store on the Intracoastal doesn’t make much sense. The Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency and the property owner say they are looking to “optimize the water views” as they attract a new tenant. I interpret that to mean more restaurants or residential.
    If those are the only options, I hope they’ll pursue more restaurants. I still drive and hope to for many, many more years. But when the time comes for me to trade in my car keys for a shopping cart, I hope there’s someplace I can reach by foot to buy groceries or a sandwich.
    A bunch of single-family homes does not make a neighborhood. Neighborhoods require essential services. As our small barrier island towns consider the future, we should think about this. Let’s not become a string of gated communities.
    I know it can seem frightening to have so little control over what happens on the west side of the bridge, but let’s keep talking with each other and considering plans that will allow us all to grow old here — with the freedom to walk down the street for a haircut, a pint of ice cream or tomorrow’s dinner.

Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

Ron Wells at The George Snow Scholarship Fund office in Boca Raton.

Behind him are portraits of George Snow Scholarship recipients.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes
 
    During his years in the construction industry, Ron Wells lived in 22 locations around the country.
    New Jersey and Kentucky; Mississippi, Texas and Nebraska. Atlanta, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Six different places in New York state alone.
    “Plus I was also taking on international assignments,” he says, “so I wanted to live someplace where I felt like I was on vacation when I returned to the U.S.”
    In 1988, Wells discovered Boca Raton and bought a home. And after retiring here in 2008, he discovered the George Snow Scholarship Fund.
    Now, instead of building highways, dams and bridges, Wells is helping to construct an educational infrastructure for the area’s deserving high school seniors.
    Recently, he donated $100,000 to initiate the Snow Education Endowment Campaign, an effort to raise at least $1 million in 2015, with an ultimate goal of $20 million in the years ahead.
    “When I lived in California, I was involved with a scholarship that gave out $700,000 a year,” Wells explains. “But they gave it directly to the universities. We never got to meet the kids. Here, I not only meet the kids, I meet their parents.”
    In donating to the Snow scholarships, Wells is also supporting a foundation named for a man who, like himself, found his calling in construction.
    George Snow came to the area in 1958 and taught high school math in Delray Beach before moving into real estate development and construction in Boca Raton. After Snow’s 1980 death in a helicopter crash, his son, Tim, established the George Snow Scholarship Fund to honor a father who had left teaching, but never abandoned his commitment to education.
    “In 2014, we had 684 applicants,” Tim Snow said, “and we gave $634,000 to 83 students.”

    The average scholarship is $7,500 for four years, to make up the difference between their grants and loans.”
    Other scholarships hand out checks, but the Snow Fund prides itself on establishing relationships. Each recipient leaves for college with a laptop, a duffel bag of school supplies and a college physical.
    “After the recent shooting at FSU,” Snow says, “we called all 28 of our recipients there to make sure they were all right. They become part of our family.”
    It’s that personal touch that’s inspired Wells to promise another $100,000 when the endowment reaches $450,000 and the same again when it tops $900,000.
    “I’ve met kids from foster homes who are working a couple of jobs, and they’re at the top of their class,” he says. “The first time you meet the recipients is in June, and then you meet their folks with tears in their eyes, thanking you. It’s incredible.”
    The father of four adult sons, including one in Boca Raton and another in Delray Beach, Wells spends his free time caring for his house, managing investments and collecting Porsche 911s. He has 18, so far.
    Every year, he tries to visit a locale he hasn’t seen yet. Africa is his favorite, and China is high on the list.
    “And I have a boat, so I fish a little,” he adds. “Unsuccessfully.”
    Beyond providing seed money for a permanent endowment, he’s contributed individual scholarships in his own name, earmarked when possible for engineering students.
    “But this is not about me,” he says. “There’s a lot of money here, and there’s a lot of people in Palm Beach County. The ideal would be that someone sees this who is not familiar with the George Snow Foundation and says, ‘I’d like to learn more.’ ”
    The application deadline for the Spring 2015 George Snow Scholarships is Feb. 1. For more information, visit www.scholarship.org or call 347-6799.

Caribbean Cowboy Ball

On Jan. 24, the George Snow Scholarship Fund will have its 22nd annual ‘Caribbean Cowboy Ball.’
What: A western-themed fundraiser with live music, food, an open bar and an auction featuring beach vacations and two weeks in the South of France.
When: 6 p.m. Jan. 24.
Where: Red Reef Park, Boca Raton.
Tickets: $175 per person; corporate package with preferred seating available for $2,250.
Reservations: Call 347-6799.

Sisters pose outside the original Florida Cenacle, in Manalapan.

Courtesy of the North American Province of the Cenacle

The entrance to the chapel at The Cenacle in Lantana. Ground was broken on the site in 1961.

The interior of the chapel at the Cenacle, which hosted its first retreat in 1963.

Photos courtesy of the North American Province of the Cenacle

By Mary Thurwachter

    After five decades in Lantana, the Cenacle Sisters are saying farewell.
    The Catholic sisters have sold their prime waterfront property to developers for a high-end apartment complex called Aura Seaside.
    Soon the chapel, meeting rooms and cottages on 10 acres stretching from the Intracoastal Waterway to Dixie Highway will be bulldozed. The labyrinth already has been dismantled and moved to another retreat center, courtesy of the local Boy Scouts.
    It’s been a good run for the nuns, who have guided thousands of souls over the years.
    A lack of nuns and money forced the sisters to close up shop. The remaining nuns will move to other places with a Cenacle presence, likely Chicago and Atlanta.
    The donations of those who utilized the spiritual center helped, but were not nearly enough, said Cenacle spokeswoman Sister Mary Sharon Riley.  
    Over the years, 63 nuns served in Lantana and some “were called more than once,” Riley said. She spent three or four years in Lantana, but more recently, flew back and forth from Chicago to advocate for needed zoning changes as well as the site plan, which won the Town Council’s approval in November.  
    The closing date on the property, at 1400 S. Dixie Highway, is Jan. 12.

    Aura Seaside, with 244 units, will be gated, have a pool and a hot tub, a clubhouse and a gym, as well as an 8-foot-wide promenade.

The Cenacle hosts a Taize service that included folk instruments.

Retreats, meditation
    The center offered nondenominational retreats (including silent retreats), prayer, meditation and a labyrinth. It was well-known for its 12-step retreats.
    Riley said that from 2000 to 2007, the Cenacle averaged 7,836 visitors a year — not all for retreats.
    Before the Cenacle was built in Lantana, it operated from a home on A1A in Manalapan. The Diocese of Miami donated the house.
    “That house was lovely, but too small,” Riley said. “There was only room for 15 people.” The Lantana Cenacle could sleep about 60.
    Groundbreaking at the present site was in 1961, she said. The diocese helped fund it. The first retreat was held in January 1963.

Visitors walk the Cenacle labyrinth in 1999. Boy Scouts already have removed the pavers

that formed the maze for installation elsewhere.

Sacred space
    The Cenacle (the name for the upper room site of Christ’s Last Supper) is sacred space to those who know it.
    Lisa Windel, 48, a massage therapist from Greenacres, said for her it was a place to rest and heal. She attended her first retreat when she was 23 and continued going to them for 24 years.
    “The Cenacle is a place to find yourself again,” she said. “It changed me. It helped me go deeper inside myself and to grow spiritually. It inspired me to convert to Catholicism.”
    In fact, Windel was so moved by the experiences she had at the spiritual center, she became a companion — a lay member of the Cenacle. Companions, she explained, bring spirituality into the community and work with the sisters. But they don’t do retreats.  
    She and 23 other Cenacle Companions will continue. They hold monthly meetings at St. Mark Catholic Church in Boynton Beach.
    The Cenacle Sisters were founded in France in the late 1800s by Sister Thérèse Couderc, who became a saint in 1970.
    There are about five Cenacle retreat houses in the United States and others around the world, including in Australia, Italy, Belgium, Madagascar, Brazil, the Netherlands, Singapore, the Philippines and Canada.
    While she enjoyed the warmer weather  — it was a welcome escape from Chicago’s frigid winter temps — Riley said she was never much of a beach person.
    “I’m very fair-skinned and I have been sunburned,” she said. “No sense in burning again.”
    She will miss the people and the gift of seeing the difference “an awake and alive faith means for  them,” she said.  
    Beyond that, she said, the sisters occasionally enjoyed the Ice Cream Club in Plaza del Mar.
    “But I will not miss the palmetto bugs,” she said.

    Your articles are great (“Airport project can benefit wildlife as well as human life” and “Gumbo Limbo thawing out stressed turtles”), but to me they highlight the ridiculous waste of my grandchildren’s money as they are the ones that will either pay our national debt or default.
    My grandchildren are the endangered species and we had better start to understand that soon.
    Please, if wildlife is endangering humans in any way, then they must go and we do not need a costly study to figure it out. I can’t even comprehend a hospital for turtles, and my bankrupt grandchildren are flying them from Massachusetts to Florida! Are you serious?
    Why worry about this little spending? Well, dimes roll faster than dollars, so why not start cutting nonsense spending and these are two great examples.
    I don’t mean to pick on turtles, or wildlife, but there are tens of thousands of these seemingly worthwhile projects going on in the country. Usually ultra-rich embraced, but with taxpayer monies being used. The funding by the FAA, or any other government agency is, in the end, taxpayer money.
    I have no idea who funds the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, but let’s put that money toward the national debt or helping needy children, as we can not afford both any longer.
    Yes, I’m on the children’s side and human lives trump any wildlife, including black bears that kill humans every year.
    Thanks for waking me up to what is going on and I hope others will see this as way over-the-top spending.
Fred Taubert
Delray Beach

    Regarding your December article “Ocean Ridge closer to beach enforcement plan”:
    No one has an issue with protecting property owners’ rights and that should include the dunes and sand. Since the commission is choosing to literally draw a line in that sand, I hope I can tell where it is. I guess after the second or third citation I will figure it out.
    The real issue I have is with the second to last paragraph, which states that the long debate over signage and beach lines is about property rights and not about restricting beach access. Give me a break!
    The property rights argument is a recent addition and frankly a separate legal issue. We already have laws protecting personal property. If they need to be better enforced, so be it.
    The real telling example of the true motivation of the debate is when the commission, of which I was then a member, took up the action of making the A1A and Woolbright Road intersection safer for pedestrians. A group of residents mustered the troops and came out very strongly against any safety improvements.
    The issue of property rights never was discussed. In fact, the argument was that “they” (I guess as opposed to “we”) can already walk a few blocks north or south to access the beach. I assume the property rights of those beach owners were a little less important.
    At a recent commission meeting, a new commissioner spoke passionately in favor of an ordinance change making it illegal for a vehicle to stop or stand at any public crossover. This commissioner used the Beachway Drive crossover as an example of an accident waiting to happen. This is on a street with stop signs and a 20 mph speed limit.
    But where all credibility was lost for me that night was that the commissioner arguing vehemently for safety was, as a private citizen, one of the most outspoken opponents of the A1A safety improvements. Once again, give me a break! I guess our definitions of a dangerous intersection will have to differ.
    All this being said, the concern I have is the attitude of the commission. As I attend these meetings and listen to these discussions, they revolve around where the “public” can have identifiable beach access, where the “public” can stop or stand or unload, where the “public” can lawfully enjoy the beach.
    Well, I am the “public” and so are over 90 percent of the citizens of Ocean Ridge who do not own beachfront property. Who do the commissioners think they are speaking about when they discuss the “public”? When people speak to these concerns at meetings the answers are, “The police will have discretion (wink-wink). We really don’t mean you (wink-wink).” What kind of policy are we instituting? Who is representing the interest of the Ocean Ridge public?
    At the end of the day I am saddened. Ocean Ridge is a great town, and the population has always been super friendly. The current commission seems to have let a small coalition of disgruntled citizens turn their actions very mean-spirited. This does not seem like the town we have all enjoyed.
Edward J. Brookes
Ocean Ridge