American Friends of The Hebrew University bestowed the national Scopus Award,
the organization’s highest honor, on Barbara and Richard Rothschild at a gala
featuring Broadway and TV star Megan Hilty. Proceeds – $1.2 million –
will help support the university’s training and scholarship programs.
Photo: Co-chairs included Joan and Myron Kaufman.
Photo provided

A sold-out crowd of more than 400 attended Food for the Poor’s 18th annual Building Hope Gala on Feb. 2 at The Polo Club of Boca Raton. Enough money was raised to build homes for 65 destitute families in Canaan Heights in May Pen, Jamaica. Construction on the homes is scheduled to begin this month. Photo: 2013 Building Hope Gala committee members include (l-r) Ronda Gluck, Becky Carlsson, Rene Mahfood, Renee Stetler, Allison Venditti, LaMae Klos, Julie Mahfood, Ronda Ellis Ged, Cathy Moabry, Traci Wilson, Robin Ranzal Knowles, Jill Perea, Pamela Matsil, Laurie Braden, Melissa Davimos, Kara Seelye and Kelly Brauner.

Photo provided

By Betty Wells
    Proposals to allow local governments to ban smoking on beaches — one from a Boca Raton state representative — are making their way through the Florida Legislature.
    State Rep. Bill Hager introduced a bill in the Florida House on Jan. 22. A committee on Feb. 21 unanimously passed a Senate version of the measure.
    Hager was encouraged by the vote of the Regulated Industries committee on SB 258, by state Sen. Rob Bradley of Orange Park.
 Hager’s HB 439 would give cities the authority to regulate smoking in parks, playgrounds, beaches and other outdoor spaces. For the past decade the state has had control of smoking, barring people from lighting up in restaurants and public buildings.
    The proposal to turn authority over to cities has gained support from anti-smoking groups and environmentalists who clean up beaches, and criticism from the tobacco industry and restaurant associations.
    Kelly Wiseman lives in Delray Beach and several times a week jogs on the beach, taking in the beauty of the natural outdoors — the sound of the surf, smells and special sand surface. “When smokers throw down their cigarette butts, that destroys nature,” Wiseman said. “And they pollute the air so they’re denaturalizing the beach all together.”
    General manager and a trainer at Get In Shape for Women in Palm Beach Gardens, Wiseman has been teaching fitness for nearly 30 years so admits no tolerance toward smokers. “I support any legislation that would keep smokers from polluting more public space.”
    Jim Bennington, owner of Bennington Tobacconist of Boca Raton said his concern is how far cities will go toward controlling smoking, should the power be handed to them.
    “What’s next after outdoor spaces?” Bennington asked.  “Space outside an individual’s retail store? Inside an individual’s space?” The legislation, Bennington said, could ultimately diminish the rights of the individual.
    Hager, has faith that city and municipalities won’t overstep.
“I trust and embrace our local government to make decisions that impact their own communities at a local level,” Hagar said. “This bill creates a healthier Florida for all of us.”
    The bill is supported by the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the Florida League of Cities and the Florida League of Counties.
    “The big opponent is Big Tobacco,” Hager said. “I have heard the opposition say there is no verifiable proof that secondhand smoke is dangerous. That is undeniably false. The verdict is in on secondhand smoke and the verdict is that it kills.”
    Sarasota County, home to Siesta Key, named the No. 1 beach in the U.S. in 2011, passed the regulation for its parks and beaches. A Sarasota County judge threw it out in December, saying it was unenforceable, ruling that regulating smoking was a task left to the Legislature.
    Two Delray Beach city commissioners said during a Feb. 12 workshop they support the legislation. There was concern, though, about enforcement of designated smoking areas. If enforcement were to fall on Ocean Rescue staff, that could pose a problem, commissioners said.
    Commissioner Adam Frankel said, “It seems to me it’s another example of Tallahassee telling us what’s right for our beach. I also recognize the city needs to go about things legally in that regard. I would like us to support Rep. Hager and get some help in the Senate.”
    Commissioner Angeleta Gray agreed with designating a smoking area, but was a concerned that enforcement by Ocean Rescue would distract lifeguards.
    Mayor Tom Carney said he concurred with Frankel and others that Delray Beach needs to work with legislators to get the bill passed.  “We should go on the record to say we want smoke-free beaches,” Carney said, adding that it’s not the job of lifeguards to “chase down smokers.”
    Hager’s bill has been assigned to three House committees for consideration; the first hearing will be in the House health quality subcommittee.
Margie Plunkett contributed to this story.

Michel Piranesi unveiled his latest jewelry collection during a
private champagne and Black River caviar reception
Feb. 11 at Mary Mahoney on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.
Ten percent of proceeds from all sales during the four-day
trunk show benefited the International Red Cross. The show now
moves to Neiman Marcus, Boca Raton, March 11-14, benefiting
Florence Fuller Child Development Centers.
Photo: Tara Vecellio and Mary Mahoney.
Photo provided

By Cheryl Blackerby
    Have you ever driven by a sports complex at night and noticed the lights burning bright, though no one was playing or working on the fields? Or seen empty downtown buildings lit up after working hours, or streetlights and outdoor globe lights that blast more light into the sky than on the ground?

Top-shielded lights at The Yacht and Racquet Club (above)
and LED lights at Boca Mar (below) focus the light on the ground
rather than into the sky, a key objective of the International Dark Sky Association.

    That’s the kind of wasteful lighting the nonprofit Inter-national Dark-Sky Association wants to pull the plug on.
    In Florida, excessive lighting is a particular problem on the coasts and in the Everglades, where it disrupts the biological cycles of wildlife.
“Light pollution” can chase fish away from the shoreline, and studies have shown that the glow from sports stadiums can interfere with the mating habits of frogs.
    It can be devastating for sea turtles nesting on Palm Beach County’s coast. 100 years ago, turtle hatchlings relied on the brightest horizon at night to find the water. That was easy, since the moon and stars lit the sky and reflected off the ocean.
    “We’re now lighting up beaches, hotels and homes, and it’s creating disorientation for hatchlings. They come out of sandy nests and go to the brightest horizon, which means they can walk across A1A toward artificial lights. I’ve seen that and it’s not pleasant. During turtle nesting season you see them crushed in the road,” said Bryan Bodie, president of the Palm Beach County Chapter of IDA.
    In Palm Beach County, there is another phenomenon with harmful light — the light glow from cities on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway. It is causing problems for turtles on the beach even when beach condos are turning off lights.
    “Cities on the other side of the Intracoastal are sending so much light up into the sky, the beachfront condos are creating shadow boxes on the beach with light coming through between the condo buildings,” said Bodie. “The mother turtles go to the darker sections of beach to lay their eggs, and we are finding unnatural concentrations of nests in these shadows. They are not dispersed along the beach like they should be.”
    The Council of Science and Public Health reports studies that show nighttime artificial lighting adversely affects humans, too. It disrupts circadian biological rhythms that can increase cancer risks and some chronic diseases, and even contribute to obesity.
    “The rhythms of day and night are embedded in all life,” said Bodie.
    The Palm Beach Chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association was founded in July 2012 to educate South Florida about the benefits of dark skies for people and the natural world, to offer guidance for responsible outdoor lighting practices, and to restore access to the starry nights.
    The chapter was founded by Bodie and chapter vice president Eric Vandernoot, astronomer and instructor at Florida Atlantic University.
    The chapter recently gave the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton, 2711 North Ocean Blvd., the 2012 IDA Lighting Design Award for quality of lighting.  Lawrence Demme, general manager, accepted the award given Feb. 19 at the Beach Condominium Association meeting.  Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, also got an award for his work improving the lighting at the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton.
The Yacht and Racquet Club is in the process of changing all of their  “lollipop lights,” globes on a pole that blast 60 percent of their light into the sky, to top- and side-shielded fixtures that illuminate the ground. They also changed bulbs in ceiling-mounted canisters on balconies to LED amber light, which has much less glare and is much easier on the eyes.
    Boca Mar Condominiums, 310 South Ocean Blvd., also will be given a 2012 IDA Lighting Design Award on March 2 at the Sea Turtle Day Festival at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. Boca Mar also changed the light bulbs on their balconies to an LED amber light, and used top- and side-shielded amber light around the pool and deck.
    The International Dark-Sky Association was founded by two astronomers — a professional, David Crawford, and an amateur, physician Dr. Tim Hunter — in Tucson, Ariz., in frustration during 1988 after having nights of star-gazing ruined by light pollution.
    Crawford and Hunter wanted to get people to think about the negative effects of manmade lighting on the environment and also the economy. If people cut down on the amount of light used at night, more stars would be visible for astronomers, less money would be wasted by governments, businesses and homeowners, and more nocturnal animals would be able to live their lives as nature intended. The group estimates that Americans waste $2.2 billion a year on unnecessary lighting.
    IDA’s enemy has always been sky glow, the light that looks like an orange smog polluting the heavens. The comparison to a smog is more appropriate than many realize. Consider that the Griffith Observatory in Los Angles is frequently useless to astronomers because of fossil fuels’ smog during the day and sky glow smog during the night.
    The growth of IDA has itself been meteoric.
The movement has spread across the United States and around the world. The organization now has offices in Australia and Belgium, more than 5,000 members in 70 countries, and a long list of corporate partners and supporters at all levels of government, including the National Park Service.
    
The IDA’s general meetings are the first Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m. at the FAU Observatory. The group will be represented at the Sea Turtle Day Festival at Gumbo Limbo tarting at 10 a.m. March 2. For more information, visit www.idapalmbeach.org.