By Mary Thurwachter

    After a day of interviewing seven candidates on April 13, the Lantana Town Council unanimously chose Deborah Manzo as the town’s new manager.
Although Manzo, who is Greenacres assistant city manager, won’t officially begin until May 7, she was introduced during the April 23 council meeting.
    “I look so forward to working with all of you, council, staff and residents,” she said. “I’ve been taking notes tonight.”
    She will take over for Mike Bornstein, Lantana’s manager for 12 years, who took a similar post in Lake Worth last month.
    Mayor Dave Stewart said there were many reasons he liked Manzo, including her 27 years of municipal experience with only two cities — Greenacres and Juno Beach.
    “She has many qualifications and is well-versed on coastal communities,” he said. “She had a willingness to accept the current contract, which means a decrease in pay for her.”
    And she was willing to commit to at least 10 years, Stewart said.
    Another plus for Stewart was Manzo’s experience in working with FEMA and NIMS (the National Incident Management System).
    All of the seven finalists (narrowed from 27 applicants) were asked the same questions.
     “She blew away the competition with her answers,” Stewart said.
    When asked if she was overqualified or underqualified, Manzo, 50, said “neither,” but that she was just the right fit for the job.
    Manzo, who lives in Royal Palm Beach, will be paid $97,476 annually, the same as Bornstein and about $20,000 less than she makes in Greenacres.
She also will receive a $450 a month car allowance and 80 additional hours of vacation time.
    Other town manager finalists, narrowed from a field of 27 applicants, were Michael Morrow, operations director in Palm Beach Gardens; Vincent Finizio, former manager of Belle Glade and Pahokee; Cheryl Harrison Lee, former manager of Eatonville (near Orlando); former Manalapan manager Thomas Heck; former Highland Beach manager Dale Sugerman; and Anna Yeskey, director of the Palm Beach County Intergovernmental Coordination Program and special projects coordinator in Lake Clarke Shores.                 Ú

By Mary Thurwachter

    Commander Sean Scheller was officially sworn in as Lantana’s police chief on April 23, two weeks after former Chief Jeff Tyson was fired after DUI charges in Boca Raton.
    Scheller, who has been with the Lantana Police Department for 18 years, told the Town Council and residents he would “have an open door policy” and “get this ship going in the right direction.”
    He will receive an annual salary of $88,500, the same amount Tyson had received.
    Scheller, 42, grew up in Clearwater and has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Florida State University. He is a graduate of the Hillsboro County Police Academy.
    He worked his way through the ranks of the 29-officer Lantana Police Department, starting as a road patrol officer in 1995, becoming a detective in 1997, and sergeant of support services in 2007.
    Last year, Scheller became division commander of uniform and support services.
    Since Tyson’s departure April 5, Scheller was acting chief until then-Town Manager Mike Bornstein named him chief on April 11.
    Council members encouraged Bornstein to hire Scheller before Bornstein left to take the city manager’s job in Lake Worth. Toward the end of a lengthy meeting on April 9, a council member tried to make a motion directing Bornstein to hire Scheller, but Mayor Dave Stewart wouldn’t allow it, saying such a move would be violate the town’s charter.
    Admittedly angry about the push to get Bornstein to hire a chief before he left, Stewart said his annoyance had nothing to do with Scheller.
    “We do not tell him (Bornstein) who to hire,” Stewart said.
    “I thought he was the right appointee, but it was the town manager’s decision and I thought the decision should wait for the new town manager (Deborah Manzo, who will begin May 7).
    Tyson, 51, had been police chief since September 2010. He was arrested around 1 p.m. on April 4 by Boca Raton police responding to an accident on Military Trail in which Tyson’s Ford Explorer (a town-owned vehicle) rear-ended an unmarked Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office vehicle. Tyson’s blood alcohol tests (.229 and .234 percent) were almost three times the legal limit for intoxication.            

The Lansing Melbourne Group proposal shows glass enclosures and an outdoor garden.
Drawing provided

By Angie Francalancia

After 20 years of debating the fate of Boynton Beach’s Old High School, city leaders now are in a hurry to see it transformed into an events destination.
Boynton Beach City Commissioners voted 5-0 to negotiate over the next 120 days with Lansing Melbourne Group, who propose converting the 1920s-era building into an events destination under the renouned hand of Palm Beach party planner Bruce Sutka.
And members of the audience applauded — not so much in favoring the proposal over the second one before the city, but to celebrate that the city finally was moving forward with a plan.
“We’re very, very eager and excited,” Commissioner Marlene Ross said as the commission voted. “Let’s move forward.”
“Finally,” one man shouted from the audience.
“This school means everything to my heritage,” said resident Emily Little. “It’s about time we did something.”
Lansing Melbourne is expected to begin working immediately with city leaders to bring its “30,000 feet vision” to reality, with a solid financing plan and an architectural renovation plan that will add space to the old building, but won’t jeopardize getting it on the historical register and qualifying for tax credits.
“The modifications to the building could take it out of the historical category,” said Mayor Woodrow Hay, who, along with Commissioner Bill Orlove initially supported the alternate proposal that would have converted the school into the home of the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History.
But Orlove’s motion to negotiate with New Urban Communities that proposed the museum, along with 10 buildings of rental apartments, failed on a 2-3 vote. Orlove then moved to have the staff work with Lansing Melbourne to solidify its proposal. They’ll report to the commission monthly in anticipation of having a final deal ready in 120 days.
While Commissioner Steve Holzman said he thought they could execute a deal faster, Lansing Melbourne’s Peter Flotz said they’d need the entire 120 days to secure a loan commitment. Part of the hurry is because new federal tax credits, which were part of both projects’ proposed financing structure, are expected to be extremely limited and were not renewed for 2013, city officials advised.
Althought Lansing Melbourne had obtained what it called a soft commitment of bank financing, a firm financial commitment is what would be needed to ensure a deal, said CRA Director Vivian Brooks.
“I don’t know if we’ll have a hard commitment in that time frame,” Flotz said. “But if, in 120 days you don’t like what we’ve done, kiss us goodbye. You’ve got somebody else just  waiting for us to fail.”
Both proposals require the city to give away the building. Both ask that the city forfeit for several years the potential tax revenue the project would generate. And both include commercial or residential components designed to generate dollars that would offset renovating the old school that’s been sitting unused for about 20 years. Past studies have estimated the cost of renovating the building, last used as an elementary school in the late 1990s, at more than $5 million.
“We’re trying to skin a very big cat here,” CRA Executive Director Vivian Brooks said. “To make money, there has to be an offset.”
Lansing’s plan is to have  restaurants and events generating the dollars and traffic. The group proposes expanding the Old School’s area with two “glass cubes” and including a glass ceiling above the second floor auditorium space for a spectacular event venue.
It’s similar to a plan the group used recently on a project in Sarasota, architect Juan Contin told the commission. It allows the building to be expanded while maintaining its historical integrity, Flotz said.
“When the Louvre was remodeled, this is exactly what they did,” Flotz said. “They put a glass cube entry way.” But he added, “We don’t have their budget.”
 The concept would provide an event venue needed in a market where, according to Sutka, other spaces already are booked. The team’s proposal also includes space for four “boutique” restaurants, and envisions spaces to accommodate small retail, a green market, and community programs. A private outdoor garden would provide an extension of the event space.
They envision community classes inside the building, as well as major events that turn Ocean Avenue into the city’s “entertainment district.”
“Bruce Sutka bringing event after event after event is what will make it happen,” Flotz said.
The team estimates bringing an average of 150 jobs each year to Boynton Beach.
Lansing’s proposal had heavy support from several residents, including Voncile Smith, president of the Boynton Beach Historical Society and Barbara Ready, who said the proposal reflects what every community gathering said Boynton wanted — a place for the community to use.
Supporters of Lansing’s proposal also said they believed the second concept would make the city liable for too much money. While Lansing has asked for the tax value of the renovated school for about 10 years — estimated to total about $750,000, New Urban’s proposal would need Boynton Beach to guarantee rent shortfalls estimated to  be about $318,000 annually for about the same period.
The second proposal, a collaboration of New Urban Communities with the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History, would leave the Old School building as it is, converting it into about 9,000 square feet of exhibit space. But it would change much of the city blocks that now house the school, library and City Hall buildings. The plan included building 84 rentals to introduce live/work spaces into downtown.                            

Lina Roche, an eighth-grader at St. Mark Catholic School, checks the depth of the sea grape tree she planted with classmate Katelyn Guinan at Boynton Beach’s Oceanfront Park in Ocean Ridge on April 26. The Arbor Day event memorialized surfer and environmentalist Vola Jeffrey ‘Surge’ Surgener and lifeguard Phil Remery. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Emily J. Minor
    
They were different times back then, certainly, what with free love and the women’s movement and the Vietnam War. And for local resident and writer Kristin Alexandre, it was, in so many ways, the defining years of her life.
    Young and newly married to an older man with social interests and some power, Alexandre hooked up with a group of college students at Columbia University in New York City and helped to organize — get this — the first Earth Day.
    There she was, a French major just out of Virginia’s Sweet Briar College, working with the mayor’s office, getting FiFth Avenue shut down, reaching out to Barbra Streisand and Ali MacGraw and the Rockefeller family.
    “Barbra Streisand came and sang On A Clear Day,” she says, laughing, still a bit in awe of what they accomplished.
    Forty-two years later, this prolific author, traveler, and entrepreneur still worries about the same environmental and conservation issues they worried about then.
    “The No. 1 issue then and now is overpopulation,” Alexandre said. “After that, I would say it’s water.”
    So, how do you start such a movement? Whom do you call? Where do you meet? How do you get the troops energized?
    Alexandre, traveling out of state to discuss a possible cable TV series for her graphic novel series Nuncia, still loves to recall those heady times.
    “Really, people who had been part of the anti-war movement were kind of refocusing their energies on the Earth Day movement,” she said. “They were segueing. There was just this protest group of people, and we kind of refocused.”
    It was in the winter of 1969 that this group first went to a Columbia auditorium to hear environmental activist Denis Hayes discuss plans for a possible Earth Day, a day that would pay homage — and bring attention — to Mother Earth. Full of energy after Hayes’ speech, someone rented cheap office space to push along the effort. Pretty soon, they were meeting with then-New York City Mayor John Lindsay about logistics and sending out press releases to the network news.
    There were Earth Day events all over the country that first year: April 22, 1970. Today, Earth Day is celebrated on the same date, but in 192 countries.
    Former U.S. Congressman Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, is largely considered Earth Day’s true founder, since he held the political power to grease the wheels. But he has been widely quoted as saying the event took off, organically.
    “It simply grew on its own,” he would say in later years.
    Alexandre, who remarried after being with her first husband, William Hubbard, for just a short while, said “everyone was just so active at the time.”
    And while Alexandre says she is hopeful about the future of the environment — The electronic media do so much to spread awareness, she says — she’s also worried about the graying of America’s environmental movement, and the movement’s shift to more political circles.
    Issues like global warming and population “weren’t politicized back then,” she says.
    And today, young adults seem burdened with so many serious challenges, they don’t feel much power, she said.
    “It’s a sad thing today,” says Alexandre, who has lived in coastal Delray for about three years. “I have an 18-year-old, and she does not feel she has the power to change anything. The Baby Boomers, we felt like we could change it all.”              

Charles and Anna Carlino’s Polynesian-style home on Avenue Au Soleil in Gulf Stream.

By Christine Davis
    
There are a few people in South Florida’s tropical paradise who live in literal Shangri-Las.
    Take for example, Bruce and Muriel “Mert” Anderson, Charles and Anna Carlino, and most recently, Hillel Presser. No Mediterranean-style homes for them. All residents of Gulf Stream’s Place Au Soleil, they prefer architecture with a bit of an Asian flavor (think pagoda-like roofs with upturned edges), following the lead of Bob Reed, who developed the 50 acres in 1960.
    “Bob never said why, but he liked that look,” Mert said. “From what I understand, he had different developers come in and build here, but he had control of the design of our home (at 960 Indigo Point), which he built for himself, and two others on Avenue Au Soleil.”
    “Bob told me that those two were the original sales offices,” Bruce added. Reed’s aerial photograph hangs in their home, and shows the development as empty parcels save for the two Avenue Au Soleil homes.
    Coming from a Colonial home in Morristown, N.J., the couple bought their waterfront property 20 years ago, Bruce explained. “Our Realtor told me, ‘I want you to see something I just came across. I’ll leave the keys and you bring Mert and a bottle of wine at sunset. It will be an easy sale.’
    “The house was owned by Bob Reed and his wife, Bessie, who had already moved over to Harbour’s Edge (a senior living community in Delray Beach).  It was empty and overgrown, but we made an offer.”
    At first, Mert said, they were going to give it a more Colonial look — the house façade does have a section made of old brick reclaimed from a Kingston, Jamaica, jail — but they grew to like the Asian style and decided to stick with it. ‘We were ready for something different,” Mert, now a Gulf Stream town commissioner, explained.

The Carlinos stand near their meditation pool.

    Charles and Anna Carlino bought their home at 2745 Avenue Au Soleil from Elden and Catherine Tetzlaff in 2007. “The design was more Japanese when we owned it,” Catherine Tetzlaff said. “The architect truly understood building for a tropical climate, and I always appreciated his vision.”
    The Carlinos, though, love the Polynesian/Balinese style, and the house easily made the transition.
    “The open-beamed ceiling in the living room is original,” Charles Carlino said. “The whole house in the front had sliding glass doors. We framed them in wood and added the dark shutters — that goes with the Balinese design. We put in Mexican tile floors and added bamboo shades out on the loggia.”
    Carlino, a real estate investor and decorator who owns Lorimar Designs, has filled the house with wicker, rattan, leather, Asian antiques and exotic wood furniture. He’s added a garage and guesthouse, a shallow mediation pool and pavilion, decks, walkways and lush landscaping.
    “I was working on another house in the neighborhood, and I kept going by this property,” he said. “It was the roofline I liked. Everyday, I’d look at this house and say, ‘someday, I’m going to own it.’ I showed it to my wife — she had just received her real estate license and this was her first sale.”

Hillel Presser’s Intracoastal-front home consists of a cluster of buildings with pagoda-style roofs.
Photos by Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

    Across the street, at 2730 Avenue Au Soleil, Hillel Presser is putting the finishing touches on a cluster of buildings with pagoda-like roofs on the water that he bought in February 2010. “I didn’t want to sacrifice the roof or the French Polynesian look, he said. “My whole idea was to keep with the original design, but to give it a modern beachy feel.”
    Two outbuildings to the north and south are the guesthouse and the garage, which create symmetry and also define the courtyard. The main house features an open floor plan with a large living space and galley kitchen, as well as two bedroom suites.
    To the rear of the house is a covered patio that offers views of the kidney-shaped pool, dock and water. “The property takes up an entire end of a short canal,” he said. “I get to enjoy looking at the Gulf Stream golf course and the Intracoastal Waterway without the noise or the seawall damage.
    “I first saw the house online, drove up, saw the half-acre lot and the view and bought it. I didn’t even care about the condition of the buildings.”
    Presser, a lawyer, often buys investment condos and this is his first house project. Although he may sell down the road, he’s feeling attached, already picking out appropriate furnishings, and he and his fiancée, Ashley Martini, plan to move in soon.
    “I like the style,” he said. “It’s a good feeling — Zen.”         

By Emily J. Minor
    
HYPOLUXO ISLAND — Hers was a life full of passion, people and laughter, lots of laughter.
    “Anyone who met Lib loved her,” remembers Sharon Ehlers, who cared for Mary Elizabeth Sory in the years before Miss Sory’s death.
“Actually, she was in better shape than I was,” Ehlers said, with a laugh. “Five years ago she was still climbing the tree and trimming it.”
    Miss Sory, a longtime Palm Beach County schoolteacher who came here in the 1940s and never left, was 98 when she died April 6 — just a few weeks before her 99th birthday.
    Born in the little town of Cedar Hill, Tenn., on April 30, 1913, she was one of six children — three boys and three girls. The daughter of a country doctor who traveled horseback for house calls, she left home for college, eventually earning two degrees. The first was at Middle Tennessee State College for Teachers, where she graduated in 1935 after studying physical education and art. A few years later, she went to the George Peabody College for Teachers, where in 1943 she received her master’s degree in physical education.
    That year, she came to Lake Worth High School to teach P.E., and she was hired by John I. Leonard — the superintendent of schools at the time, and the namesake for the high school that opened in Greenacres in 1964 and still carries his name.
    When Miss Sory came south, she had family here. All three of her brothers were doctors, practicing in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach. (All three of the Sory girls were teachers.) During her early teaching days, Miss Sory worked in the Florida sun. In those days, gym class was almost always outdoors.
    But when a brother worried that his red-haired, fair-skinned sister might be particularly susceptible to skin cancer, she took a job as a guidance counselor at Lake Worth Junior High School.
    When Miss Sory retired from Lake Worth Junior High School in 1974, she had taught in Palm Beach County for 31 years, said her niece, Virginia Sory Brown.
    Miss Sory’s niece described her aunt as selfless, silly and full of adventure. She loved to travel. She loved the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team, attending the NCAA tournaments until very recently. She loved her nieces and nephews. “She was the matriarch to five generations,” her niece said.
    And she loved playing cards and board games, particularly backgammon. Indeed, Miss Sory was known for her ruthless tactics at the backgammon board. “She would take incredible risks,” Ehlers said, “and she would whup my butt.”
    Miss Sory was known for her spirit and feistiness, and she valued those attributes in others. For her 90th birthday, her family and friends reached out to four notable women she admired, and arranged for their birthday wishes to arrive with all the others. Hillary Clinton, Paula Deen, Pat Summitt, the Lady Vols coach who just resigned because of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease; and soap opera star Deidre Hall — they all sent photos with a personal note.
    Miss Sory is survived by nine nieces and nephews, 18 great-nieces and -nephews, numerous great-greats and one great-great-great niece.
    Her long, happy life was celebrated on April 30, which would have been her 99th birthday. Family asks that donations in her memory be made to Lake Worth School Dollars for Scholars Foundation, P.O. Box 1166, Lake Worth, FL 33460.

By Ron Hayes
    
DELRAY BEACH — During his retirement years, Thomas Browne did not play golf or bridge, racquetball, shuffleboard or tennis.
    Mr. Browne walked. And walked.
Every morning he rose at 5, had breakfast, left his home in southern Delray Beach, turned north on South Ocean Boulevard and walked the eight miles to George Bush Boulevard and back.
    Walking was his passion, his pastime and his exercise, and it was good exercise. He lived to be 91, and died peacefully on April 8, Easter Sunday.
    “He always wore a pith helmet, and everybody knew him because he would say hello to everybody,” recalls his widow, Claire. “Some people called him the mayor of A1A. Everywhere he went, he’d want to walk.”
    After his daily walk, he’d go for a swim, then indulge his second passion, reading The New York Times in depth.
    “He’d been reading the Times since he was 15, and he’d take the rest of the morning to read it, every day, faithfully.”
    Thomas F. Browne was born on Aug. 5, 1920, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Third Army 10th Infantry Regiment, participating in the Battle of the Bulge, during which he was wounded on Christmas Day, 1944.
    “He served from 1942 to 1945, but he always said his career in the Army was very short, because he was only involved in combat on the day he was shot,” his wife said. “He spent three months recuperating in England.”
    Mr. Browne was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service, then went on to earn a degree in business from Fordham University.
A resident of Upper Saddle River, N.J., he served as general manager of Institutional Commodity Services for 37 years and retired in 1987.
    Mr. and Mrs. Browne, who were married 55 years, moved to Delray Beach in 1990.
    In addition to his widow, Mr. Browne is survived by four children and their spouses: Anthony and Margaret Browne of Ridgewood, N.J.; Bradley and Susan Browne of Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J.; Barbara and Kenneth Wineland of Medford, N.J.; and Kilby and Marizete Browne of Union City, N.J.; a brother, James, of Normandy Beach, N.J.; and seven grandchildren.
    The family asks that donations in Mr. Browne’s name be made to Autism New Jersey at www.autismnj.com.

By Scott Simmons

The Plaza Theatre has jumped into the ring to help patrons of Boca Raton’s beleaguered Caldwell Theatre.
The Manalapan theater, which opened in February, will honor tickets to Caldwell’s production of Our Lady of Allapattah, which first was postponed, then canceled, as Caldwell struggled amid foreclosure proceedings on its $10 million Count de Hoenle Theatre in Boca Raton.
The 37-year-old company has been unable to make payments on its $5.9 million mortgage. A court-appointed receiver is monitoring the theater’s business operations.  Options include reorganization, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection or shutting down.
Alan Jacobson, one of the founders of the Plaza Theatre, said the ticket exchange will help Caldwell and help introduce audiences to his theater, which opened in the former Florida Stage space at Plaza del Mar.
“We’ve gotten a few calls about the Caldwell tickets,” Jacobson said. “We’re glad to do it. I’ve asked the box office to track the calls.”
Plaza Theatre will exchange Caldwell tickets for tickets to the shows I Am Music — The Songs of Barry Manilow (May 10-27) or Don’t Rain On Our Parade, a tribute To Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler and Carole King (June 7-17).
Palm Beach Dramaworks also has agreed to honor Caldwell tickets.
Ticketholders may exchange Our Lady tickets for tickets to the downtown West Palm Beach company’s production of David Auburn’s Proof (May 25-June 17) or the theater’s production of The Fantasticks (July 13-Aug. 5).
At the time Dramaworks made its offer, Caldwell artistic director Clive Cholerton issued a statement of gratitude, saying, “As much as we wanted to personally honor our ticket holders, it simply wasn’t feasible. We continue to explore all of our options and will make a formal announcement when all of the facts have been addressed.”
Subscribers and ticketholders were to have been contacted by Caldwell, the theater said.
Telephones at Caldwell have been disconnected, and Cholerton did not return a call to his personal line for comment on the Plaza Theatre offer.
For information on Plaza Theatre, call 588-1820 or visit www.theplazatheatre.net.   

Impact 100 founders Cindy Krebsbach (left), Lisa Mulhall and Tandy Robinson raise a toast during their annual meeting and grant presentation at Lynn University. Photo provided

The women of Impact 100 Palm Beach County championed the “power of giving as one” on April 24, voting to support a program that helps children who are abruptly removed from their homes and placed into foster care.  
    Impact 100 members came together at their inaugural annual meeting at Lynn University in Boca Raton and awarded their first $100,000 grant to the Parent-Child Center, a nonprofit organization that promotes the social and emotional well being of children and families.
    “Impact 100 PBC is thrilled that our ‘power of giving as one’ is doing exactly what it intended — being part of creating transformational solutions,” stated Cindy Krebsbach, co-founder of Impact 100 PBC. “We are truly excited to support the Parent-Child Center’s trauma team with our first transformational grant.”
    Impact 100 was created with the idea that every woman gives $1,000 annually, their contributions are pooled together and a nonprofit organization is selected to receive a $100,000 grant.
    Sixty-six applicants applied for the grant within five key funding categories: Arts and Culture, Education, Environment, Family, Health and Wellness. Five nonprofits were selected to present to the Impact 100 PBC members at their annual meeting, where an electronic vote was cast and counted.  Runner-up organizations were The Milagro Center, Anti-Defamation League, Florida Fishing Academy and the Urban League of Palm Beach County. They each received a $12,000 grant.
— Staff report

For more information on Impact 100 Palm Beach County or to become a member, contact 302-4996 or impact100pbc@cfpbmc.org.

Grass River Garden Club member Susan Vicinelli shows Paul’s Place after-school student Tanicha Emilcar (center) an edible flower during the April 10 closing of the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Community Garden in Delray Beach. Students Jovante Pierre Louis, Ange Cyril and Vanessa Pierre also check out the garden. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Frances Curtiss (seated, from left), Regie Moorcroft and Sylvia Hinges; with Cindy Hopkins and Jeanne Strong, enjoy the March 20 Boca Delray Music Society’s musical social, ‘Hats & Harps Luncheon’ at the Delray Beach Club. Photo provided

Delray Beach Historical Society members and guests enjoy cocktails during the second annual Celebration of Old Delray Cocktails on the Beach fundraiser at The Colony Cabana Club on April 12.
Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Honorary Chair Jane “Kitchie” Tolleson, Co-Chair Barbara Backer and Spring Boutique Committee Member Laila Young enjoy the three-day shopping extravaganza in downtown Delray Beach March 6-8. Event proceeds benefitted the women and programs of Wayside House, a Delray Beach substance abuse treatment center for women ages 18 and above. Photo provided

Sacred Heart fifth-grader Adrianna Smigiel and her mom, Marcela, of Lake Worth, pick up treats during the April Showers Bring Sacred Heart Flowers Afternoon Tea at St. Andrews Club on April 11. The fundraising event was hosted by The Friends of Sacred Heart School and benefitted the “Educate a Student” fund at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Lake Worth. A similar event is being planned for 2013.  Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Sandoway House Nature Center’s Earth Day Gala was held under the stars April 14 at a local beach club. Legendary football coach Howard Schnellenburger served as Honorary Chairman.  More than $20,000 was raised for Delray Beach’s only nature center.  Pictured above are Carl DeSantis (l) and Fran Marincola. Photo provided

Brianna Ritota has recently accepted scholarship offers for both her academic and athletic achievements from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. She plans to attend in the fall to pursue a degree in veterinary medicine. Brianna is graduating from Boca Raton Community High School where she has been inducted into the National Honor Society and has received the President’s Award for Educational Excellence. An avid athlete, she is graduating with five varsity letters, four in water polo and one in swimming. As captain (for the second year in a row) she helped lead her water polo team to victory over St. Andrew’s to claim a first district championship for Boca High.
She is the eldest daughter of Dr. Ted and Lisa Ritota of Ocean Ridge. Photo provided

The Lupus Foundation of America’s Southeast Florida Chapter hosted its Annual Closet Couture Luncheon at Benvenuto’s on April 10. The event raised over $25,000 to help support the LFA’s mission of finding the causes of and cure for lupus and providing support, services and hope to the over 100,000 Floridians living with lupus and their loved ones. ABOVE: (l-r) Mary Walsh, Chris Davies, Elaine Morris and Jay Davies. Photo provided

Beekeeper Bradley Stewart minds his own beeswax, although you’ll find him doing that in other people’s yards.
Condos just aren’t the place to set up beehives, he points out, so thanks to friends and neighbors throughout the county, he farms his 17 hives out for production of his “Backyard Honey,” which he often gives away. “When people come back for more, sometimes they insist on paying me, so I call that a donation,” he said.
But for him, not only are honeybees a hobby (he has about 60,000 in each hive), they are serious business.
“Bees are so important to our wellbeing,” the South Palm Beach resident said. “If you go to Publix and look at the produce, without honeybees, one-third of those shelves would be empty.”
Take almonds, for example, he explained. “Sixty percent of the world’s almonds come from California and almonds need honeybees for pollination. The acreage in California dedicated to almonds is greater than the entire acreage of the entire state of Massachusetts, and there aren’t enough honeybees to do the job.”
Stewart became interested in bees when he was about 12 or 13 and had a neighbor who had bees. As a Boy Scout, he pursued a merit badge for beekeeping. He did give up beekeeping (obviously) when he was in the Navy, where as a yeoman he learned to be a very fast typist on the staff of Adm. Chester Nimitz in Hawaii after the United States entered World War II.
But he has worked with bees on and off all through his life. “I’ve been close to nature,” he said.
As a single young man, he traveled, eventually ending up in Florida where he met his wife, Gloria, who died six years ago.
“I hitchhiked to Florida from Kentucky and haven’t had enough money to get out of the state yet,” is the joke he likes to tell. But here’s the real story. He had come occasionally to Florida with his family. “The first time was in 1936,” he recalled. Stewart returned to Florida right out of teacher’s college and taught in Indiantown at Warfield Elementary.
“Then I went to California and did all kinds of stuff. I had a car wreck and came back to Florida to recuperate and met Gloria. She was a nurse. We were married for 50 years.”
He has two children: Bradley III, who lives in Pompano, and Sara Watson, who lives near Washington, D.C.
Stewart says his senior citizen groups refer to members as “active seniors,” and he tends to agree. “I am 86, feel like I’m 96 and plan to live to be 103.”
— Christine Davis

10 Questions
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. I grew up in Bowling Green, Ky., where I attended public school. It was an excellent system with good teachers. Then, I went to Western State College, also in Bowling Green. It was primarily a rural community, where people are closer to nature. I’ve been close to nature all my life, although I don’t consider myself a “green” person.  

 Q. Have you had other careers (or hobbies); what were the highlights?  
A. I worked for Delta Airlines for 30 years in marketing. I’ve also done all kinds of part-time jobs. I was a bartender in college, worked on a shrimp boat one summer out of Fort Myers, was a teacher for two years right out of school, and I also went out to California and worked in a factory.
I’m a ballroom dancer. In elementary school, we had folk dancing. My wife, Gloria, and I started taking art in the senior citizens center — it was free — and they also had a dance class, and the rest is tragedy. I’ve been dancing for four or five years. You can legally hug the girls.
I take lessons on Monday and Friday and I go once a week to the Gold Coast Ballroom in Coconut Creek and there’s also the Grand Ballroom in Delray Beach. Jane Mueller teaches locally. She charges five dollars an hour and at the Mid County Senior Citizen’s Center in Lake Worth. We need men.
For art lessons at the same center, the teacher is Chief Joseph and he’s a superb artist. He teaches for free. We have a little dance/artist community and we go in groups to do things.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in South Palm Beach?
A. We lived in West Palm Beach, and after retiring from Delta, we moved to South Palm Beach. My wife didn’t want to do yard work, so she said she wanted to live in a condo and I found this one for $85,000, and that was 25 years ago.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in South Palm Beach?  
A. I know people here. It’s very convenient living in a condo. Although I don’t like condos, this is a great place to live, but I can’t keep bees here. I am, though, raising a tomato plant on my porch.

Q. What book are you reading now?
A. I don’t read very much and fiction doesn’t grab me too much. I do like to keep up with my magazines on the honeybee world.

Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?  
A. I’m not a student of classical music, but I was exposed to it in elementary school, so I do enjoy classical music when I want to relax. For inspiration I listen to my cha-cha, rumba, ballroom samba, merengue and big band music. I feel the beat.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?  
A. I tell my kids, “moderation,” but I don’t practice it.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. I had a regional marketing manager at Delta, Ed Bishop. He had a staff of about six sales reps and he was always on the go and ahead of the pack with all sorts of new ideas, so I tried to pattern after him. He got lots accomplished in short periods. I’ve always had energy, too, but it was channeling my energy that I had to learn to do, so I’d observe him.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. Johnny Carson. He asked questions and gave people a chance to answer them. He was funny and he enjoyed people. He never swore and he poked fun at himself. He didn’t sacrifice other people to make himself appear popular.

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
A. People, particularly politicians. Break it down one more time, Democrats.

The buzz on bees:Interesting facts about the “bee” part of the birds and bees lecture:

* During its lifetime, a honeybee will produce a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey, so if you eat a teaspoon of honey, you’ve just enjoyed the life work of 12 honeybees.
* Beekeepers buy bees by the pound with a mated queen. To produce worker bees — the females — the queen fertilizes the eggs. Non-fertilized eggs become the drones (males).
* Stewart can’t say how long bees live. “Up North, they hibernate in the winter. In Florida, when there are lots of flowers in an orange grove, the bees will work themselves to death in three or four weeks.
* “A queen will live for five years, but we replace her every year or two because her productivity to produce may diminish.”
* A hive is made up of three separate groups of bees: the queen, 50,000 to 60,000 female worker bees, and a few hundred male drones.
* “The hive doesn’t need many drones, only enough to impregnate the queen. They can’t feed themselves. They are real couch potatoes,” he said.
* A colony is a matriarchal society, he added. “The queen on her maiden flight puts out pheromones and the drones are attracted to that. 18 to 35 drones will catch her at a high altitude, will mate with her and then she kills them.  The drones deposit up to two million sperm in her body. She’ll lay up to 2,000 eggs a day. After she’s mated, the other drones are pushed out of the hive.”
*  A beehive looks like a box. The bottom section is called the brood chamber and that’s where the new bees are raised. In the top sections, supers, there are a series of frames (looks like drawers) that hold a sheet of imprinted beeswax — the bees build on top of that. You take each frame out, and scratch the honey off, put the frames in a centrifuge, and then drain the honey into a bucket. “We don’t strain or heat it — that’s what makes it organic.”

By Antigone Barton

There’s something about tea: Soothing and restoring, a comfort and a tradition, it provides both a lull and a lift to the day. Let fathers celebrate their day with tee times, Mother’s Day tea is an occasion for finger food and flowers.
And tea, of course.    
What is it about tea that brings people together?
There’s something salubrious about tea, says one local tea specialist, who goes by the name of Barbara the Tea Specialist. It extends beyond the medicinal properties, the list of which, she says, continues to grow daily: Studies credit tea with curbing high blood pressure, diabetes, stomach ailments,
rheumatism, heart, liver and kidney diseases, and warding off some cancers.
The act of having tea and the ceremonies that have evolved around it have their own benefits, Barbara says.
“You have to pause. It’s very meditative, a release from the everyday,” she says.
Then there are the memories.
“Remember when you were little, and you weren’t feeling well, and your mother brought you a cup of tea?” asks Maryana Matesic of TeaLicious Tea Room in Delray Beach. “I remember when mine did.”
In mid-April, TeaLicious was already taking reservations for Mother’s Day tea, a high tea.
Barbara takes her expertise on the road, helping businesses as well as party-planning individuals to gather around tea  — Mother’s Day teas, wedding shower teas, tea tastings, tea talks — even after-yoga raw-food tea gatherings.
For those planning their own teas, Barbara has this advice: “You don’t have to be a traditionalist to have fun with a tea party. You have to be able to be creative and mix it up. Let your imagination soar.”
After all, she points out, at least 52 countries where tea is grown have it their way: in Morocco, where she says crushed mint leaves in a glass with tea poured over it create “an explosion of mint;” in Japan, where a tea ceremony can be four hours long; and in England, from where traditional high tea comes, and where “they were practically religious about tea time.”
Delray Beach residents Tandy Robinson and her daughter Gracie take a moment for a hug during last month’s annual Mother and Daughter Garden Tea Party at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Gabriella Villazon (center) and her daughter Estefania Fabregat watch tea being poured during the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s garden tea party. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Specialist favors flexibility
A former travel agent who accompanied groups on tours, Barbara developed her philosophy of tea, as well as her knowledge, in her travels. She says the secret to enjoying tea and the treats that go with it is making it your own, and that means including your favorite finger food.     
While conceding the cucumber sandwich is nearly indispensable, (“because everyone looks for the cucumber,”) and that an herbal cream cheese is nice (she uses herbs from her garden), Barbara has accompanied teas with mini-bagels, flax seed toast, quiche-ettes and substituted mushroom caps for bread at raw-food teas.
The one constant, she allows, is avoiding knives and forks  — and sticking to bite-sized treats.
As far as the tea itself, “the healthiest tea,” she says, “is whatever you like to drink, because you will drink the most of it.”
That being said, when she says tea, she is talking about white, green, black or oolong. “Anything that’s brewed with water is tea to a lot of people,” she says. In reality unless it comes from the tea plant — camellia sinensis — it is not tea.
Flower and herb infusions, as well as the South African rooibos, are tisanes. Not that there is anything wrong with that; Barbara sells and is enthusiastic about the benefits of rooibos, in particular, a favored alternative for those who say they can’t drink tea.
When people say they can’t drink tea, Barbara will ask for clarification, to make sure they are not depriving themselves unnecessarily. While some people can’t tolerate caffeine, others may have a problem that is specific to a particular tea.
While not a traditionalist in food, she is not a rebel either — and high tea does call for a black tea, she says. A white tea, though, goes nicely with dessert.
Tea definitely is like wine in at least one respect — if you pay attention to the flavor, you can pair it with foods, she says. “A custard dessert with a black tea goes very fine. I have a white tea with a pineapple and coconut and that goes beautifully with cake.”
Barbara allows that “purists” would consider a white tea to be bending the rules of a traditional high tea, and might also find flavored tea to border on revolutionary.

Nicole Castillo samples tea during the Boca Raton Museum of Art garden tea party.

Flavored tea popular here
Each region that tea comes to sets its own standards, however. In these parts, fruit-flavored and spiced teas seem to be closer to the rule than the exception.
A “berry white,” flavored with hibiscus and jasmine as well as berries, is one of the best-selling teas at Boca Raton’s Spice and Tea Exchange. That could be because of the scent — the Boca Raton store doesn’t serve tea, but encourages customers to judge with their noses.
Another popular tea there is a green tea with pineapple and strawberry flavor. “When you take the lid off you feel energized,” Tea and Spice Exchange sales associate Donna Ferguson said.
The most popular tea at TeaLicious is a ginger and peach flavored black tea, with a rich chai coming in second, according to Matesic.
Barbara, who deals in about 100 different teas, says her most popular infusion isn’t a tea at all but a rooibos flavored with cranberries. Her second most popular is a macha green tea, and the third is the pineapple cocoanut white.
As the rules for tea and its accompanying treats are flexible, so is the order in which it can be consumed, Barbara says. While she teaches etiquette, and says many who consult her for mother-daughter teas cite passing on the etiquette as part of the experience, she also is just as willing to dispense with the etiquette.
“It’s under debate — you eat your scones first, then you eat your tea sandwiches, then you eat your desserts,” she says. “But I’ve heard tea aficionados challenge that, and say, no you never eat your scones first — that’s why I say, shake it up, relax. Luckily we’ve gotten away from the rigidness of having to have the etiquette.
“Whatever tea you like to drink, drink it. Whatever food you like to eat, eat it,” she says. The more you know, the greater the variety, she adds.              
“I mean, there’s really a lot to be said about tea.”      

Maegan Assaf sips tea during the annual Mother and Daughter Garden Tea Party at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. She attended the tea party with her mother, Nadine (at left).

How to make a perfect cup of tea

The rule of thumb is one teaspoon of loose tea for each 8 ounces of water.  Some mugs are 12 ounces. In that case, you would want to add a heaping teaspoon.
Loose tea can be re-brewed two or three times.
All tea is brewed differently. The amount you use is pretty universal, but the steeping time varies.
Black teas are brewed with boiling water (boiling is 212 degrees). Wait until it boils, take it off the stove and let it sit for five minutes, and use an instant-read thermometer to tell you the temperature.
White and green teas use lower temperatures: 160-175 degrees — basically when it just begins to boil. Steep for one to three minutes.
The rooibos and black teas use boiling water and five minutes to steep.
Source: Barbara the Tea Specialist

Tea Time!
Have some tea:
TeaLicious Tearoom
4997 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Saturday
Call for special events.
638-5155
www.tealicioustearoom.com

Cake Garden and Tea
1790 N. Congress Ave., Suite 200, Boynton Beach
Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Sunday and Monday; 
7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday through Thursday; 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday
523-7595
www.cakegardenandtea.com

Learn about tea:
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
4000 Morikami Park Road
Delray Beach
Upcoming demonstrations are May 19 and June 16. 
Demonstrations are offered throughout the day at noon, 1, 2, and 3 p.m. and are $5 in addition to regular admission. 
495-0233
www.morikami.org

Orchid Tea Room
Barbara the Tea Specialist
Tea tastings, classes, events
213-3990
www.theorchidtearoom.com

Shop for tea:
The Spice and Tea Exchange
426 Plaza Real
Boca Raton
Hours: noon to  6 p.m.
Sunday Monday;
10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday
www.spiceandtea.com