Sue Wandersman, Michele Popper, Denise St. Patrick Bell, honoree Eliot Popper and Jean Evans. The gala raised more than $30,000 for the organization’s mission of providing homeownership opportunities to those in need.
Mike Campbell, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach, with honorees Betsy and Mike Owen and ‘Marie Antoinette.’

Donna Askinazy, Marilyn Adler and Shelley Studley staff the Pap Corps display table during Boca Festival Days. The event raised $2,000.

Dr. Jim Weege gives examinations and vaccinations to more than 35 pets during an adoption and low-cost vaccination clinic.

Lori Robbins (left) and Candy Evans harvest vegetables in the Community Garden of the Cason Methodist Church in Delray Beach. Photo provided

By Tim Pallesen

   The community garden behind Cason Methodist Church isn’t only feeding the poor. The garden also has saved the historic 109-year-old church on Swinton Avenue from closing its doors.
    “We’re now known as the church with a garden,” the Rev. Linda Mobley said. “It’s given us an identity in the community.”
    The Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church was ready to close Cason in 2008 when Candy Evans and Lori Robbins, two women in the congregation, suggested the garden.
    The garden would give a congregation suffering a financial crisis and falling attendance a way to reach out to the community with a good cause.
    Since then, gardeners have donated more than 3,000 pounds of organic produce to feed the poor at the Caring Kitchen in Delray Beach.
    “We knew very little about gardening and had no resources to speak of,” Evans said. “However, we did have everlasting faith, a will to survive and an opportunity to make Christ known to the community of Delray Beach through the garden.”
    About 40 volunteers of all ages will pay $60 for a plot to plant vegetables for the garden’s fifth growing season, which starts Nov. 1.
    A master gardener will teach congregation members and non-members of all ages how to grow tomatoes, green beans, strawberries, melons, peppers and other produce. Each gardener promises to donate at least 10 percent of his or her crop to the poor.
    Sunday attendance at Cason Methodist Church has grown from an average of 75 people in 2008 to 165 people now.
    Mobley credits the community garden for helping Cason to survive its crisis five years ago.
    “When we got our new beginning, we had to reorient from this crisis place that we were in,” she explained. “We had to become outwardly focused again. The garden gave us that opportunity.”
                                               More than 600 attend the Jewish New Year celebration at the Crest Theatre.  Rabbi Irwin Kula joined his musical brother Aaron, who led the music. Photo by Terri Berns

    More than 600 people celebrated a mix of jazz and Jewish wisdom at an American Jewish New Year event in the Crest Theatre at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts at Old School Square on Sept. 9.
    Aaron Kula, director of music performance and education at Florida Atlantic University Libraries, provided the music.
    The nine-member FAU ensemble that he began in 1997 provided the unique blend of ethnic orchestral jazz. Klezmer Company Orchestra is the only professional ensemble of its kind at an academic library in the country.
    His brother, Rabbi Irwin Kula, is listed by Newsweek magazine as one of America’s “most influential rabbis” by inspiring people worldwide to use Jewish wisdom to speak to all aspects of modern life.
    Jews and Christians enjoyed the mix of jazz and wisdom in two performances a week before Rosh Hashanah. The Kula brothers will return to celebrate the High Holy Days here next year.
                                               ***
    Nearly 500 members of First United Methodist Church in Boca Raton volunteered for community service projects during their Love in Action initiative on Sept. 14-16.
    The church did service projects last year on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. “It was such a great project that we decided to make it an annual event,” First Methodist director of adult ministries Mary Beth Pate said.
    Volunteers worked for local charities Caring Kitchen, Boca Helping Hands and Habitat for Humanity and prepared 40,000 meals to be shipped overseas by Stop Hunger Now.
    The annual Love in Action event, which culminated with a dinner and worship service at Patch Reef Park, inspires Methodists to serve their community through the year, Pate said.
                                                               ***
    Muslims honored former Coastal Star religion columnist C.B. Hanif for breaking down religious barriers at their state conference in West Palm Beach on Sept. 29.
Hanif is a founding member of the Florida Conference of Muslim Americans and a longtime interfaith advocate within the Muslim community of Palm Beach County.
    He is currently co-president of the Delray Beach Interfaith Clergy Association, which builds bridges across religious, ethnic and cultural lines. His Coastal Star column won two Florida Press Club awards.
                                               ***
    Advent Lutheran Church will celebrate the pastor who came to Boca Raton in 1967 and never left.
    The Rev. Ronald Dingle stayed because he saw the community growing and says he believed God had plans for his church to grow with it.
    Dingle, 65, will be honored for 45 years at Advent and 50 years in the ministry on Oct. 7 after he preaches at all three Sunday morning worship services.
    Advent built a church sanctuary in 1971, opened its middle school in 1972 and added an elementary school in 1987 under Dingle’s leadership. His wife, Marguerite, founded the popular Early Childhood School and Day Care Ministry in 1977.
Dingle retired in 2004 and now preaches around the country to raise money for hunger relief. His son-in-law, the Rev. Andrew Hagen, replaced him as Advent’s senior pastor.
    Most pastors remain in a congregation fewer than 10 years. Hagen speculated that his father-in-law’s love for deep-sea fishing might have been another factor that kept him in Florida .
    “He never left because he enjoyed fishing for souls and for marlin,” Hagen joked.       
                                       ***       
    An Ethiopian congregation in Israel will receive a Torah from Temple Beth El of Boca Raton.
    The local Jewish congregation will unroll its new Torah at a festive Oct. 7 celebration before sending its old Torah to the new congregation in Israel.
    The Torah contains the first five books of the Jewish Bible. God gave the laws found in Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai and the Tabernacle, according to Jewish tradition.

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

The after-school program at St. Paul’s includes tutoring, like Joyce Harvey (above) helping Brian Saint Val with his math, and a daily meal enjoyed by dozens of students, including Rachelle Poliard and Angie Cyril (below). Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen
    
The poorest of the poor were right outside the church door.
    A 12-year-old boy who brought his three sisters to St. Paul ’s Episcopal Church told Joyce Harvey, a retired schoolteacher in the congregation, that he needed help with his schoolwork.
    That’s how Paul’s Place began 14 years ago, as a mission in the heart of Haitian immigrant neighborhood of southwest Delray Beach.
    Harvey was alarmed when she realized the children had no food in their house across the street from the church.
    The Rev. Chip Stokes arrived at St. Paul ’s in 1999 to discover that 70 percent of neighborhood children drop out of school.
Parents working several low-paying jobs aren’t home to help with schoolwork.
    “We couldn’t ignore that,” Stokes said. “I believed we had a moral obligation to step up.”
Stokes had been ready at the time to rally his congregation to support foreign missions. “But I couldn’t do it because our mission was right in front of us,” he said.
    Giving money to foreign missions might have been the easier alternative.
    “When you live in the midst of people in serious need, you don’t see them,” Harvey said. “But you see the needs of those far away. It’s hard to come face to face with those in need.”
    Yet the congregation did just that — hiring a full-time director and creating an after-school program called Paul’s Place in a house behind the church.
    Volunteers jumped in to provide free after-school tutoring and a hot dinner meal for the children of Haitian immigrants who were working and unable to provide either.
    The stated mission is “to provide a safe, welcoming and nurturing environment to enhance the emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual lives” of the neighborhood children.
    A Haitian-American social worker provides home visits to assist families with housing, employment, school issues and health.
Donations from inside and outside St. Paul ’s pay for salaries, food, field trips and office supplies.
    The goal is to give students the tools and support they need to stay in school, graduate and go on to college.
    Results in the first 12 years are astounding. To date, more than 90 percent have stayed in school. Of those in the program long enough to measure, 95 percent continued onto college or a good job.
    “Paul’s Place is definitely a life saver,” said Kervins Germain-Philistin, a sophomore at Florida Atlantic University.
    He was accepted into the after-school program at age 7. “I didn’t know the language and I was struggling in school,” he recalled.
Germain-Philistin excelled with the tutoring.
Patrons paid for his high school education, room and board at St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton.
    Other students also are fulfilling dreams they never thought possible.
    But Paul’s Place reached capacity last month, forcing director Kathy Fazio to turn away children for the first time.
    “This is breaking my heart,” Fazio said. “I literally cried.”
    St. Paul ’s lacks space to expand its school.
“We want to find other local churches who might help us do satellites of Paul’s Place,” Stokes said.          

Women participate in a qigong class near Boca Raton’s South Beach Pavilion. The ancient Chinese class is offered by Lisa Perdue and Enrique Diaz.  Paula Detwiller/The Coastal Star

By Paula Detwiller

At first glance, it looks like humanoid robots have invaded the beach. They creep forward, silently transferring weight from one foot to the other, eyes fixed straight ahead, arms wheeling around in slow motion.
    Take a closer look and you realize the robots are ordinary people in street clothes. They are concentrating very hard on their slow, deliberate movements. They’re not evil robots from a science fiction fantasy. They come in peace.
    In fact, they come to this stretch of seashore near Boca Raton’s South Beach Pavilion to engage in qigong (pronounced “chee-gong”), an ancient Chinese practice that is part exercise, part meditation. They are students in a free qigong class offered monthly by Lisa Perdue and Enrique Diaz, owners of Asian Integrative Medicine in Boca Raton.
    “We offer the class because so many people don’t know what qigong is,” says Perdue, who is a board-certified doctor of Oriental medicine. “This type of movement is a branch of Chinese medicine that’s been around for 5,000 years.”
Literally translated from the Chinese as “life energy cultivation,” qigong combines rhythmic breathing with slow, fluid movements. According to Chinese philosophy, the practice helps balance and strengthen one’s qi, or energy.
Perdue says practicing qigong at the ocean’s edge can intensify the experience.
“We’re pulling from nature — from the sand, the sea, the salt, the air,” she says. “The Chinese believe that qi is in everything, so we are cultivating this energy, drawing it in, and using it for our own healing.”
    At the conclusion of class, students are instructed to place their hands over their belly buttons and continue to breathe deeply to “seal in” the energy they have collected.
    Student Lee Emmer, 85, of East Boca, says these beachfront qigong classes make her feel “really refreshed and energized.”
    “I just feel better,” Emmer says. “Anyone can do it. It doesn’t take any prior skill.”
    Another student, 60-year-old Larry Fernald, says the classes have helped him mentally decompress. “It’s good breathing exercise for me, and it’s very nice,” he says.
    Whether practiced on the beach, at home, or in a traditional Asian dojo like the one qigong instructor Gary Giamboi operates in Lake Worth, qigong is thought to benefit health on three levels.
    “On the physical level, qigong can give you more flexibility and greater range of motion, balance, and coordination,” Giamboi says. “On the mental level, it can improve your ability to concentrate and focus.”
    Done correctly, he says, qigong should be meditative, and this calming of the mind can trigger the third level of benefit: spiritual clarity.
    “When you quiet yourself down and focus on nothing but you, your breath, and your intentional movements, you have the possibility to see your spiritual connection to life, to God, to the universe — to whatever you think is important to connect with,” he says. “You can move into your own personal space and leave the world behind.”
    If you’d like to try it (and don’t mind looking like a robot on the beach), the next free “Qigong for the Community” class will be held at 8 a.m. Oct. 27 at Boca Raton’s South Beach Pavilion, East Palmetto Park Road and A1A.

Paula Detwiller is a freelance writer and lifelong fitness junkie. Find her at www.pdwrites.com.

October 6
Saturday - 10/6 - Spooky Halloween Saturdays are held at The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach, 1000 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan throughout October. Gingerbread haunted house building, costumes, pumpkin decorating, candy and Halloween movies. Noon-4 pm. $80/child with gingerbread house building or purchase house building activity seperately for $25. 533-6000 6000 or www.ritzcarlton.com.

October 7-13
Thursday - 10/11 - Fall Family Festival is held at the Boynton Beach City Library, 208 S. Seacrest Blvd. Features “Pumpkin Patty,”  a mummy wrap, crafts and food. 6:45-8 pm. Free. 742-6390 or www.boyntonlibrary.org.
Saturday - 10/13 - Animal Encounters: Spooky Creatures at Daggerwing Nature Center, 11200 Park Access Road, Boca Raton. Meet some live “spooky” animals such as spiders, owls, and snakes. All ages. 1-1:45 pm. $3. Reservations: 629-8760.

October 14-20
Saturday - 10/20 - Halloween in the Hammock at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. Join an hour-long nighttime nature walk with ghostly guides and ghouls. Walks departing every half hour from 6:30-9 pm. Ages 6 to adult. 6:30-10 pm. Advance: $7/members, $10 /non-members. Walk-ins: $15/person. Reservations: 544-8615.
10/20 - Kindermusik Halloween Party at Intracoastal Park Clubhouse, 2240 N. Federal Hwy., Boynton Beach. Ages 1-6 years. 11 am-noon. $5/resident; $8/non-resident. 742-6221.

October 21-27
Wednesday - 10/24-27 - Shriek Week & Trick or Treat Trail at Sugar Sand Park, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton. Indoor black light games and family amusement area. W: 5-8 pm; Th-Sat.: 5-10 pm. Trick or Treat Trail: Stroll around the carousel where local businesses greet participants with candy and treats. W-Sat.: 5-8 pm. Free. 347-3948.
Thursday - 10/25 - It Came From the Library: Monstrous Makeovers for ages 13-17 is presented at the Boca Raton Public Library, 200 NW Boca Raton Blvd. Learn tricks for creating terrifying costumes and makeup in this hands-on workshop. 6:30-8 pm. Free. 393-7968 or www.bocalibrary.org.
10/25-11/4 - The Rocky Horror Show - Presented by Entr’Acte Theatrix at The Crest Theatre, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. W-Sat.: 8 pm; Sat. & Sun.: 2 pm; 10/28: 7 pm. $25/adults, $15/children under 12, $10/students with ID. 243-7922 Ext. 1.
Friday - 10/26 - Trick ‘Em Treat ‘Em Costume Party for children ages 2-5 at the James A. Rutherford Community Center, Patch Reef Park, 2000 Yamato Road, Boca Raton. Costume party with munchies, mayhem, games and more. 10 am-noon. $5/child. 367-7035.
10/26 - Freaky Friday Tennis at The Racquet Center, 21626 St. Andrews Blvd., Boca Raton. For adults ages 17 & up. Best costume contest, Scary Goblin Round Robin. Warm up with a pro, doubles play, and lunch on the patio. 10:30 am-noon. $10/permit holder; $13/resident, $15/non-resident. 367-7095.
10/26 - Pumpkin Patty’s Fall Fantasy Show and Costume Parade at the Boca Raton Public Library, 200 N.W. Boca Raton Blvd. Children 8 years and younger must be accompanied by an adult. 3:30-4:30 pm. Free. 393-7968 or www.bocalibrary.org.
10/26 - Annual Halloween Spook-tacular - Enjoy an evening of games, dancing, face painting, candy and more at the Ezell Hester Jr. Center, 1901 N. Seacrest Blvd., Boynton Beach. For children ages 5-12. 6-8 pm. Free. 742-6550.
10/26 - 5th Annual Halloween “BOO”ardwalk Event at Daggerwing Nature Center, 11200 Park Access Road, Boca Raton. Bring your costumed kids and take a walk on the non-scary “Boo”ardwalk! Inside, take part in fun Halloween activities and crafts whiule learning about some spooky creatures of the night. Bring a flashlight to see what creatures you can find in the swamp. Bug spray recommended. All ages. 6:30-8:30 pm. Free. 629-8760 or www.daggerwing.org.
Saturday - 10/27 - Tennis Halloween Party at Patch Reef Park, 2000 Yamato Road, Boca Raton. Kids wear costumes to this fun clinic for all levels. Featuring games, prizes and music. For ages 5-10. 10-11:30 am. $3. 367-7090.
10/27 - Halloween Crafts at Daggerwing Nature Center, 11200 Park Access Road, Boca Raton. Make a variety of Halloween-themed crafts. Ages 5-10. 10:30-11:15 am. $4. 629-8760.
10/27 - Not-So-Scary Halloween at Sandoway House Nature Center, 142 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach. Halloween-themed storytime, shark feeding, noncturnal creatures of the sea, reptiles & amphibians, owl pellet dissection, crafts and activities all day. 10 am-3 pm. $4/ages 3 and up. 274-7263.
10/27 - Monster Mash at The Swim Center, 21618 St. Andrews Blvd., Boca Raton. Come in costume, bring a swim suit or both. Activities held in and out of water. Featuring trick-or-treating, bounce house, face painting, popcorn and more. For ages 6 & up. 11 am-1 pm. Free. 544-8542 or www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us.
10/27 - Trick-or-Treating Along the Avenue  is held on Atlantic Ave. between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway. 11:30 am-1 pm. Free. 279-1380 ext. 17 or www.mydelraybeach.com.
10/27 - Halloween Kidsfest of Delray at Veterans Park, 802 NE 1st St., Delray Beach. Family event highlights children’s services and organizations, targeting health, safety and fun. Live entertainment for everyone, a make-and-take craft area and more. 1-4 pm. Free. 243-7277.
10/27 - Halloween Parade at Old School Square Park (east side of Museum), 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. Awards given for best costumes. Parade begins at 1:30 pm and marches along Atlantic Ave. to Veterans Park, 802 NE 1st St. 1-2 pm. Free. 279-1380 ext. 17.
10/27-28 - Boynton Beach Haunted Pirate Fest is held long E. Ocean Ave. between Seacrest Blvd. and NE 1st Ave. Grab your mateys for a two-day festival of “pirate-themed” family fun along Ocean Avenue. Featuring continuous entertainment, live music, food & drink. Haunted House presented by Schoolhouse Children’s Museum: $5 admission proceeds to benefit the Museum. 10 am-5 pm. Free. 742-6246.

October 28-31
Saturday - 10/28 - Ghouls & Goblins Concert is performed by the Youth Orchestra of Palm Beach County at the Delray Center for the Arts at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. 6-8 pm. Free. 243-7922.
Sunday - 10/29 - Halloween Drop-in Craft Day at the Boynton Beach City Library, 208 S. Seacrest Blvd. Make a Halloween craft. Materials provided. Grades K-4. 4:30-5:30 pm. 742-6393.
Monday - 10/30 - Halloween Costume Parade & Storytime is held at the Boynton Beach City Library, 208 S. Seacrest Blvd. For infants-age 5. Wear a Halloween costume and participate in a “not-so-spooky” parade, listen to Halloween stories and dance to Halloween songs. 10-11 am. Free. 742-6390.
10/30 - Halloween Party for grades 6-12 is presented at the Boynton Beach City Library, 208 S. Seacrest. Featuring mask making, spooktacular games and gholish treats. Wear a costume if you dare! 5:30-7 pm. Free. 742-6390.
at the Senior Center, 1021 S. Federal Hwy., Boynton Beach. 1-3 pm. $3. 742-6570.

By Tim O’Meilia

Hours after he spoke at a South Palm Beach town council meeting, former mayor Martin Millar was arrested for allegedly attacking a man with a flashlight in a Palm Beach Gardens club.

Millar, 66, was released on his own recognizance Friday after being held more than 24 hours in the Palm Beach County Jail. He faces charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest with violence.

Millar attacked a man in the Dirty Martini club at the Downtown at the Gardens after the man left another bar several miles away with Millar’s girlfriend, according to the arrest report.

The girlfriend asked a 38-year-old man at the Angry Moon Cigar Bar for a ride after she told him Millar had been abusive to her. The couple left and drove to the Dirty Martini. Millar followed later.

Millar texted an acquaintance that he “wanted to kill” the man. A witness at the second bar said he struck the victim in the neck with a black flashlight.

Millar told Palm Beach Gardens police that he was going to “signal 5” the man for leaving with his girlfriend. The term is police radio code for murder.

Millar tried to pull away when he was handcuffed, the report said.

He was ordered not to drink alcohol or have contact with the victim, who was not named in the report.

The incident began barely four hours after Millar criticized the South Palm Beach Town Council for not taking action in a police union contract dispute.

In July, Millar complained to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office that South Palm Beach Police Chief Roger Crane threatened. After investigating, a sheriff’s detective dismissed the complaint as unfounded.

Millar was mayor for two years after serving four years as a councilman in South Palm Beach. He resigned in December 2010 after the state ethics commission fined him $3,000 for trying to use his position to influence West Palm Beach officers after he was ejected from a strip club.

By Tim Pallesen
    
Citizens Insurance is notifying owners of homes valued over $1 million that their insurance coverage will be cancelled.
    Coastal communities are hardest hit, according to data released by the state insurer.
    Cancellation notices mailed as the hurricane season began leave south county coastal residents scrambling to find alternative insurance at higher costs.
    The mayors of two of the south county’s most affluent towns, Gulf Stream and Manalapan, say the cancellation of coverage for expensive homes is unfair.
    “It discriminates against the high-end homeowner,” Gulf Stream Mayor Joan Orthwein said.
    Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature are supporting Citizens’ attempt to reduce its financial exposure of $508 billion. The state insurer with 1.5 million policies has $5.7 billion to pay claims after a hurricane.
    Citizens says the lower $1 million coverage limit will allow them to eliminate 7,500 policies statewide and $17 billion in exposure.
    “It’s unfair to single out one group,” Manalapan Mayor Basil Diamond said.
    “But Citizens is looking for ways to go out of business. The coverage limit is one baby step,” Diamond said. “All this will eventually even out if Tallahassee reaches its goal to fully eliminate Citizens.”
    Citizens chose to slash coverage in affluent oceanfront towns because of public opinion, according to Jeff Grady, the president and CEO of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents.
    “The argument was that Citizens was subsidizing millionaires to insure what was often their second home,” Grady said. “That was the emotion behind this.”
    The purge of expensive homes began last year when Citizens set $2 million as the maximum coverage, sending the first wave of cancellation notices.
    Delray Beach City Commissioner Tom Carney was among those who got cancelled. “Anything east of the Intracoastal Waterway lost it,” Carney said.
    Coastal homes are hardest hit again by this year’s $1 million coverage limit.
    Palm Beach County has the second highest number of cancellations with 1,542 policies valued at $3.7 billion, which equals 22 percent of the state dollar amount.
    South county coastal communities with ZIP codes 33431, 33432, 33435, 33462, 33483 and 33487 received 613 cancellations, Citizens said.
    The mayor of Palm Beach, which got 299 cancellations, is organizing Palm Beach County coastal mayors to protest the coverage limit.
    “The legislation making homes valued at more than $1 million or more not eligible for coverage by Citizens is arbitrary, capricious and discriminatory,” Mayor Gail Coniglio wrote Gov. Scott after Palm Beach residents began getting their notices.
    Diamond said Manalapan residents may not know about the cancellations yet. “It’s important for Tallahassee to be aware if there’s a lot of pushback on this,” he said.
    The state Office of Insurance Regulation approved Citizens’ request for the $1 million maximum coverage on Jan. 13. Citizens stopped writing new policies for the more expensive homes and began sending out cancellation notices for existing policies in May.
    Grady and local insurance agencies say residents who have been cancelled by Citizens now must find alternative carriers such as Lloyd’s of London that aren’t regulated by the state.
    “It’s the wild, wild west as far as rates and what is covered,” Grady said.
    “We can obtain coverage for everybody for a price,” Gracey-Backer Insurance co-owner Barbara Backer said. “But all affected homeowners will see hefty premium increases.”
    Backer estimated increases will range from 100 to 200 percent, depending on construction, location and wind protection. One of her Delray Beach clients now must pay a $17,718 premium to an alternative insurance carrier after paying only a $6,417 to Citizens, she said.
    Another south county agent, Plastridge Insurance, predicts alternative coverage will skyrocket to be three or four times the Citizens cost. “This has really hit those homeowners hard,” Plastridge co-owner Brendan Lynch said.
    Alternative insurance carriers also are raising deductibles, Lynch and Backer said.
    Backer predicted some owners of expensive homes will be forced to sell because they can’t afford the added insurance cost.
    “At some point, it becomes unaffordable to buy these high-priced homes,” Backer said. “I suspect this insurance cost will affect the real estate market.”         

Citizens says it’s dropping more than 600 Multiperil and Wind Only policies in the coastal area

ZIP Code    Policies Affected    Total Policies
33431         42                                     820
33432        217                                    973
33435        49                                   1,650
33462        50                                      775
33483        159                                  1,428
33487        96                                       613

                         

Ryan Butts, the turtle rehabilitation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, works with volunteers Sue Comoglio (from left),  Lloyd Wiener and and Connie Thomas-Mazur on Cindy, who was injured and lost her left flipper in a shark attack. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Photo slideshow

By Ron Hayes

On Saturday, July 28, Ryan Butts and his wife, Kristen, were looking forward to a quiet evening at Big City Tavern on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale.
    He ordered the seared sea scallops. She had the rigatoni with chicken, Roma and sun-dried tomatoes.
    Just a relaxing night out with friends …
    And then, shortly before 8:30, Ryan’s cell phone rang.
    A shark attack off Pompano Beach.
    The female victim, a teenager, had been rescued by a passing fisherman and brought ashore at the city marina in serious, very serious, condition.
    An hour later, Butts was rushing toward Boca Raton with his patient clinging to life in the back of a Mazda SUV.
    The patient, a 115-pound loggerhead turtle, about 15 years old, had lost her left front flipper to the shark. The right flipper was nearly severed. Judging by the teeth marks, her head had been in the shark’s mouth.
    By early August, that injured loggerhead had a name.        
    She’s Cindy. The nearly severed flipper has been sutured, and she’s receiving daily care in a large blue tank at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center off North Ocean Boulevard.
    For the first time in more than a year, injured turtles are being treated once more at Gumbo Limbo. In August 2011, the center let its rehab certification expire while a new, $2.5 million sea tank pavilion was being built only yards away. Too much noise. The pavilion opened on June 22 — four tanks displaying four distinct South Florida marine habitats — and now the turtle rehab pavilion is back in business, too. A permanent certification has been issued by the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the grand re-opening to the public is planned for later this month.
    “Sea turtles are usually only attacked if they’re already sick or injured,” says Butts, 35, the center’s new turtle rehabilitation coordinator. “They float when they’re sick or injured, and that makes them vulnerable, so it’s amazing Cindy got away. Her injuries were a few days old when she came to us, so I don’t know how. I’d say the shark possibly went after her thinking the turtle was almost dead and Cindy had more life than he thought and was able to put up enough of a fight to get away.”

 Uno’s beak was injured by a motorboat.

    Not far from Cindy, in another tank, a green turtle named Uno is recuperating from a boat strike off Hobe Sound. Look closely. See? A V-shaped slice out of her beak.
    And here’s Shannon, another green, found by a fisherman in Cocoa Beach. She ate a fishing filament and suffers from fibropapilloma tumors.
    Lily, also a green, was caught by a fishhook, ate the line and passed the hook, which snagged in her tail.

Ryan Butts and Connie Thomas-Mazur work on the turtle Lily, whose flipper was infected by a fishhook.

    At Gumbo Limbo, every patient gets a “private room” — 10 tanks, 10 turtles — and Butts to oversee their care.
    “To me, it’s like working with dinosaurs,” he says, grinning with enthusiasm. “Turtles have been around unchanged for 50 million years. I can come to work and care for a dinosaur every day!”
    It’s not the sort of life you’d predict for a man who grew up in Grand Rapids, Mich., catching box turtles with friends, housing them in a bucket all summer, setting them free when school began.
    “I was a bartender in college,” he recalls. “Loving life. Having a great time. Then I went to the Keys on vacation and fell in love with it.”
    One day, he stumbled across the Turtle Hospital on Marathon and was instantly entranced. “I was like an 11-year-old kid,” he remembers, “trying to peek through the fence.”
    While pursuing a degree in biology at Aquinas College back in Grand Rapids, he worked summer jobs at the Turtle Hospital and was hired full-time in 2006. A year ago, he came to Gumbo Limbo.
    “Each one is unique,” Butts says. “They have their own personalities. Some prefer certain foods over others. Some prefer certain people over others. I’ve had some that will eat out of my hand, and some like to have their back scrubbed. They’re graceful, gentle creatures. A turtle never hurt anybody.”
    Since Uno arrived on June 15, the center has taken in nine injured turtles and lost three.
    “I hate to say you see so many injuries you get used to it,” Butts says. “Some are devastating, and some are just the cycle of life. What’s tragic is that so much of it is preventable. We had one loggerhead who died, and when we did a necroscopy we found 150 cigarette butts in its stomach.”
    Turtles mistake them for shrimp.
    A plastic grocery bag looks like a jellyfish underwater. Boat propellers carve their flippers and beaks. Filament line takes 500 years to break down.
    In other words, some human beings can be sharks, too, and other human beings are saviors.
    Butts doesn’t save turtles alone. On a recent Thursday morning, he watched as Connie Thomas-Mazur pulled on latex gloves and climbed into the tank to cleanse Cindy’s wounds.
    Along with volunteers Sue Comoglio, Robyn Morigerato and Lloyd Wiener, she is fully trained to perform medical duties and give the turtles medication.
All four also are members of the center’s board.
    “This board is very hands-on,” she laughs, crouching to swab Cindy’s healing flipper.
    They draw blood, monitor glucose levels, insert vitamin drips and cleanse and treat the wounds with honey, a natural disinfectant and antibiotic.
    “Right now, our main concern is infection,” Butts says. “If we can save her right flipper, she can swim.”
    While Thomas-Mazur cared for Cindy, Butts carried Lily over to a table and started to rinse the wound in her left flipper.
As he worked, a gaggle of children from a local summer camp spotted him and rushed to the fence. Fingers gripping the chain-link, they pulled themselves up, straining to see, eyes wide, mouths agape — just like that enchanted 11-year-old boy Butts became when he first found the Turtle Hospital.
    What happened?!
    “She got an infection when a fishhook was removed from her left flipper,” he explained, holding Lily high so the children could see.
    The turtle’s flippers flapped madly, as if she were trying to fly, and a great cry of delight rose from the children.
    “She’ll be ready to go home pretty soon,” Butts assured
them.                                          

The turtles’ progress is tracked on a dry-erase board.

Buildings named for the Count & Countess de Hoernle

Boca Raton Children’s Museum 

Rickards House upper floor

Acts Retirement Life Community

Hurricane shelter

American Red Cross

Service center

ARC of PBC

Lobby

Boca Ballet Theatre Company

Center of dance

Boca Raton Community Hospital

Cardiac floor

Boca Raton Historical Society

Pavilion (train depot)

Memorial room

Boca Raton Museum of Art

Great hall

Art school for children

Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County

New building

Boys Towns of Italy (in Rome)

International Center

Caldwell Theatre Company

New theater

Caridad Migrant Center

Health clinic

Centre for the Arts at Mizner Park

Amphitheater

Children’s Home Society

  Building in West Palm Beach

Count & Countess de Hoernle Pavilion

Alzheimer’s pavilion

Debbi-Rand Memorial Service League

Pavilion (Thrift Shop)

Food for the Poor

Two homes in Haiti

Gulfstream Council, Boys Scouts of America

Headquarters service center

Habilitation Center for the Handicapped

Workshop

Garden center

The Haven

Meeting hall

Two cottages

HomeSafe

Two cottages

Hospice by the Sea

Lobby

Junior League of Boca Raton

Building

Lynn University

Sports & Cultural Center    

International building

Lecture hall

Two dorms

Mae Volen Senior Center

Lobby

Dining hall

Northwood University

Student Life Center

Palm Beach State College,

Lake Worth

Humanities & Technology 

Building

Student center

South Florida Blood Bank

Pavilion

Campus

Spanish River High School

Theatre

St. Joan of Arc Parish

Cornerstone

Lobby

St. Jude

Gathering place

United Way of Palm Beach County

Boynton Beach campus

Wayne Barton Study Center

Study center

YMCA of Boca Raton

Youth center

Youth activity center

Activity center

Countess birthday events

Through Sept. 7: Community birthday card initiative. In preparation for the gala event, the community is invited and encouraged to sign birthday card panels that will be on display at locations throughout the city.  The panels will be assembled as one card for its debut at the gala event celebration on Sept. 24. 

Sept. 22: VIP Reception (by invitation only). Gala benefactors are invited to a VIP reception hosted by Countess de Hoernle at Boca West Country Club.

Sept. 24:  A Red, White & Boca Blue day-long celebration. The community is encouraged to pay visual tribute to the Countess for her patriotism for the United States, her ‘country by choice,’ by wearing red, white, and blue and wrapping trees with red, white, and blue ribbons.  

Sept. 24: Benefit Gala. The “Our Legend, Her Legacy”-themed benefit gala begins with cocktails at 6 p.m. at Boca West Country Club. More than 700 dignitaries and community, business, and nonprofit leaders will don black or white tie, military or Scottish equivalent, tiaras, regalia, and decorations.  Dinner, music, multimedia tributes, reminiscing, a video retrospective, and presentation of a gigantic birthday card are planned as a benefit to fulfill the Countess’s 100th birthday wish: to raise significant funds to benefit Boca Raton area nonprofits. Individual seats are $375  See www.countess100.org.

The Mark Gerretson Memorial Fishing Tournament, held Aug. 10-11, drew 40 registered boats. Total payout was $8,100. ABOVE: The largest overall fish, a 58-pound wahoo, was caught by the crew of Snowcones Revenge; it  paid $3,000. Pictured: Ryan Grotto, T.J. Andrews,  Naveen Maraj and Travis Ralph.

PicMark’s Trifecta Bonus, the 71.8-pound combined weight of a kingfish, wahoo and dolphin caught by the crew of the Good Angel, brought $3,000. Pictured: Serenity Schneider, Teresa Schneider and Frank Langdon.
Photos by Tim Stepien/
The Coastal Star

Top-ranked volleyball pro Steve Grotowski, returning from competing in the London Summer Olympics, was on hand for demonstrations and clinics to support the Beach, Barbeque & Books fundraiser held Aug. 18 at the Delray Beach Club.
Pictured: Jan Kucera, Tandy Robinson, Grotowski and Louise Glover.
Photo provided

Delray Beach Public Library’s Dine Out for a Cause summer fundraisers are held at various Delray Beach restaurants. This summer, diners celebrated the library’s 100th birthday.  The July 26 event was held at Sundy House with celebrity chef Michael Malone greeting and eating with the crowd. Pictured: Susie and Harvey Greenberg with Leon and Fran Sachs. Photo provided

Unity School second-grader Gemma Ward of Ocean Ridge poses with Director of Educational Technology Dana Fritzinger. On the screen is a page from Gemma’s Scratch project that won the attention of the media lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the developers of the Scratch program. The program makes it easy to create and share interactive stories, games, animations, music and art. Fritzinger was selected as one of 40 educators nationwide to participate in MIT’s summer educator’s workshop. Photo by Janet Goldman

Paw-ty Time, a Boca Festival Days event, raised money and awareness for the Tri-County Humane Society on Aug. 12 at The Shoppes at Village Pointe in Boca Raton. Attendees checked out animals for adoption, showed off their own pets in the Happy Dog contest and enjoyed a day of entertainment and art. Pictured are Yvonne Boice, Suzi Goldsmith with Benjamin Franklin, and Al Zucaro. Photo provided

On July 16, the Florence Fuller Child Development Center’s Thrift Shop received a special makeover by Neiman Marcus’ Boca Raton employees and a host of dedicated volunteers. Pictured:  Neiman Marcus volunteers Jarrod Gac and Marissa Vinograd. Photo provided

Photo slideshow

By Thom Smith

Glen Calder was in on the act, but he just wasn’t sure how. Wife Kristin was competing in the annual Boca Ballroom Battle, so in support of the cause — the George Snow Scholarship Fund — he agreed to play a role in her dance number.
    The theme was movies,  and each of the eight dancers assumed the identity of a film star or character for an opening intro and then an actual dance number. A former Boca Raton deputy mayor and health care executive, Peter Baronoff, for example, assumed the role of Mrs. Doubtfire. Boca YMCA boss Dick Pollock recreated the dance scene from Pulp Fiction. Local activist Beth Osborne pulled an Austin Powers.

Peter Baronoff did his best ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ imitation and set a record for fundraising.

YMCA President Dick Pollack was picked for best male dancer.

Beth Osborne was honored for best female fundraiser and dancer for her ‘Austin Powers’-like moves.

    For the Calders’ act, Glen knew only that he was to sit on a chair on the dance floor. The music started and Kristin, head of public relations for the Bethesda Hospital Foundation and mother of three, strutted out in a fur coat, which she removed to reveal a swirling dress, straight out of The Seven-Year Itch.  Then doing her best Marilyn Monroe, she sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” to her stunned but grinning husband.
    Calder and her partner, Fred Astaire Studio dance director Jay Molter, then segued into their “real” dance to Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.
    “When I see the photos I can’t believe it’s me out there,” Calder said. “When they asked me to participate, I was pregnant and thought this would be a good way to get back in shape. But to learn the choreography and pretending to be Marilyn Monroe was as mentally challenging as it was physical. It’s a very emotional experience as well. Most of us wouldn’t get out there if it wasn’t for a cause.”
    Calder didn’t win. The mirrored ball trophies for best dance went to Pollock and Osborne, who also took the top fundraising prize with Baronoff. But no regrets, as the event raised $290,000 for college scholarships.

Kristin Calder was greeted with flowers by her children, Harrison and Caroline, after channeling Marilyn Monroe.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

    “It gets better every year, the talent of the dancers and what people put into it,” she said. “When I look at the pictures and see all the people smiling and having such a great time, it was worth it. And for a few minutes, I was Marilyn Monroe. That was great. I’m sure it will be a part of my life for some time to come.”

***                   
   Imagine how the world would have been if MM had done the samba. The essence of Brazil will transform Boca on Sept. 7 as Friday Night Live! celebrates Brazilian Independence Day with a full schedule of events at Sanborn Square. Entertainment by singer Rose Max and Batuke Samba Funk, art, fashion and Brazilian food from Gourmet Truck Expo. The carnival begins at 6 p.m.
                                    ***
    Aside from the music, a large part of the appeal of playing in a local band is its spontaneity and unpredictability. Brian Bolen has seen a lot of both during his career, most recently with Uproot Hootenanny, a string band. It plays most of its gigs at bars and clubs in the coastal towns, although it recently has added an annual hop to the Emerald Isle for a fortnight of performances.
    “We played 10 gigs in 15 days this year,” said Bolen, who plays guitar and bass and sings. “Next year we’ll have some more gigs lined up. I think they’ll let us back in.”
    Perhaps the guys also made an impression on Khris Royal, who stopped by the Wishing Well in mid-August after a concert at Pompano Beach Amphitheater. Royal is a sax player, born and raised in the jazzy-funk of New Orleans, who was accepted at Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music at age 16. He’s played with the Marsalises and Bobby Brown and recorded with the likes of Mary J. Blige, Ashanti and Erykah Badu. Now in one of those surprise, unexpected musical moves, he’s added his sax to Rebelution, a fast-rising band from California that plays, of all things, reggae.
    After the Pompano concert, Royal met some of the locals who invited him to go clubbing … and he accepted … and when they arrived as the Wishing Well and the surprised Bolen invited him to jam … he accepted.  
    “He jumped up and played. He was fun to jam with,” Bolen said of the resulting fusion of Irish, rock, reggae and jazz. “I mean, we’re a full-on string band, but it worked.”
    Royal and Rebelution have moved on with their national tour, but Uproot Hootenanny is busy at home in Boca, with dates Sept. 7 at The Funky Biscuit, Sept. 14 at The Wishing Well and Sept. 29 at Biergarten.  
                                    ***
 Hold it! This can’t be right. A new building and business opening ahead of schedule? Well, it’s happened. Hyatt Place Pineapple Grove opened Aug. 8. Its 134 rooms, none on the ground floor, feature 42-inch flat-screen TVs, cozy corners and sofa lounges and expansive views of downtown Delray. It’s certified “green” (energy efficient) and includes a rooftop pool, a hot tub, workout room, full service bar, 24-hour food service, conference rooms and a ground floor gallery. During September, rooms start at $109 and are expected to range from $170 in summer to $300 during the season. A grand opening is planned for October.
                              ***     
    On the subject of dining and entertainment, Boynton Beach for years has taken a back seat to its more vocal neighbors north and south. Not any more.
    With a big boost from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, young, energetic and innovative restaurateurs intend to turn what has been a town that people passed through on their way to Lake Worth or Delray and Boca into a dining destination.
    To make its point, the CRA recently offered media members a trolley tour of five spots that typify the town’s potential.
    Everything at The Backyard — half a block west of Federal — is outdoors, except the cooking; that’s done in an Airstream trailer. Live music, cold drinks and fresh, locally supplied food keep the place packed seven days a week.
    Chrissy Benoit, who once worked for Wolfgang Puck and moved to Lake Worth after a hurricane blew her out of Orlando, is working wonders with the just opened Little House, the renovated cottage on East Ocean, a block west of Federal. Again, it’s all fresh. Warning: The Pop Rock petite citrus sour cream pie ($6) is deadly.
    Across the street, seafood plays a big role at Hurricane Alley, although landlubbers can have their fill, too! But you can fish all day on the Sea Mist III drift boat and they’ll cook your catch for you. They also offer up a jalapeño margarita, an Asian calamari salad and a décor to delight the most debauched nautical wheeler.
    Farther south at Federal and Woolbright, on the ground floor of Las Ventanas, Sweetwater bills itself as a cocktail bar, rustling up some of the wildest libations known to man, as well as barrels of craft beers and a cellarful of wine. Food, too! It opened a year and a half ago, and with nearly 500 rental units above, they expected most patrons to be walk-ins. To the contrary, folks from Boca to Jupiter have found out.     
    The only waterfront site on the tour, Prime Catch, actually has the New England feel of old brick and stained wood, cod and live Maine lobster. But the Therian family, which also owns the Banana Boat up the road and the Fifth Avenue Grill in Deerfield Beach, loves to fish and their catches — mahi, swordfish — make up a large part of the menu.
    Most important — the town has a new can-do attitude. It’s worth a stop.
                               ***    
    Down in Boca, almost as quickly as Philippe opened, it closed. Reportedly, Philippe Chow’s success with his Asian fusion restaurant didn’t travel well to East Palmetto Park Road. Local diners weren’t willing to pay the price, so he pulled the plug after only a year.
    Similarly, Assaggio del Forno in Boca’s Regency Shops at Jog and Yamato has closed barely six months after opening. Dennis Max’s foray into modern small-plate Italian cuisine didn’t catch on with the locals who wanted “old-style Italian.”
“I decided to let my partner (John Williams) do what he wanted,” Max said. “I think he’ll reopen in October.”
    The severed partnership also spelled the demise of Frank and Dino’s in Deerfield Beach, but don’t expect Max to slow down.
Though business couldn’t be better at Max’s Grille in Mizner Park, on Aug. 27 Max closed it for a month to give it a major makeover, including a new display kitchen. Until it reopens Sept. 26, Max urges diners to give Max’s Harvest in Delray a shot.
Max’s next project is The Mexican, a sit-down restaurant with a large indoor-outdoor bar in Royal Palm Place. Max says it’s similar to Carlos and Pepe’s, a concept he developed with Burt Rapoport more than 30 years ago in Fort Lauderdale.
    Look for a late-October, early-November opening,  which will be followed around Thanksgiving by Burt and Max’s in the still-under-construction Delray Marketplace out west at Lyons and Atlantic. After more than a decade apart, Max and Rapoport are again teaming up. This venture, Max said, will be an evolution of Max’s Grille.
    It’s a lot safer than it was three years ago,” Max said of the restaurant business. “A lot of young people are doing restaurants that are approachable, affordable, with excellent food that’s international. People want to go out and have a good time, and restaurants fill that need — now more than ever.”
    Also coming to the Marketplace will be Famiglia pizzeria, Shula Burger, Cabo Flats, a casual Mexican restaurant already opened in Palm Beach Gardens, and a 10-screen, 16-lane theater-bowling alley combo.
                 ***                  
    Back in Mizner Park, around the first of the year, you should be able to go from a concert in the amphitheater at the north end to a jam session in the south end. The space formerly occupied by ZED451 is scheduled to become JAZZIZ Nightlife, a spinoff of Michael Fagien’s JAZZIZ magazine.
    Fagien, a radiologist by day,  plans to spend $6 million on the concept that will offer good food, good service and good shows — day and night — but previous attempts at jazz venues in South Florida, much less Boca, haven’t done well. However, with the emergence of the Arts Garage in Delray, and with Fagien’s ties to performers through his magazine, the odds may be improving.
    Meanwhile, Train is booked at the amphitheater Sept. 5 and Bonnie Raitt on Oct. 21, while Funky Biscuit has The Lee Boys on Oct. 19, and Maria Muldaur on Oct. 27. Rusted Root will play the Biergarten on Nov. 7.
                     ***              
    Up in Lake Worth, Sauceboss Bill Wharton and Damon Fowler headline Blues, Brews and BBQ, Oct. 20-21 at Bryant Park; the Bamboo Room has New Riders of the Purple Sage booked for Nov. 2-3 and Steve Forbert on Nov. 8.  

Visitors to the Seagate Hotel and Spa visit the hotel’s new shark tank (above), which has three small sharks (below).

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

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

By Tim Pallesen

A new $3 million mosque that opened last month is evidence of the rapidly growing Muslim population in southern Palm Beach County.
    The 30,000-square-foot Islamic Center of Boca Raton will serve as a house of prayer, education center and community gathering place.
    The complex at 3500 NW Fifth Ave. was designed with blue-green domes and a minaret as its landmark next to Florida Atlantic University.
    The mosque will house classrooms, administrative offices and a courtyard for prayer as the first phase of a $4.5 million expansion beside the Garden of Sahaba Academy, a Sunni school.
    The new complex includes eight apartments expected to house FAU students.
    The mosque was necessary after hundreds of Muslims were forced to pray outdoors when they couldn’t fit in the main hall at the school.    The Muslim community in Boca Raton may be growing by 20 percent a year, according to estimtes.
    Many young families are attracted to FAU for study. The university is convenient across the street from the mosque, school and community center.
                                    ***
    The Jewish community has flourished in Boca Raton, too.
    So much so that a new committee says it is large enough to have its own community bus so young adults can connect with their Jewish heritage in Israel.  
    The committee’s first fundraiser at Flywheel-A-Thon on Aug. 12 raised $7,500 toward the $60,000 cost to send 40 young adults to tour Israel on a “Boca bus.”
    The popular Birthright Israel trips have taken south county residents to Israel before through their university Hillels or other organizations. But travelers share those buses with young people from other Jewish communities.
    A 2006 survey showed Palm Beach County has the fourth-largest Jewish population in the U.S., with 255,000 Jews.
Local boosters say the Jewish community here now can support its own contingent to Israel with enough young people to fill its own bus.
“By traveling together, our young adults will share this experience of a lifetime with their friends and neighbors, as their families connect in a very special way,” said Suzy Garfinkle, a Birthright parent who co-chaired the event.
Birthright development officer Michelle Waranch Ben-Aviv said young people who experience the special journey of Jewish self-discovery together will become the future Jewish leaders in Boca Raton.
“While embracing the land and people of Israel, participants develop a passion for Jewish culture that many had not previously been exposed to,” Ben-Aviv said. “They return home inspired by this extraordinary experience and ready to be part of their local Jewish community.”
 Organizers say no fundraising will occur during the Jewish High Holy Days that begin with Rosh Hashanah at sunset on Sept. 16 and continue through Oct. 9. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is on Sept. 25.   
The Holy Days are a time spent with families for reflection, and the “Boca bus” initiative will continue after Oct. 9, a spokeswoman said.
                                    ***
    The sisters of late disco queen Donna Summer will perform at Old School Square in a free Sept. 29 outdoor concert to celebrate the second anniversary of The Avenue Church in Delray Beach.
    Donna, Mary and Dara were raised devout Christians as the daughters of a Boston butcher and schoolteacher. Donna’s debut performance came at church at age 10.
    Mary and Dara Gaines Bernard became Donna’s backup singers in 1975 when her hit single Love to Love You Baby was released. Their music was the driving beat of the disco era in the late 1970s. The three sisters toured together through 1987.
    Donna died at age 63 on May 15. Mary, Dara and two other sisters sang We’ve Come This Far By Faith at her funeral in Nashville.
    Mary, who lives in Coral Springs, sings in the music ministry at Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale. Dara lives in Atlanta.
    The free Night of Wonder event, 7-9 p.m. Sept. 29, is open to the public. The sale of snacks and beverages will benefit the orphan care ministry at The Avenue Church.
                                    ***
    The 25 congregations working together as Family Promise have already shown they have heart. Now they might show they can play golf!
    The South County churches and synagogues take turns to give emergency food, shelter and counseling to families.
    Proceeds from the Family Promise Golf Tournament on Oct. 28 at the Boca Greens Country Club will benefit the interfaith mission.
    Teams pay $600 if they enter by Sept. 15. Individuals pay $160. Call tournament chairman Ken Tolchin at 212-8029 for information.
    “Family Promise has 25 participating congregations,” Tolchin calculated. “If everybody steps up with a team, we would have 100 golfers right there.”

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

As a benefit for the Achievement Centers for Children and Families, an event catering to “the woman within” will be held at 6 pm, Oct. 4 at Hyatt Place, 104 NE 2nd Ave., Delray Beach.  For $50, women enjoy hors d’oeuvres and wine, live music, complimentary personal services and shopping. For information contact 866-9068 or www.delrayindulgence.com. Above: (l-r) Stacey Beaulieu, Heidi Peckhaus, Gini Dollard, Christine King, Stacey Hallberg, Theresa Melocco and Mercy Carney. Photo provided