Charles Kraus

By Liz Best

BOCA RATON — Charles Kraus made a difference in his native New Jersey as a prominent Republican, banker and Bergen County roads chief. He also made a difference when he retired to the Esplanade condominiums in Boca Raton in 1978, where he served on the board of directors for 27 years, 12 of them as president.

Mr. Kraus, 96, died Feb. 10 in Boca Raton. He was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Margaret.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Bogota, N.J., Mr. Kraus was a graduate of the American Institute of Banking and served on the Bogota Board of Education. He served during World War II as an ensign in the U.S. Merchant Marines. After the war ended, he returned home to resume his banking and political career.

He was elected to the New Jersey State Assembly in 1953 and was instrumental in establishing Bergen Community College. By 1958, he was appointed Bergen County’s roads chief and was instrumental in building the Bergen-Passaic Expressway. 

He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1956, 1960 and 1964, and managed Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign in Bergen County in 1960. He was an instructor at the American Institute of Banking, the New Jersey Savings Institute of Education and the Dale Carnegie Institute.

Mr. Kraus is survived by three daughters, Peggy Ann Calitre of Ramsey, N.J., Barbara Katherine Vasell of Mount Laurel, N.J., and Susan Gallitano of Sagamore Beach, Mass.; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass was held Feb. 18 at Most Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Franklin Lakes, N.J. Burial followed at Christ the King Cemetery in Franklin Lakes. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations, in Charles and Margaret’s memory, be made to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, 101 Academy Drive, Buzzards Bay, MA 02532-1803, or to Hospice of Palm Beach County, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407.

Roberta Jurney (left), Peggy Kelleher, Dr. Maria M. Vallejo, Lynda Levitsky,
Bobbi Horwich, Lexye Aversa, Renee Plevy, Sherry Frankel, Jacie Keeley
and Patricia Turner. Photo provided

Outstanding local women will be honored with portraits during the first Portrait of a Woman Spring Luncheon beginning at 11:30 a.m. March 22, at a club in Palm Beach. 

The goal is to raise money for Quantum House while honoring some incredible local women during Women’s History Month, says benefit founder and portrait artist Renee D. Plevy.

“This is our way of saluting special women from throughout Palm Beach County for their major long-term contributions to our overall community, as well as to individuals, businesses, civic organizations and charities,” says event co-chair Bobbi Shorr. 

The women being recognized are Grand Honoree Dorothy Sullivan and individual honorees Bobbi Horwich, Lynda Levitsky, Jacie Keeley, Sherry Frankel and Dr. Maria M. Vallejo.

In addition, the luncheon will honor special matriarchs — women who are known for  their charitable works. 

The Grand Honorary Matriarch is the Countess Henrietta de Hoernle. 

 Tickets are $125 and can be purchased at  www.QuantumHouse.org, Events Page, or by calling 494-0515. 

— Staff report

Land-use planning consultant Charlie Siemon lives and works at Mizner Park.
 He helped create the original vision in the early 1990s for the mixed-use downtown
development, and has overseen Festival of the Arts Boca since its debut in 2007.  
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

It makes sense that Charlie Siemon lives and works in Mizner Park. 

After all, his land use planning firm, Siemon & Larsen, created the vision for the landmark redevelopment project more than 20 years ago as a true town center — a place to live, work, dine, shop, socialize and experience the cultural arts. By anchoring his life in Mizner Park, Siemon is “walking the walk” of good urban planning.

The location is mighty convenient, too, when you spend as much time as Siemon does planning Festival of the Arts Boca, the city’s annual celebration of music and literature. 

It helps to have your apartment and your office just steps away from the festival’s parent organization — the nonprofit Schmidt Family Center for the Arts — and the festival’s main venue, the Count de Hoernle Amphitheater.

Siemon, 66, co-founded the festival in 2007 and has served as its chairman each year. It’s a role he embraces, but admits is a lot of hard work. He says the recession and changes in the entertainment business have made world-class festival programming a challenge in recent years.

First, there’s the money to be raised.

“What gives an arts festival sustainability is a title sponsor who makes a multi-year commitment,” Siemon said. “Our plan was to have a title sponsor by Year 5, but we couldn’t make it happen. Our major sources of support were in the real estate and hospitality industries, and it’s been a really bad last three years for those industries.”

The recession also prompted individual givers to shift their monetary contributions away from the arts and toward social services, in order to help those hit hardest by the economic downturn.

Secondly, big-name musical acts have become tougher to sign for an intimate venue like the park’s amphitheater.

“It used to be that artists like Aretha Franklin or Ringo Starr went out on tour to interest fans in buying their CDs. Well, they don’t sell CDs anymore. Touring is their primary source of income now, so they mostly go to the big venues,” Siemon said.

“When Harry Connick Jr. used to come to South Florida, he’d stay for several days, do six or seven shows, and we could get him for a show here that might have 3,500 people in the audience. Now the big acts are at Sun Life Stadium, with 60,000 seats, or at the Indian casinos.”

Despite the new realities, Siemon and fellow organizers have pulled together an engaging mix of offerings for this year’s festival, which runs March 7-18. 

Musical shows include stars of the Metropolitan Opera singing with the Boca Raton Symphonia; a Latin jazz concert; the classic film Casablanca with live orchestral accompaniment; and a St. Patrick’s Day “extravaganza” featuring Irish folks dancers and fiddlers.

Lectures include appearances by Too Big to Fail author Andrew Ross Sorkin, Morning Joe co-anchor Mika Brzezinski and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. 

Looking back, Siemon is pleased that Mizner Park became a catalyst for downtown Boca’ Raton’s renaissance, a process that continues today. (Borrowing from American writer Gertrude Stein, he says there was “no there there” before Mizner Park was built on the old Boca Mall site in the early 1990s.) And he’s proud to be part of the “tradition of cultural excellence” that the festival of the Arts Boca has established.

Will he continue to lead the festival?

“I’ve told the board that I would continue as chair for a year or two more,” he says, “but not past 2015.”

— Paula Detwiller

Q.  Where did you grow up and go to school?

A. I grew up in West Palm Beach and attended many schools: Ransom High School, Emory University for undergrad, Florida State University for graduate school and law school.

Q.  What are some highlights of your life?

A. I have two daughters and four grandchildren. I am lucky to be working with Wendy Larsen, my business partner since 1975. I live in Boca Raton and have a fabulous home in the Keys.

Q.  How did you choose to make your home in Boca Raton?

A. My father owned an office supply company called Halsey & Griffith, which had a branch store in Boca Raton in the early 1960s. I worked there one summer and enjoyed it. After Wendy Larsen and I helped plan Mizner Park, we moved our office here. There is no other place in Boca where you can live and work and not have to use your car.

Q.  What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?

A. The cultural components have grown. There are great universities, including FAU and Lynn University. It is a very welcoming community — you can move to Boca and immediately be able to get involved. In many other areas of the country, it takes much longer to get involved.

Q. What is your biggest challenge as chairman of Festival of the Arts Boca?

A.  The biggest challenge has been the recession. It is hard work building a tradition. It takes time.

Q. What is your favorite part of Festival of the Arts Boca?

A. Seeing really great artists who wouldn’t otherwise be accessible in Boca Raton, such as Renée Fleming, Valentina Lisitsa and Itzhak Perlman, and seeing the community enjoy them. I also love that there’s a lot of interaction between artists and authors who appear at our festival, many who meet for the first time in Boca. 

Q. If someone made a movie of your life, who would you like to play you and why?

A. Jack Nicholson … I think he’s a great actor and I love so many of the roles he has played.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?

A. I have three: “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

“Things are never so bad that they can’t get worse.”

“To be successful you have to play the cards you are dealt, not wish for a better hand.”

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?

A. Yes, a former senior partner Wendy and I worked with, Richard F. Babcock, who was a pioneer in professional planning and law. Wendy and I both co-authored separate books with him.

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?

A. My grandkids, ages 2 through 10. And Stephen Colbert.

IF YOU GO

What: 2012 Festival of the Arts Boca

When: March 7-18

Where: The Count de Hoernle Amphitheater
590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton and Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton (second floor above the former ZED 451) 

Schedule, tickets: www.festivaloftheartsboca.org

For more information: Call The Schmidt Family Centre for the Arts in Mizner Park,  368-8445.

By Hap Erstein

Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre has been in a financial bind ever since it took out a $6 million mortgage on its new theater in 2008. But it sees an end to its difficulties, with an imminent filing for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy.

“The decision has been made and that is what we’re working towards,” said the company‘s harried artistic director, Clive Cholerton. “We have a few details to work out. Mostly it’s making sure that when you go in with the filing, all your ducks are lined up, because that’s how you get out of it more quickly.”

The issue that no one connected to the Caldwell wants to talk about, is whether the 37-year-old grande dame of the South Florida theater community would “pull a Florida Stage,” a new phrase in the lexicon which means abruptly shutting its doors and disappearing forever.

“We are not folding. We are not going anywhere,” said Cholerton. “We as a board have never discussed Chapter 7 bankruptcy,” the route Florida Stage took to end its operations. 

The Caldwell has retained bankruptcy attorney Brad Shraiberg and is working with him to structure a plan to give the theater some financial relief and to get back into gear.

“The first hurdle we had to overcome was with our own legal counsel,” says Cholerton. “When he came in, he said ‘Prove to me that you are viable.’ We had to give him a detailed cash flow analysis, a business plan moving forward, so he could structure the reorganization. Because he was like, ‘Look, I’m the one who has to go out and sell this to the world.  Don’t make me look bad.’ ” 

Cholerton inherited many of the Caldwell’s problems when he assumed the artistic and managerial reins of the theater in 2009. 

Because of the scheduled demolition and redevelopment of the Levitz Plaza where the Caldwell previously performed, it had to commit to building the new, virtually adjacent playhouse just as the economy was tanking, the South Florida real estate bubble was bursting and public funding was disappearing.

Cholerton began wiping the cobwebs off the company by producing more new, edgy plays instead of the Caldwell’s usual menu of American classics. But the dwindling audience suggests that he may have changed the ship’s course too quickly.

“Have I gone too far? Yeah, I’d be an idiot not to look at that,” he said. “I didn’t say to myself, ‘Let’s see what I can do to alienate some people’ or anything like that. But I have a vision of what I want to do with this theater, and we have brought a lot of new theatergoers in. So it’s a balancing act.”

Besides the mortgage, which has reportedly not been paid since August, the Caldwell owes required payments to Actors Equity, as well as money loaned to the company by several major benefactors. An exact total of the company’s debts is something Cholerton was advised not to discuss. 

Legacy Bank, the mortgage holder, had no interest in owning a theater, but it was moving toward foreclosing on the Caldwell as a way to protect its investment. Now, the Chapter 11 filing would forestall such an action. 

 Cholerton emphasizes that with Chapter 11 protection, the Caldwell will be able to focus on what it does best — produce plays — and the audience should not notice any behind-the-scenes financial adjustments.      He is close to announcing a schedule of plays for the 2012-2013 season, and its next production, the musical revue Working, was scheduled to open March 2.

“By declaring bankruptcy,” said Cholerton, “We get to finally move forward.”             

Exotic car fans enjoyed the view at the
Concours D’ Elegance.  Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

Steve Constantine is a car guy through and through.

“I’ve been a car guy ever since I was old enough to know about cars,” says Constantine, of Boca Raton, who has owned everything from a Ferrari Daytona to a Maserati GranTurismo and about half a dozen other exotic cars.

So it was not surprising to see Constantine among the thousand people who turned out for the Boca Raton Concours D’ Elegance duPont Registry Live Hangar Party at the Boca Raton Executive Airport late last month. 

Part of a three-day fundraising event that included a black-tie gala and a classic car show, the hangar party offered visitors a chance to see a collection of exotic cars unlike anything else in South Florida.

“It’s fun to see all that’s out there all in one place,” Constantine said. 

For exotic car lovers, the gathering was a dream come true, with everything from Aston Martins to McLarens and Lamborghinis.

Honoring the 50th anniversary of the James Bond movies, the show also featured some of the cars used in the films, including a 1966 model driven by Timothy Dalton in 1987’s The Living Daylight. 

The Shelby 50th Anniversary Tour, which included several of the original cars created by designer Carroll Shelby, also attracted a lot of attention.

For those interested in seeing one-of-a-kind exotics, the hangar party featured 18 cars from the private collection of exotic enthusiast Michael Fux, each built exclusively for him. 

While most of the cars on display had a price tag far outside the reach of the average driver, the hangar party also featured a few of the newer smaller cars perfect for driving up and down State Road A1A. 

On a display of its own was the first Fiat 500 Abarth delivered to the United States.  Scheduled to arrive in showrooms next month, the Abarth is the hottest of the Fiat 500s to come to the U.S. and most certainly the fastest, with a 160-horsepower engine.

“It’s fast and fun to drive and its only about $23,000,” says Rick Case, founder and producer of the Boca Raton Concours D’ Elegance.      The popular festival, which concluded with a classic car show on the golf course of the Boca Raton Resort and Club, is “a show on the rise,”  says Mark Gessler, president of the Historic Vehicle Association, who was in town as a judge for the classic car competition.    Ú

The 350-unit Via Mizner project planned for the corner of Camino Real
and Federal Highway will include a five-level parking garage along with
a pool. Rendering provided

By Angie Francalancia

Apartment developers are going all in on Boca Raton’s long-held dream of creating a pedestrian-friendly downtown. Four complexes — two already approved and two to be considered this month — will bring more than 1,200 new apartments to Boca Raton’s downtown. 

“We’re very pleased to enter 2012 with as many opportunities for pedestrian-friendly development in our downtown,” Mayor Susan Welchel said after the second development, Via Mizner, was approved in January. “We have put millions into making our downtown look inviting, but a pedestrian-friendly downtown does not happen if you do not have pedestrians living down there.”

Boca Raton’s good fortune is a clear sign of where developers and investors believe the housing market is headed and represents necessity as much as desire, says analyst Jack McCabe of Deerfield Beach-based McCabe Research.

“We’re in the midst of a major paradigm shift, both in South Florida and the United States,” McCabe said. “We’re in the process of changing from an ownership society to a rental society.”

Many people have realized owning real estate is risky, and others who have lost their homes have no option other than to rent, McCabe said. 

His company is tracking 40 new apartment complexes with 6,000 units either permitted or announced in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, he said.

And while some market segments, including West Palm Beach and downtown Miami, were flooded with condos that might be available for rent, Boca Raton was not. 

There were several condos proposed but never built downtown, Welchel said.

“Via Mizner was designed for condos originally,” she said. “Had condos been the market-driven style, we would have been equally as pleased. “But the fact that these high-end rental apartments will fill up our downtown and create the pedestrian environment is an exciting opportunity.”

The 350-unit Via Mizner project will be built on the corner of Camino Real and Federal Highway and will include a five-level parking structure, along with a pool.

In December, Boca Raton approved Camden, a 261-unit project to be built on a 2.2-acre vacant lot between Southeast First and Second streets and Dixie and Federal highways. 

This month, Boca Raton’s planning board and its council seated as the Community Redevelopment Agency, will consider two additional developments: Archstone would be the largest of the four projects, bringing 389 units to Palmetto Park Road east of Federal. The apartments would be built in three towers that also would include about 15,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor. Amenities would include a pool, clubroom, fitness room and large landscaped internal courtyard.

The fourth is part of Palmetto Park City Center, a project originally approved two years ago for the corner of Palmetto Park Road and Federal Highway that was to include an office tower and a hotel.

Palm Beach Gardens-based Ram is moving ahead with a 208-unit apartment complex on the 4.5-acre site that includes the Merrill Lynch office building. It’s holding off on future phases, said Hugo Pacanins, vice president of Ram Residential.

“Phase 1 will include a parking garage, the 208 residential units and about 20,000 square feet of retail,” Pacanins said. “We expect to break ground in the third or fourth quarter of the year.”  

By Mary Thurwachter

Just a week before Boca Raton Regional Hospital celebrated its 50th
      fundraising ball, the hospital collected the largest philanthropic gift ever: a $25 million grant to build a neuroscience center on the hospital campus.

The money came from Bernie Marcus, former CEO of Home Depot, and his wife, Billi.

Expected to open in 2014, the center will treat people with strokes, tumors and other diseases of the brain.

This is, of course, most welcome news for Boca Raton and all of Palm Beach County, because those who are currently fighting brain diseases typically look elsewhere for help. 

“There is no place in Florida to go,” Marcus said when the grant was announced in January. 

“Where do you go if you have this problem? You get on a plane and you go some-place else.”

What’s notable about the new center is that patients won’t have to hop a plane for treatment. The 52,000-square-foot facility will include a 22-bed intensive care unit with two dedicated operating rooms furnished with MRI and CT scanners. 

Construction on the facility is expected to begin this year at a cost of between $15 million and $18 million. 

Building the neuroscience center will bring jobs, including about 150 (with up to 20 new physicians) at the medical center.   

The Marcus grant may well inspire others to give to the hospital, too. This is, after all, a community blessed with successful and generous people who understand the importance of giving back.

—  Mary Thurwachter,

Managing Editor

Rob Van Winkle, aka Vanilla Ice, signs a lamp for Hans Reide of Habitat for Humanity. The lamp will be auctioned
at Habitat's new 'ReStore' opening in Delray Beach. Photo by Thom Smith

By Thom Smith

Check out the tats, the piercings, the hip-hop attire, and the coolness. Cool as ice. Yet, deep down inside, Rob Van Winkle, popularly known as Vanilla Ice, is a regular guy. Oh, sure, he loves fancy cars and the nightlife, and he remains active in show business. In December he played Captain Hook in a British pantomime production of Peter Pan, but if he hadn’t knocked pop music on its derriere with Ice Ice Baby way, way back in 1989, he could very well be a carpenter. 

In fact, he is a carpenter, of sorts. In his DIY Network TV series, The Vanilla Ice Project, entering its second season, he renovates homes in Wellington, each episode dedicated to a different room. Tying in with his latest project, he’s hooked up with Capitol Lighting in Boca and Habitat for Humanity for its Making Lives Brighter campaign. Through Feb. 28, anyone who donates old lighting fixtures to any Capitol store will save 10 percent on new fixtures and a tax deduction from Habitat. 

“Twenty years ago I would never have dreamed this,” Van Winkle said during a recent stop at Capitol’s Boca Raton showroom to publicize the campaign. “I can’t believe it’s all happened. It amazes me. I’m blessed.”

He added: “I hope we can branch out on the show and go to other areas. I’d like to do something in Palm Beach or Boca. I have friends there.”

Van Winkle autographed a curvy chrome lamp at Capitol that will be put up for auctioned on eBay to raise money for Habitat for Humanity and to publicize the Feb. 18 opening of its Delray Beach “ReStore:” at 1900 N. Federal Highway.

If you can’t wait for Valentine’s Day for that love life boost, consider that the ancient Greeks and Egyptians — and some present-day experts — have considered garlic an aphrodisiac. So why not start the weekend before with the Delray Garlic Festival at Old School Square? The “Best Stinkin’ Party in Town” offers garlic in every shape and form, competition to crown the 2012 “Garlic Chef,” plus a little music to boot. The entertainment bill this year includes Uncle Kracker, Andy Childs, G. Love & Special Sauce, plus a Sunday full of tribute bands playing the music of Billy Joel, Bon Jovi and Journey. Admission is only $10 per day and proceeds — $350,000 so far — benefit local youth education and arts organizations. To “Eat, Drink, Reek!,” see dbgarlicfest.com.   

Park Tavern is now open in Worthing Place on Delray’s Atlantic Avenue. It’s from the restaurateurs behind Cut 432, the steakhouse.Brandon Belluscio, one of three partners, says, “It’s an American tavern, focused on farm fresh, local and sustainable foods whenever possible.” On the menu are prime rib, spaghetti and meatballs, salmon tartare, Maine lobster pot pie and other moderately-priced diner favorites, he said. Another partner, Anthony Pizzo takes the lead in the kitchen.     Belluscio’s name may ring a bell with Boca diners – he and his father were behind Catch 22 on Federal Highway.

Palm Beach may be the ball capital, but Boca has its share of society galas and the season is heating up. The Building Hope Gala, Feb. 4 at The Polo Club of Boca Raton will celebrate 30 years of work by Food for the Poor. Its goal: Raise enough money to build 100 residences and a community center and begin an animal husbandry project in Deuxieme, Haiti. Tickets, $225, (888-404-4248).

A day later at the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan, Christopher Kennedy Lawford will speak at the  spring luncheon for the Comprehensive Alcoholism Rehabilitation Programs. Tickets: $150-$500 (844-6400, Ext. 228).

The Boca Raton Museum of Art boasts a stunning display of photographs by Patrizia Zelano and Martin Schoeller through March 18, but on Feb. 18 attention turns to the Boca Raton Resort as the museum looks to the future with its Visionaries Ball.  Tickets: $350 and up (392-2500). 

Bethesda Hosptial and its foundation celebrates its 65th anniversary at The Breakers March 3 with the “Phantom Ball,” featuring a performance by Broadway Phantom Davis Gaines and co-star Teri Bibb. Tickets, $350, (737-7733).

Jose Carreras                       

The Boca Raton Festival of the Arts, which opens March 7 with Jose Carreras in concert, has opened a “pop-up” store at the northeast corner of Mizner Park adjacent to the amphitheater to sell tickets. The pop-up will be open Thursday through Saturday from 5-9:30 p.m. until March 18. 

Popping in on the pop-up’s opening day Jan. 19 was historian and Boca winter resident Doris Kearns Goodwin, the festival’s author in residence. She’s on the bill for March 18. 

Just opened: Corner Bakery Café in Boca Commons. Fresh breads, sandwiches and salads are served in this chain from Chicago
Zinger’s Deli from New York arrived in Boca at 7132 Beracasa Way. 

George Snow Scholarship Fund’s 19th Annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball

 Former Boca Raton  Mayor Bill Smith and his wife Bonny,
were decked out in matching shirts at the George Snow Scholarship
Fund’s 19th Annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball on Jan. 28.

Jason Walton, chief of staff at Lynn University, above,
and Jessica Corneille, below, a 2007 Snow Scholar and a
kindergarten teacher at Forest Park Elementary School,
were also on hand. Photos by Tim Stepien

Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Email him at thomsmith@ymail.com.

Steven Maklansky, director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art,
stands with a touchable sculpture called Big Crocodile. Previously,
Maklansky was executive director at the Brevard Art Museum in Melbourne.
Photo by Kurtis Boggs

By Mary Jane Fine

Steven Maklansky has a question, simple and practical. “Do you mind if I have a coffee?” he asks, lifting a cardboard take-out cup from his desktop, uncapping it, taking a sip. “When you have a 1-year-old and a 5-year-old, a friend told me, coffee is your friend.”

He sips again, smiles, says, “I have two titles beginning with a ‘d’ — director and daddy.”

In his role as director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art — a position he assumed on July 1 of last year, following the departure of former director George Bolge — both titles, it would seem, will carry near-equal weight.

And you’d be safe betting your favorite stuffed bunny, there’ll be some changes made. 

Some are already under way. January saw the launch of the museum’s new last-Tuesday-of-the-month “stroller tours,” an opportunity for moms to have a museum outing with young ones in tow. “This,” Maklansky says, “came from my wife who knows that there are a lot of women thinking, ‘Tuesday morning, now what am I going to do?’ ”

Maklansky recalls what he often wanted to do during his growing-up years in New York City — when, as he says, he considered museums to be magical places.

“It’s very important to me,” he says, seated on a black-and-chrome chair in his corner office, “that the Boca Raton Museum of Art is perceived as a magical place … to children of all ages. It’s important to me that we always have family-friendly experiences. You have to make sure that a museum is not perceived as a place full of old paintings for old people.”

Helping to make that point is Teddy 2011, an 18-inch-high teddy-bear sculpture by Canadian artist Ross Bonfanti — “Touchable art — cast concrete and toy parts” — that greets visitors just inside the museum’s double front doors. 

“There’s no second chance to make a first impression,” Maklansky quotes.

Second, third and beyond impressions are in the works, too.

Maklansky’s vision, he says, must include positioning and marketing, ways of making Boca stand out, since museum-goers have so many options: to the south, the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale; to the north, the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach; to the west, the Young at Art Children’s Museum in Davie. 

He talks about technology and interactive exhibits, about accessibility and integrating playful with thoughtful. “The way of the world now,” he says. “The way young people are learning.” 

A primary example is “Big Art: miniature golf,” an interactive exhibition scheduled to run from July 18 to Oct. 7. The museum has issued an invitation to artists to submit a design proposal for an individual golf hole, the judging to be based on creativity, playability, safety, durability and feasibility of implementation. 

One of the artists invited to do so is Bogota-born Federico Uribe, whose recent Boca Raton Museum exhibit — a fantastical jungle of animals he created from sneaker-soles and shoelaces — preceded Maklansky’s arrival.

The man who planned Uribe’s exhibit was former museum director George Bolge, now CEO of the Museum of Florida Art in DeLand, who said via email, “Leaving a museum you have developed from the ground up is akin to a captain leaving the ship which has been his home for many years. You don’t talk about your many adventures and travails together or the places you have visited. It is part of your past, and as such, has no significance to anyone but you. What is meaningful are the plans of the new captain and how he intends to distinguish his command.”

Maklansky’s command includes plans for, as he says, “a complete paradigm shift” in our website and increased awareness of the museum’s art school, which will include online enrollment, children’s birthday parties, and greater interplay between the school and the museum.

Most of all, he indicates, he hopes to alter the way museums often are viewed by the public as omniscient and authoritarian. He lowers his voice into the basso register and intones, “The museum in its great wisdom has decided that this is for you,” then returns to normal-speak. “We want to sort of get away from that.”

To do all he wants to do, Maklansky knows, will cost big bucks, so part of his role — the director, not the daddy, part — means persuading potential donors to think Boca.

He spends as much time as possible, he says, out in the community, getting to know as many people as he can, looking ahead to the museum’s forging more connections and to doing more for the community.

“Boca has meaning,” he says. “Now, what are those meanings? Boca is retirement. Boca is wealth. Boca is snowbirds. Thirty-five percent of them spend half their time in other cities — New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, cultures defined by their museums.

“Instead of giving your money there, where it gets lost in the sauce,” he says, voicing a potential pitch to potential donors, “or giving another Picasso to MOMA, where it gets stored in the basement …”

With all the increased attention to outreach and family-friendly exhibits and altered perceptions of a museum’s role, does the museum, then, plan to shy away from controversy, from possibly disturbing exhibits?

“Would the museum hesitate to do ‘violent’ or ‘licentious’ because it would offend the family? I think the answer is ‘yes,’ but there’s enough challenging art that doesn’t feature guns or phalluses,” he says. “There’s not going to be a penis show, but, no, we’re not going to be a children’s museum.”        

The Boca Raton Museum of Art’s Visionaries Ball 

Where: The Boca Raton Resort and Club, 501 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton 

When: 6:30-11 p.m.  Saturday, Feb. 18

Tickets: $350

For more information: Email kdelarosa@bocamuseum.org or call 392-2500, Ext. 208.

Lora ‘Skeets’ Friedkin, with her son Shawn,
raises money for a variety of causes, including
Stand Among Friends, which helps people

with disabilities. Photo provided

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

Perhaps the first thing you want to know when you meet Lora “Skeets” Friedkin is how the heck she got that nickname.

She’ll tell you with a smile that, as a child growing up in Farrell, Pa., she wore her hair pulled into a topknot tied with a bow. It fell over into her eyes making her resemble Skeezix, a comic strip character who appears in Gasoline Alley. 

Her family called her “Little Skeetie” and the name stuck. But what this Boca Raton resident contributes to the people around her is anything but funny business.

“Fundraising is my avocation,” she says. “I gravitate to it because that’s the way my mind works.” 

Over the years, she’s worked with the Democratic Party, B’Nai B’rith, the Symphony Guild, Hadassah, Sigma Lambda Sigma, World ORT, Women’s Division of the Jewish Federations and the National Council of Jewish Women.

Her Jewish heritage is important to her. “If you don’t help your own people, no one is going to,” says Friedkin, who has visited Israel 62 times.

Perhaps her most important fundraising has grown out of her personal experiences.

A car accident in 1992 left her son, Shawn, paralyzed from the chest down. It took the Jaws of Life to remove him from the car, she says. 

Friedkin spent 14-hour days at the hospital for the next two weeks. “But I’d come home and there would be so many messages of love and support. I could feel the vibrations,” she says.

Her love of her son and concern for his well-being, as well as Shawn’s determination to live his life well, translated into Stand Among Friends. 

Founded in 1997, “it was our way of helping people with disabilities,” she says. Although the program was started by Shawn and his wife, Lisa, with help from friends, Friedkin was on the board of directors and helped raise money.

She wrote 350 “passionate” letters through which she collected $300,000 as seed money for the organization. Since then, SAF has served 2,000 people and helped 500 disabled candidates find jobs.

In 2006, it partnered with the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at FAU and moved its headquarters into the school. And that’s when they opened the Center for the Study of Neurological Disabilities.

Here they help people who have problems speaking or seeing use computers to communicate. They also research and develop new products and services that can help people with disabilities live more fulfilling lives. 

Today, SAF provides research, education and advocacy for people with disabilities including Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, stroke, epilepsy/seizure disorder, traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis. 

“My mother is a very good supporter of my efforts,” says Shawn, who figures she’s raised over a million dollars for SAF. 

But Friedkin’s fundraising didn’t stop there. In 2009, she learned that FAU’s Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies was having its state funding cut, and the school was to be folded into the communications department.

That was just a year after Friedkin suffered through a divorce after 48 years of marriage. 

“My divorce taught me that I’m in control of my own self and not in the hands of anyone else but God,” she says. It also made her understand the value of women’s studies.

“At that time, I didn’t know what women’s studies were,” she says. But she learned the program had been in existence at FAU for 22 years. And she knew making women aware of their self-worth was important. 

She joined the program’s 22-member advisory council, which helps with fundraising, advocacy and community awareness. 

Her recent fundraising efforts for the center have included the screening of the film Refuge at the Living Room Theaters on campus. The movie depicts the struggle of a 50-year-old woman in an abusive relationship. Friedkin was one of the backers of the film.

It was written and directed by Mark Medoff, who also authored and directed Children of a Lesser God. He was in the class of 1958 with Friedkin at Miami Beach High School. They renewed their acquaintanceship at their 50-year class reunion. 

Friedkin expressed interest in investing in Medoff’s work, so he sent her a copy of his script. “I read it until 2 a.m. and then told him I was in,” she says. 

The money she’s helped raise for the Women’s Center supports student scholarships.

 “I’m amazed when I think how far we’ve come,” Friedkin says.                                      

For information about fundraising events for FAU’s Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, visit www.fau.edu/womensstudies or call 297-3865.

Bernie Marcus, chairman of the Marcus Foundation
and co-founder and former CEO of The Home Depot,
and his wife, Billi, announce their $25 million gift to
Boca Raton Regional Hospital. Images provided

     With the new $25 million neuroscience center to be built at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Palm Beach County strengthens its position as a hub for testing treatments for aging diseases.

  Scientists at Florida Atlantic University and the Scripps Research Institute are researching treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other aging diseases.

  Hospital officials promised the “most advanced form of care” when they announced their new state-of-the-art neuroscience center last month.

  “We see the center as the clinical site for the investigation of new treatments developed by FAU, Scripps and the Max Planck Society,” chief of medicine Dr. Charles Posternak said.

   A site for clinical testing has been the missing element as Palm Beach County moves to national prominence for its research into aging diseases.

   Baby boomers reaching the Medicare age group are increasing the need for scientific investigation into the neurosciences.

 Neuroscience center will test treatments for such diseases 

of aging as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

  FAU president Mary Jane Saunders has set aging and neuroscience as the university’s research priorities.

  “You couldn’t choose something better for our community with the resources to be available both in the hospitals and the population base that resides here,” Saunders said. “Challenges that exist out there in understanding aging include everything from the disease to the management of late-in-life issues.”

   FAU’s College of Medicine sees a Boca Raton testing site as important to FAU research scientists.

    “As we grow together, we are planning joint faculty appointments and many collaborations on clinical research efforts,” said Dr. David J. Bjorkman,  dean and professor of FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine.  “The creation of the Marcus Neuroscience Institute will jump-start and further enhance our joint efforts in education and future research collaborations in the areas of neuroscience and aging.”

     The Scripps Research Institute also welcomed the hospital’s plan to open its new neuroscience center in 2014.

   “We are certainly open to any collaboration that would further scientific and medical advances,” said Harry Orf, vice president for scientific operations at Scripps Florida. “Our goals are the same.”

   The research and academic focus on aging diseases is extensive in the county.

   FAU’s commitment goes beyond scientists researching Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s treatments to include its Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences in the College of Medicine.

   The center brings together scientists from different backgrounds to tackle the most the most profound questions of brain and behavior to create a new breed of neuroscientist on the cutting edge of research.

   The university’s College of Nursing opened its Memory and Wellness Center in 2001 to meet the complex needs of people with memory disorders. The center conducts research on the best care for patients with such disorders.

   FAU’s new medical school began classes last August with a focus on gerontology and aging to educate future scientists.

   The medical school has partnered with Scripps Florida to offer a dual M.D./Ph.D. program with a medical degree from FAU and a doctorate degree offered by Scripps’ Kellogg School of Science and Technology.

  Scripps has research projects underway in neuroscience focusing on the processes of memory and the diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s that affect them.Scripps scientists are investigating metabolic changes involved in the aging process that they hope will lead to therapeutics that can help patients live healthier lives longer.

    Germany’s world-renowned Max Planck Society will open its new neuroscience research center next to Scripps this summer. Scientists there also are looking for ways to treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

    Scripps joined Tenet Florida last month to announce that a second clinical research hospital will be built in Jupiter near facilities for Scripps and the Max Planck Society.

   The $25 million given by former Home Depot CEO Bernie Marcus to build the Boca Raton neuroscience center is the largest philanthropic gift ever given to the hospital.

   “Our plan at Boca Regional is to meld the best in physician skill with the finest technology and a marvelous facility to provide a center of excellence in the neurosciences that is unparalleled in Florida,” Marcus said.                       

For the eighth consecutive year, Boca Raton Regional Hospital was named as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades, the country’s top independent health-care ratings organization.

The distinction puts the hospital among the top 5 percent of hospitals in the nation for its clinical performance.

HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study, released in January, identifies hospitals with the best overall clinical performance across 26 medical diagnoses and procedures that the organization rates.

Town police will work 5 percent fewer hours but keep their same pay under a new contract proposal.

“So that is essentially a 5 percent [pay] increase,” Town Manager Kathleen Weiser told town commissioners at their January workshop.

Commissioners scheduled the three-year pact for a Feb. 7 vote. Officers will also be eligible, as other town employees are, for yearly merit raises up to 5 percent.

Under the proposal, police will work six 12-hour shifts and one 8-hour shift every two weeks, Chief Craig Hartmann said.

Officers will also take “voluntary” physicals each year instead of “mandatory” ones.

    —  Steve Plunkett

By Steve Plunkett

City Council Member Constance Scott was effectively re-elected Jan. 25 when challenger Bill Trinka officially quit the race just two weeks after filing to run.

“After deep personal reflection I am suspending my campaign for City Council,” Trinka announced at the council meeting the night before. “While I wish to remain a voice in the community for matters in the downtown area, as of right now all events and appearances related to my campaign are canceled.”

Trinka, a retired Boca Raton firefighter and 40-year resident, said he learned self-reliance from his father and felt extreme discomfort asking other people for help in the campaign.

“I don’t have to be up on the dais to make a difference,” he said after signing candidate withdrawal forms at the city clerk’s office.

It was Trinka’s second quick reversal in January. He was reappointed to the Downtown Boca Raton Advisory Board on Jan. 10 only to resign five days later for his City Council run. Trinka said he “probably” will reapply for a seat on the advisory board.

This will be Scott’s second three-year term on the City Council. She also is chairman of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

Still to be decided in the March 13 municipal election is the race between incumbent Anthony Majhess and challenger Frank Chapman. Majhess, a Palm Beach County firefighter, is seeking a second term. Chapman, a political newcomer, has a law degree and is president of the Boca Pop Warner Football League.

The City Council changed the qualifying dates from the first seven business days of February to the first seven business days of January to get candidate names to the county supervisor of elections earlier and to give candidates and voters more time to interact. Ú

The Allianz Championship’s focus is on golf,
but it has added the Grapes on the Green Golf and Wine
Event at The Old Course at Broken Sound to attract a range
of spectators. Photo provided

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

The weeklong 2012 Allianz Championship will attract 75,000 golfers and fans to The Old Course at Broken Sound Club. 

Beginning Feb. 6, amateur golfers will compete for a variety of trophies and the pros will vie for a $1.8 million purse. 

But it’s not just golf fans who will want to attend this Boca Raton golf tournament that benefits the Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

“We want to bring a new type spectator to the event … someone who might not come just to see golf,” says tournament director Ryan Dillon. 

To do this, the organizers have created the Grapes on the Green Golf and Wine Event to be held Feb. 11. 

Sponsored by the Boca Raton Bridge Hotel, the afternoon fest will allow tournament attendees not only to mingle with the pros but also to enjoy local restaurant fare. 

Samples of food will be offered from 10 to 12 restaurants such as Morton’s The Steakhouse, Carmen’s at the Top of the Bridge and WaterColors, all in Boca Raton, as well as Dennis Max’s three new restaurants including Max’s Harvest in Delray Beach.

“This is a little bit different tasting event being held on a golf course. It’s not in a restaurant or a hotel ballroom,” Dillon says.

To create the perfect space, the organizers rerouted the golf course, making the 16th hole into the 18th hole for the competition.

“We wanted to hold the Grapes event near a hole that would provide a good view and plenty of space for hospitality,” Dillon says. 

The 500 people expected to attend this culinary event will have an up-close view of the championship players chipping onto the green and putting into the final hole of the day. The hole lies not 30 feet away.

Besides good golf and fine food, there will be wines. “But these won’t be just any wines,” Dillon says. 

They will include selections labeled for such golfing legends as Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Annika Sorenstam, Fred Couples and David Frost. Other domestic and international wines will be poured from bottles that retail for $30 or more. About 10 reds and whites will be served.

As tournament play continues throughout the afternoon, the pro players will join the wine and food celebration after their rounds.

Look for the likes of Tom Lehman, Nick Price, Hale Irwin, Curtis Strange and Bernhard Langer to be sipping and sampling as they sign autographs.

But don’t worry if you can’t make it to the tournament. The Golf Channel is offering live coverage. 

“That means we can’t have mistakes because we are going to be on TV,” Dillon says.   

If you go

2012 Allianz Championship

Held Feb. 6-12, this is a PGA Champions Tour event at the Old Course at Broken Sound Club, 1401 NW 51st St., Boca Raton. Proceeds benefit Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

General admission is free; the Grapes on the Green Golf and Wine Experience, held 3-6 p.m. Feb. 11, costs $85 per person. 

Call 241-GOLF (4653; fax 241-4658, or visit www.allianzchampionship.com.

This year’s OPAL Award winners were Rabbi Merle Singer (left),
pilot Kenneth Davis, longtime volunteer Patricia Thomas, George
Snow Scholarship Fund President Timothy Snow, and 1st United
Bancorp and 1st United Bank Board Chairman Warren Orlando. Photo provided

By Liz Best

Where else could a rabbi, a banker, a pilot, a tireless community volunteer and a man who founded a scholarship program in his father’s memory be honored at the same time but at the annual OPAL Awards?

At the Rotary Club of Boca Raton’s 15th Annual OPAL (Outstanding People and Leadership) Awards ceremony, held Jan. 14 at Boca Pointe Country Club, not only were five outstanding people honored, money was raised to provide college scholarships for high school students in need of financial help to attend college.

The Boca Raton group has 34 students receiving financial help and mentoring services and selects 10 to 15 new students each year.

The idea is to find determined students who can’t afford college, and make sure they are able to complete their degree program debt-free. 

At the 2012 OPAL Awards, the spotlight was on five local residents who have devoted their lives to helping others.

Rabbi Merle Singer was the club’s first religious nominee and is the reason Temple Beth El is a force in the community, according to the local Rotary president, Doug Mummaw.

“He has touched many lives and he’s been a spiritual leader in our community for 35 years.”

Volunteer Patricia Thomas has spent years working nonstop for those less fortunate in the Boca area through her involvement with a variety of nonprofit organizations. 

She approaches her volunteer work as if she were being paid for it. 

“Her full-time job was service,” said Mummaw. “She worked it a lot like a career.”

Kenneth Davis, a 35-year Rotary member, uses his pilot’s license to serve the children at the orphanage on Cat Island in the Bahamas. 

Not only is he instrumental in delivering much-needed services to the tiny isolated island community, he also gets to know the kids he helps.

“He swims with the kids and they all call him Uncle Kenny,” said Mummaw.

OPAL recipient Timothy Snow started a scholarship program in memory of his father, George Snow, who perished in a helicopter accident. 

The George Snow Scholarship Fund is a world-class program that provides fostering and mentoring services to students, said Mummaw.

Warren Orlando, chairman of the board of 1st United Bancorp and 1st United Bank, received an OPAL for his contribution to the local business community.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone he hasn’t helped in business,” said Mummaw. “He’s also one of the kindest, dearest people you could meet.”

OPAL is the flagship fundraiser for the Boca Rotary Club and Mummaw is pleased with the spirit of the program and how well it fits the spirit of Rotary Club International.

“The Rotary International mantra, or slogan, is ‘changing lives and building futures,’ ” he said. “It’s great that the mantra is so fitting to what we do.”   Ú

The planning committee for the local Oscar Night America.
Back row, from left: Terry Watkins, Barbara Russo, Joan Schnell
and Harvey Wachman. Bottom row: Mimi Sadler, Randi Emerman,
Barbara Brietstein and Robin Trompeter. Photo provided

By Mary Thurwachter

No need to fly to Hollywood. The Oscars are coming to Boca Raton in a big-screen way. 

As one of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 49 sanctioned official hosts of Oscar Night America, Palm Beach International Film Festival and the city of Boca Raton are hosting the 84th Annual Academy Awards at Mizner Park Amphitheatre on Feb. 26.
The party begins at 7:30 p.m. with a red-carpet arrival for local celebrities and other guests. At 8 p.m., guests can watch a live telecast of the Oscars with host Billy Crystal on a huge outdoor screen under a canopy. 

Attire is Oscar chic. Guests can bid on some auction items and guess who will win Oscars for a chance to win prizes. Raffle tickets will be available for a chance to score the red-carpet experience at the 17th Annual PBIFF Opening Night Silver Screen Splash on April 11. (The festival runs from April 11-19.)

The Greatest Show on Earth buffet will have a movie-themed menu, with Million Dollar Baby sliders, the French Connection fries, and Silence of the Lambs chops. Drinks will include Crystal Clear wines, Titanic-tinis and Ordinary People highballs.

Admission is free and lawn space will be available for viewers who may bring lawn chairs or blankets. VIP tickets — which include the Greatest Show on Earth buffet, two drinks, VIP seating, red-carpet entrance — are $100. The first 100 people to buy tickets will receive Premier complimentary parking.      Ú

For tickets, call (561) 362-0003 or see www.pbflmfestival.org.

Major Donald E. Schofield, commander/conductor of the Air Force Reserve
Concert Band (left),  gives Boca Raton Community Resources and Affairs
Specialist Emily Lilly (right) a lesson on how to conduct the band at the Count
de Hoernle Amphitheater in Mizner Park in Boca Raton on Jan. 25. Photo by Kurtis Boggs

Cancer patients who have had to travel out of the county for proton therapy treatments got some good news late in January. That’s when Boca Raton Regional Hospital announced plans to build a $120 million proton therapy center on Glades Road.

Proponents of the therapy, used only for certain types of cancer (prostate, lung and brain tumors and pediatric cancers), say it can radiate a tumor without damaging the healthy tissue around it. 

The center will be built on hospital-owned land at 620 Glades Road, now home to a strip center, which will be razed. 

Details about the center’s financing are expected to be released in February, a hospital spokesman said. 

Earlier last month, South Florida Radiation Oncology, based in Wellington, revealed plans to spend $30 million on a proton therapy center in southern or central Palm Beach County.

Currently, the nearest proton therapy center is in Jacksonville.

— Staff reports

Chocolate Decadence organizers:  Back row, from left: Chim Francisco; Sydney Lynn; Stephanie Economos; Christine Rothenberg; Colleen Occhiograsso; Michelle Silverstone; Laura Nowadly; and Kirsten Tuzzo. Front row: Sunnie Brooks; Co-Chairs Melissa Roberts and Jennifer Baker; Community Sweetheart Dr. Marta Rendon; Melissa Whelchel; and Carla Zorovich. Photos provided

The Sweetest Party in Town”

Sponsored by Junior League of Boca Raton

When: Thursday, Feb. 9, 6-9 p.m. 

Where: The Shops at Boca Center, 5050 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton

An evening of sweet samplings from more than 25 restaurants. Includes wines, live music, entertainment, a VIP Lounge and a silent auction. Proceeds benefit the Junior League’s many community projects.

Advance tickets: $35 general admission and $75 for the VIP Lounge. To purchase, visit www.bocachocolate.com or call 620-4778, Ext. 1.  

Confirmed restaurants:

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