By Tim O’Meilia
    
The owners of single family homes for rent in Ocean Ridge may soon have to register with Town Hall, perhaps triggering annual fire and housing inspections.
    Town commissioners said they want to discourage the use of homes as short-term hotels in single family neighborhoods, a practice that annoys neighbors.
    Current town ordinances allow homes to be rented for a minimum of 30 days and forbid homes from being occupied by more than five unrelated persons.
    “It’s more of an enforcement issue,” said Commissioner Zoanne Hennigan at the April 1 Town Commission meeting. “I’m not sure what else we can do. Read the newspaper [ads], listen to the neighbors and enforce the 30-day rule.”
    Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi said police dealt with 14 complaints in March, although most of them were at a single address.
    “You can read the newspaper and see that people are renting for less than 30 days,” said Mayor Geoffrey Pugh.
    Commissioners asked Town Attorney Ken Spillias to draw up a proposed ordinance after he asked for further direction resulting from a discussion in March.
    The commission will have to decide later whether a fee will accompany the registration and how steep the fine may be for a violation.  Spillias said a violation could lead to a fine and a failure to pay the fine could lead to a criminal misdemeanor and, finally, a court injunction.
    The new regulation would not apply to multifamily buildings, including apartments or condominiums.
    Spillias said other towns, such as Delray Beach and Hypoluxo, have grappled with regulating short-term rentals at great expense.  Some have required inspections, issued decals to cars and asked for owners to supply copies of leases.
    “The staff you have now would not be able to deal with that kind of system,” Spillias said.
    Delray Beach, in particular, has had an ongoing discussion over drug rehabilitation halfway houses in residential areas.
    Spillias said that the experience of other towns has shown that the most effective enforcement mechanism is the complaints by neighbors.
    In other business, Commissioner Lynn Allison was sworn in for another three-year term. She was unopposed in the March election.
    Commissioners unanimously chose Pugh as mayor for another year. Allison was selected as vice mayor. 

Mary Bush addresses the 350 who attended the March 6 memorial service held for her husband and their pastor Ted Bush. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen
    
    DELRAY BEACH — First Presbyterian is Delray Beach’s church near the sea.
    But the Rev. Ted Bush, the pastor for 27 years, encouraged his congregation to look west to find their mission.
The Rev. Bush, who retired two years ago, died on Feb. 26 after a massive stroke. He was 66.
    “His vehicle for saving souls was to get out into the community to do something good,” recalled Noel Smith, the pastor’s close friend in the congregation.
    The poorest children in west Delray Beach got a sports program that grew to become Teddy’s Field at Pompey Park. The homeless are fed at Caring Kitchen.
    And Rev. Bush was a driving force to establish the Caridad Clinic to provide medical and dental care to migrant farmworkers west of Boynton Beach.
    More than 350 attended a March 6 memorial service to celebrate First Presbyterian’s long-time spiritual leader.
    “He could always see. The veil for Ted was so thin between Earth and the other world,” said the the Rev. Linda Harper, who officiated at the service.
    “Ted brought this intuitive sight to every pastoral encounter,” Harper said. “He became a vessel through which the spirit of God would be present — and he knew how to get out of the way for that to happen.”
    Smith recalled that a church study committee once suggested First Presbyterian do its outreach work on the beach. Bush instead asked the police chief for a tour of Delray Beach’s poorest neighborhood to see what needed to be done.
    Social worker Caridad Asensio came to Bush asking that he observe the squalor that migrant farmworkers were enduring.
    Smith recalled that skeptics questioned whether they really needed medical and dental care. But 400 people came the first day in 1992 when the Caridad Clinic opened with volunteer doctors and dentists.
    The Caring Kitchen, Teddy’s Field and the Achievement Centers for Children and Families are other examples of First Presbyterian’s generosity under Bush’s leadership.
    “You have helped to significantly change and heal some small pieces of a very fractured world,” Rev. Bush told his congregation four years ago on the 25th anniversary of his Delray Beach ministry.
    “You have the unique ability to look beyond yourselves, to look to the people outside the walls of this church,” he said. “Often these people are on the very edge of society. You have changed the lives of countless people.”
    The running joke in the congregation was that Rev. Bush never had time to clean his garage.
    Everyone laughed at the memorial service when his wife, Mary, reported that he finally cleaned the garage after he retired.
    Model trains and baseball were two of Ted Bush’s favorite pastimes away from church.
    Mourners at the private burial service were drawn to a passing train whistle as the coffin was lowered into the ground.
    “Maybe it was just a coincidence. But we all knew how much Ted loved messing about his garage with his trains, so it felt like more than just a whistle,” Harper said.
    “The train was leaving the station,” Smith reflected.
    Ted Bush was buried next to his son Teddy, who shared his father’s love for the Chicago Cubs before he died of a brain tumor at age 23.
    After the burial service, family members drove to Pompey Park to run the bases at Teddy’s Field.

LEFT: Jose Arimatcia, an employee of Pugh’s Pools and Spas, installed a pair of tile mosaic sea turtles at the Ocean Ridge Town Hall. The installation is a joint project between the Ocean Ridge Garden Club and Mayor Pugh.

RIGHT: An early sea turtle nest at Ocean Ridge Hammock Park is surrounded by stakes and warning tape to ensure that the inlet dredging project there does not damage a recent nest.  Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Michael and Robyn Hallasz show off items collected on March 17. The couple vow to continue their mission at Ocean Inlet Park. Photo provided.

By Cheryl Blackerby

    The Sea Angels’ trouble with the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department started with the county’s leaf blowers.
    It ended with the environmental group being dropped from the county’s Adopt-a-Park program.
    The group, which adopted Ocean Inlet Park in 2010, say they saw county maintenance workers blow leaves and litter into storm drains and waterways.
The Sea Angels say they were right to complain about it and are being unfairly punished.
    “We actually took pictures and presented them to the county,” said Michael Halasz, one of the four founders of Sea Angels. “The county said they didn’t do that, and I showed them evidence that that wasn’t the case. They were kind of dismissive.”
    The group then went to the Palm Beach County Com-mission about the leaf blowers and posted their case on the Sea Angels’ Facebook page.
    But Halasz still was surprised at the letter from the county saying the group’s two-year Adopt-a-Park agreement would not be renewed because the group refused to meet with the county to discuss the group’s “concerns about our park management practices and to go over the volunteer code of conduct.”
    “They called us and wanted to get together, but then they had scheduling conflicts and said they would get back to us but they didn’t,” said Halasz. “That was our last communication. I don’t like that they aren’t going to renew us based on a falsehood.”
    Also, the letter said the group repeatedly posted their concerns on their Facebook site “with remarks that are inflammatory in nature.”  
    “We’re not interesting in creating conflict with the county, but we expect more of an answer than blowing us off,” said Halasz.
    The discord was amplified by the tone of the letter, which said volunteer service may be terminated for reasons including “unprofessionalism, antagonism and threats toward the county or the Parks and Recreation Department,” without directly saying the group was guilty of any of those things.
    The letter was signed by Rebecca Pine, director of the parks’ Financial and Support Services, but the decision was made by Jennifer Cirillo, parks assistant director.
    “At no time were our workers doing anything that was detrimental to the environment,” Cirillo said, adding that the county and Sea Angels “had a relationship that had become very adversarial. We have a volunteer code of conduct and their actions weren’t in the spirit of that.”
    Neither the letter nor Cirillo said which code the Sea Angels violated.
    The “Volunteer Code of Conduct” has 12 rules and regulations. This is the one that most likely applied to the Sea Angels: “Unbecoming conduct will not be tolerated. Such conduct includes actions which reflect unfavorably on the efficiency of the county, cause embarrassment or as (sic) damaging to the reputation of the county or in general reflect unfavorably on the county, its volunteers, employees or its citizens.”
    Prior to the leaf-blowing incident, the Sea Angels had brought other environmental issues to the attention of the county, including the county’s decision to put plastic bags in distribution boxes on beaches so people could tear off a bag for their garbage and then throw it into a garbage bin.
    But Halasz said people littered the beach and dunes with the bags, and his group had to pick them up. The county did remove bags from the Ocean Ridge beach but left them in Boca Raton, he said.
    While the Sea Angels are no longer an official partner with the county, Cirillo says, “They’re still welcome to do beach cleanup.”
    “We will still do the exact same things we were doing before they sent us a letter,” Halasz says. “We don’t have any ill will toward the county.  The Sea Angels are still at Ocean Inlet Park.”                            

Ocean Ridge town attorney Kenneth Spillias has departed from his daily genre of resolutions and ordinances to pen a newly published novel, Widow’s Walk, Part I: The Precipice.
The self-published book is set in South Florida and tells the tale of character Jim Donovan in his lifelong struggle between good and evil. Donovan achieves great heights as an evangelist in South Florida and later falls in a scandal that drives him and his wife to Africa, according to the Amazon.com description.
    Amazon.com prices Widow’s Walk at $27.35 in hardcover, $13.13 in paperback and $6.99 for the Kindle edition.
The book started as a short story, evolving into a two-part novel, Spillias said recently. Spillias said of authoring the novel, “It was not a chore.” He had heard authors tell how their books write themselves, but was surprised to experience it. “It took over for me,” he said.
    The second book will be Widow’s Walk, Part 2: The Reckoning.
— Margie Plunkett

Briny Breezes is officially off the market.
    The 43-acre mobile home park’s contract with New York law firm Duane Morris to sell the park expired March 1 and, with it, the park’s obligation to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that have accumulated over the years, park board President Joe Coyner confirmed.
    Briny Breezes Inc. hired the firm nearly a decade ago to sell the park for at least $500 million. When a $510 million sale to Boca Raton developer Ocean Land fell through in 2007, more than $1.1 million in fees had accumulated.
    Ocean Land’s deposit went toward the fees. Typically, if the sale had concluded, the buyer would have paid the remainder.
    Duane Morris has not been marketing the park in recent years, likely because of the housing bust. An inquiry by a New York developer was rejected by the park’s board of directors last year.
    Coyner said the only way the firm could collect its fee now is if either of the two original bidders, including Ocean Land, eventually bought the park for more than half a billion dollars.
— Tim O’Meilia

Christian Riera and Marcela Viglianchino pose with a few of her candelabra.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    A couple that does everything together, stays together. That’s what Christian Riera, 41, and Marcela Viglianchino, 36, think.
    Together, they work, play, train, do crafts and rebuild motorcycles, and they’ve been together for 17 years.
    In March 2007, they moved to Ocean Ridge from Argentina to open their business, Transition-Area Triathlon Shop, at 5011 N. Ocean Blvd.
“My father has a vacation home in west Boynton Beach, so when we’d come to the beach, we’d take Woolbright, which brought us right here,” Christian said.
    The two met at the beach in their hometown in 1996, when Christian was working in his family’s cookie business. Following that, Christian and Marcela had the Timex distribution in Argentina. “But in 2001, there was a [currency] devaluation, so we had to quit with Timex,” Christian said.
    “From one day to the next, the price of the watches went up three times, and no one wanted them,” Marcela said. “But thanks to that, we started getting into sports and selling bicycles. We realized that there were no triathlon products in our country.”
    Transition-Area Triathlon Shop carries all things triathlon (a transition area, by the way, is where triathletes store their gear). But you won’t find the store open, because most of their customers are Argentines, and Christian and Marcela are at their desks upstairs, taking mail orders, via phone or email.
    Their business is mostly referral, Marcela explained. “People trust us because they are triathletes and they either know us or know of us.”
    Christian ran his first triathlon in 1995, and Marcela ran with him as a matter of course. Since they were both triathletes, they were well-versed and well-positioned to sell bicycles and triathlon gear.
    “I always liked triathlons, but because I was overweight, I thought I’d never be able to do it. But I started running, then swimming, then riding bicycles,” Christian said.
    “Once you start, it’s a lifestyle,” added Marcela. “It’s addictive. You can’t spend a day without training, even if you don’t have a race.”
    Christian has participated in the Florida Ironman seven times and he’s gearing up for a competition in Claremont later this year. Marcela doesn’t enjoy competitions, but she likes training.
    Currently, Christian trains two hours a day, five or six days a week on his bike, with two or three days running and two days swimming. Marcela does a little less. “I try to keep his pace, but he’s stronger,” she said.
    Some other things to know about the two: They don’t watch TV, and rarely drive their cars, although they like restoring cars and motorcycles (both are mechanically inclined). They eat healthy, and they never sit still. And because Marcela has started making candelabras from wine and alcohol bottles, and Christian helps her, you might find them dumpster diving (because they don’t drink).
    The two started out with nothing. At first, they slept in the store and took showers at the park, but that’s all behind them. They are proud to have built a successful business and find that they need to scale down a little.
    “We have what we need,” Marcela said. “We want to keep it simple.”
— Christine Davis
 
 
    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
    C.R. Both of us grew up in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
    M.V.  Mar del Plata is a city by the Atlantic Ocean, the most popular tourist destination in our country.
 
    Q. What are some highlights of your life?
    C.R. We turned vegetarian in 2002.
    M.V.  Of course, the most important moment for me was meeting Christian in 1996. We’ve been living together and working side-by-side since then. Moving to the United States was another important event.
    
    Q.  How did you choose to make your home and business in Ocean Ridge?
    C.R. We used to vacation in Boynton Beach once or twice a year, and we loved the quiet beaches here. It was an easy decision.
    M.V.  We spent two weeks looking for a place to rent to start our business. We couldn’t find anything in Delray Beach or Boynton Beach, but on the last day of our trip, we found a nice space for rent here in Ocean Ridge right on A1A. It was a perfect location.
    
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Ocean Ridge?
    C.R. It has a small-town feeling, but is close to everything.
    M.V.  I love Old Ocean Boulevard for a late walk or training run. Everyone knows each other here on Douglas and Oceanview drives.
    
 Q. If you could change anything in your life, what would it be?
    C.R.: I wouldn’t change anything.
    M.V.  You don’t want to change anything, when you are happy with your present situation. That is what I think.
    
Q.  If someone made a movie of your life, who would you like to play you and why?
    C.R. Philip Michael Thomas, because he’s my kind of person. He’s cool, popular and also he became a vegetarian in 1984.
    M.V.  Right now, I’m thinking Barbara Feldon. I love to watch her as Agent 99 in Get Smart. She and Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, were always working together and she’s always helping him. That’s similar to how I feel for Christian. We are alone here, but we have each other and try to do everything together. She would be a nice Marcela, if she was 36 years old again.
    
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    C.R. and M.V.:  We don’t watch TV, so we play music all day at home. We play jazz, electronic, reggae, 1980s and 1990s rock.
    
Q.  What do people not know about you that you wish they would?
    C.R. In 1995, I used to weigh 225 pounds, and then I started taking care of myself, watched my weight, trained a little more and began doing triathlons.
    M.V. I think that some people must think that we are kind of a crazy couple. Maybe they see us training almost everyday, running or riding our bicycles, doing crafts, fixing something. We are very active. We can’t stay quiet for more than 10 minutes. We always have something to do.
    
Q.  What’s the last book you read and would you recommend it?
    C.R. I’m reading about Pablo Escobar’s life. Also, I’m reading cycling training books and books about nutrition.
    M.V. The Anti-Aging Solution, by Vincent Giampapa. I’m always reading something, usually novels, but I’m also interested in books on spirituality.
    
Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
    C.R. We laugh a lot. We joke about almost everything, mostly about ourselves.
    M.V.  We love dogs. Any funny memories about our dogs Oski and Loquita, who have passed away, make us laugh. They came with us when we moved to the United States, so they will be a part of our history forever.         

By Tim O’Meilia

    For the first time since the $510 million Ocean Land sale collapsed in 2007, the town of Briny Breezes took a careful first step toward allowing the town to be more than a mobile-home park.
    After four public hearings and questioning by residents, the Town Council unanimously approved, in a series of votes, a new comprehensive land use plan that would allow traditional one- and two-story single family homes, a commercial corridor of small businesses and low-rise multi-story condos and rental units on the west side of State Road A1A.
    But only if Briny Breezes Inc., which owns the park, wants to make changes in the future. The corporation is a co-operative of residents who own voting shares based on the size and location of their lots.
    “The provisions set forth in the plan are simply suggestions and permissions to the corporation so that, if it chooses to make changes in the business district or replace their housing units with some other type of housing, it could,” said Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Jerry Lower at the March 28 meeting.
    Much of the four public hearings was spent trying to dispel rumors that the plan required the mobile-home park to change. All four were held in the park’s community center rather than the smaller Town Council chambers. More than 60 residents attended the first hearing, but attendance dropped gradually until the conclusive vote on March 28.
    “It’s still an entirely corp-oration decision to make these changes. There is no mandate to make the changes,” Lower said.
    Any changes are not likely to come soon, according to three members of the corporation’s recently revamped board of directors who were among the dozen or so residents who attended the final meeting.
    New board President Joe Coyner said the directors have not discussed any zoning changes and are first concentrating on updating corporation operations and procedures and considering maintenance and repair projects in the park.
“We’re interested in bringing Briny back to the jewel it has been,” said board member Michael Gallacher. “Before we can look at the big picture of what the future holds, we need to stabilize a solid foundation.”
    All three were supportive of the town’s effort. “I personally am grateful to the Planning and Zoning Board for putting this forward. It can only help,” said board member Marcia Malchuski.
    The planning and zoning board worked five years on the 117-page document after being ordered by the state to update the town’s 1989 plan.
    The planning board focused on two primary goals: increasing the property values and enhancing hurricane protection for mobile homes that are uninsurable for storm damage.
    “One of my goals was to have the opportunity to have a safer environment for everybody,” said planning board member Ira Friedman during the March 7 hearing.
    More traditional single-family homes might allow owners to obtain windstorm coverage.
    Board members concluded that a narrow corridor of businesses such as a barber shop, an ice cream shop or an urgent care center catering to local residents would increase land values without attracting too much traffic.
    “Hallelujah,” exclaimed Alderwoman Nancy Boczon after the final vote.
    State planning officials have 60 days to evaluate the plan and suggest any changes. It was the opposition of the state and neighboring towns that killed Ocean Land’s plans to buy out the 43-acre park and erect 20-story towers, a 350-room beachfront hotel and rows of three-story condos. Many residents would have become millionaires.
    The revamped comp-rehensive plan is not likely to draw the ire of neighbors in Ocean Ridge and Gulf Stream.
    “You have been thorough, investigative and innovative in looking outside the box,” Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, told the planning board at the March 7 meeting. The coalition opposed Ocean Land’s plans six years ago.
    Ocean Ridge architect Digby Bridges told the board, “You are absolutely on the right track in concentrating on your corridor. Briny Breezes has an absolute gem sitting here. You can really make a first-class development here and help your property values.”                                
    
Editor’s Note: Jerry Lower is publisher of The Coastal Star.
 

This year’s Palm Beach International Boat Show brought 600 vessels worth more than $1.2 billion. Cheryl Blackerby/The Coastal Star

By Cheryl Blackerby

    More than 44,000 boat lovers attended the Palm Beach International Boat Show, one of the top boat shows in the country. The show, held March 21-24, featured more than $1.2 billion worth of boats, yachts and accessories from the world’s leading marine manufacturers.
    It was a 10 percent increase in attendance over the previous year and a 30 percent increase in the number of boats in the show — about 600 total, from small fishing boats to super yachts. Space for boats was sold out early, said a boat show official.
    The show reflects a rising interest in boat and yacht sales. Florida led the country in boat sales in 2011 with about $1.5 billion.
    Sales of new powerboats in 2012 increased 10 percent over the previous year, and early projections indicate the industry will see additional increases in 2013 by as much as 5 to 10 percent, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association.
    The star of the Palm Beach show was the largest boat, Kismet, and at 223 feet it’s aptly described as a super yacht. Built by Lurssen, the yacht is listed for $100 million, and leases for about $700,000 a week plus brokerage fees, which adds up to about $1 million a week. The agency selling the yacht is Moran Yacht and Ship based in Fort Lauderdale. The sleek yacht sleeps 12 in six staterooms.

The asking price for Diamonds are Forever: $59.5 million. Photo provided

    Another show-stopper was the 200-foot Diamonds are Forever, built by Benetti, displayed by Worth Avenue Yachts. The price is $59.5 million. The six-deck super yacht features two panoramic master suites and four guest staterooms. Elevators take guests to all decks, including the full-beam sky lounge. The aft part of the sun deck can be transformed into a helipad.
    “A 10 percent boost in retail in 2012 is significant, as this is the first time since the recession we saw healthy growth across the powerboat market, which will create momentum in 2013,” said Thom Dammrich, NMMA president.
    An improved economy and resurgence in American’s love for the outdoors fueled the sales boost, he said.
    The U.S. boating industry generates about $30 billion in annual revenue, according to Dammrich.
Smaller boats — less than 27 feet — make up 96 percent of the 12.4 million registered boats in the U.S., “and are leading the industry out of the recession,” he said.         

But super yachts, bought by billionaires such as Carlos Slim of Mexico, are doing well and sailed through the recession.                               

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, built in 1860, is Palm Beach County’s oldest existing structure. Scott Simmons/The Coastal Star

Drive 50 miles north of Hillsboro Inlet and you’ll find the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum.
Which is taller?
Well, that depends.
Hillsboro Inlet’s tower stands an unambiguous 142 feet above ground.
The Jupiter Inlet lighthouse claims 156 feet, but the Loxahatchee River Historical Society, which operates the site, is quick to acknowledge that 48 of those feet are the old Native American shell mound on which it stands.
The tower itself is only 108 feet.
Jupiter’s lighthouse is shorter, but also much older — first illuminated on July 10, 1860, almost a half-century before Hillsboro Inlet first saw light.
When it’s illuminated, the light at Jupiter Inlet is a 1,000-watt quartz-iodine bulb, visible 24 miles at sea.

   Where: 500 Capt. Armour’s Way, Jupiter. From I-95, exit Indiantown Road east, turn left/north at U.S. Highway 1. Turn right/east at Alternate A1A/Beach Road.  Turn first right into
Lighthouse Park.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week January through April; closed on Mondays, May through December. Last tour leaves at 4 p.m.
Admission: Adults, $9. Children 6-18, $5. Children 5 and younger and active U.S. military with ID admitted free.
Note: The lighthouse will be closed April 8.   
For more information, call (561) 747-8380 or visit www.jupiterlighthouse.org.
— Ron Hayes

A memorial to the Barefoot Mailman stands at the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Drive north to visit, climb the area’s other lighthouse

By Ron Hayes

One hour before sunset on March 7, 1907, a former captain in the Russian navy named Albert Alexander Berghell climbed the 175 steps of the newly constructed Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse and fired up its vaporized kerosene lantern for the first time.
And there was light.
Not much, but there was light.
For more than a century, that lighthouse has shone through 24 more keepers, surviving hurricanes, a government blackout during World War II and periodic repairs and improvements.
Today, its lantern room houses a 1,000-watt bulb with 5.5 million candlepower. Its keeper is a photocell that turns the bulb on and off at dusk and dawn. Flashing every 20 seconds, the light is visible from 28 nautical miles.
“It’s the brightest light in the world by default,” says Hib Casselberry. “There were two in France and one in Hawaii that were brighter, but those lenses were removed.”

A detail of the iron entry to the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse.

On March 9, when a boat from the Sands Harbor Resort in Pompano Beach began ferrying well-wishers to the lighthouse for a daylong celebration of the light’s 106th birthday, Casselberry was waiting on the dock to greet them. The president emeritus and historian of the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society, Casselberry embodies nearly as much history as the lighthouse itself.
“My computer is between my ears and it’s 90 years old,” he said. “It’s antique.” And then he led the visitors around the grassy lighthouse park and back in time.

Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse opened in 1907, and its light, reportedly the brightest in the world, can be seen from 28 miles. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Like so many Florida residents, the Hillsboro lighthouse is a northern transplant. Its 142-foot iron skeletal tower was constructed in Detroit, then shipped down the Mississippi River, around Key West and reassembled on the north side of the inlet.
The lens is the original, 9 feet in diameter, with 253 prisms.
“My first lighthouse was Mosquito Inlet, when I was 8 years old,” Casselberry recalled. “Now I’ve climbed all 30 in Florida, except for the two in the Keys.”

Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse rises 142 feet above the ground.

By noon, the park was filled with visitors. Some craned their necks and said, “No way.”
Some made it halfway up, looked out a window at the ground below and retreated. Some made it all the way to the top and out onto the gallery. And some, like 10-year-old Noah Vivenzio of Boynton Beach, scampered up and down four times.
“This is my second lighthouse,” he said, checking an iPhone video he’d made from the top. “But the other one wasn’t as tall. It’s definitely worth it.”

Boynton resident Kyle Chessher, 17, takes in the view from the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse. Kyle was visiting the attraction with his mother and his aunt.

Ann Kopish of Boca Raton has lived in Florida for seven years. “But I didn’t realize you could go up there,” she said. “It’s a lot of steps, but it’s wonderful. The view is amazing. I did get a little dizzy on the way down.”
“It’s important for people to take advantage of the historic sites that are here,” said Kyle Chessher, 17, of Boynton Beach, after climbing to the top. “It’s actually real life. I’m OK with heights, but it was kind of windy up there. I thought I was going to lose my snow cap.”
The day’s record, however, was no doubt held by young Noah, who finally surrendered to exhaustion and cut short his fifth visit to the top.
“I was getting seasick,” he explained.        

Lighthouse tours
Next tour is Saturday, April 20.
Boats depart from the Sands Harbor Resort & Marina, 124 N. Riverside Drive, Pompano Beach.
Trips run hourly, beginning at 9 a.m., with a last boat at 3 p.m., and return every half-hour beginning at 9:30 a.m. with a last boat at 4 p.m. There is a $25 fee for the boat.
Anyone wishing to climb the lighthouse must wear flat shoes with rubber soles and closed toes. No sandals, flip flops or shoes with heels.
Children must be accompanied by an adult and there is a 48-inch minimum height to climb the tower.
For information, call 954-942-2102, or visit www.hillsborolighthouse.org.                         

Judy Collins (left) with CARP luncheon chairwoman Barbara Katz. Photo by Paulette Martin

By Thom Smith

“I wanted to get this out of the way right now …
Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles
in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way.”

    Her once long brown hair is now a flowing white mane, and the notes floated flawlessly across the room at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach in Manalapan as Judy Collins — “sweet Judy Blue Eyes” — began a tender, wrenching, emotional, cathartic hour with guests at the annual spring luncheon of CARP,  the Comprehensive Alcohol and Rehabilitation Program.
    Collins was the perfect choice. She’s seen both sides of life — as triumphant artistic icon and as desperate drunk. Fortunately for her and for her fans, she recognized her problem and dealt with it. The recovery took years — but thanks to her own fortitude, and the concern of others, including her second husband, whom she met a week before she entered rehab — she did it.
    “I was dying,” she said. “I knew I was an alcoholic. I knew I was drinking myself to death, but somehow the consequences or the connections hadn’t been made.”
    The alcohol contributed to a rare tumor on her vocal cords. It was benign, but had she not dealt with it, she “couldn’t do what I was doing here; I could not sing.” Yet the night before her operation, she polished off most of a bottle of booze. In spite of herself, during a year of recovery from the surgery, “somehow, some way, AA began to come into my consciousness. … I didn’t know what to do, didn’t know where to go.”
    One day she noticed that a New York actor friend, a fall-down drunk who was notorious for his bar brawls, was no longer making the papers. He’d stopped drinking. They talked. He suggested a doctor, an internist, who was at the forefront of treating alcoholism as a disease. Three days before she began rehab, at a fundraiser for the Equal Rights Amendment, she met Louis Nelson, a designer. They’ve been together ever since, although they didn’t marry until 1994.
    “He didn’t know how drunk I was. How would he know?” Collins said. “He was totally not my type. He was considerate. He was thoughtful. You know what I mean … we attract, as we go down, the kind of people that will allow us to behave the way we behave. The next morning I went to Pennsylvania. The 19th of April, 1978, I took my last drink, and since then I have not found it necessary to drink or use drugs.
    “On this wedding ring is the date, the 16th of April 1978, that I met him. I’ve been with him 34 years, which I think is a record for a hippie.”
                                     ***
    For two days in October 1969, several hundred students camped in the quadrangle west of the Florida Atlantic University administration building during the nationwide moratorium to protest the Vietnam War. No incidents save for raising a flag bearing an image of Mickey Mouse instead of the Stars and Stripes.
    The next spring, a group of students protested the dumping of waste from Boca Raton’s overworked sewage plant into the El Rio canal. The city scrambled and came up with $50,000 to mitigate the stench until an ocean outfall was finished. Soon thereafter, a new plant was built at the southwest corner of the FAU campus that remained quiet during the years when GEO founder and chairman George Zoley attended.
    For most of its half century, the student battle cry at FAU has been “Get a degree, get out and get to work!” Considering the turnout at sports events and the occasional on-campus entertainment, the administration had little reason to expect any opposition to the school’s $6 million stadium naming deal with commercial incarcerator GEO Group, the world’s second-largest for-profit prison company.
But for the first time in 40 years, students actually protested.
And when several dozen actually confronted Florida Atlantic University President Mary Jane Saunders in her office, an “occupation” of sorts, their efforts seemed to bear fruit as she agreed to answer questions a few days later. But that and subsequent sessions with students generated more questions than answers. She preferred to play softball, speaking mainly about opportunity — the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of commercial prisons, the opportunity to raise much-needed money for the school and the opportunity to cheer for the football team in September.
 Her responses left students and some members of the FAU community who attended shaking their heads. The faculty senate voted 25-9 to oppose Saunders for making administrative decisons “without participation or input from faculty, staff, or other FAU stakeholders.” Students, faculty members and fans began canceling season ticket orders.
Finally, on April 1, the deal was scrapped — by Zoley, not by FAU.
So what could GEO have hoped to get out of stadium naming rights? American Airlines sponsors the arena in Miami because it wants people to fly on its planes. The only folks wanting to do business with GEO are state legislators.
Possibly school spirit did play a role. Zoley, the FAU grad, became Zoley, chairman of FAU’s board of trustees — which includes two other GEO board members: Clarence Anthony, FAU alumnus, one-time South Bay mayor and president in 1999 of the National League of Cities, and real estate attorney and Boca Raton Regional Hospital trustee Christopher Wheeler.
    Perhaps GEO wanted to tout more about its “innovative programs and ground-breaking treatment approach.” At Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Mississippi, the innovation included staffers who were known gang members.
    Even TV pundit Stephen Colbert joined the fray, “It’s just like Bank of America Stadium, only this company believes in punishment for crime.”
    As reproductions of various news stories about GEO flashed across the screen, Colbert also recounted accusations of “cruel treatments” of children detained in its facilities, “unnecessary deaths of people in their custody,” and a “pervasive level of brazen staff sexual misconduct” at its Walnut Grove facility.
    When GEO took over Walnut Grove in 2010, more than half of its inmates, some as young as 13, were doing time for nonviolent offenses. In his order approving a settlement of one suit in February 2012, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves cited “systematic, egregious, and dangerous practices exacerbated by a lack of accountability and controls,” sexual misconduct by staff and youth-on-youth rapes “among the worst that we have seen in any facility anywhere in the nation” and “a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world.”
    GEO and the previous operator and prison managers, the judge wrote, were “derelict in their duties and remain[ed] deliberately indifferent to the serious medical and mental health needs of the offenders.”
    GEO agreed in the settlement to move young inmates to more suitable locations. Two months later, the state of Mississippi, with the Justice Department breathing down its neck, canceled all of its contracts with GEO.   
    GEO facilities in Texas, Indiana, Pennsylvania and even Pompano Beach have come under scrutiny.
    We won’t know for a while if FAU will outlive its new nickname — “Owlcatraz” — but of greater concern should be the way the deal was handled before, during and after. Scuttlebutt around FAU’s administration building suggests that Saunders only saw dollars, not sense. Money from the Legislature is scarce, and it hasn’t been discovered in any owl burrows. Zoley, a forceful presence who had run the board, had deep pockets.
    Did FAU’s Saunders know about GEO’s reputation and ignore it? If she didn’t know, and no one in her inner circle bothered to check and at least present the pluses and minuses, well …
    This is the kind of embarrassment that state officials don’t like. Her predecessor, Tony Catanese, drove away in a new Corvette. She might be lucky to find a rail.
     Too bad Zoley threw the switch. Think of the possible souvenirs GEO could have given to each fan at the first game — an Owlcatraz license plate or perhaps a “get out of jail free” card.         

***                               
      Maybe with all the fireworks over the GEO deal, the city administration decided that FAU didn’t need any more. City administrators unilaterally moved the Fourth of July fireworks, a campus staple, to DeHoernle Park on Spanish River Boulevard. The park, which opened last fall, was built by the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Parks District, not a city agency.
District commissioners weren’t pleased they weren’t consulted and said so.
After all, the park is beautiful — 80 acres, lakes, jogging paths, 12 athletic fields, but only 403 parking spaces.
The FAU fireworks attracted thousands who used two exits on Glades Road, one on Spanish River Boulevard and one on 20th Street. The new park has one exit onto Spanish River Boulevard.
Restrooms? Broken glass, left by revelers whose lawn chairs gouge the turf? What if an emergency vehicle is needed?
Finally, on March 18, city officials met with district commissioners. Game booths, children’s rides, vendors would set up in the parking lot. The city would provide portable toilets and begin removing trash the next morning.
Spectators would park at Boca Corporate Center and be shuttled by bus.
As for alternatives, turtle nesting, lack of parking and resident complaints rule out a beach site. FAU wanted a ticketed event at the stadium.
Still unswayed, District commissioners want to know more about FAU’s proposed ticket costs and expenses. After all, the stadium holds 30,000, has plenty of parking, vendor space and restrooms; plus the city just signed an agreement with FAU for more joint events on campus, and many residents would get their first view of the new stadium. In view of recent public relations fiascoes, a little fireworks might help.
Members of the district just want answers. If the city doesn’t provide them, it will strain and possibly break a relationship that for three decades has made Boca’s parks among the nation’s best.
                                     ***
    With 2,011 votes, Jerry Taylor was elected mayor in Boynton Beach.  Cary Glickstein won 3,212 votes to upset incumbent Mayor Tom Carney in Delray by 254 votes. In Lantana, Malcolm Balfour’s 284 votes was more than enough to win a council seat.
    The number deciding Taylor’s victory was only 4.5 percent of the town’s 44,154 registered voters. Delray’s voters were a little more enthusiastic, with a total turnout of 13.7 percent, tops in the county. Of Lantana’s 6,079 voters, less than 550 voted.
    Hardly representative democracy. A candidate could tick off one homeowners association and blow the election. Last November, 68 percent of Palm Beach County’s voters cast ballots, yet every municipality now holds its elections in the spring.
Why?
Proponents of this timeframe believe strongly those who do vote are better informed about local issues and that local candidates aren’t relegated to the bottom of the ballot, as they would be in the fall.
    Proponents of fall elections believe that more votes mean stronger mandates, plus municipalities won’t have to spend tax money for a spring  election. Boca’s Chamber of Commerce has been lobbying for a switch to November elections, but in Lake Worth, 1,333 voters (8 percent), was all it took to switch its races to March after voting for November races in 2007. Go figure.   
                                     ***
    Money talks, even if someone is just holding onto it, not necessarily spending it. Compare the Ocean Avenue bridge in Lantana to the Flagler Bridge, aka the North Bridge in Palm Beach. Both were in bad shape. The Lantana span was old, narrow and so low that it had to be raised for just about everything but canoes. Flagler Bridge is even older, but it’s wider — four lanes — and higher. Nevertheless, both bridges opened every 30 minutes.  
    While the Lantana bridge is being rebuilt — higher and wider — motorists who want to go from one side to the other must drive either to Lake Worth — 12 minutes north — or to Boynton Beach — 16 minutes south. Figure a half hour wasted, plus the frustration of “No Passing” on A1A.
    By comparison, from the Flagler Bridge motorists easily can see the “middle bridge” to the south. How long does the one-mile detour take? About five minutes. How sad.  
    And get this. Projected cost for the Lantana Bridge is $32 million. The much longer Flagler Bridge initially is projected at $94 million. After tossing around options from $2 million to $20 million, state officials now say reinforcement of the old span to keep it open during reconstruction will add only $5 million to the budget.  
    Let’s hope sequestration doesn’t kick in: They may only be able to shore up one side.
                                     ***
    Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon of Delray Beach and Jestena Boughton, owner of Delray’s venerable Colony Hotel, are among 22 nominees for the Executive Women of the Palm Beaches 2013 Women in Leadership Awards. Gannon is nominated in the public sector, Boughton in the private sector.
Boca’s tireless businesswoman and philanthropist Yvonne Boice is nominated in the volunteer division, with Michelle Poole of the Community Foundation for Drug Free Adolescents in Lake Worth. The awards, recognizing women for their outstanding achievements, generosity of spirit, and commitment to integrity and diversity, will be presented at a May 2 luncheon at the Kravis Center. Proceeds support WILA’s scholarship program. (684-9117).   

***
                                    

Should be an interesting lunch. Ali Wentworth, guest speaker April 16 at the Bethesda Hospital Foundation’s Women’s Wellness Luncheon at The Four Seasons, is known, among other things, for her impressions of such celebs as Cher, Hillary Clinton, Princess Diana, Brooke Shields and, ahem, Sharon Stone. She first drew notices during in the early ’90s, during her hitch on the groundbreaking In Living Color. When not busy raising two kids, she’s either writing or acting, most recently on Cougar Town.  But Wentworth will leave a more lasting impression: a graduate from Bard College; her stepfather was editor of the London Sunday Times; her blueblood grandmother, Janet Elliott Wulsin, was a famous explorer; her mother was Nancy Reagan’s social secretary; her husband is George Stephanopoulos, a key adviser in Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and in his first term and now host of Good Morning America. Oh, yeah, she also played Jerry Seinfeld’s girlfriend in the legendary “Soup Nazi” episode of Seinfeld. Tickets are $100 (737-7733, ext. 84428).  
                                     ***
    At the Ritz-Carlton you can always be sure of finding a grand cut of beef or a marine delight, such as Sunday’s staple: Black Angus prime rib with foie gras and brioche stuffing or Atlantic sea bass with sauerkraut, smoked fingerlings and Florida caviar. But the resort, which recently introduced its revamped restaurants and its new culinary staff led by Executive Chef Jason Adams, also likes to push the envelope, whether at the casual Breeze, the relaxed Temple Orange or the avant garde Angle, which always is ready to tantalize more adventurous palates. How does Superior Farms lamb belly sound? Wood-grilled octopus? Or perhaps Jerusalem artichoke cappuccino?   
    The restaurants culminate a $130 million renovation of the resort, part of what the Ritz calls “barefoot elegance.” And after the dessert, you can always burn it off with a visit to Eau, its 42,000-square-foot spa, or with a walk on the beach.
                                     ***
    Bartenders who know their mixes can mean big bucks for a restaurant. The Tanteo Tequila Tri-County Bartender Throwdown, held a few weeks back at Buddha Sky Bar, meant a few extra bucks for the barmen. A bartender from South Beach won the $1,500 first prize for her “Kickin’ Hibiscus” coconut milk, black cherry juice and Tanteo Jalapeño Tequila. But the competition was dominated by locals. Jeffrey Zadoff from Budda Sky Bar and Charles Steadman from Lantana Jack’s tied for third ($300 each) and Jonathan DiFonzo from Cut 432 took second ($600) for his Spicy Blood Orange Margarita with lime salt foam and Tanteo Tropical Tequila.
                                     ***
    In other restaurant news, Sarah Sipe, formerly at The Omphoy, has once again teamed up with her former boss Lindsay Autry, as pastry chef at the Sundy House in Delray. Both Sipe and Autry refined their technique under Michelle Bernstein, the Omphoy’s original exec chef.
                                     ***
    Newly retired football star  Ray Lewis has again put his Highland Beach bungalow on the market. Lewis bought the seven-bedroom, 10,890-square-foot beachfront in 2004 for $5.22 million, listed it in 2011 for $6.4 million, and last summer for $5.9 million. Now he wants $4.995 million.
    A couple of miles farther south, at Boca Inlet, One Thousand Ocean just found local buyers for two units.
The last available two-story, three-bedroom, 4½-bath, 4,538-square-foot beach villa with private entrance, elevator and plunge pool commanded $5.15 million. A designer-ready penthouse, with direct ocean view, 14-foot ceilings, private pool-deck cabana, two-car garage, 4,142 square feet under roof and an additional 1,450 of terrace sold for $5.86 million. Five units remain — $3 million to almost $13 million.  
                                  ***  
    Back to the drawing board. Plans to renovate the old Boynton Beach High School building were submitted on time, but city officials saw some problems with some of Juan Contin’s paperwork. So the Lake Worth architect has to correct a few deficiencies concerning parking and the boundary between the school and the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum. Stay tuned.   
                                     ***
    Seems like only yesterday that Arts Garage opened in Delray, yet on April 20, the multifaceted center will celebrate its second birthday with a gala party, food, drink and entertainment by Little Jake Mitchell and the Soul Searchers and special guests. Tickets are $100 (www.artsgarage.org or 450-6357).
                                     ***
    More total immersion entertainment. To build its latest XD (Extreme Digital) auditorium at its Palace 20 in Boca, Cinemark, one of the world’s largest movie exhibitors, had to raise the ceiling and dig out the floor to accommodate the huge new screen and sound system. The theater contains 285 seats, including 70 in the Premiere Level in the balcony.  
    XD is Cinemark’s new proprietary projection system, with floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall screen and a new Dolby 7.1 sound system.
It’s a modest technical improvement over IMAX; but the big benefit, according to Cinemark’s marketing VP, James Meredith, is flexibility.
With IMAX, exhibitors are locked into screenings for a fixed period, possibly several weeks. With XD, Cinemark can negotiate directly with distributors.
“If a movie is a dog, with IMAX we were stuck,” Meredith said. “With XD, we can swap it out immediately.”
    Blockbuster new releases will have preference, Meredith added, but widescreen classics such as Lawrence of Arabia will also get the XD treatment.

Tom Smith is a freelance writer and a 1971 graduate of FAU. Reach him at thomsmith@ymail.com.

The Plate: Gazpacho
The Place: John G’s, Plaza del Mar, 264 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan. Info: 585-9860 or john-gs.com. Note: John G’s is cash only; no credit cards.
The Price: $4.50 for a cup, $6.75 for a crock
The Skinny: You could say John G’s taught some of us to love gazpacho.
The chilled soup is made according to John Giragos’ original recipe, says his daughter, Wendi Yarbrough.
And because it is not pureed, the gazpacho is thick with chunks of tomato.
The soup is served with sides of diced cucumber and cilantro, with plenty of crisp croutons.
And, as with many dishes, presentation is everything. It is served on ice with a skewer of hot peppers — not that this gazpacho needs the added heat. It’s perfectly seasoned, with a small dollop of just enough sour cream to cut the heat.
— Scott Simmons

Authentic: First in an occasional series looking at authentic ethnic cooking in our area

Recipe: Chicken with Saffron

Chef Shahriar Mahori, owner of the Shandiz Terrace Restaurant in Lake Worth, holds a whole salmon he prepared for Nowruz or ‘Persian New Year.’ Photos by Tim Stepien/
The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

   Shahriar Mahori breaks an egg into a dark metal skillet. Sunny side up, it sizzles over the gas flame. Nearby, a toaster pops up golden brown slices of bread. Almost without stepping away from the stove, he stacks and slices the toast as he slips the eggs onto a plastic plate.
    He puts the finished dish in the pass-through to the dining room, where a guest picks it up and helps himself to coffee.
    Welcome to Shandiz Terrace Restaurant on the second floor of the New Sun Gate Motel in Lake Worth. At this one-man operation, Mahori is not only cook/owner but also prep cook, purveyor, waiter and dishwasher.
    Although he prepares traditional American dishes, he also offers a taste of his homeland at this restaurant.

Kuku Sabzi, also know as a Persian Frittata.

     Born in Abadan on the southern Iranian coast, Mahori grew up eating fresh fish as well as braises or kebabs of lamb and beef. And it’s these foods that he wants to introduce to area diners.
    He’s also been embraced by his fellow Iranians here in South Florida. He offers them a place to gather and celebrate holidays such as Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, in March. They come from as far as Miami to enjoy his hospitality.
Regular customer Maryam Mashayekhi of West Palm Beach says, “It’s wonderful to have a local place like this to get together with friends.”
    Soheila Ghodstinat of West Palm Beach adds, “His restaurant reminds me of the low-key places you find in every village of my country.”
    Mahori moved to this area about a year ago after meeting Mike Mahmoudi. It turns out that unbeknownst to either of them, they were neighbors in Iran. Hitting it off instantly, Mahmoudi asked Mahori to open a Persian restaurant at his motel. That was Mahori’s big break.
    “I’ll never find anyone else like Mike anywhere,” he says. “I swear he has been better to me than a big brother.”
    When Mahori was 17, his father died and he learned to cook for his mother and siblings. He moved to Tehran, where he finished high school and university, and then in 2000, he came to California for political asylum.  Here he started a new life working as a busboy in an Italian kosher restaurant while doing home repairs and catering Iranian dishes out of his apartment. He cooked on a single gas burner and a charcoal grill.
    Shish kebab, shrimp stew and even head of lamb were just some of his homeland’s delicacies that he prepared for catering clients. “Those dishes were hard to make in my apartment kitchen, but if you like something, you can do it,” he says.

Baba ghanoush

     Later he became a restaurant manager at a Persian kosher restaurant where he was mashke yahk, responsible for making sure the kitchen adhered to the rules of kashrut.  Then, too, he moved into a house with a bigger kitchen from which he continued to cater.
    Here in Florida, he once again is cooking in a kitchen that is too small for him to offer a full menu of Iranian delicacies. So every day, Tuesday through Thursday, he makes one special dish.
    It might be lamb shanks braised with parsley, cilantro, leeks, scallions and fenugreek. “People here often don’t like lamb, but I promise if it there’s any smell to it, I’ll close my restaurant,” he says, assuring us that he uses only meats allowed under Islamic dietary guidelines.
    Or you might get shrimp stewed with scallions and sautéed onions as well as two whole heads of garlic and the clean sour taste of tamarind. “That’s very popular with Persians,” he says.
His American clientele seem partial to his ghormeh-sabzi, long-simmered red kidney beans, leeks, cilantro, parsley and fenugreek.
    Those in the know call ahead to find out what Persian dish is on the menu that day. Then they either take out or eat dinner in his simple but pleasing terrace dining room protected from the elements by plastic curtains.
    “I want people to come and eat my cooking while it’s fresh,” he says. “I don’t have room to store food — so when it’s gone, it’s gone.”
    For Saturday or Sunday, people call 24 hours in advance to order beef shish kebab or barg, a kebab made from a long thin strip of beef fillet cooked over charcoal, not briquettes. “Iranians really recognize the special flavor of meat prepared this way,” he says.
    Fatemeh Moharer of Wellington stops on her way home from work two or three times a week. Mohari meets her in the parking lot with her order packaged to go. “He and his food really remind me of home,” she says.                       

Shandiz Terrace Restaurant is located in the New Sun Gate Motel, 901 S. Federal Highway, Lake Worth; 299-7297.
Call ahead to check hours and find out what special Iranian dishes are available Tuesday through Thursday. The restaurant offers dine-in, takeout and catering.

Sheila O’Boyle (left) and Anne Bright are preparing for the Lupus Foundation of America Southeast Florida Chapter’s Closet Couture Luncheon, set for April 11 at Benvenuto.  Photo provided

By Christine Davis
    
When the subject of lupus comes up, everyone knows a loved one or friend who’s suffered from the disease, said Gulf Stream resident Sheila O’Boyle. “It’s amazing how out there the disease is. But most people don’t know what it is and what its side effects are.”
    O’Boyle is co-chair with her friend, Delray Beach resident Anne Bright, for the Lupus Foundation of America Southeast Florida Chapter’s Closet Couture Luncheon, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m April 11, at Benvenuto restaurant in Boynton Beach. The event will feature a fashion accessories and specialty baskets auction, lunch and guest speaker Laura Clark, a specialist in anti-terrorism methodology and author of Security for Women, the Evolution of Empowerment.
    Like the clothes and accessories to be auctioned at the luncheon, taken from the closet and displayed on mannequins for all to see, O’Boyle and Bright want the disease out in the light of the day, and under the microscope, too.
    Money raised from the event, which costs $85 per ticket, will be used for the organization’s support services, education, and research.
    Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by the disease can affect joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.
    It affects people differently, is not contagious, infectious or cancerous and it affects 1 out of every 185 people, mostly women (90 percent), but also men and children.
    “I was diagnosed with lupus 28 years ago,” said Bright, 69. “But I think I’ve had it since I was 9 and the doctors didn’t catch it.
    “Lupus is no fun. It’s a very frustrating disease.”
    Bright has volunteered for years, merging her organization, the Lupus Society, with the Lupus Foundation in the 1980s. Over the years, her husband, Reeve, has served on the foundation’s boards both nationally and locally, and Bright’s many friends have become involved, too.
    “I call them up and beg them to be on committees that put on fundraisers,” she said. “We have members on the luncheon’s committee who have lupus, but they get sick. It’s the others on the committee who get things done.”
    The luncheon, now in its third year, replaced the foundation’s Butterfly Ball gala that was held at Mar-a-Lago, said the chapter’s CEO, Amy Kelly-Yalden of Boynton Beach. “Because of the economy, we readjusted the events we were having. We wanted to do the luncheon to appeal to a larger audience, and that’s how the Closet Couture Luncheon came about.”
    Kelly-Yalden, 41, lost her sister to lupus, and has been with the organization since November 2007. “Erin was 32 when she passed away,” she said. “She was 19 when she was diagnosed.”
    It is not known what causes the disease, Kelly-Yalden explained, and before the FDA approved Benlysta in 2011 (which was the first drug specifically designed to treat lupus), patients were given steroids and anti-malarial drugs. 
“We need more treatment options because lupus affects everybody differently,” she said.
    “In the last decade, we have made changes.  Lupus has its own definition, now. We have treatment options in clinical trials and there’s much more awareness about the disease.”
    Last year, the chapter raised $45,000 at the luncheon. This year, they raised the bar to $60,000.
The chapter also raises money through three walks a year. The next one is May 18, scheduled to coincide with Lupus Awareness Month.
    “More than 4,000 people attend the walks,” Kelly-Yalden said. “Our overall goal is to raise $200,000 this year.”       

    For information on sponsorship or to attend the luncheon, contact the Lupus Foundation of America, Southeast Florida Chapter at (561) 279-8606, option 2, or email  jcedeno@lupusfl.org.

Joe Griffin with conductor Sebrina Maria Alfonso.

By Rich Pollack

    If it weren’t for a last-minute birthday present from his friend Claudia Willis, chances are Joseph Griffin probably wouldn’t have discovered the South Florida Symphony Orchestra.
    Willis, knowing that Griffin was a lover of classical music, was running out of ideas for a present when she remembered she had two tickets to the orchestra’s January performance at Delray Beach’s Crest Theatre that she couldn’t use.
    For Griffin, who makes his home in Highland Beach and Mary Lou Schillinger of Ocean Ridge, his close friend, that performance was a real eye-opener.
    “I was so impressed with this little orchestra of 70 musicians,” he said. “The sound was just magnificent.”
    Now Griffin showing his support for the orchestra through a $10,000 challenge grant, which he hopes will lead to the Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit’s raising an additional $20,000.
    That money, he says, would go a long way toward covering the cost of the upcoming concert and helping ensure the orchestra — which is performing on April 9 at the Delray Beach Center for the Art’s Crest Theater — will be able to return to Palm Beach County next season.
    “These are world-class musicians who come from all over the country,” he said. “Once you hear them, you’ll be blown away by the quality of their music.”
    Griffin, who spends part of the year in South Florida and part of the year in Manhattan, says he’s long been a fan of classical music, having had a subscription to the New York Philharmonic for many years.
    The April 9 master concert performance, “From Darkness Comes Light,” is expected to be equally impressive, with renowned cellist Zuill Bailey as the featured soloist.
    Led by award-winning conductor Sebrina María Alfonso, the orchestra will perform works of Elgar, Brahms and Schubert.
    “Having a symphony of this caliber performing in Delray Beach is a real coup,” said Willis, who has been a supporter of the orchestra for several years and who won’t be giving away her tickets this
time.                                         
    To find out more about the concert, visit www.southfloridasymphony.org or call 954-522-8445.

More than 60 animals — mostly dogs, but one cat — came out and strutted their stuff at the 12th Annual Easter Bonnet Pet Parade on March 30 in Delray Beach.
They competed in categories such as most frou-frou, traditional, original, tropical, tiniest teacup, owner-pet look-alike and best-in-show. Money raised from the event benefitted Animal Rescue Force.

Baby the cat, 15, who attends every Easter Bonnet Parade, is greeted as she registers before the beginning of the parade. Baby is owned by Nancy Johnson of Delray Beach. ‘She’s a good sport,’ Johnson said.

Teddy, a 2-year-old Yorkiepoo owned by Victoria Chase of Parkland, tries to keep his bunny ears on before the judging.

Laura Souza of Delray Beach smiles after winning the Most Frou-Frou category with her three dogs,  Leonardo, Giselle and Gianna.

Rebecca Shelton and Ivy — a Chihuahua mix rescue who celebrated her 12th birthday on Saturday — waits for the judging. ‘She’s an Aries,’ Shelton said. They attend the contest and parade every year. They entered — and won — the traditional category as well as Best in Show. ‘I even did her nails for the contest,’ she said. To celebrate her birthday, Shelton was going to treat Ivy to lamb or beef later that day.
Julien Page, 5, reaches for Scooby — also 5 — during their first Easter Bonnet Parade. They just moved to Delray Beach. Scooby is a Chihuahua-dachshund mix.
Photos by Libby Volgyes/The Coastal Star

The 45th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Delray Beach held on March 16 hosted firefighters from across the state, country and the world. Organizers estimated a crowd of over 100,000 watched from the sides of the 14-block parade route on Atlantic Avenue.

Firefighters representing multiple municipalities march with a gigantic American flag.  

Emma Chisholm (Boca Raton) Alexis Craig (Boynton Beach) and Lauren Shiell (Delray Beach) react to a passing fire truck and clowns.  
Photos by Tim Stepien/
The Coastal Star

Municipal Elections

(For election results, please click on links below)

Delray Beach: Two candidates for mayor | Three candidates vie for commission | Length of terms and tax breaks on ballot 

Highland Beach: Two candidates vie for one seat | Charter changes will be on ballot

Lantana: Three candidates vie for commission

Manalapan: Seats filled without election, but term limits up for vote

Along the Coast: Most coastal towns have no disputed seats

Mia Matthews sings to the crowd at  ‘A Heart Full of Love’ benefit at The Plaza Theatre in Manalapan. The performance was a musical celebration of the Plaza Theatre’s first year to benefit the theater and the American Cancer Society. Photo by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star