A sampling of the foods the Cornucopia project provides to the needy.

Flowers and cornucopia provided by Lynda Tatara of The Blossom Shoppes in Boynton Beach.

Photo by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

INSET BELOW:  Sherry Johnson

Cornucopia program delivers holiday meals to those in need.

By Jan Norris

    More than 250 families will have a complete holiday dinner on their tables for Thanksgiving this year, thanks to the Community Caring Center of Greater Boynton Beach — and a whole community of volunteers.
    The CCC’s Cornucopia program, now in its 12th year, depends on donations of food and money as well as volunteer time from a number of community organizations to fill and distribute the Cornucopia “baskets” of foods to needy families.
    “We strive for 250 baskets,” said Sherry Johnson, director of the Boynton Beach center that also runs the Secret Garden Café. “But we’ve been so blessed — in some years, we received food from R.J. Gators and other places, and exceeded that number by hundreds. We served as many as 890 families one year.”
    The number of filled baskets is usually around 325, she said — and figuring for families of four, that’s a minimum of 1,300 people fed during the project.
    “We give them the food — a voucher for a turkey, ham or chicken — and the basket of rice, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, celery, onions, gravy packets. They’re able to put together a traditional meal, cooked at home to their liking,” she said.
    Jill Clemens of Boynton Beach, a caretaker for an elderly friend, has been unable to find full-time work. She received a Cornucopia basket to help feed her son and her father last year and will again get a basket this  Thanksgiving.
    “It really helps a lot,” she said. “They give you a bunch of veggies and other food, and a voucher for a turkey.”
    She’s able to to stretch food for several meals, and often can get both a small turkey and a ham with the voucher, making for even more meals.
    “I’m having a hard time, taking care of the elderly gentleman, getting him his infusions and take care of whatever he needs at his apartment, so this is a big help to us,” she said.
    The recipients are chosen by application which are accepted from mid-September through mid-October. Donations come in from all over, thanks to involvement with areawide food drives like Project Thanksgiving and Food for Families.
    Sandra Vanegas works with Johnson as the coordinator of the Cornucopia program at CCC. She also works to help coordinate the dozens of families that receive food and other aid from the center throughout the year.
    “We do take applications from others, but we want to make sure our own clients are taken care of before we open it to the needy beyond our community.”
    Vanegas said the Palm Beach County Food Bank helps a number of other centers and organizations who help feed the needy, and the center coordinates with them and local congregations to make sure everyone highlighted as needy gets a holiday meal.
    Churches and synagogues put out the call from the shopping list, and they  take up a collection, sometimes for a specific food — say, a case of onions or canned green beans.
    “Seniors at Sterling Village donate in lieu of their 85th birthday gifts,” Johnson said. There are Red Hat societies, woman’s clubs, fire departments, sports leagues and others who get together to donate. “Rorabeck Produce usually donates the celery and onions — those are sometimes the hardest to get,” she notes.
    The city and its workers are important to the program as well, she said. “Lori Laverriere (city manager) and her staff, and Karen Abramson in the library are wonderful supporters of our efforts.”
    At the library, the program “Food for Fines” provides donations to the baskets in lieu of fines for overdue books.
    She’s always in awe, she said, at how it all comes together from so many sources. “If you put it out there that you are going to provide for 250 people, you watch how God strikes his hand to provide, and you realize how blessed we are.”
    The most important item for donation is the turkey, Johnson said. Monetary gifts of $10 go to buy vouchers from Publix, WalMart and Winn-Dixie.
    The foods and voucher are sometimes enough to help a struggling family eat through the next month, she said.
    A youth group that changes each year volunteers to help put together the foods donated. The organization and packing takes place Tuesday morning on the week before Thanksgiving.
    “St. Mark’s Catholic School kids are ones who have done it in the past,” she said, but she’s happy to spread the work to teens in need of community service hours or other youth groups looking for a community-based project.
    The baskets are filled, then arranged in the parking lot at the center the following weekend, and recipients arrive to pick them up.
    Johnson said other help comes from church groups who identify those in need and recommend them for the Cornucopia program. “We work with the Greater St. Paul A.M.E. — a lot of my staff are volunteers from that church.”
    Any leftover foods are then distributed on a first-come, first-served basis from the center on the Monday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. If a significant amount is leftover, it is saved for Christmastime distribution in similar baskets.
 They also work with the Big Heart Brigade from the north end of the county to distribute cooked meals to shut-ins.
    Prepared foods for those who are unable to cook are picked up by Johnson and other volunteers, and distributed to the church groups, who take them to the homes of the shut-ins.
The majority, however, are in the form of ingredients for a home-cooked meal. While the basket has most traditional foods, and are not altered for dietary restrictions — “One size fits all,” she said — recipients can vary the flavors to their tastes.
    While some organizations dish out cooked meals for turkey day, Johnson says giving them ingredients for their own, and allowing each family to cook their favorite dishes is key, since “there’s nothing like mom’s home cooking for the holidays.”

How to help

The Community Caring Center puts out the following wish list for items to include in its Cornucopia baskets. To be included, donations are needed by Nov. 17.

• 500 cans of green beans and/or cranberry sauce
• 250 boxes of stuffing mix and/or mashed potatoes
• 250 packets of gravy mix
• 250 (1-pound) bags of rice
• 250 cans of pumpkin pie mix and/or sweet potatoes or yams
• 250 bunches of celery
• 250 (3-pound bags) of onions
• 250 $10 turkey vouchers

Volunteers are needed to pick up foods, organize the baskets and help hand them out at the CCC on Nov. 22.
For information, contact the Community Caring Center, 364-9501, Ext. 22 or 25.
Money donations can be mailed to the Community Caring Center of Greater Boynton Beach, 145 NE Fourth Ave., Boynton Beach, FL 33435.

April Markee (left, in pink) leads an hourlong fitness program along A1A in Delray Beach. The program provides

new moms an opportunity to meet other local moms and their babies while getting fit.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Linda Haase

    Squats. Lunges. Planks. Situps. Weight lifting. Jumping jacks. Pushups. April Markee’s fitness class is no stroll in the park.
    That’s because the hourlong Stroller Mommy ’n’ Me workout is designed to get moms in shape — while having fun. The group meets at Veterans Park in Delray Beach, then “strolls” over to A1A, combining intervals of power walking and jogging with strength training.
    “My program is unique because you get to be with your child while getting fit in the great outdoors looking at the beautiful ocean. No gym can offer you that. Also, it gives mommies a chance to be with other moms and ask questions and share their stories,” explains the 49-year-old Delray Beach resident.  
    “I find and hear that the first thing new moms give up is their workout and interaction with the outside world, and that’s exactly what they need. Working out is just not for your body, it also benefits your mental health.”
    Erin Omiatek Ortiz agrees.  “After having my daughter, I had gained 60 pounds from not working out and being on bed rest most of my pregnancy. When I went to begin my training with April she inspired me to get back to ‘me.’ She helped me lose that weight and get back to the awesome body I had before,” says the 30-year-old Delray Beach mom who joined the group a year ago with daughter Ivana. “My entire life before baby was mostly in gyms, but I did not want to subject my child to germs. Stroller class is outside in the sunlight. I chat with my mom friends about all the issues and questions I have about being a mommy. All while we are working out.”
    Markee, an ISSA certified fitness trainer, started the classes about a year ago.
    “When I decided to start my class, I thought ‘what is missing in town?’ There were no classes for mommies to attend with their babies/toddlers and be outside. There are mommy and me activities but they focus on the kids and not fitness for the moms and the stroller stride classes take place inside the mall,” she explains.
    Her challenge?
    “Unfortunately, I was not able to have children so my biggest obstacle starting this class was getting a group of moms together, since I did not belong to any mommy groups. So you can imagine when my first mommies showed up to a class and there I was with an empty stroller, a sign on the front and the seat filled with weights and bands. It was a little awkward for the first few minutes.”
    But it didn’t take long for her to form a bond with both moms and babies. “I love teaching my mommies and watching their babies grow. I never thought I would get so attached to the babies. And I enjoy the friendships with the moms,” she says.
    And, of course, the chance to help others get in shape. “I change the workout daily depending on the fitness level of the moms, the ages of the babies and what area of the body they want to focus on,” she explains.
    “I’ve had several moms call and say ‘April, I’m overweight, out of shape and embarrassed to go to a gym, will I be able to do your class?’ The answer is yes.  The mommies are all in the same boat at one point, so they are a very welcoming and an understanding group.  All my exercises can be modified — they  they are for all fitness levels, and the mommies can go at their own pace.”  
    But, she admits with a smile: “I always kick their butts.” (She’s right: This is one tough class. I couldn’t keep up — and, since my son is 20, I wasn’t even pushing a stroller).
    Jean Warner drives nearly an hour from her Wellington home at least twice a week to join the class. “I wanted to do something with the boys and meet other moms,” says the 41-year-old mother of a 4-month old and a 14-month-old. “I love it. We sweat a lot so we must be working hard.”
    For Lisa Hawk, the class has an unexpected and delightful benefit. Her 20-month-old son, Barrett, always takes a good nap after a class. “He is outside, he is engaged, he enjoys all the different sights and sounds and gets to meet other babies,” says the 41-year-old Boynton Beach resident.    
    It’s a come-as-you-are group, says Markee: “We don’t judge, you can show up with spit-up on your shirt, you can talk to other mommies, you can stop to breastfeed or fuss with your child. We are the only fitness class that stops for a pee and poop break, and for $10 it’s cheaper than a babysitter.”
    Markee also leads a stroller exercise group at Okeeheelee Park and customizes workouts for groups of five or more who want to meet in other areas.  For more information, visit strollermommynme.com.
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 lindawrites76 @gmail.com.

Jorge Mendiola demonstrates an exercise with his golden retriever, Shaylee,

during ‘Furry Fitness,’ an exercise program developed for dogs and their owners.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Arden Moore

    While we are full of good intentions, many of us postpone or cancel workouts with co-workers, friends and family members. We are just too tired, too busy or too stressed to sweat.
    We have become a nation of expanding waistlines with one in three Americans deemed overweight. But the more shocking headline is that nearly one in two adult dogs is plump, sporting more waddle than wiggle. Sadly, many canine chums are following their people down the path to obesity, all the way to the last table scrap.
    Fortunately in South Florida, there’s a dog-loving fitness duo committed to making fitness fun and to bringing out the best behaviors in our best workout buddies — our dogs.
    I recently caught up with David Acosta, fitness trainer with Camp Gladiator, an outdoor fitness boot camp in Delray Beach, and Jorge Mendiola, dog trainer extraordinaire who operates All Star Dogs Inc. throughout South Florida.
    Earlier this year, Acosta was leading a fitness boot camp class outside at the Old School Square in Delray Beach when he noticed Mendiola practicing various obedience cues with his very talented young golden retriever named Shaylee and a client’s German shepherd.
    “Jorge was getting these dogs to do amazing tricks,” recalls Acosta. “The dogs were pacing quickly right beside him, making sharp turns and leaping up on cue. Everyone, including Jorge, seemed to be having fun working out.”
    Jorge noticed Acosta motivating his students through their fitness moves of planks, squats and lunges. After class, the two introduced themselves and decided to co-sponsor a Furry Fitness event, held last month at Old School Square. Their hope is that enough local people will see the benefit of working out with their dogs so that they can begin offering regular classes.
    The people-dog fitness trend is one that is catching on coast to coast. Dawn Celapino, founder of Leash Your Fitness based in San Diego, has hundreds of two- and four-legged students in her classes “co-taught” by her very fit Cairn terrier named Jack. In Chicago, Tricia Montgomery is keeping Midwesterners and their canines in shape with her company, K9 Fit Club.
    We need and deserve a people-dog workout program in Palm Beach County. This cross-species, cross-training approach yields many benefits, including:
    • The ability to walk, run, twist, bend and reach without a lot of huffing and puffing.
    • The feeling of waking up refreshed, not achy or sluggish.
    • The bolstering of your immune system to protect the both of you against infections.
    • The ability to concentrate and learn new skills (and new tricks for your dog).
    • A closer friendship and stronger communication with your dog, staving off behavior problems triggered by dogs who are bored and under-exercised.
    • Added years to your life and life to your years for you and your dog.
    • Reduced risks for such health conditions as diabetes, arthritis and heart conditions that are costly and far too prevalent among people and dogs who pack on excess pounds.
    Regular exercise unleashes endorphins and other feel-good chemicals that can be as effective as some medications prescribed to combat stress, anxiety and depression.
    Before you put on your sneakers and grab your dog’s leash for an outdoor romp, schedule an appointment with your doctor and get your dog checked out head to tail by his veterinarian.
    Acosta and Mendiola stand ready to offer plenty of fun exercises you and your dog can perform indoors and outdoors.
    The beauty of playtime with your dog is that it can occur anytime, anywhere. For the most part, your dog doesn’t require special equipment. Unlike some of your two-legged friends, your dog won’t make up a lame excuse not to join you.
    Even at age 12, my dogs, Chipper and Cleo, are raring to go for a walk with me at the drop of a leash. They also motivate me to participate in 5K9 fun runs, hiking treks and swimming at dog-welcoming beaches. Indoors, we play “I hide-you-seek” and do friendly games of tug-of-war. We also spend time learning new tricks like weaving in and out of my legs and Chipper’s favorite: puppy pushups. She plops into a down, pops up quickly into a sit and repeats this sequence several times.
    I encourage you to learn more about the quest by Acosta and Mendiola to shape up Palm Beach County by visiting www.campgladiator.com (and go to the Delray Beach location) and All Star Dogs Inc. on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AllStarDogsInc).
    
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. Visit www.fourleggedlife.com.

Cuban knight anoles, which prefer to perch head-down

in trees, are hard to miss with their neon-green coloring.

The lizard also has a brown phase. Both of these

were photographed in the same pigeon plum tree in Ocean Ridge.

Photos by Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

By Cheryl Blackerby

    If you’ve seen a neon green lizard that looks a lot like the talking lizard in Geico commercials, it’s probably a Cuban knight anole.
    First seen in Palm Beach County in 1997, the sleek lizards, about 18 inches long, have been breeding in Palm Beach County for less than 10 years, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
    And those populations are expanding. Sightings now range from Key West to Palm Bay on the east coast and from Naples to Tampa on the west coast.
    “They’re popping up in new areas in different counties more recently,” said Liz Barraco, spokesperson for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
    The threat to native wildlife is fairly small, although they sometimes prey on smaller anoles, frogs and bird eggs, she said.
    “There’s a problem with any non-native invasive species. But they’re not eating mammals. They certainly have some impact, but we haven’t been focusing on them. You have to pick and choose (what you try to remove),” she said.
    It’s hard to miss an anole sitting in your flower bed —  brilliant green with yellow flash marks below each eye and on each shoulder, big eyes and huge pink dewlaps. It also has a brown phase.
    “They definitely catch your eye,” she said. “They’re very bright. It has a much larger jaw. It looks very different from lizards you’re used to seeing.”
    They’re not harmful to people although they may bite if handled or if frightened.
    “The Cuban anole can be aggressive if it feels threatened, but there’s not much interaction with people. They’re arboreal so they hang out in trees,” she said. In summer, they hang head-down on large tree trunks, supporting the front of its body away from the tree with its legs.
    The knight anole, which is native to Cuba, has become established over much of the heavily planted suburbs of South Miami, where it is often called “iguanito.”
    They are often mistaken for the much larger green iguana, which is a similar bright green. The green iguanas that proliferated in Palm Beach County starting in 2003, have been less noticeable since 2010 when a lengthy freeze killed off many of them. The iguanas are vegetarians and don’t compete for food with native lizards.
    “The iguanas have been recovering some but we don’t have large numbers,” she said. “The biggest problem people have with iguanas is poop by the pool.”
    The three non-native species FWC are most concerned about, she said, are Burmese pythons, nile monitors and Argentine black and white tegus.
    If you see any of these three, or any non-native species such as the Cuban anole, take a photo, note the location and report or send it to 888-Ive-Got1 (888-483-4681) or go to IveGot1.org. This is a good way to help FWC keep track of non-native animals. If you don’t know what an animal is, send a photo, and an FWC expert will get back to you.
    Do not attempt to capture a tegu, python or monitor. A list of trappers can be found at MyFWC.com.

Benches provide visitors with a comfortable place to rest and observe nature.

A banana spider’s web glistens in the morning sun.

Boardwalks and gravel trails make getting around

in the 4.6-acre preserve an easy task for nature lovers of all ages.

BELOW: Steve Bass (in green) leads the Oct. 12 tour.

Photos by Cheryl Blackerby/The Coastal Star

By Cheryl Blackerby

    The lush green 4.6-acre slice of Old Florida is incongruously wedged between The Carlisle assisted living facility on East Ocean Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway. Drivers have to look closely to see the preserve’s entrance, almost hidden in trees and shrubs.
    The Lantana Nature Preserve is a secret garden of tranquil trails shaded by sea grapes, towering sabal palms and oaks. Red and white mangroves line the waterway, their tangle of knee-high roots marching out to sea, creating fish nurseries.
    About 40 visitors including a few master gardeners gathered around Steve Bass, former manager of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, for an Oct. 12 tour arranged by the Friends of Lantana Nature Preserve. Bass planned the planting of the land in the mid-1990s, which turned a barren, garbage-strew site, with no vegetation except for a few invasive plants including Brazilian pepper and Australian pines, into a natural Florida landscape.
    Resident Ilona Balfour remembers the days when the land was an eyesore and an embarrassment. “The town began dumping nasty stuff like tires and refrigerators and leftover asphalt and concrete,” she recalled.
    The tour showed the astounding transformation from dump to preserve in only about two decades.

    “A detailed plan was created, spotting individual plants for installation,” Bass said.  “It was important to plant the species at elevations, which we had learned from managing the hammock at Gumbo Limbo, that were appropriate for their best growth.”
The Ziff estate in Manalapan donated many of those first plants.
    The traffic noise on East Ocean Avenue receded to a hum, and the ocean breezes ruffled the fronds of sabal palms. Foxes and spotted skunks roam the preserve at night. During the day, wooden benches offer vantage points for admiring wading birds and butterflies.
    The preserve is a true coastal hammock. The word “hammock,” said Bass, probably came from Spanish explorers who slept on hammocks hung from trees. The Lantana hammock is a semi-tropical forest in a perfect botanical location, sandwiched on land between the ocean and Intracoastal.
    “When the canopy trees get tall, this will be spectacular,” he said. On the tour, he pointed out a giant swallowtail butterfly with a 5-inch wingspan, a banana spider weaving its sticky web, an aptly named paradise tree, the bright purple “beauty berries,” and wild coffee.
    The visitors listened closely as Bass tossed out fascinating facts; for example, that most of Florida’s trees, except paradise trees, don’t have trunk rings because their growth is continuous, so it’s difficult to tell their ages.
    The preserve has finally become what its original owners intended. Around 1910, the 12 acres were sold to Lantana for $10 for use by the town’s residents. The Carlisle was built on 7.35 acres of the land. Vocal residents who wanted a natural retreat preserved the rest.
    Today, volunteers help maintain the preserve at 400 E. Ocean Ave., just east of the Lantana Bridge.
    Dr. Paul Arena, ecology and environmental science professor at Nova Southeastern University, is the chairman of the Lantana Nature Preserve Commission and a resident of Lantana.
    “I made it my mission to make sure this rare treasure of coastal habitat is protected. I am adviser of the Nature Club and for the last six years have been volunteering to remove invasives, clear trails, and plant one of the few native butterfly gardens in South Florida,” he said. “The town has made significant budget cuts the last few years and less time is spent on maintaining the preserve, making the hard work of volunteers even more critical to its health and survival.”

Ken and Ian Whitter of Boca Raton work on their irrigation.

A scarecrow keeps watch over one patch of tomatoes,

while, below: a plastic flamingo and yellow marigolds provide a little bit of color.

INSET BELOW: Banana peppers near harvest size.

Photos by Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    On this Sunday morning, Jessica Holtzman walks through the Boca Raton Community Garden to check her 4-foot-square raised bed. Here she’s planted carrots, radishes, fennel, mustard, beans and parsley. She is waiting for the seeds to sprout from the dark earth.
    “I didn’t realize what food looked like when it grew on plants. This is so cool to watch my things take off,” says Holtzman, 30, who lives in a nearby townhouse with only a small yard.
    Now in its fourth growing season, this is the largest community garden in South Florida. It is situated on an acre of land contributed by the city. Today the Boca Raton Junior League collaborates with the city to help run it. There are almost 100 raised beds, built with the help of people at Home Depot and The Boca Raton Elk’s Lodge.
    Alan Kirschner, 53, has a meeting in a few minutes but he stops by to be sure his neat rows of heirloom tomatoes are thriving in their raised 12-by-4-foot bed.
    “I’ve always wanted a garden but never had the land to do it,” says Kirschner who has been gardening here for three years.  
    You enter the organic garden on a palm-lined brick path. There isn’t too much shade because the sun is required for growing the crops. Although some people tend their plots year-round, most plant after mid-October and harvest by May to avoid the summer heat.
    If you want to see what’s growing, mulch paths wind their way between the planting beds. The mulch and four star fruit trees were donated by Zimmerman Tree Service of Lake Worth, which is Orli Zimmerman’s family business. She’s a league member who co-chairs the garden committee.
    All the star fruit, like much of the harvest, is contributed to Boca Helping Hands, where it feeds the hungry. In fact, the league requests that people contribute 10 percent of their crops to the charity.
    Toward the rear of the garden you’ll discover the newly planted wildlife walk. Native plants such as spiderwort with its rich blue blooms, passion vine, purple beach verbena and yellow Chapman’s cassia attract beneficial bugs and pollinators such as bees. These in turn help the food crops and flowers to reproduce and grow.
    This is the third growing season for Holtzman, who has marked where she planted her seeds with white plastic spoons stuck in the fertile dirt. She’s written the name of each crop on a spoon handle.
    Kirschner’s specialty is heirloom tomato varieties. Although you can’t tell much difference in the plants before they bear fruit, this year he’s trying his luck with Black Krim, a brownish red variety from the Crimean Peninsula; Black Prince, a pear-shaped fruit from Siberia; and Cherokee Purple, a purple red native American. All should do well in our warm climate.
    His girlfriend has a more free-form garden in a neighboring plot. Her red sails lettuce grows under a burlap cover that protects it from the late summer sun. She grows garlic from cloves that sprouted in her refrigerator and mint returns for an encore each year.
    In her bed, garden co-chair Laura Zaki intends to plant what she calls a salsa mix: That’s tomatoes, onions and peppers.
    “I garden at home, but it’s fun to be here in touch with others who share my passion. And it’s fun to see the community come together among the plants,” she says.

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

Isabella Malaga (center) pictured with her parents, Marc and Melissa.

Photo provided

By Tim Pallesen

    Isabella Malaga was surprised when her parents and rabbi introduced her to the homeless children at Family Promise.
    “I realized that they don’t look like they are homeless,” the 13-year-old said. “They’re just normal people who had some bad luck.”
    Volunteers from churches and synagogues take turns to provide food and shelter at night for South County homeless families in the Family Promise interfaith network.
    Families go to a former convent at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach during the day for counseling and lunch as the parents look for jobs and apartments.
    Isabella volunteered to serve food and play with the children. Then she realized that the children didn’t have a playground.
    So Isabella, whose family attends B’nai Torah in Boca Raton, chose a playground outside a Catholic church as her bat mitzvah project.
    She decorated boxes as little houses that she asked friends and relatives to fill with coins, raising $2,000. She also persuaded the owner of the Hitching Post, a retailer west of Delray, to donate a play-set.
    Family Promise children now can play as their families make the transition from homelessness to independence.
    “Isabella is exceptionally kind,” her rabbi, David Steinhardt, said. “There’s a sweetness in her that’s obvious when you meet her.”
                                     
INSET BELOW: Tim Brumfield

    Tim Brumfield, the new organist and music director at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton, had it all in New York City.
    As organist at St. John the Divine, the largest Gothic cathedral in the city, Brumfield performed with pianist Dave Brubeck, saxophonist Paul Winter and folk singer Judy Collins. As his career took off, he also was music director in off-Broadway shows.
    “But I felt I’d reached the pinnacle of what New York City could be for me,” Brumfield said.
    So Brumfield searched for a location for what he calls his second act. St. Gregory’s popped up in his Internet search. He applied for a job opening and got hired.
    He debuted here performing the organ for Phantom of the Opera as the classic 1925 silent film starring Lon Chaney played in the sanctuary on the Friday before Halloween. Brumfield knew the music because his annual Halloween Extravaganza and Procession of the Ghouls became a popular New York event at St. John the Divine.
    A value to having Brumfield in South Florida might be the New York City friends he invites for performances this winter.
    Gospel singer Theresa Thomason performs at St. Gregory’s on Jan. 18, followed by jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon on Feb. 1.

INSET BELOW: The Rev. Marcus Zillman
                                      
    The new senior pastor at First Methodist Church in Boca Raton has his eye on the university in town.
The Rev. Marcus Zillman is impressed by his new congregation. “It’s evident to me that this church wants to share the love of Christ in this community,” Zillman said of First Methodist’s outreach efforts.
Zillman, 41, previously served a Hobe Sound church. He was a campus minister at the University of Miami for six years before that.
“I have a heart for college students and young adults,” he said. “I’m excited about extending First Methodist’s relationship with Florida Atlantic University.”

Andrew and Peter are portrayed as fishers of men

in the center element of the new stained-glass window

at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church of Lake Worth.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    The new stained-glass window above the altar at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church tells the story of the Lake Worth congregation as it celebrates its 100th anniversary.
    “We talked a lot about who we are,” said Christie Ragsdale, who chaired the committee that worked with McMow Art Glass to create the 5-foot-diameter window.
    “They were an emotionally driven group,” McMow owner Shanon Materio said. “They had their heart in it.”
    They designed the disciples Andrew and Peter in the middle as fishers of men. “The window represents our role in spreading the word of Christ,” Ragsdale said.
    Eight symbols that surround the center of the window are a Bible, a pineapple for hospitality, a harp for music, a crown for the kingship of God, a dove for the Holy Spirit, white and grapes for bread and wine, bread and fish for feeding the hungry and a lantern.
    The lantern takes the St. Andrew’s history back to before the worship service in 1914 when a mother and her three children walked seven miles for a Sunday night prayer service because the closest Episcopal church was in West Palm Beach.
    The priest there gave the family a lantern for their walk home. Then he helped Lake Worth start a church of its own.  
                                     
    More than 400 people from 34 congregations, civic organizations and schools walked in the End Hunger Walk on Oct. 12.
    The 20th annual event raised more than $35,000 for the Caring Kitchen in Delray Beach and six food pantries also operated by Christians Reaching Out to Society Ministries.
    CROS Ministries also was one of food banks that received 18,000 pounds of food donated by members of the B’nai Israel congregation of Boca Raton in their 21st annual Fight Against Hunger.

                                         
    The popular old-fashioned Christmas bazaar, presented by the ladies at First Presbyterian Church in Delray Beach, is set for Nov. 7-8.
    The Holly Days Bazaar will be in the new Holly House, where the women have gathered twice a week all year to prepare their handicrafts.
    “It’s a way of life,” co-chair Donna King said. “We go Tuesdays and Thursdays to create things and to support one another.”
    Creations such as miniature Christmas trees, wreaths and ornaments sell as quickly as the mango chutney in the bakery sale. Proceeds benefit church improvements and missions.
    The bazaar is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m for the Friday and Saturday opening, then 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays from Nov. 11 to Dec. 13.
     St. Gregory’s Episcopal in Boca Raton also has its annual Christmas Emporium on Nov. 7-9. Church members have donated everything from champagne to dog treats for holiday gift baskets for sale.

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

Jeanne Coppers with her chair, 'Surfers Paradise,'

at IFDA fundraiser in Boca Raton.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter
    
   When designers and artists combine their skills and talents to give an old chair new life, they can come up with fetching creations. And when those creations are put up for auction and proceeds go to a good cause, well, that’s a pretty picture for all concerned.
    That’s what happened last month when the International Furnishings and Design Association Florida hosted its inaugural Take A Seat project.
    Caroline Baer Rogow, president of IFDA Florida, said the local chapter was following what chapters in Japan and New York did for the first time last year. Japan raised money for tsunami victims and New York gave proceeds to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
     “We were so impressed,” said Rogow, of Panache Designs Inc. “We wanted to do one this year, and we plan to make it an annual event. Our chapters from around the world worked together to conduct local exhibitions at the same time.”
    Participants began by taking a new or vintage chair and up-cycled it to create unique pieces of art. The chairs were displayed at Capitol Lighting through Oct. 11 after an Oct 1 kick-off party at Rosenbaum Fine Art Décor in Boca Raton.
    On Oct. 11, the organization raised more than $10,000 during a gala charity auction in the sculpture garden at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Proceeds, in fitting with the worldwide Heroes at Home theme, are going to Habitat for Humanity for veterans housing.
    Chair designs ranged from whimsical to elegant.
    One of the designers, Jeanne Coppers of That’s It Designs by Jeannie in Ocean Ridge, called her piece “Surfers Paradise” after the Australian town where  her son, a surfer who grew up in Ocean Ridge, currently lives.
    “I bought a chair for $6 from the Habitat thrift shop, took the seat off of it and replaced it with skim board,” she said. She also attached a skim board to the back and hung a little grass skirt around the seat. Then she under-lit the chair with blue light, which she said showed up nicely for the auction, held outside at night.
    “Because I’m such a water sports person, the surfing theme was perfect for me,” she said.
    Her whimsical chair fetched $250 at the auction.
    Rogow’s chair featured a donated original canvas painting by artist Salvatore Principe, known for his use of hearts.
    “We took an unloved chair and transformed it,” said Rogow, who lives in Hillsboro Beach. “Now it has a heart — a purple heart synonymous with warriors” and a good fit for the theme.”
    It also has new upholstery and a new owner — it sold for $1,500 at the auction.
    Rogow said the local project involved 25 designers and artists.
    “Most submissions came from designers, but some were from well-known artists (e.g., Kris Smith, Andres Conde, Jeff Whyman) who helped us a lot.”
    Exactly how much money was raised has yet to be tabulated, Rogow said. “Money is still coming in.”

Mike Kuckelman, corporate chef for Bush Brothers Provision Co., slices yellowfin tuna during a recent

fish-cooking demonstration at the Boynton Beach Fishing Club. Kuckelman, an avid ocean angler,

also shared tips for frying and smoking fish.

Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    Many experienced South Florida anglers have become proficient at catching ocean fish that make excellent table fare.
    Mutton, mangrove and yellowtail snapper, dolphin fish (mahi mahi), wahoo, pompano and cobia all get invitations to dinner at my house, assuming they’re of legal size.
    But sometimes so much effort goes into catching fish that anglers don’t do the fish justice when it comes time to serve them at the dinner table.
    Mike Kuckelman, offshore angler and professional chef, is talented at catching and cooking wild ocean fish.
    A corporate chef for Bush Brothers Provision Co. in West Palm Beach, Kuckelman shared some of his fish-cooking secrets at the Sept. 23 meeting of the Boynton Beach Fishing Club.
    Fishing club members enjoyed samples of Kuckelman’s mouth-watering smoked fish dip, fried fish and seared yellowfin tuna over sautéed Chinese vegetables.
    Here are a few fish recipes that Kuckelman was kind enough to share:
    Smoked fish dip: Start with kingfish or Spanish mackerel fillets, soaked overnight (in a refrigerator) in a brine solution consisting of water, non-iodized salt, brown sugar, honey and molasses. After brining, dry and smoke the fish at about 220 degrees using wet pieces of white oak or maple wood (or a smoking wood of your choice) to produce the smokey flavor. Flake the smoked fish and fold in Hellmann’s mayonnaise and lemon juice. Add a dash of salt and black pepper, a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a drizzle of hot sauce. Mix with clean hands. The smoked fish spread should be sweet and smoky. Serve with crackers and a bottle of your favorite hot sauce.
    Fried fish: Use a light, white fish such as scrod. Dip the fillets in flour, then egg wash, then breading (Drake’s Crispy Fry Mix). Refrigerate the breaded pieces for half an hour, then fry them in hot oil (canola or peanut oil). The fish pieces float when they’re done. For a beer batter, use a warm beer and whip it until the beer goes flat, then add the Crispy Fry Mix.
    New England tartar sauce: Hellmann’s mayonnaise mixed in a food processor with white onion, capers, dill pickle relish, salt and pepper and a hot sauce such as Cholula. Let it stand for six hours before serving.
    Bahamas-style fried lionfish: First, don’t forget that lionfish have 18 venomous spines on their bodies and must be cleaned carefully. Rinse the fillets in cold water. Lightly flour them, dip them in egg wash, coat them with cornflake crumbs and fry them at 350 degrees until golden brown.
    Dipping sauce: Equal parts mayonnaise and ketchup with a dash of hot sauce, mixed well.
    Seared sesame seed tuna over Chinese ginger vegetables: Buy or catch fresh yellowfin tuna. Coat the tuna in sesame oil, then roll it in sesame seeds. Sear the tuna in an iron skillet holding hot vegetable oil. Leave the fish pink in the center. Sauté the vegetables in a separate skillet holding a combination of sesame oil and vegetable oil. Kuckelman uses bok choy, matchstick carrots, white onion, snow peas, strips of red bell pepper and Napa cabbage. Leave the vegetables crunchy. Add fresh-grated ginger, a pinch of salt, a shot of soy sauce, a splash of rice vinegar and a dash of ponzu sauce at the end. Slice the tuna and serve it on top of the sautéed vegetables.

Darrell Frey (left) and his father, Darrell Frey Sr., both of Lake Worth, won $500 for spearing the most lionfish

during the eBoatListings Lionfish Derby held Oct. 18 at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park in Boynton Beach. The Freys,

representing the Old Key Lime House Dive Team, caught 114 lionfish.

INSET BELOW: Kelly Schnute of Cooper City (left) and Heather Schaefer of Tamarac show the tiny lionfish they caught.

Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

   

    Darrell Frey and his father, Darrell Frey Sr., combed the reefs north of Boynton Inlet on Oct. 18 to spear 114 lionfish, more than any other dive team in the eBoatListings Lionfish Derby.
    The Freys, both of Lake Worth, were diving with electric scooters from their 20-foot boat. They won $500 and lots of bragging rights.
    Only one lionfish behind the Freys was their friend and frequent dive partner Christian Rouleau of Hypoluxo, whose Reel Impatient team finished with 113 lionfish. The Reel Impatient team also won the prize for the smallest lionfish, at 90 millimeters (about 3.5 inches).
    The Freys speared the longest lionfish of the tournament, 389 millimeters (about 15.3 inches). But because teams could only win in one category, the prize for largest lionfish went to the Wet Pleasures team, with a lionfish measuring 386 millimeters (about 15 inches).
    Nine dive teams participating in the Oct. 18 derby harvested a total of 406 lionfish. The non-native fish with venomous spines degrade Florida reefs by eating native fish and stealing their food.
    No fishing license is required to harvest lionfish using a net, pole spar, Hawaiian sling or other spearing device designed for taking lionfish.
    The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) encourages divers to report harvests of lionfish. Use the Report Florida Lionfish smartphone app or report them online at: www.myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/lionfish/report.
                                     

    The 55th annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show opened Oct. 31 and continues through Nov. 3 at seven locations along the city’s waterfront.
    A wide variety of boats will be on display — from mega yachts to runabouts, skiffs, inflatables, dinghies and kayaks — along with fishing and diving equipment, nautical clothing and marine electronics.
    Show hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. except on Nov. 3, when the show closes at 5 p.m.
    Tickets cost $22 online or $24 at the show. The online ticket price for ages 6-15 is $7. Children under 6 are admitted free.
    A photo ID is required for admission to the Broward County Convention Center.
    For tickets and parking information, go to www.showmanagement.com or call (800) 940-7642.
                                     
    As the weather gets cooler, more manatees are expected to move into South Florida waters from points north.
    Seasonal manatee speed zones for boats take effect Nov. 15 and remain in effect through March 31.
    In cold weather, the endangered marine mammals are often found the near the warm-water outflow of Florida Power & Light Co.’s Riviera Beach power plant (south of Peanut Island). Common feeding areas include the waters inside Boynton Inlet and Lake Wyman in Boca Raton.
    In addition to obeying speed zones on the water, boaters should wear polarized sunglasses, watch for large, circle-shaped tail swirls and snouts on the surface and stay in marked navigation channels as much as possible. Slow to idle speed in shallow water, especially around sea grass beds where manatees feed.
    To report a sick, dead or injured manatee (or a suspected violation of boating laws), call the Wildlife Alert Hotline at (888) 404-3922.
                                     
    Tip of the month: Fish offshore for dolphin. November generally brings a fall run of dolphin fish (mahi mahi) to the Gulf Stream waters off Palm Beach County. Start by talking with other anglers to find out how far out weed lines and dolphin are being found. Easterly winds are best.
    Search for floating mats of sargassum (tan-colored weeds) and objects floating in the ocean, such as logs, pallets or boards. Floating objects attract small fish, and small fish attract big ones.
The best dolphin action tends to be in clear, blue Gulf Stream water. Watch for birds such as frigatebirds, which can indicate dolphin below.
    Troll with rigged ballyhoo, rigged squid, lures or bonito strips behind sea witches. Keep spinning rods ready to pitch baits to dolphin that follow others to the boat. Minimum size: 20 inches to the fork. Daily bag limit: 10 dolphin per angler. Boat limit: 60.

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

Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club head golf professional, Andy McMechan.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Pike

    The Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club is undergoing some significant changes.
    The most visible is the renovation to its golf course. Coming next is a $30 million enhancement project that will include construction of a new yacht clubhouse, new floating docks to allow for vessels up to 130 feet long, a new outdoor waterfront entertainment patio and new pool and additional outdoor dining venues.
    Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club members this past April overwhelmingly approved the marina project (funding for the golf course renovation was separate). That same month, the members elected Dr. Patricia Reese as their first female Commodore.
    The private Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club has approximately 485 members.
    The marina and golf course projects, said Michael Shanley, the club’s membership director, “is very important to our current members as well as new generations.
    “This [project] positions us to meet the evolving needs of our members now and for years to come,’’ Shanley said.
    It all begins with the 7,116-yard, par 72 golf course. Originally designed by Robert Trent Jones, with the legendary Sam Snead as its first professional, the course was redesigned in the 1980s by Joe Lee. It was redesigned in 2003 as a Jack Nicklaus Signature course. This time around, the Golden Bear, who lives in North Palm Beach, returned to reshape the greens back to their original contours and dimensions, as well as expand some tee boxes and work on the bunkering.
    “We completely renovated every bunker on the golf course,’’ said Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club head golf professional Andy McMechan, a Boca Raton native who has been the club’s head professional since 2010.
    “One of the goals Mr. Nicklaus wanted to accomplish was to see every fairway bunker from the tee and to see every greenside bunker from the fairway.’’
    McMechan, who graduated from Pope John Paul II High School in Boca Raton and Stetson University in DeLand, came to Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club from Boca Raton Resort & Club, where he worked his way from outside attendant in 1994 to director of golf in 2007.
    “This (Royal Palm) was a great opportunity for me,’’ McMechan said. “Being from Boca Raton, I’ve played this course since I was 12 years old. But it was a much different club then.’’
    It will be a different club again, particularly visually,  not only because of the bunkers, but also because of the landscaping. Many of the natural grasses have been replaced by more colorful native plants and shrubs. In addition, approximately 100 palm trees that were marked for destruction as part of the marina clubhouse renovation were moved to line the fairways.
    “We were able to move 110 full-size, mature trees onto the golf course that have been on property for 50 or 60 years and we got them for the moving price,’’ McMechan said. “They really add to the look of the course.’’

Ted Juracsik, founder of Tibor Reel Corp., with daughter Marianne Papa,

who oversees the fly fishing reel manufacturing business on Congress Avenue in Delray Beach.

Juracsik lives in Boca Raton and spends much of his time fishing from a second home in Chokoloskee.

INSET BELOW: The fly reel that Juracsik made for former President George H.W. Bush.

Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    The factory that builds Tibor Reels — a famous name in the world of saltwater fly fishing — is hidden in a nondescript industrial building off Congress Avenue in Delray Beach.
    Tibor Reel Corp. founder Ted Juracsik is a master tool and die maker and lifelong fisherman from Hungary, who started building fly reels after he happened upon fly fishing legend Billy Pate.
    Juracsik was running a precision metal parts factory in New York when he met Pate in 1970 during a trip to the Florida Keys.
Pate was lamenting the fact that the drag systems on fly reels of the day were not adequate to handle powerful saltwater game fish, such as the tarpon he battled in the Keys.
    So Juracsik returned to his machine shop on Long Island and built a fly fishing reel. He produced the first Billy Pate reel in 1976. It was built, as Tibor reels are today, with a large surface area for the drag — the “brakes” of the fishing reel that slow down fish when they’re hooked and stripping away line.
    “I made a couple of reels by hand,” Juracsik said. “I brought them down and he (Pate) liked them. Right away he ordered 100. That’s how it all started.”
    Tibor fly fishing reels are named for both Pate and Juracsik. Tibor, pronounced (TEE-bor), means Ted in Hungarian. Some of the Tibor line of reels bear Juracsik’s name; others are called Billy Pate reels in honor of the late fly fisherman, who was inducted into the IGFA’s Fishing Hall of Fame in 2003.
    Juracsik moved his company to Fort Lauderdale in 1979. He found a building to house his manufacturing businesses in Delray Beach and moved his company there in 1998.
    The Delray Beach company employs 32 people who make fly fishing reels and specialty metal parts for the family’s sister company, Ted Juracsik Tool & Die.
    Juracsik is proud of the fact that his reels are manufactured in Delray Beach from start to finish. Only the ball bearings are made elsewhere.
    Workers at Juracsik’s factory begin the reel-making process with cylinders of solid aluminum called slugs. The factory includes an anodization room where aluminum surfaces of the reels are prepared for finishing.
    Tibor reels are not cheap. They range in price from about $365 to $865. But Juracsik says fly fishing enthusiasts, such as his friend Lefty Kreh, another IGFA Hall of Fame member, appreciate his attention to detail.
    The company says its fly reels are maintenance-free and are warrantied for life.
    “All of our reels can be used in salt water,” Juracsik said. When people go fishing, they can’t have the reel fail when they go to the end of the world to catch a world record. It’s very important.”
    More fly fishing world records have been set — 876 at last count — with Tibor reels than with any other brand, according to the International Game Fish Association, the nonprofit organization that verifies and maintains world fishing records.
    Juracsik, 77, is a lifelong angler who grew up fishing the Danube River in his home city of Budapest. He immigrated to New York as a teenager in the late 1950s following the unsuccessful 1956 Hungarian Uprising against Soviet rule and started building metal parts.
    Tibor Reels is a family business. Juracsik’s daughter, Marianne Papa, manages the fly fishing reel business. His son, Ted Juracsik Jr., oversees Ted Juracsik Tool & Die, the precision metal parts business.
    When his factory was located in Fort Lauderdale in the early 1990s, Juracsik built a reel for former President George H.W. Bush, who enjoys fishing in the Florida Keys.
    A few weeks after mailing the reel to the White House in the early 1990s, Juracsik got a call from the 41st president’s personal secretary. He later received a photo and a letter of thanks from the president.
    The company says the Bush family has since purchased several Tibor reels.

A 1960s postcard  of the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn, when it was called the Palm Beach Hawaiian.

Courtesy of Janet DeVries

Mary Smith of Lantana stands in the parking lot of the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn

on its final day of business Sept. 21. Smith was photographed in the same spot in 1967,

when she came from Chicago to stay at the inn with her family.

Mark Bishop, right, with his brother, Mike, at the Horizon East condo, just south of the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn, which employed 27.

Guests gather around the pool.

Kathy Mitchell and Mark Webber came over from Taylor Creek to hear Ploomie Lewis on the steel drums.

Photos by Willie Howard and Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    Oh, the stories the walls of the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn could tell.
    The 58-room hotel — a 1960s-era motel that lured tourists, glitterati and locals alike with its Polynesian-style winged roof, an ocean-side pool and drinks at the Tides Bar & Grill — was the last commercial business in South Palm Beach, a town of about 3,000 condo-dwelling residents along a short stretch of State Road A1A nestled between Lantana and Palm Beach.  
    It closed Sept. 22 to make way for a six-story condo, but not before a proper farewell.
    “How many other places can you go where there’s a bar on the beach?” said Patrick Owens of West Palm Beach, who was sharing drinks and stories by the pool with friends on the final day. “All the locals used to come here every afternoon after work for happy hour.”
    “It’s terrible, terrible,” said Mary Smith of Lantana, who used to stay at the inn with her family in the 1960s. “It doesn’t surprise me, but it saddens me.”

Another 1960s postcard for the old Hawaiian Inn. Courtesy of Janet DeVries

    Known to locals by its former name, the Hawaiian Inn, the two-story motel lost most of its beach during Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and was showing signs of age, with rotting wood and crumbling concrete in places.
    Yet in its heyday, patrons included the high-pitched ukulele-playing Tiny Tim (who got married on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show), former television anchorman Chet Huntley and baseball Hall-of-Famer Joe Torre, who spent time at the inn with his family during spring training with the Atlanta Braves.
    More notoriously, perhaps, the Hawaiian, and its popular tiki bar, served as the temporary home and chief watering hole for many who worked — or were trying to get jobs — at the then-Lantana-based tabloid, the National Enquirer, during the ’70s and ’80s.
    Lantana Councilman Malcolm Balfour remembers those times well. He was an editor at the Enquirer and played a pivotal role in connecting the tabloid and the Hawaiian.
    Back then, the Enquirer would have tryouts that lasted a week, and while most applicants tried to make it (the salaries were enviable), some just looked at the experience as a free Florida vacation, Balfour said. At first, the paper put up applicants at either of two Holiday Inns on A1A, or at the Howard Johnson near Lake Worth Beach.
    Balfour had become chummy with the owner of the Hawaiian, his neighbor on Hypoluxo Island. He suggested to Enquirer owner Generoso Pope that the Hawaiian would be a good place to put up job candidates.
    “This guy (the motel owner) gave us fabulous rates,” Balfour said. “It was like $35 a night. Of course, they made it up in booze.”
    Even those who didn’t get a job would come back over and over, Balfour said. “”It was really a rat-bag place, but it had character.”
    Many of the tabloid newspaper’s applicants came from England and would play cricket on the beach, Balfour said. “The beach went out 30 or 40 yards, we had so much more sand then,” he said.
    “It really was a fun place,” he said. And one time, Pope even considered buying the motel, Balfour said. After all, he spent a lot of money putting up job applicants there, sometimes 20 or 25 at a time.
    After seven or eight years at the Enquirer, Balfour became a freelancer. One of his first stories came from a woman who walked the beach in front of the Hawaiian.
     “The movie 10 was such a big hit then,” he said. “The woman changed her name to Bo Derek. Of course, she looked nothing like Bo Derek, but she posed for pictures on the beach as if she did, and it was very funny.” The story was carried all over the world.
    Even in recent years, the Tides Bar & Grill remained something of a local watering hole, offering karaoke on Tuesday nights, trivia night on Wednesdays and live steel drum music on the pool deck on Sunday afternoons.
    Mark Bishop, who lives in the Horizon East condo just south of the Oceanfront Inn, said he’ll miss the food, drinks and entertainment next door.
    But Bishop said he realizes the old motel has seen better days and needs to be updated.
    “It just looks run-down,” he said.
    Bishop’s brother, Mike, who visits him frequently, said the karaoke was bothersome at times.
    “It wasn’t necessarily the karaoke,” Mike Bishop said. “It was just the singers.”
    The last guests to spend the night at the Oceanfront Inn checked out Sept. 22. By the next day, a chain and no-trespassing sign were draped across the entrance at 3550 S. Ocean Blvd.

Future as a condo
    For years the hotel had operated as a grandfathered-in, nonconforming commercial use on land zoned for multifamily residential.
    After many failed attempts by previous owners to build a 10-story condo on the motel site, the Paragon Acquisition Group of Boca Raton bought the motel in November 2012 for $8.25 million from the Paloka family’s Kosova Realty, which had bought it 10 years earlier for $3.3 million.
    In August, the town’s Architectural Review Board approved Paragon’s plan to build a six-story, 30-unit condo over a parking garage on the 1.2-acre oceanfront site.
    South Palm Beach Mayor Donald Clayman said the old motel was nice when it was newer, but had fallen into disrepair. Noise from the motel’s bar and grill bothered some residents at night, he said.
    The Inn will be torn down within six months, said Paragon CEO Gary Cohen. Work on a sea wall is expected to begin next year. The new condominium, still unnamed, should be complete by late 2016.
    “Everybody will have a view of the water,” Clayman said. “It’s going to be good for the whole town.”

    Mary Thurwachter contributed to this story.


 

Nearly 250 Gulf Stream School students took part in the ALS challenge in honor of Bill Shannon.

Watch video from the event

INSET BELOW: Anna and Bill Shannon have two children who are students at Gulf Stream School.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    To the scientists who seek a cure, it’s “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.”
    To the fundraisers, simply “ALS.”
    To Americans of a certain age, it has been “Lou Gehrig’s disease,” ever since the Pride of the Yankees succumbed, just 37, on June 2, 1941.
    To younger generations, it’s become the “Ice Bucket Challenge disease.” Pour a bucket of ice-cold water over your head or make a donation to fight ALS — then challenge a friend to do the same and post the video online.
    But to the students and faculty at Gulf Stream School, this is “Mr. Shannon’s disease.”
    One afternoon last month, almost all of the 250 students and much of the faculty stood in a very long line on the athletic field, holding buckets of very cold water.
    For Bill and Anna Shannon, the private school is a family tradition. William, 18, and Christopher, 15, have graduated. Nicholas, 13, is an eighth-grader, and Christopher, 11, in sixth.
    The youngest, Finn, was only 3 months old when Bill Shannon got his diagnosis in June 2011.
    “No one in our family knew what ALS was when I was diagnosed, except my sister,” he remembers. “And she told me not to look it up.”
    Of course he looked it up.
    ALS is a progressive disease in which the motor neurons from the brain to the spinal cord and muscles slowly weaken. Muscle control is lost, ending in paralysis and death.
    The disease is rare. About two people in every 100,000 get it — 30,000 in the U.S. at any given time.
    Only about 20 percent of patients survive five years after being diagnosed.
    Three years after his diagnosis, Bill Shannon, 48, uses a motorized wheelchair. His speech is thick and sometimes hard to understand, but his smile is wide and his handshake still firm.
    “The ALS Challenge has been very good for my kids because there’s been a lot of giggles and laughs with it,” Shannon said, “and there aren’t a lot of giggles and laughs with this disease.”
    On Sept. 12, the giggles and laughs began after class as the students, kindergarten through eighth grade, ran about the athletic field filling their plastic buckets with ice and water.
    The pre-K kids like Finn Shannon were excused — can a 3-year-old understand that this is philanthropy, not punishment? — and about a dozen parents declined to have their children take part. But by 2 p.m. the participants stretched along a chalk line in the grass, oldest to youngest, south to north.
    “Go!” yelled Bryan Cook, the math teacher, upper school coach and challenge organizer.
    “No!” yelled Bridget Langford, the science teacher and volunteer videographer. “Not yet!”
    But Vincent Fimiani, first in line, had already gone.
    As the other, drier students looked on, amused, the eighth-grader dripped ice water.
    “I jumped the gun,” he said. “Mrs. Langford said ‘no,’ but it was too late.”
    This was the second time Vincent had taken the challenge. Does it get warmer the second time?
    “No, it does not.”
    What does it feel like?
    He didn’t pause to consider.
    “It feels like all your nerves are standing on end,” he reported. “It’s not pleasant.”
    Now they were ready for take two.
    “Go!”
    As Bill Shannon steered his wheelchair past the older students like a general inspecting his troops, each child saluted by upturning the ice-cold bucket when he passed. Ultimately, though, Shannon’s wheelchair could not keep up with the students’ eagerness to douse themselves, and he pulled to the side and watched with a wide smile.
    All down the line the field exploded in giggles and laughs. Andrew Young, 13, had also endured the challenge before, along with his brothers Daniel, 17, and Jack, 15.
    “It’s very cold. You expect it the second time, but it’s still very cold,” he explained, school shirt and khakis drenched. “But we’ve known the Shannons since they moved here.”
    Cook, the teacher and challenger, was also drenched, but grinning.
“I was so busy I didn’t have time to think,” he said, “and then when it was over, I felt a tear. Sometimes we have fundraisers and say, ‘Please donate $5,’ but this time we left it open.”
    The Gulf Stream School Ice Bucket Challenge had collected about $700 in cash that day, Cook said, and an unknown amount in online donations to als.org.
As of Aug. 29, the wildly popular ice bucket challenge had raised more than $100 million to cure the disease a lot of shivering challengers are no doubt challenged to pronounce.
    As the students squeezed water from shirttails and inspected some parents’ cellphone photos, the Shannons moved to the shade to greet family and friends.
    “Bill’s always said, ‘Do what you want to do today,’ ” Anna Shannon said, “so he lived his bucket list before his diagnosis. Now a lot of people are learning to value their life and health by seeing what we’re going through. It’s a wake-up call for them. We’ve been blessed.”
    She climbed on her husband’s lap for a picture.
    “The ice bucket challenge shows what social media can do,” Bill Shannon said. “Imagine the awareness it’s brought, and the sense of community it’s brought. And it’s brought a little levity to an otherwise difficult situation.”
    In the years before his diagnosis, before he looked it up, Bill Shannon had no doubt heard about Lou Gehrig’s disease without, like so many others, knowing quite what it is.
    Now he knows, and if the ice bucket challenge endures, someday soon no one will call this Lou Gehrig’s disease anymore.
    “I bet he wouldn’t mind,” Bill Shannon said.
See a video by 5th grade student John Mahady at www.thecoastalstar.ning.com.

By Tim Pallesen

    City Hall has undergone a transformation in the 18 months since Mayor Cary Glickstein and Commissioner Shelly Petrolia were elected.
    New top administrators are in place.The addition of Jordana Jarjura to the commission last March gives Glickstein and Petrolia a frequent third vote on key issues.
    “I’m happy to say we’ve turned the Titanic,” Glickstein said.
    The new regime was voted into office on a wave of public concern over Atlantic Avenue development and how the previous administration had handled city finances.
    “The commission is now more aligned to move the city forward with a new progressive, businesslike way of thinking, which is to say there is a majority completely untethered to past practices that were often governed by ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it,’ ” Glickstein said.
    Glickstein and Petrolia struggled their first year as the minority on the commission. But then Jarjura got elected by pledging fiscal responsibility and preserving Delray’s unique village-by-the-sea character, too.
    “It’s given us a great ability to paint our own picture,” Petrolia said. “This is a great opportunity, and we’ve grasped it.
    “It’s all going to depend on the operating majority and how strongly we stick together,” she added.
    Jarjura calls it “simplistic” to say the three commissioners vote as a bloc. “I view my colleagues and myself as independent thinkers who approach problems from our unique perspectives and do the best we can to build consensus,” she clarified.
    The mayor also clarified that the women are “independent-thinking professionals.”
    But the three agree on key issues such as new downtown development regulations, police and fire pension reform and whether interim city manager Terry Stewart has proven himself for the permanent job.
    Glickstein said city government required “deconstruction” before it could move forward. Several department heads retired, and the former city manager was fired.

Commissioner Shelly Petrolia (left), Mayor Cary Glickstein and Commissioner Jordana Jarjura

discuss budgets during a Delray Beach City Commission meeting.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    A nationwide search is underway now for a new manager, but Stewart is the front-runner to be the city’s chief operating officer. “It’s his job to lose,” Glickstein said.
    New hires with strong backgrounds such as City Attorney Noel Pffeffer, Planning and Zoning Director Dana Little, Parks and Recreation Director Suzanne Davis and Chief Financial Officer Jack Warner already are in place.
    The new land development regulations to be approved later this year will eliminate the height and density incentives that developers got to build downtown.
    “We have seen projects approved in the past that fell far short of what we should demand for our city,” Jarjura said. “We must ensure going forward that we do better.”
    Glickstein said new rules will relieve the anxiety that became a campaign issue for residents seeking to preserve the city’s village-by-the-sea character.
    “I’m hopeful that the new LDRs [land development regulations] will take the development debate off the table,” Glickstein said. “People won’t feel fear over what might be slipping away.”
    With a new team at City Hall and the city’s character secure, the mayor can dream about Delray’s future.
    One idea is to build a business incubator next to the city library that would attract robotics engineers, software designers and other young entrepreneurs. “I want to harness a very creative class,” the mayor said.
    “We as a city now need to focus on our strength, which is the unique vibe our town has,” he said. “We can have it all on our terms. But don’t mess up the vibe in this town, which at the end of the day is a small town."

    October is here and “season” has begun. So, to arm you with plenty of planning material for the busy months ahead, you will find inside this edition some special features.
    • The ArtsPaper is back with your complete guide to the 2014-15 cultural arts scene. This season you’ll find stories and critiques by the area’s best arts writers inside our Around Town section. We’ve changed the format, but not the style and substance. Each month on these pages you’ll learn what’s happening in the visual arts, books, classical music, dance, film, jazz, opera, pop music and theater.  There’s a lot going on! Hope you enjoy.
    • Also in Around Town you will find top picks by Philanthropy Editor Amy Woods and Tots & Teen columnist Shelley Gilken. These are their 15 tips for what to see and do during the 2014-15 season. Keep them on hand for the months ahead.
    • Local greenmarkets are starting back this month. You can find when and where in our Community Calendar beginning on Page AT25. Happy, healthy shopping.
    As always, we thank you for reading The Coastal Star and supporting our local advertisers. Here’s to a wonderful 2014-15 season!

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Gail Marino, who founded the Gold Coast Down Syndrome organization,

which now serves 350 families, with her daugher Kim.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

    Gail Marino will never forget the day her daughter Kim was born, 39 years ago.
    “My whole life changed,” the Boca Raton mother said. And, even though she didn’t realize it then — the day her doctor told her it would be best to give up her baby girl — it changed her life “for the better.”
    Kim was born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition caused by an extra chromosome that occurs in one out of every 691 births. Up until that time, Marino didn’t know anyone who had it.
    “I had no clue what to expect,” she said. But she and her husband, living in New York at the time, didn’t have a child just to give her up, no matter what.
    She found people who were supportive and she learned everything she could about Down syndrome.
    When her husband, Gary, took a job in Florida in 1979, the family moved to Boca Raton.
    “I found they really didn’t have anything in the schools for kids with Down syndrome,” Marino said, and she fought for inclusion.
    When she didn’t find a support group, she gathered some mothers together and founded the Gold Coast Down Syndrome organization (www.goldcoastdownsyndrome.org), a nonprofit family support and resource group. It now serves 350 families and is dedicated to making the future brighter for those with Down syndrome and other disabilities in Palm Beach County.
    “I’m not the type of person to sit around,” she said. “I started with a little group of moms. It was, at first, a coffee klatch.”
    But the next year, in 1980, GCDS incorporated.
    “All we want for our kids is to be accepted and valued,” she said. “I got Kim into Spanish River High School, but it wasn’t easy.”
    The organization has been bolstered over the years by the annual Buddy Walk, which made its debut 20 years ago.
    “We started with family picnics, and then when the Buddy Walks came along we combined the two,” she said. “It wasn’t a fundraiser when we started. It was all about awareness.”
    And oh, how the walk has grown.  Last year, 2,800 walkers participated and netted $175,000.
    “We’re expecting 3,000 or more (walkers) this year,” said Marino, 69. She will be at the walk on Oct. 19 at John Prince Park with Kim, who is already in training.
    “It (the walk) has just been amazing for us,” she said. “It’s helped us have all kinds of wonderful programs.” Many of those programs weren’t there for Kim but are helping so many today.
    But Kim is doing just fine, her mom said. She has an office job and “she loves it, and they love her.”
    Since high school, Kim has learned to read, something many said wasn’t possible for her.
    This year, Kim, one of Marino’s three adult children (with Tanya and David), “became an auntie,” her mother said.
    Kim also is a lifetime member of Weight Watchers, where she lost 52 pounds and kept it off for five years. She walks at least 10,000 steps a day, and if she hasn’t accomplished that by the end of the day, she climbs on the treadmill to complete the task.
     “I’m so proud of her,” Marino, whose family is moving into a new home in eastern Boca Raton, said. “She’s the blessing of my life.”

If You Go
The Buddy Walk: A family fun morning of walking followed by children’s activities and a silent auction and raffle, provides most of the funds for Gold Coast operations.  
When: Sunday, Oct. 19. Registration at 8 a.m., opening ceremonies start at 8:45 a.m., and the walk follows at 9:15 a.m..
Where: John Prince Park Center Pavilion, 4759 S. Congress Ave., Lake Worth.
Info: Call 752-3383 or visit www.goldcoastdownsyndrome.org

Surveillance cameras are popping up everywhere.

    The McCormick Mile Beach Club, known to many as the little pink house on the beach side at the inlet, is looking better than ever today. Freshly painted slate blue with white trim, the clubhouse had undergone a majestic makeover unprecedented (not to mention unimagined by the original real estate subdivision developers) in its almost 60-year history.
    Attendant with the makeover, new security and surveillance equipment has been installed to protect the club and property which, in our opinion, raise a host of primarily social, i.e., neighborly concerns — although there are obvious related prickly legal and privacy issues.
    Many other private clubs along A1A no doubt either already have policies regarding security and surveillance equipment on premises, or are struggling to find the right response. Given rapid technological advances, it is likely that any policies clubs develop today will have to be revisited at least annually.
    Bothered by an aerial drone watching you, bikini-clad, as you sip a margarita poolside?
    We are confident that through an open exchange of opinion, weighing the pros and the cons of security vs. surveillance, the members of the McCormick Mile Beach Club will ultimately agree on the right balance.
    We also believe, however, that the greater community, as well as the nation, could benefit from the thoughtful musings of Ocean Ridge’s arguably most exclusive (100-member), most tiny private beach club.
    In a recent letter to the club’s board and members, my wife and I indicated that over the past almost two years we had become increasingly concerned that the security systems in place had the potential for abuse. Questions such as who was permitted to view the security camera records, how often, from where, and based upon what criteria, needed to be answered.
    The best protection for the club is to ensure that adequate safeguards related to the security systems are implemented, we wrote.
    As to this latter concern, I referred to a 2012 article I had written in Forbes discussing some of the many unfolding risks related to use of surveillance systems, When Your Home Security Company Becomes the Greatest Security Risk.
    The article described an experience when passports were stolen from our home in Ocean Ridge by — get this — employees of a leading national company we hired to install a state-of-the-art security system.  
    In our opinion, the extensive use of surveillance and information-gathering devices for supposed security purposes poses far greater potential risks to private clubs and their members than those discussed in my Forbes article.
    We provided a list of questions for club members to consider. If enhanced security were truly the sole objective behind usage of security devices, we indicated our belief the surveillance employed by the club seemed excessive. We recommended a more measured approach.
    Today it seems that other members share our concerns regarding the use of surveillance and information-gathering systems with unknown technological capabilities (including but not limited to surveillance camera systems), and which permit unknown parties to remotely monitor and record members at will.
    We believe the following information needs to be provided to members of any private clubs in connection with any security and surveillance deliberations:
    • Have the members consented to use of any surveillance and information-gathering equipment and waived any applicable privacy rights?
    • What surveillance and information-gathering systems have been installed, and what are the capabilities of the equipment?
    • Are members’ conversations, as well as images, being monitored or recorded? Are members’ use of cellphones and Internet being monitored or recorded?
    • Where are the records and information maintained? How long is it stored?
    • How are the records accessed, by whom, when and for what purpose? What procedures are in place to ensure there is no unauthorized access?
    • Are the information and records available to third parties, including civil litigants and law enforcement? Have the information and records ever been provided to either civil litigants or law enforcement?
    • Who is responsible for — and who has responded to — any concerns identified through the use of surveillance and information-gathering systems?
    In closing, we doubt that members of many private clubs sincerely wish to go well beyond safeguarding actual physical structures to watching, listening, recording and monitoring member and guest activity.
We welcome hearing from other private club members their thoughts and experiences.

Ted and Tamara Siedle
Ocean Ridge

Rendering of potential look provided by Bob Currie

By Tim Pallesen
 
    A “world-class” appearance has been ordered for the city’s municipal beach — possibly with an open vista to the ocean at Atlantic Avenue.
    City commissioners on Sept. 16 directed staff to implement a beach master plan that the city approved in 2010 but delayed because of the economic recession.
    “Delray Beach is blessed to have an authentic main street and an accessible public beach, but we’ve taken for granted that the beach will continue to support the town as it has,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said.
    “If you look at what neighboring cities have done, the distinction of a world-class beach melts away quickly,” the mayor said.
    Commissioners Shelly Petrolia and Jordana Jarjura agreed. Commissioners Al Jacquet and Adam Frankel were absent from the workshop meeting.
    “It doesn’t match the face of what should be our most valued resource,” Jarjura said. “It is a shame that the beach has languished so long.”
    The action was urged by officers of the Beach Property Owners Association. The beach master plan was adopted four years ago after residents gave their visions at two community forums.
    “This is where downtown meets the beach. This is our Main and Main,” BPOA vice president Andy Katz said of the Atlantic Avenue intersection with Ocean Boulevard. “But it’s gotten long in the tooth. It’s being ignored.”
    BPOA director Scott Porten stressed the beach’s importance to Delray’s tourist economy. “We were given this gold goose and we need to protect it.”
    New showers, benches and trash cans will be the first improvements. Two new gazebos will be built at Nassau and Laing streets. Designers will figure a way to move the parking meters and signs that impede pedestrians on the sidewalk.
Costs are unknown.
    The most dramatic change called for in the master plan would be clearing vegetation to create an open vista to see the Atlantic Ocean.
    “As you come up Atlantic Avenue, we would like to see the beach. We would like to know we are not in Kansas,” BPOA vice president Bob Currie said.
    City commissioners didn’t commit to removing the vegetation, due to state and federal laws that protect sea turtles from the glare of lights.
    “This is going to be a hard sell, but I think we’ve got some ideas so turtles will be safe during turtle season,” Currie said. He suggested canvas sails that could be turned to block car headlights at night.

By Tim Pallesen
     
    The downtown’s third new hotel is described by its developer as a “funky-looking establishment that fits funky Delray.”
    Plans to build the 120-room hotel on southbound Federal Highway two blocks south of Atlantic Avenue will be submitted to city officials this month.  
    The new hotel will join the recently added Seagate Hotel on East Atlantic and Hyatt Place in Pineapple Grove to the city’s vibrant entertainment district.  
    The first two hotels were constructed during a recession when $429 million was invested downtown by developers.
    Delray Beach currently has 10 hotels with 954 rooms, according to the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
    A new Fairfield Inn on West Atlantic Avenue is expected to open in December with 95 rooms.  
    “Clearly we’re blasting out of the recession now,” said city planning and zoning director Dana Little, who cited six downtown projects under construction. “There’s a lot of interest downtown.”
    Samar Hospitality, a family-owned hotel chain on Long Island, N.Y., paid $2.5 million for the hotel site that sold for only $950,000 two years before.
    Jim Knight, the commercial real estate broker, continues as Samar’s development adviser.  
    Samar president Alan Mindel had been searching for a hotel site in Fort Lauderdale when his brother suggested he look at downtown Delray Beach. “I spent one night on Atlantic Avenue and fell in love with the place,” Mindel said.
    The as-yet unnamed hotel will be managed by a rapidly growing chain of select-service hotels similar to Hyatt Place, Mindel said. “It’s a very post-modern feel where people will hang out for the social environment,” he said.  
    The “funky” hotel will cater to tourists who might have gone to South Beach or Fort Lauderdale before they heard about Delray’s beach and downtown, he said.

    The mixed-use project also includes 35 condos and 6,800 square feet of retail space.

By Tim Pallesen
    
    City commissioners urged more generosity for police officers as they approved a $103 million city budget that will increase taxes for most property owners.
    The new tax rate of $7.46 for every $1,000 in taxable value is slightly lower than last year’s rate of $7.51.
     But tax bills will go up after the county property appraiser raised Delray Beach property assessments to generate nearly $3 million more in tax revenue this year.
    Salaries for city police officers are uncertain in the new budget because the city manager and police union are at a deadlock in contract negotiations.
    Commissioners Al Jacquet and Adam Frankel urged interim City Manager Terry Stewart to make police officers happy as the tax rate and budget were approved on Sept. 16.
    “I’m sick and tired of the Police Department feeling that we don’t care,” Jacquet said. “Please, let’s negotiate in good faith. Let’s give these guys something that they can feel good about.”
    Several Delray police officers have left for higher paying jobs in other departments. “If we keep losing our police officers, the next thing to go will be our businesses,” Jacquet said.
    “It looks like negotiations have not been in good faith,” Frankel said.
    “The recession is over. The city is booming,” he said. “Now we have the money and we need to take care of our people.”