South Tech Academy student Michele Calaminus dries 4-year-old Jack, a schnauzer/lab mix during class. She is a senior in SouthTech Academy’s Veterinary Assisting Program and is the owner of Jack. TIm Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Arden Moore

As we usher in a new year, it is heartening to learn of teenagers leading the youngest generation toward becoming lifelong advocates and caretakers of dogs, cats and other companion animals. And, we don’t have to venture beyond Palm Beach County’s borders to illustrate this.
    Case in point: About 150 animal-loving students at the veterinary assisting academy at South Tech Academy in Boynton Beach go beyond the typical high school required classes in English, geometry and biology. They also earn credit for completing eight elective veterinary classes during their four years at this charter school.
    In addition to comprehending classroom lectures and passing challenging written tests, these students must also demonstrate proficiency in bathing dogs, clipping the nails of cats, performing fecal tests and learning the safest ways to restrain an injured animal.
    At the helm inspiring and providing them with hands-on skills is instructor Carolee Ellison, a seasoned dog trainer and educator.
    “And yes, they scoop poop for a grade,” she adds with a laugh. “We do a lot of innovative teaching. Our students not only learn about dog and cat care, but also about horses, birds and reptiles.”
    On a recent Wednesday, one of the daily classroom tasks involved bathing, brushing and giving “peticures” to a few dogs brought in from pet lovers in the community. It’s a win-win for all: the dogs, the students and the owners, who receive discounted rates for having students cater to their canines.
    Among those bathing the dogs was Felix Reyes, a junior enrolled in the academy. Growing up, this 16-year-old from Delray Beach thought he wanted to become a veterinarian. This lifelong animal lover is one year from entering college, but after obtaining hands-on learning opportunities at South Tech Academy, Reyes realizes that he would much rather become a veterinarian technician.
    “When I was young, I got this idea that I wanted to be a veterinarian because I love animals so much, but now I realize how much school and work is involved to become one,” says Reyes, a proud owner of a pair of pit bull mixes named Bear and Poseidon. “The vet assisting academy has helped me identify the direction I really want to go — and that’s to become a veterinarian technician instead.”
    That’s what this school offers — choices. And opportunities. Word about this successful academy has spread into the pet community. Some students, according to Ellison, land part-time jobs in veterinary clinics and grooming shops while still in high school.
    “Not only do many go to work at veterinary clinics and other places, but any pet they own will be better off for what they’ve learned in our school,” adds Ellison.
    Reyes agrees. “I’ve learned how to be calm and confident not only around Bear and Poseidon, but other animals as well. You need to be calm and confident so you do not stress out the animal under your care. I’ve also learned to be kind when teaching them something or interacting with them.”
    One outreach program involves students working with Ellison to obedience train retired greyhounds, which are then paired with military veterans who may have a physical limitation or struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder. Upon training completion, these service dogs are ready to serve the veterans in need.
    “This is all part of the Hounds and Heroes program,” explains Ellison. “The students and I are helping veterans who put their lives on the line. We have to individually train each dog to meet each individual veteran’s needs. The students want to help others and this is a wonderful program.”
    Students also do fundraisers to cover the cost to take field trips, such as to St. Petersburg to tour a veterinary tech school and see firsthand what the college curriculum entails.
    “We’ve offered this veterinary assisting academy for 10 years and what the students learn has turned out to be great for animals, the community and our students,” says Ellison. “I have the best job in the world.”

Book an appointment
Got a dirty dog? Or a shaggy one? Or a stinky cat with nails in need of trimming? Students in the veterinary assisting academy at South Tech Academy are eager to make your pet look his or her best.
Rates are $25 to bathe a dog or cat, $25 to shave small dogs and $30 to shave large dogs. The fee includes brushing and nail trimming as well as expressing anal glands and cleaning eyes and ears.
Next available dates to book an appointment are Jan. 8, 14, 21 and 27 and Feb. 4, 10, 19 and 25.
You must show that your pet is up to date on the rabies vaccine. And, the following breeds are not permitted: Doberman, German shepherd, pit bull and Rottweiler.
To book an appointment, call 369-7043 or email Carolee Ellison at carolee.ellison@palmbeachschools.org. South Tech Academy is at 1300 SW 30th Ave., Boynton Beach.

     Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

Wayside House invites guests to its signature fundraising event that features vendors from throughout the country offering eclectic items. Time is 10 am to 5 pm. Cost is $5. Call 642-0849 or visit waysidehouse.net. ABOVE: Committee members include Darcy Weber, Co-Chairwomen Barbara Backer and Patricia McElroy and Ellen Rubel. Photo provided

Becky Walsh (left) and Heidi Sargeant. Photo provided

By Amy Woods

    Proceeds from this year’s laugh-a-minute fundraiser for the Delray Beach Public Library will cover the costs of installing high-tech equipment in the nonprofit institution’s children’s department.
    Among the electronic additions: a new technology suite with a 3-D printer and a state-of-the art recording studio, as well as improvements to the Family Reading Center.
    “We are super-excited about this project,” said Gulf Stream resident Becky Walsh, co-chairwoman of Laugh with the Library, Chapter 9, set for Jan. 30 at the Delray Beach Marriott. “This will only enhance what terrific programs they already have, as well as investing in the future of our community.”
    The casual and creative evening will start with cocktails, include dinner-by-the-bite and culminate with a performance by Emmy Award-winning comedian Paul Mecurio, of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Late Late Show and The Tonight Show fame.
    Walsh and co-chairwoman Heidi Sargeant first heard Mecurio on the Paul & Young Ron Mornings radio show and knew they wanted the funnyman for their event.
    “Paul’s a super-funny, very natural comedian,” Walsh said. “He touches on everyday things that make you laugh.”
    Walsh started Laugh with the Library in Delray Beach after attending a similar fundraiser in New Hampshire that was wildly successful. Chapter 8, also at the Delray Beach Marriott, showcased Comedy Central regular Dennis Regan and raised more than $85,000.
    “Last year was our eighth year doing the event, and newcomers were coming up and saying, ‘I can’t believe how great this is,’ ” Walsh said. “The night is easy, casual, great energy … and who doesn’t like or need a good laugh?”
    Sargeant said her goal as a co-chairwoman is to make Laugh with the Library a night of camaraderie and charity to benefit children.
    “I am dedicated to this cause because reading brings a world of what is possible to the impossible,” she said. “You can visit foreign lands and even explore the outer space through the ability to read. Now that’s a worthy cause, indeed.”

If You Go
Who: Paul Mercurio
What: Laugh with the Library, Chapter 9 to benefit the Delray Beach Public Library
When: 7:30 p.m., Jan. 30
Where: Delray Beach Marriott
Cost: $175
Information: Call 266-0775 or visit delraylibrary.org

A Unity School fundraiser supporting the 50th-anniversary party, set for Feb. 21, was attended by nearly 120 parents who engaged in friendly but competitive live-auction bidding for 14 of their children’s class projects. Students spent weeks creating artwork and building sculptures with the help of teachers. ABOVE: Linda Steele, Carrie LaNoce, Tina Estabrook, auctioneer Neil Saffer and Joy Lanza. Photo provided

Portrait of a Woman, benefiting Quantum House, kicked off its fourth season with a reception honoring five female honorees: Arlette Gordon, Roe Green, Julie Kime, Holli Rockwell and Ellen Tansey. The event included cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and a special serenade by tenor Warren Tesh. Escada donated 10 percent of each purchase to the charity. ABOVE: Lynda Levitsky, Dorothy Sullivan, Rob Russell, Margurite Grigano and Green. Photo provided by Davidoff Studios

WPTV-TV selected the school as its official south-county drop-off location for the 30th-annual Food for Families drive. The station’s staff joined forces with boys, girls and teachers for a long but rewarding workday (6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.), amassing 8,000 pounds of canned and dry foods. In another drive, students collected more than 2,700 pounds of food for the Farmworker Coordinating Council of Palm Beach County, bringing its total collection to 5.3 tons. ABOVE: Students Alexx Shumway, Dallas Seidman, Caitlyn Carro, Natalia Heguaburo and Katarina Sperduto. Photo provided

Boca Ballet Theatre’s 23rd-annual luncheon and fundraiser luncheon kicked off the new year and season in a festive way. Three hundred guests enjoyed an afternoon of dining and raffle prizes highlighted by a performance featuring New York City Ballet principal dancers Jared Angle and Sterling Hyltin.ABOVE: A Princely Affair Chairwomen Roni Robert, Cindy Surman, Cynthia Wohl and Carrie Gibbons. Photo provided by Silvia Pangaro

Founded in 1972, ‘Les Girls’  comprises foreign-born women from several cultures who meet monthly to foster friendship, understanding and exchange of ideas. At present, there are representative members from 40 countries. ABOVE: Maureen Hamilton (South Africa), Sophia Isaac (England), Kathryn Diamond (Greece) and Marcel la DeMuth-Gintowt (Poland) toast the night. BELOW:  Basil and Kathryn Diamond pose for a photo with Maria Osmena and Dwight Stuart. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal

Star

The Young Friends of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County’s mission of celebrating historic venues and shared legacies continued with an event focused on Boston’s on the Beach, originally known as the hotel Casa Las Olas. A beautiful beach view served as the evening’s backdrop and inspiration. ABOVE: Ann Margo Cannon, Jeremy Johnson and Enid Atwater. Photo provided

The Naoma Donnelley Haggin Boys & Girls Club in Delray Beach had its 12th-annual festive fundraiser and brought in more than $85,000 to help support programming for 400-plus community children. A total of 230 supporters stopped in and shopped among the show’s three dozen vendors. ABOVE: Co-Chairwoman Kari Shipley, with Michael and Susan Mullin. Photo provided

The National Parkinson Foundation and its South Palm Beach County chapter organized an evening of fashion and food in an ongoing effort to benefit research and resources for those affected by Parkinson’s disease. The event attracted more than 150 foundation supporters and raised $80,000 for the organization through ticket sales, a raffle and live auction.
LEFT: Annie Green and Christine Lynn.
BELOW: Chairs Robert and Gail Milhous.
Photos provided

The Boca Bowl was a family affair for many in attendance: David Mauschler and Benji Burns joined the Garcia brothers Remy, Rayden and Reese, all from Boca Raton. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith

‘Twas two nights before Christmas and all across town,
Many were wondering how the Boca Bowl would go down.
Officials had placed their stock with ESPN
In hopes that the outcome would be a big win . . .

It was for Marshall, 52-23, over Northern Illinois, but fans from both teams considered the inaugural matchup at FAU a plus. Since its announcement a year ago, a big tout had been the location: “You can see the ocean from the stadium.
“I just want to see what it looks like when it’s full,” FAU President John Kelly said. Unfortunately, for him that objective was missed by 40 to 50 percent. But Kelly got an idea of its potential as did other city and county decision makers. Many who live only 15 to 25 miles north, had never seen the stadium and were impressed.

The Calder clan has strong ties to Marshall (l-r)  D.D. Butcher, Harrison, Kristin,
Stirling , Glen and Caroline.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

So were Kristin Calder and Lark Lewis. Calder is CEO of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County. Her mother, D.D., is a Marshall graduate as were her siblings — and an uncle played football. So it was only natural that she follow suit. She went one step farther and ran for office — student body president. “I was running against two men and after I won, they tried to have me impeached,” she recalled. “It was a tough fight. But at Marshall, we’re used to working for everything we get.”
Calder added that friends who came down to the game from the chilly hills of West Virginia were impressed by a symbol of warm-weather holidays that we take for granted: “They’d never seen lights on palm trees!”

Lewis, a broadcast journalism major from Stevens Point, Wisc., is a member of the NIU band’s dance team, the Silverettes. “It was 38 when we left,” Lewis giggled during halftime.  “We didn’t get to the beach but we did get to lay out in the sun.”
So what if Lark didn’t perform before a packed house. ESPN owns the game, and its local brain trust was assessing pluses and minuses, hits and misses, even before the kickoff. For example, the virtually empty northeast end was supposed to be filled with veterans as part of a salute to the military, as the opening ceremonies featured a flag the size of the football field and parachuting Navy Seals.
    “We gave them 5,000 tickets but they didn’t get out,” event boss Doug Mosley said. “That’s one of the things we have to check out.”
    Similarly, another large block went to Spirit of Giving Network and local non-profits with no guarantee of attendance.
Marshall University sold most of its 7,500-ticket allotment and NIU wasn’t far behind. Naturally, they provided the noise.
    Coaching legend Howard Schnellenberger, a former Ocean Ridge resident who launched FAU’s football program and participated in the coin toss, later strolled through the press box with wife Beverly. “Make it look like you’re working,” he teased.
A couple of cubicles away, game announcers Dave Lamont and Desmond Howard had a few oopses — “here in Miami” and “Northern Arizona.” but for most of the evening they were on point.
Being the first year and having to deal with issues that weren’t anticipated, organizers were thrilled and promised a better 2015. Even the limited crowds from West Virginia and Illinois meant more beds filled in hotels and more meals served in restaurants. ESPN’s cameras gave TV viewers not only a wide-open game but could pan to the east and show the Atlantic Ocean less than two miles away. That converts into cash.
“I’m really thrilled with all the sponsors who stepped up,” Boca Mayor Susan Haynie said. “I’m also thrilled that a lot of others who didn’t step up are now kicking themselves because they didn’t.”

***
                                               
No cameras or news trucks outside Rubin Funeral Home in Boynton Beach. A few dozen friends inside to say good-bye to Ralph Morse, who died Dec. 8 at age 97. The news business, like any other jobs, has its cast of characters — the old-timers, the rookies, the good ones, the bad ones, those with promise, aspiring novelists, budding Picassos, hopeless hangers-on, hopeful hangers-on, devils and gods. Devilish as he might have been, Ralph Morse,  was a god … and gods don’t need big send-offs.
    Morse, who was born in New York, quietly retired to Delray Beach two decades ago, but not before helping make Life magazine the grand photo archive of the 20th century. He made it look easy, from Jackie Robinson stealing home to French resistance fighters dodging sniper fire to the Mercury 7 astronauts (John Glenn dubbed him the eighth astronaut).
    Arguably the best photojournalist ever, Morse may have been lucky, but he was lucky because he was prepared. “You find out something, at least one key thing, about the topic you’re going to cover,” he once said.
    “And, as importantly, you make friends — you make friends with everybody, wherever you go. Because you never know when you’ll need to go back there, for one more picture, or to follow up on a story.”
    Though his health was failing, Morse talked about some of his classic photos Oct. 26, for the Star Spangled Heroes exhibit at the Mandel  Public Library in West palm Beach (through Jan. 31).  It was his last public appearance.
    “He didn’t have a lot of strength, but he presented 12 or 14 of his photos,” Library Foundation Executive Director Jim Sugarman said. “He was very sharp, with a wonderful sense of humor. He spoke from a very personal and professional place.”
    After Life folded in 1972, Morse worked for Time until he retired in 1988, and surprisingly, as he said in a book about Life photographers in 1998, “Then I sold every camera. I don’t own a camera. I don’t take a picture.
    “If I had a camera, everybody and his brother would say, ‘Gee would you shoot my wedding? Would you take my kid getting married?’ I don’t own a camera, so I can’t do it.”
                                               ***
    The work of several other great shooters will be on display at Palm Beach Photographic Centre from Jan. 21 to March 22. This exhibit, however, will be different in that all the photographers are women. Women of Vision: On Assignment with National Geographic Photographers highlights the influential photography of 11 award-winning female journalists at National Geographic. The West Palm Beach center is the final stop on the six-venue tour.  
                                               ***
    “Listen to this guy. He’s gonna be great. You’re gonna hear a lot more from him,” Jon Stoll proclaimed one hot summer Sunday back in 1988 as he stood at the back of the Carefree Theatre. The performer was virtually unknown — the opening act to comedian Stephen Wright — but that would soon change, and Stoll, one of the nation’s top independent concert promoters would play a big role in launching him.
Eighteen months later, Harry Connick Jr. played SunFest and returned several more times, always grateful to Stoll for believing in him. Dan Whitney was a bellhop at a downtown hotel and stealing other comics’ material at Stoll’s Comedy Corner. Eventually jokes coalesced into a new person and now Whitney, er “Larry the Cable Guy,” is one of the biggest acts in show biz. Dozens of other performers enjoyed similar success, some at SunFest, some on regional tours.
In January 2008 at age 54, Stoll died from complications of cancer and a stroke. On Feb. 6 at the Mar-a-Lago Club, the American Cancer Society will pay a musical tribute to him with “Let’s Rock Palm Beach,” a gala that will appeal to traditional supporters of the society and the younger crowd crowd as well. The evening will begin with a VIP champagne reception, dinner and reserved seating for the musical tribute that will include a typical Palm Beach big band and an all-star band of performers who worked with Stoll. A special “junior ticket” will provide admission to the tribute and a late-night dance party. A “headliner” will be announced soon. For info, call 561-655-3449.  
                                               ***
Stroll. Strut. Prance. Pirouette. Get ready Delray Beach, Fashion Week is back for a second year — greatly expanded with nearly 100 models, 70 businesses, an Atlantic Avenue runway and, yes, the third annual Stiletto Race. Proceeds benefit such local organizations as Achievement Centers for Children and Families and Delray Center for the Arts.  
    More than 40 events are planned, beginning Jan. 17 with “Party with the Primates” — a Fashion Evolution” from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at United State of Fitness, 233 NE Second Ave.; a Sasha Lickle jewelry trunk show, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at C. Orrico Lily Pulitzer Signature Store at 1045 E. Atlantic Ave.; and Delray Swim, featuring men’s and women’s swimwear from more than 25 local fashion retailers at Worthing Park at the corner of Atlantic and Southeast Second Avenue from 7 to 9 p.m.
    Action continues from 1 to 10 p.m. Thursday with Fabulous Fashion Night and Day Out with open house at numerous boutiques, salons and art galleries. Stiletto Racers will compete from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday in the following divisions: men’s, women’s, college, runaway bride, 65-plus, most creative shoe, relay and the tantalizing “Sexy Strut.”  
    The finale, Gypsies to Jetsetters fashion show will be held 6-9 p.m. Jan. 24 on the avenue in front of the Colony Hotel and feature nine Delray designers. For details: www.downtowndelraybeach.com/Fashion-Week.
                                               ***
    Uh, oh! Boynton’s second boutique brewery may be on hold. When plans were announced in October, the folks behind Coppertop hoped to be brewing by year’s end. But before the beer could begin fermenting, lawyers began fulminating. Over in Tampa, Coppertail Brewing Co. has taken exception to the Coppertop name, alleging trademark infringement, and has filed a complaint in federal court. Beside the copper similarities, the “Cs” in the respective companies’ logos are even similar.
    Coppertop’s brewer is Matt Cox, an award-winning head of brewing operations at Big Bear Brewing Company in Broward County since 2001. Al Lettera, an initial investor in Sweetwater Brewing in Atlanta, will handle the business side. Stay tuned.
                                               ***
    With a bar described as a cross of sophisticated lounge and vintage speakeasy, Hudson at Waterway East opened in early December to positive reviews. In addition to the libations at the replacement for Old Calypso on the southeast side of the Atlantic Avenue, guests tout the atmosphere, ambience and food. However, after years of plentiful parking when Old Calypso was dark, businesses in the retail complex to the east and the patrons who frequent them are complaining that Hudson guests fill their spaces rather than use valet parking. Stay tuned.
                                               ***
    “My heart is exploding, can’t process it. this means the most. so honored,” tweeted hometown girl — sort of — Ariana Grande after learning of her first Grammy nominations for best pop vocal album for My Everything and best pop duo/group performance for Bang Bang! with Nicki Minaj and Jessie J.
                                               ***
    Speaking of Grammys, Shaggy, nominee for best reggae album for Out of Many, One Music, plays at Food for the Poor’s Building Hope Gala on Feb. 6 at Boca West, and Jazziz has Sergio Mendes, best world music nominee for Magic, booked for April 19. Two-time Grammy winner Diane Schuur plays Jazziz Jan. 20 and multiple Grammy winner Melissa Manchester plays March 3-4.
                ***                              
    For a little bit of everything, musically, Sunshine Music & Blues Festival at Mizner Park on Jan. 18 will be hard to beat —  and not just for the headlining Tedeschi Trucks Band. Now that the Allman Brothers have officially shut down, Derek Trucks and wife Susan Tedeschi, who won a Grammy for blues album in 2010, can concentrate on making their own music. Mix her powerful vocals and musicianship, Derek’s killer guitar work and the artistry of the other band members to stir up a nasty brew.
    Add to the pot Los Lobos, The Chris Robinson Brotherhood, The Both (Aimee Mann and Ted Leo), The Rebirth Brass Band, Grace Potter, English blues guitarist Matt Schofield and Sean Chambers for a hot January night, no matter the temperature. But the habañera in this sauce is Dickey Betts and Great Southern.
    Known for his great guitar work with the Allman Brothers and for writing several of their biggest hits — In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, Blue Sky, Ramblin’ Man and Jessica, Betts also is legendary for his problems with alcohol and for being fired by the band. Coming along after the breakup, Derek is less emotionally involved than was his uncle and band co-founder Butch Trucks, so he’s more inclined to just let the notes fall where they may.
    No word whether Betts will join Trucks-Tedeschi for any Allman numbers, but he’ll surely sit in for a number or two.  As for an appearance by Butch, he says: “Doubt I’ll be in Boca.”
                                               ***
    Tonight’s the night, but will you love me tomorrow?
    Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Shirelles headline the 53rd annual Boca Raton Regional Hospital Ball, Jan. 17 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. Dinner, show and live auction — black tie, of course — for only $400. (955-4142).
                                               ***
    Funny men: Mike Marino will appear at the Delray Center for the Arts, 8 p.m. Jan. 8 (243-7922), and Emmy-Peabody winner Paul Mercurio will headline a benefit for the Delray Beach Public Library, Jan. 30 at the Delray Beach Marriott (266-0799).
    Olympic and world figure skating champ, actor, producer, author and brain cancer survivor Scott Hamilton speaks at Delray Center for the Arts, 2 p.m. Jan. 15 (243-7922).

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

The Plate: Thai basil sauce with chicken
The Place: Sushi Thai Fusion, 3105 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach
The Price: $10.95
The Skinny: This simple stir-fry dish easily is our favorite Thai menu offering.
We love the blending of scallions, peppers, onions and basil leaves with tender bits of chicken all simmered to aromatic perfection. The salad that accompanied the main course was crisp and cooling, thanks to the delicate ginger dressing that topped it.
We also enjoyed the hearty tom kha kai, or chicken coconut soup, that we ordered as a starter.
­­­— Scott Simmons

From multimillion-dollar renovations and additions to name changes, resorts refashion themselves to keep guests coming back for more.

Jonathan Adler redesigned the rooms at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa.

By Mary Thurwachter  

Hotel mogul Bill Marriott Jr. says every successful company is constantly changing — or they’re not successful for very long.  
Local hotel owners appear to agree. During the past year and a half, resorts big and small have undergone redesigns and amenity additions; some have even changed their names and management companies.
Four local resorts have new names. The Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach in Manalapan became Eau Palm Beach; The Bridge in Boca Raton became Waterstone Resort & Marina; The Omphoy in Palm Beach became Tideline Ocean Resort & Spa, and the Highland Beach Holiday Inn became Delray Sands Resort.
    •  The 309-room Ritz transitioned to Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa (www.eaupalmbeach.com) in summer 2013, though most of the staff remained. The name change followed a two-year legal dispute between the owners and Marriott International, which operates the Ritz-Carlton chain.
    Currently, the ownership group, RC/PB INC, independently manages Eau Palm Beach.
    Among initial perks for guests were champagne at check-in and free beach bags and flip-flops. Menu changes at the restaurants were made, as well, to offer healthy Mediterranean fare.
    In December, Eau Palm Beach celebrated the latest phase of its new-fashioned Palm Beach luxury philosophy by collaborating with Jonathan Adler to redefine the guest experience with rooms full of surprises, including his signature accents to add style and craft.
    The bright blues of Capri, the white of Santorini rooftops and the classic nautical Palm Beach vibe inspired Adler’s color palette. His designs incorporate irreverence into the balcony and cabana spaces that adjoin each room. New elements include hanging chairs with a lacquered bamboo look, as well as a wrought iron “peace” and “love” dining set.

The Waterstone in Boca Raton  underwent a complete transformation, and offers new options for dining.

    • In May, the Waterstone Resort  (www.watersoneboca.com), formerly the Bridge Hotel, opened after a $10 million-plus renovation. All 139 guest rooms, including 10 suites and a presidential suite, have balconies with views of the Atlantic, Intracoastal Waterway or Lake Boca.
    A Doubletree by Hilton resort, the Waterstone has two waterfront restaurants.
    New hotel features include an app for room service or dinner reservations, a private complimentary golf cart shuttle to the beach and complimentary bicycle use.

Each of the 110 rooms of the Delray Sands Resort in Highland Beach was given an ocean-themed decor.

• Perhaps no hotel underwent as extensive a refashioning as Delray Sands Resort (www.delraysandsresort.com), the former Highland Beach Holiday Inn.
“We threw out everything old, even the silverware,” said General Manager Ric Clark. Each of the 115 guest rooms and suites was redone with an ocean-inspired décor.
    Rooms are equipped with comfortable furnishings and amenities such as mini refrigerators, in-room coffee makers and premium cable channels, as well as furnished balconies on rooms overlooking the pool or beach.
    And guests won’t have to deal with noisy ice machines. Bagged ice is available on every floor.
    The focal point of the Highland Beach property is Latitudes, a new oceanfront restaurant and lounge made up of five social and dining spaces, including the main dining room with views of the ocean, an outdoor ocean terrace, the new Wave Pool Bar and private social event spaces. With a modern coastal palette of bright sea salt white, deep ocean blues and driftwood oak, the design of the main dining room features terraced seating areas that cascade down to the ocean, giving every guest an ocean view. The Friday night piano player is gone — but, not to worry: new entertainment will be announced soon.
    Valet parking has become mandatory.
    Delray Sands is a member of the Ocean Properties Opal Collection (www.oplhotels.com).
•  On Ocean Boulevard in Palm Beach, the 134-room Tideline Ocean (www.tidelineresort.com) debuted its new name in August. Also new at the boutique hotel, owned by Palm Beach real estate investor Jeff Greene, is management by Kimpton Hotel & Restaurants. Changes at the property include expanding and renovating the spa and revamping the food service and bringing in a new executive chef.

                                      Other changes and upgrades at local hospitality establishments include:

Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel & Tiki Bar recently spent $750,000 turning four suites into high-tech villas. Photo provided

•  Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel & Tiki Bar just wrapped up a $750,000 renovation that began in July. The Key West-style boutique hotel transformed four suites into high-tech luxury villas. Carrie Leigh Designs of Delray Beach, architect Francisco Pérez-Azúa of Perez Design LLC and Bill Branning of BSA Corporation were charged with details.
    The villas feature the Beausommet mattress by Essentia, the “World’s Only Natural Memory Foam mattress.” Crane’s (www.cranesbeachhouse.com) is the first property in the state to feature these mattresses, made using rubber-tree sap, organic essential oils, natural plant extracts and organic cotton.
    The conversion of suites into villas is the first phase of a major multiyear remodeling project.  
• Last March, the Delray Beach Marriott (www.marriottdelraybeach.com) unveiled its Villas by the Sea. On the corner of A1A and Atlantic Avenue, the villas are comprised of eight ocean view or garden view cottages surrounding a private pool.
    The one-, two- and three-bedroom villas offer guests privacy, with features such as private check-in, an exclusive pool and Jacuzzi and personal concierge services. Other amenities include kitchenettes with premium appliances, grocery shopping service, luxury linens and bathrobes, complimentary breakfast basket delivered to the room each morning, spacious living rooms, large verandas  and personalized welcome gift upon arrival.
    The Delray Beach Marriott and its Villas by the Sea are owned and operated by Ocean Properties, Ltd. (www.oplhotels.com).
•  A year ago, The Seagate Country Club unveiled a multimillion-dollar renovation of its 18-hole championship private golf course.
    The Hamlet Golf Club was purchased and renamed The Seagate Country Club and renovated to create a golf facility to complement the Seagate Hotel & Spa (www.theseagatehotel.com) and the Seagate Beach Club. The club features a practice facility as well as PGA professionals available year-round for private lessons for hotel guests and members.
• The Boca Raton Resort & Club, a Waldorf Astoria Resort, (www.bocaresort.com) wrapped up a $30 million renovation of the historic Cloister building last fall. The 318-room Cloister, built in 1926, was the architectural masterpiece of Addison Mizner and featured his trademark Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean design.
The refashioned rooms have a contemporary décor with calming colors and neutral tones, but with a blend of colonial charm, according to London designer Fiona Thompson.
    Other updates include adding enhanced Wi-Fi and a rebuild of the plumbing and electrical. Large bathrooms now come with rainfall showers.
• Delray Beach’s Wright by the Sea hotel (www.wbtsea.com), just south of Linton Boulevard, completed a renovation last year including new living and dining rooms and upgraded bedroom furniture in each room to make each stay more comfortable. A new walkway to the beach and outdoor umbrellas offer guests a good place to relax and enjoy the beach or pool.
• After being closed for five weeks, The Colony Hotel (www.thecolonypalmbeach.com) in Palm Beach reopened in October following a “re-imagining” by decorator Carleton Varney. While keeping the traditional British Colonial foundation, Varney gave the hotel, built in 1947, a happy, classy feeling.
    Each of the 90 rooms and suites is different, put together with vivid upholstery, unique lamps and artwork, many by local artists. Rooms offer a palette of vibrant colors, floral patterns and bold contrasts, with high-tech amenities such as large, flat-screen, smart TVs and Bluetooth-enabled telephones with built-in chargers, plus slow-glow lights in the bathrooms, striped walk-in closets and Frette linens.
    The $9 million renovation included a re-do of the hotel’s lobby and restaurant and a fresh coat of salmon paint on exterior walls.
    •  During the past year, The Four Seasons Resort (www.fourseasons.com/palmbeach) in Palm Beach opened Swell Boutiques, inspired by the shops on Worth Avenue, and another restaurant — Jove Kitchen & Bar, which offers a modern take on Italian cuisine.
    Graze, the resort’s poolside breakfast and lunch restaurant began serving Sunday brunch.
• Last month, The Breakers Palm Beach (www.thebreakers.com) debuted a 6,000-square-foot, indoor/outdoor seaside fitness facility, Ocean Fitness, in the Mediterranean-style Beach Club complex. Free to hotel guests, this amenity provides an array of resources to help folks reach their personal fitness goals.
    More than twice as large as the resort’s previous rendition within the Spa, Ocean Fitness encompasses 4,300 square feet of air-conditioned interior space, a 1,700-square-foot oceanfront terrace featuring treadmills and classes for outdoor workouts, including spin classes, and 10-foot-tall windows showcasing ocean vistas.

•  The Colony Hotel & Cabana Club (www.colonyflorida.com) in Delray Beach added two pools in 2014. The larger one, 25 meters, and the plunge pool will be cool in the summer and warmer in the winter. The project includes hand painted tiles by a local artist around the edge of the pool, pavers made with recycled glass and Florida shells, additional couches for lounging, a real clamshell fountain, lots of palms and native plants.

By Steven J. Smith

    Event organizer Nancy Flinn, along with artists Max Matteson and Beth Sloat, have teamed with the Delray Art League to invite area artists to submit digital photos of paintings for an art show planned for Ocean Ridge Town Hall throughout the month of March.
    Applicants may submit up to two entries at a nonrefundable fee of $20 per entry, Flinn said.
    Approximately 30 paintings will be selected for the show and cash prizes of $300, $200 and $100 will be awarded to the first, second and third place paintings respectively, along with two honorable mentions at $50 each.
    All artwork must be no larger than 30 inches by 40 inches in size, including the frame. All paintings must also be wired and ready to hang and those chosen for the show may be offered for sale to the public.
    “This is a free art event for the Ocean Ridge community that would be of sustainable value under the auspices of a recognized organization such as the Delray Art League, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary and knows how to run an art show the right way,” Flinn said. “This could be a yearly event for Ocean Ridge. We’ll start with paintings this year and build on that to include multi-dimensional works in years to come.”
    Flinn, a watercolor painter, added entries will be evaluated by Sloat, who recently had samples of her own work on display at the Spanish River Library in Boca Raton in an exhibition titled “Earth, Wind and Water.”
    “We have a great deal of talent here,” Sloat said. “We’re hoping to have enough submissions that we can have a variety of very high-quality paintings — in watercolor, oils, pastels and any other type of artwork that can be hung — to present to the community. However, we are not accepting photographs for this show.”
    Sloat, who excels in oils and does plein air and studio work, added she hopes after the prizes are awarded, artists of note in the show might talk about their craft.
    “It would be wonderful if one, or several, of the artists could make a presentation to the community as well,” she said. “I like to paint in our local area. There are so many wonderful subjects here to paint. Max Matteson and I will also have some paintings hanging in the entry area of Ocean Ridge Town Hall as samples of our own work to complement those featured in the show.”
    Matteson, a Michigan-based minimalist landscape painter who winters in Ocean Ridge, said he was pleased to help bring this art show to light.
    “We did a show about three years ago that was very successful, so Nancy and I are picking up the ball and trying to put this together for this year,” he said. “It’s important that we expose the public to art. Art reminds us of the beauty that surrounds us. It creates an emotional experience like pleasure, excitement or sadness. Art also documents our past and develops technical skills in the artist.
    “But most importantly, creativity is the basis for all innovation. We wouldn’t have products or inventions without creativity, which sparks the idea of doing something new. And that something new develops into all of our progress.”
    The deadline for applicants is Feb. 16. For more information and a show application, visit https://db.tt/FBwrkw1y or contact Nancy Flinn by telephone at 561-336-2948 or via email at nancym7@yahoo.com.

By Thom Smith

After 15 years, Ervin Duggan has said farewell to Palm Beach and to his legacy, the Society of the Four Arts. His successor, David W. Breneman, a professor in economics of education and public policy at the University of Virginia, has big shoes to fill. If he’s as good at telling stories, he’s got the job licked.
A decade before Paul Simon sang of being “branded a communist ’cause I’m left-handed,” Duggan endured a similar rebuke from a beloved but unforgiving uncle.
    “It was pretty much expected that I, as most of the men in my family had done, would attend the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, in Charleston,” Duggan explained. “But I didn’t want to go there. An acquaintance had gone to Davidson, in North Carolina; so one day, without having seen it or knowing anything about it, I told my mother I wanted to go to there. She was surprised, but finally she said I should visit a neighbor, a former chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, who had gone to Davidson.”
    The justice wrote a letter and next fall, the aspiring lawyer left Manning, a sleepy town upriver from Charleston, for the wide world of North Carolina. On his first trip home, Duggan couldn’t wait to share with his prominent family all that he had learned.
    “One of my classes was in advanced mathematics, and I was explaining that in Boolean algebra, two plus two does not necessarily equal four,” Duggan recalled. “My uncle, who was sitting at the dinner table, threw up his hands and said, ‘I knew it … he goes off to that liberal school and becomes a communist.’ ”
    Duggan laughs about it now, speaking lovingly of his uncle and assorted relatives and acquaintances of similar political bent, confident that education will help folk who harbor similar misguided sentiments become wiser.
    For nearly 15 years, as president of Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts, Duggan was committed to education, and that will continue as he returns with wife, Julia, to Davidson to join its lifelong learning program.  
    They’ll split time among the on-campus apartment, their retreat in the north Georgia mountains and in South Florida: Son Ned, his wife, Rabia, and granddaughter, Maisie, live in Miami.
    “And we want to travel,” Duggan says with the anticipation of a high-schooler taking his first trip to New York.
    Another story:
    In the ’50s, a new band director joined Manning High School and it quickly became the best in South Carolina and ultimately won a national competition in New York.
    “When we got home, I was in the kitchen telling everyone about the trip,” Duggan recalled. “We had a black maid, who was standing in the back hall, and after I finished, she said, ‘Maybe someday our school will have a band.’ That stuck with me.” (In 2009, the Manning High School band marched in Barack Obama’s first inaugural parade.)
    Indeed. At “liberal” Davidson, Duggan became editor of the campus newspaper, and in that capacity he became an outspoken champion of desegregation. The Washington Post took notice and after graduation, Duggan became a reporter, but as often happens in Washington, few jobs are permanent. In 1965 he became a staff assistant to President Lyndon Johnson (Secretary of State Dean Rusk was a Davidson alum.) He wrote speeches and helped draft the Public Broadcasting Act. He served as national editor of The Washingtonian magazine, headed special projects at The Smithsonian, worked on Jimmy Carter’s staff, was appointed by George H.W. Bush to the Federal Communications Commission and spent nearly six years as president of Public Broadcasting Service.
    In 1996, during and because of his tenure at PBS, Duggan spoke at Harvard’s Kennedy Center and then flew south where 18 hours later the town’s favorite son served as grand marshal at the 17th annual Clarendon County Striped Bass Festival. He rode in a convertible that bore his name — Irving Dugan.
    “It proves you can’t go home again,” he said.  
    Despite increasing PBS’s revenue 70 percent, he resigned in 1999 amid controversy over fundraising mostly by the larger stations. He always remained positive about the national role of public television.
    Then a headhunter approached him about the Four Arts. He’d never seen it, knew nothing about it, but just as with Davidson, he jumped at the opportunity. At first, some board members were wary — a Washington liberal in Palm Beach? — but at an introductory dinner he immediately won over the skeptics. Duggan seized the opportunity, and the Four Arts has blossomed from a small, almost exclusively Palm Beach organization to a thriving regional institution.
    “The only place I know like it, and it’s on a much larger scale,” Duggan said, “is the Smithsonian. We function as a museum, but we are not a museum. We have a park-like campus, but we are not a park. We have libraries, but you can’t say the Four Arts is a ‘library.’ We show films, but we are not a movie theater.
    “What we are most like is a small, liberal arts college with the entire community at the student body.”
    That concept gave birth to the Campus on the Lake, which grew into a program of lectures, workshops, classes and trips exploring art, music, literature, drama and the art of living well that boasts 7,000 members
    “It’s a gift to the entire community,” Duggan says; he has similar plans for Davidson.
Ah, the stories he will tell.  

Unity School Jazz Band performs
Delray Beach Tree lighting — Dec.  4

Now in its 15th year, the Unity School Jazz Band, under the direction of Bethany Gerena, performed during the holiday festivities by playing Deckin’ the Halls, Jingle Bell Rock and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Photo provided

Delray Beach Holiday Parade
Atlantic Avenue — Dec. 13.

Delray Beach held its annual Holiday Parade along Atlantic Avenue beginning east of the Intracoastal and continuing west past Swinton Avenue. LEFT: Representatives of Plumosa School of the Arts marched with their float in the holiday parade.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Boynton/Delray Boat Parade
Along the Intracoastal Waterway — Dec. 12

The cities of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach hosted the 43rd annual Holiday Boat Parade along the Intracoastal Waterway from the Boynton Beach Marina to the C-15 Canal, just south of the Linton Boulevard Bridge.  ABOVE: Boats decorated in this year’s parade. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

There will be performances by taiko drummers throughout the day at Oshogatsu. Photo provided

By Shelley Gilken
    
Among the Japanese traditions to commemorate the New Year: taiko drummers. A game similar to badminton. An elaborate lion dancer called shishimai. And a giant mortar and pestle to pound out rice cakes in a tradition called mochi pounding.
    It’s all part of the Oshogatsu festival (pronounced: oh-show-got-su) at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach on Jan. 11 — one of the signature events of the year for the museum and an annual tradition for the last 37 years. The festival draws between 6,000 and 7,000 people.
    “This is a family-friendly event with a full range of children’s activities,” said Samantha Levine, marketing and events manager for the museum. “It’s lively and a lot of fun.”  
    Levine said visitors could experience the festival in an hour or two, but “we try to make it so there’s a full day of entertainment.”
    She said many of the visitors to the festival each year are young families. Of all the activities, crafts, games and exhibits, children tend to be most mesmerized by the taiko drumming performance, which lasts 20 to 30 minutes and includes multiple shows throughout the day.
    “We’re so thrilled to see children enjoy the experience as much as their parents. It’s a distinctly fun experience and it’s also educational,” Levine said.
    The teachable moments include not just the festival features, but also that visitors to the festival get to enjoy the museum.
    One of the permanent exhibits at the museum gives a perspective of Japan through the eyes of a child. The exhibit features various places such as a Japanese classroom and a Japanese home.
    “The kids see they eat with chopsticks. And in certain rooms, you sit on the ground and enter without shoes on.”
    For the Oshogatsu festival, Levine suggested that visitors wear comfortable shoes because there is a lot more walking than people might expect for a museum. In addition, she recommended that visitors dress appropriately for spending time outdoors considering much of the festival is in the outdoor gardens.
    The Morikami is open year-round and shows a broad overview of Japanese culture and even educates people on the connection between Japan and South Florida. The early Japanese settlers were actually known as Yamato, Levine said, which became the name of a well-traveled road that has an exit on Interstate 95.
    One of the early settlers was George Morikami, who donated farmland to the county that became the museum and gardens.
    The Morikami is one of the only museums in the country to explore so many facets of Japanese culture.
    While children are playing and learning and having fun, don’t forget to wish everyone you see “Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu!” (Happy New Year!)

If You Go
Oshogatsu is the New Year festival at the Morikami
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Jan. 11
Cost: $12/adults (ages 11+) online – $15/gate
$6/children (ages 4-10) online – $10/gate
Free for museum members and children 3 & under
Location: Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach, FL 33446
More information at: www.morikami.org and morikami.org/newyear

By Rich Pollack

      Funeral services will be held on Monday, Dec. 15 for Highland Beach Town Commissioner Dennis Sheridan, who died Dec. 11 following a recent illness.  He was 77.

      A funeral Mass will be held at St. Lucy Catholic Church in Highland Beach at 11 a.m. Visitation will be on Sunday from 2 to 7 p.m. at Glick Family Funeral Home in Boca Raton, with a wake scheduled for 6 p.m.

      Mr. Sheridan was elected to the Town Commission in 2011 and served three years before being re-elected in March of this year.

      A licensed funeral director for 42 years, Mr. Sheridan moved to Highland Beach from Mineola, N.Y., more than 20 years ago and was an active member of St. Lucy Catholic Church. Before being elected to the Town Commission, he served on the  town’s Planning Board and Census Board. He also served as president of the Monterey House Condominium Association for more than a decade and previously served as the association’s vice president and secretary.

      Unable to attend Town Commission functions since late October, Mr. Sheridan underwent surgery in November to remove a tumor from his stomach but never fully recovered.

      In a letter to other commissioners that was read at the town’s November commission meeting, Mr. Sheridan called for civility and an end to bickering among the commissioners as well as from residents.

      “I truly feel the town is blessed with a dedicated Town Commission that is willing to work hard for the betterment of our residents,” he wrote. “It is my wish … that this commission along with our residents can work together for the good of our town and stop all the negativity of these past months. Let us all work together and restore the feeling I first had when I came on the commission, one of friendship, progress and commitment.”

      Mr. Sheridan is survived by his wife of close to 55 years, Barbara, four children and 12 grandchildren.

Cindy Vincenz and her grandson, Fisher Nieman, 5, work to create compositions that will be turned into long, twirling kinetic strands and attached to a kapok tree. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes
 
    Nicole Johnson and her four children were dropping by the Boynton Beach City Library that morning to see about getting some library cards when the kids glanced into the community room.
    “What’s going on?” they wondered. And the library cards had to wait.
    What was going on that Saturday morning, Nov. 8, was the second of three “Kinetic-Connections” workshops to create a sculpture for the 2015 International Kinetic Art Exhibit & Symposium, the city’s biennial celebration of art in motion.
    On the room’s long tables lay a wonderfully varied array of motley clutter. Old house keys and floppy disks. Pebbles, bells and clothespins. Rusty springs and hose clamps. Buttons and beads, earrings and bracelets.
    Armed with Scotch tape and rectangles of brown cardboard, old and young kinetic artists were picking through the varied objects, choosing a key ring here, a floppy disk there, and taping each item to the cardboard backing.
    This is art?
    “You don’t have to be creative to do this,” conceded Elayna Toby Singer of Palm Springs, a kinetic artist commissioned by the city to facilitate the project. “They’ve rummaged through their garages and junk drawers for hand-sized items to create a swirling strand.”
    After each length of cardboard has been adorned with the artists’ chosen objects, volunteers will string the items together with fishing line to create 8-foot “swirling strands.”
    If the artists looked up from their work to peer out the library windows that morning, they could have seen a bit of the majestic kapok tree that stands at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Seacrest Boulevard, branches thick with great green leaves.
    When  those leaves come down, the swirling strands go up.
    Come February, a cherry-picker crane will adorn the tree’s bare branches with the swirling strands these men, women and children created back in November, and for three days, Feb. 6-8, the bracelets and earrings, house keys and floppy disks will twinkle and twirl in the breeze. And that’s what makes this “kinetic” art.
    Kinetic means “moving.”
    “We’d love to have thousands of strands,” said Debby Coles-Dobay, the city’s public art manager and the kinetic force behind the entire exhibit and symposium. “It’s a big tree. But this is all about being part of a community creation.”
    The Kinetic-Connections kapok tree is only one part of the 2015 International Kinetic Art Exhibit & Symposium.
    Throughout the year, 16 kinetic sculptures are being displayed along Seacrest Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, including pieces from Singapore, Switzerland and Poland.
    At Central Charter School in Fort Lauderdale, teacher Rein Triefeldt and his students are creating a solar-powered kinetic sculpture.
    While the strands swirl in the kapok tree overhead, the students will exhibit their project in a 60 by 30-foot tent on the ground below, along with 60 other kinetic sculptures — mobiles, table-top  and lighted pieces and, of course, playful Rube Goldberg contraptions.
    In the City Hall chambers, kinetic artists and scholars will speak on the history and aesthetics of kinetic art.
    Of the $120,000 cost for the yearlong exhibit and symposium, about $75,000 is coming from grants and private sponsorships, Coles-Dobay said, and the remaining $30,000 in public money.
    On that November morning, however, the men, women and children taping stuff to pieces of cardboard weren’t concerned with the funding. They were concerned with the fun.
    “It’s pretty cool,” said Jamal Johnson, 12, busily taping floppy disks and key rings. “You can use your imagination and create something.”
    His brother, Andre, 10, favored beads, buttons and a hose clamp.
    “It’s fun because when you grow up you can be an artist and more ideas  will pop up in your head.”
    And their sister, Aubrey Brown, 8, was concise.
    “I think this is romantic.”
    Nearby, 78-year-old Addis Levi was partial to the pendants and earrings.
    “I like pretty things, so I don’t do nuts and bolts and screws,” she said. “I like to try new things, and this is a worthwhile project for children and childlike adults. I’m going to do buttons now.”
    When Levi had completed her bejeweled creations, she moved on to the “Selfie Station,” where Rachel Mondesir of the city’s arts advisory board was recording brief videos of each artist holding up the taped cardboard collection. The videos will be displayed beneath the kapok tree.
    “Hi, my name is Addis and I love Boynton Beach,” Levi told the camera.
    “Meet me at the tree.”