By Steve Pike
Shagball and Tangles are back.
Lantana author A.C. Brooks’ second book, Dead on the Dock, follows the former TV fishing show host and his pint-sized friend (and former Elvis impersonator) through a labyrinth of adventures that includes one sinking boat, a contract killer, the FBI, two dead mobsters and “three freaked-out guys wondering what the hell we got into.”
What they, and readers, are into is the second of a series of books Brooks has for the duo and their friends — some of whom are pure fiction and others based on people from the coastal corridor between Lantana and Delray Beach.
“It’s not hard to figure out who’s who,” said Brooks as he sat at a booth inside The Old Key Lime House restaurant in Lantana.
As in Brooks’ first book, Foul Hooked, The Old Key Lime House is the hub for the characters in Dead on the Dock. But unlike the first book, the restaurant is referred to by its real name. In his first book Brooks called it “The Ole House.”
Other restaurants, along the Intracoastal Waterway  and in West Palm Beach, remain fictionalized in Dead on the Dock, although it’s not difficult for anyone who has spent even a few weeks along the coastal corridor to figure out the logistics.
The Old Key Lime House also is central to Brooks’ marketing. Restaurant owner Wayne Cordero is a big Shagball and Tangles fan, and each book can be found in the Old Key Lime House’s gift shop.
“We’ve sold a lot of books here,” Brooks said.  “The second book (published in December) has been doing great. It’s also helped sell more of the first book. Everybody who read the first book has read the second book.
“It’s funny. Older women — in their 60s and 70s — seem to love these characters.”
As with Foul Hooked, Brooks self-published Dead on the Dock, through CreateSpace, an Amazon.com company that helps writers without traditional publishers.
Brooks is using author John Locke as a model for self-publishing. Locke, creator of the “Donovan Creed” series of thrillers, is a sort of godfather of self-publishing. He was the first self-published author to sell one million Kindle ebooks.
“His strategy on selling books is get to get at least three books under your belt before you start trying to promote your work,” Brooks said. “People want to buy books from authors with multiple titles. They like to follow characters and stories.”
To that end, Brooks already is at work on his third Shagball and Tangles book, Weed Line, much of which will take place in the Caribbean.
In that book, Brooks says, Shagball and Tangles will lose their boat, the “Lucky Dog.”  So to help promote the fourth book, Brooks is planning to have a contest for readers to name the characters’ new boat. He’s working with a boat manufacturer to supply Shagball and Tangles’ next boat. Sort of a literary version of product placement.
Brooks has recently started doing more book promotions on his Facebook page and Twitter account and recently started blogging. He also plans to soon post some chapters of Dead on the Dock on his website, acbrooks.net.
“Self-promotion is not really my strong suit,” said Brooks, who will have a book-signing May 5 at the Old Key Lime House. “Fortunately, I have some friends who like to promote me.”
He’s also fortunate to have characters like Shagball and Tangles.      

                                                                                                  By Steve Pike

Stuart Malin’s home is in the county pocket, but he lives much of the time in a world called Atria. It’s the world of a young man named Ahmenar Ishtam, whose journey ultimately leads him to confront his enemy and his destiny. Along the way, Ahmenar must uncover secrets, fight for a birthright denied, and make choices between love and loyalty.
It’s the world Malin first envisioned in 2002 and like Ahmenar, he’s been on his own personal journey to complete and publish the first in a series of books.
The first book, Rituals, will be launched on its own website, www.ossayu.com, and on Facebook. The first 20 chapters are on the website.
“I’m building an engine using latest and greatest technology,” said Malin, at one time a software developer for IBM at its old Boca Raton headquarters. “I love new technology. I’m a big Java script developer and I’m using Node.js, which is new technology for building a high-performance website. I’m going to build the website so it integrates with Facebook, so you’ll be able to download the first 20 chapters for free.”
Malin is publishing Rituals and its sequels through his own Zhameesha Publishing LLC in Boynton Beach.
Those first 20 chapters are approximately 120 pages. Malin writes in short, concise chapters in order to keep the reader fresh and motivated to remain immersed in Atria, a Tolkien-esque world inhabited by humans who have depleted their natural resources and poisoned their planet’s biosphere.
“Their condition could be our near-term future,” Malin said. “They fell over the cliff of biosphere degradation and resource depletion. Their population went into massive decline.
“Optimists might think that’s not going to happen here on Earth, but I’ve studied a lot of deep ecology. Every species consumes its own resources and produces its own toxins. I’m fearful of what human beings are headed for unless we learn to manage our actions. Right now I see no signs of self-control. Atria is a warning.”
Despite first impressions, Rituals and the Atria series aren’t science fiction. Malin describes his work as “social fiction.” He takes the classic mono-myth (hero’s journey) storytelling of Joseph Campbell and the archetypes of Carl Jung and brings them into relevance of our world — if we were to fall off that cliff.
“I always wanted to build a world,” said Malin, who holds a master’s degree in motion control robotics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. “I have a very creative side. On Dec. 18, 2002, I took out a sheet of white paper and doodled out the social structure of Atria.
“For the next three months I doodled in my notebook. I don’t really know what I was doing — it was kind of like a dissociative split. I would call those sessions downloads — of names, people, and history. I had an encyclopedia; I had maps and a back-story. I was learning science I never
knew.”                                     

By Rich Pollack
Niki Fridh is a master at multi-tasking.
A theater-arts teacher and a kindergarten assistant at Gulf Stream School, Fridh’s world revolves around the stage.
When she’s not instilling wonder, creativity and confidence in her young charges, Fridh is performing in the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace and rehearsing for her roles in the Take Heed Theater Company’s novel approach to Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, debuting at the Old School Square outdoor pavilion later this month.
Oh, and in her spare moments, Fridh is searching for a permanent home in Delray Beach for the Take Heed Theater Company, which she leads along with her husband, Matt Stabile, and good friend David Hyland.
Theater is a 24/7 lifestyle for Fridh, who has been teaching at the Gulf Stream School for five years. “My mom put me in a show when I was 5 and I fell in love with it,” she says. “I’ve been doing it my whole life.”
An actress first and foremost, Fridh began teaching at the school part time while still studying at Florida Atlantic University.
After graduation, she moved into a full-time position.
“The job at Gulf Stream just fell into my lap,” she said. “It’s a great fit and a wonderful school. I can’t imagine teaching anywhere else.”
Her students, including those who perform in the fourth-grade holiday show extravaganza that she produces and directs, know of her other life outside of the classroom, but few have had a chance to see her perform.
That’s changing now, however, thanks to the    collaboration the nonprofit Take Heed Theater Company has formed with Old School Square.
“All of my kids at school are ecstatic,” she says. “They’re going to get to see Ms. Fridh performing.”
The free performance (donations are appreciated) will be held outdoors as part of Old School Square’s Shakespeare at the Pavilion program, with the audience seated on blankets or folding chairs and enjoying a picnic dinner.
As to the production, there are only six actors, each taking on a multitude of roles. Fridh, for example, plays the female lead Beatrice, the villainous Don John and the watchman.
Actors need to cleverly switch from role to role and from costume to costume in this production, which is fast-paced, fun and perhaps a little irreverent to the bard while still paying respect to the master playwright.  
“Shakespeare doesn’t have to be boring,” Fridh says. “I’ve really learned to love it.”
The production, according to Joe Gillie, Old School Square’s president and CEO, is light enough for younger audiences and impressive enough for audiences of all ages to enjoy, in part because of the unique interpretation.
“This is a great way to study Shakespeare,” he said. “The whole family can come, have a picnic and enjoy a fun show.”
While Take Heed Theater Company has been performing regularly — at the Stage West Theater at Palm Beach Community College, where Hyland is the chairman of the theater department, and also at the Black Box Theater at the G Star School of the Arts,  where Stabile is head of the acting program — the nonprofit company is hoping to find a permanent space in Delray Beach.
“We’re looking for a home,” Fridh says.
Fridh says that she and her cohorts at the theater company all enjoy being educators and can look past the long hours and hard work that comes with being teachers and performers simultaneously.
“We do it because it’s our passion,” she says. “It’s a collaborative art, and we all need that creative outlet.”     

If You Go
Shakespeare at the Pavilion:
Much Ado About Nothing
Take Heed Theater Company
Old School Square Cultural Arts Center Outdoor Pavilion
Dates:
Friday, May 18, to Sunday, May 20
Friday, May 25, to Sunday, May 27
Time: 8 p.m.
Preview performance Thursday, May 17, during downtown’s On The Ave celebration
Cost: Free, although donations are appreciated.
Additional info: The performance is family- friendly, and guests are encouraged to bring a blanket, chairs and a picnic dinner. No pets, please; they just don’t appreciate Shakespeare.

Gulf Stream School teacher Niki Fridh (left) is part of the cast of Take Heed Theatre Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, which will be performed in Delray Beach. Photo provided

A look at how therapists believe brain chemistry responds to aromatherapy. Image provided

By Paula Detwiller

In an era when everything from pet shampoos to plug-in air fresheners are advertised as “aromatherapy,” it’s easy to dismiss the concept as so much marketing hype.
But local aromatherapists hope you don’t turn up your nose at their profession. They emphasize the plant-based science behind aromatherapy, and point to its centuries-old role in healing.
True aromatherapy involves the use of essential oils derived from plants to treat a variety of physical and emotional conditions, explains Gerry Whidden, owner of Nature’s Symphony Inc. of Boca Raton. During her 30 years in the business, she has taught aromatherapy to thousands of students, including doctors and nurses.
Whidden’s retail store just south of Mizner Park has an apothecary-like wall of tiny bottles containing organic essential oils. The oils are distilled from the petals, leaves, seeds, roots and bark of plants, and Whidden is considered an expert at blending these oils into treatments for insomnia, joint pain, chest-rattling coughs — even brain fog.
“Some oils work in two ways,” she says. “For example, lavender essential oil applied to the skin can take down inflammation. And when you inhale lavender, it stimulates serotonin in the brain, which helps relieve pain. So you’re getting a dual effect.”
Here’s the theory behind aromatherapy. When molecules of essential oil are inhaled, they travel, with their chemical messengers, past the olfactory bulb to the limbic system in the brain, which in turn influences both the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system. As a result, practitioners say, physical, psychological, and even spiritual changes can occur.
Mary Rosi, a professional aromatherapist and owner of Yoga Earth studio in Delray Beach, sprays a mixture of essential oils around the room at the start of her yoga classes (sage, bergamot, lemon grass, and other oils) to encourage deep breathing and help students center themselves. At the end, when students are in the final, relaxed posture, she rubs spruce oil on her palms and briefly embraces each student’s head with her hands.
“Spruce oil has anti-inflammatory properties,” Rosi says. “The French use it for arthritis. But I use it to ground my students, to balance them emotionally.”
If that sounds like New Age hoo-ha, consider that aromatherapy dates back to ancient times. In the first century, Greek military physician Dioscorides (40-90 AD), considered the Father of Pharmacology, wrote about using infused aromatic oils for healing. Today, medical doctors in Europe and Asia actually prescribe aromatherapy. But in the United States, it is still considered alternative medicine.
Cary Caster of coastal Delray Beach hopes to change that. A trained botanist who studied aromatherapy in the U.K. and France, Caster raised three children without using over-the-counter medications, not even aspirin — just essential oils.
Three years ago, she developed “21 Drops,” a line of conveniently portable aromatherapy roll-ons (www.21drops.com). Each of the 21 essential oil blends is designed to treat a particular condition, from headaches to PMS to indigestion.
“It’s all about understanding the active components within the oils that address certain characteristics,” she says. “For example, black pepper is mucolytic, breaking up mucous, so that’s in our decongest blend. German chamomile is an anti-spasmodic, so we put that in our PMS blend to alleviate cramping.”
While the product line is enjoying plenty of mass-media coverage (Prevention, Oprah, Ladies Home Journal, Real Simple), and gaining traction in the high-end retail market (Sephora, Henri Bendel in New York, and luxury hotel spas), Caster is looking ahead. She’s currently in discussions with Janet Konefal, Ph.D., assistant dean for Complementary and Integrative Medicine at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, about developing an aromatherapy program for their education series.
“That’s my dream, to bring aromatherapy into more medical programs, just like nutrition has found its way in,” Caster says. “That’s how basic this stuff really is.”

To learn more
Article: “Aromatherapy Science”:
www.tambela.com/articles/aromatherapy-science.php

Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database:
www.naturaldatabase.therapeuticresearch.com/home.aspx?cs=&s=ND

The Alliance of International Aromatherapists, Educational Resources page:
www.alliance-aromatherapists.org/Educational_resources.htm



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

Pastor Scott Baugh (left) of Journey Church and Elwood Holley of Grace Community in front of the Boynton Beach building that is changing hands. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen
    
One church is a rapidly growing congregation of young people. The other is a dying congregation of older members.
    In a display of Christian faith, the 80 members of Grace Community Church have given their $2.5 million sanctuary in downtown Boynton Beach to the 1,500 members of the Journey Church.
    “We wanted to see a happy growing church instead of one that was shrinking,” explained Elwood Holley, an elder in the Grace Community congregation.
    “Their church is hopping,” Holley said. “It’s up and coming and they minister to youth. That’s what we wanted at our church.”
    Scott Baugh, the Journey Church’s senior pastor, announced the gift to his congregation on April 15.
    “Grace Community could have sold this property for millions of dollars and put the money in their pocket,” he said. “But they were more concerned about touching people’s lives.”
    Baugh asked his congregation to contribute $2 million to assume a $600,000 mortgage and pay for renovations at Grace Community’s church building at 715 S. Federal Highway.
    “It’s going to take a miracle because we don’t have $2 million,” Baugh said. “But this is a test that God gives us.”
    Journey Church now worships at 9:30 and 11:15 a.m. Sunday at Park Vista High School, where attendance has doubled in the past year.
More than 2,800 attended three Easter services last month.
    Plans are to continue the Park Vista services and add a 10:15 a.m. service at the east campus, Baugh said.         Attendance at Grace Community has been dropping this past year after a longtime pastor retired.
    “We visited six other churches, not telling them what our situation was,” Holley said. The congregation decided to offer their building to either Christ Fellowship, a mega-church that has three other campuses, or to Baugh’s lesser-known congregation.
    They chose the Journey Church, he said, because it reminded them of their beginning 18 years ago when they bought a former A&P Grocery store and spent $750,000 to renovate it.
    The property includes 6,000 square feet of retail now occupied by a Thai restaurant, a laundromat and a beauty salon in addition to the 20,000-square-foot sanctuary.
    Grace Community attempted a youth ministry in a fourth storefront, but the older congregation’s effort was unsuccessful.
    “We saw the youth at Journey and got excited,” Holley said.
    About 200 adults volunteer each month to make the Journey Church appealing to children. A bounce house and bubble machines create an atmosphere “where kids drag their parents to church,” Baugh said.
    “We want children to associate church with having a blast,” he said. “We call it organized chaos.”
    The Journey Church began eight years ago as a Bible study group for 17 people in Baugh’s home.
Baugh formed his own nondenominational congregation after he became frustrated trying to find a traditional church where his friends felt comfortable.
    “Traditional churches are a culture shock to people who have never been to church,” he said. “I wanted to build a church that was relevant where they could be everything that God created them to be.”
    Sunday worship services were held at the Lake Worth Christian School until 18 months ago, when the congregation moved to the larger gymnasium at Park Vista High School.
    “We don’t have a lot of traditional church people,” Baugh said. “It’s what I always dreamed church would be like.”
    To live their faith, church members volunteer time and contribute money for ambitious outreach efforts both locally and overseas.
    The congregation gives $7,000 each month to provide food, clothing and education for 200 children in Haiti.
More than 100 church members will travel to Mexico in July to build an orphanage and school at a cost of $150,000.
    The members of Grace Community have joined forces to feed the homeless in Boynton Beach.
    The new east campus also will serve recovering alcoholics and drug addicts through a 12-step program called Celebrate Recovery. “We’re bringing the church into the heart of the recovery community,” Baugh said.
    The Journey Church will seek approval from Boynton Beach for its renovation plans this month. The congregation hopes renovation work will be completed by October.  

By Arden Moore

Meet Amy Restucci, a self-described big-mouth, low-maintenance chick who never complains when she makes the trek down I-95 in bumper-to-bumper traffic from her West Palm Beach home to rural Miami.
She doesn’t mind the drive because she possesses an unparalleled drive when it comes to rescuing abandoned, skinny strays roaming the Everglades and rural, impoverished areas in south Miami-Dade County.
Her life took a dramatic turn last September when she agreed to drive down to rural Homestead with a friend to help feed some hungry, homeless dogs. Then she spotted an emaciated pit bull with a rope dangling around her neck. She looked closer and noticed bite marks and wound scars. She then saw giant-sized mosquitoes swarming the dog, unsteady on her feet.
“We fed this dog and she wolfed down the food and was sweet as sugar,” recalls Restucci. “Then something just clicked inside me. I remember screaming to my friend, ‘We can’t leave her! We just can’t leave this dog!’ ”
They coaxed this dog into the car and drove straight to a supportive veterinarian in Miami, who provided needed medical care. A call to a rescue group called Big Hearts for Big Dogs resulted in placing the dog in what Restucci describes as “an amazing home.”
The connection with this dog she dubbed Debbie was instant and powerful. It marked the start of Restucci’s single-focused quest to rescue and find homes for stray dogs. Since September, she has led a growing group of volunteers on regular rescue missions to Miami. At last count, they have rescued more than 300 dogs. She launched a Facebook page called 100+AbandonedDogs of Everglades Florida that has attracted more than 13,000 fans and raised more than $100,000 to feed, provide medical care and place many of these strays.
At a recent organized rescue in April, Restucci drove to the meeting place, a shopping mall in south Miami, expecting to see a few people offering their time and energy.
“More than 100 volunteers showed up! That’s unbelievable,” she says. “Some of them were veterinarians who provided pro bono care for about five dogs. We were able to distribute more than 2,000 pounds of food.”
Restucci’s dogged efforts are making headlines. She was the first recipient of the Pet Hero accolade presented by The National Enquirer, based in Boca Raton. She has been profiled in daily newspapers and other media outlets.
At 43, she says she has found her calling: to help the helpless.
“I’m not a religious person, but I believe in God and am very spiritual,” she says. “I’ve never felt such a connection. When I feel like I am at the end of my rope, I ask God to give me a sign and it always comes to me. I feel like I’m surrounded by positive energy and that when I set my mind to something, there is no stopping me.”
When she isn’t making the long drive down to the southern tip of this state, she shares her modest home with her husband, Ralph, and their four rescued pets: a blind senior Portuguese water dog named Lincoln; a terrier mix named Maggie, blind in her left eye; Red, an affectionate cat plucked from the streets; and Patches, a pudgy cat who was surrendered to a shelter at age 6.
“My husband works four jobs and I’m a low-maintenance chick who never needed expensive jewelry,” says Restucci. “Because of my big mouth, our group has been on every big news station and newspaper here and beyond.
“With everything I’ve seen, our cause should be called 1,000 Plus, not 100 Plus. Dogs on the street starving to death. Dog-fighting rings. Distemper outbreaks. Yes, we can rescue dogs, get them healthy and find them good homes, but the real solution is to offer free spaying and neutering for dogs in this poor area and to educate the uneducated. This is my calling. I’m going to be there for these animals.”  

How to help
See www.facebook.com/
ABANDONEDDOGS
EVERGLADES#! or call
561-860-3783.

Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and certified pet first aid instructor. She happily shares her home with two dogs, two cats and one overworked vacuum cleaner. Tune in to her Oh Behave! show on PetLifeRadio.com and learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

Alan Jacobson in his new home, The Plaza Theatre in Manalapan. He has opened the theater with a series of revues. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Greg Stepanich

Alan Jacobson loved acting so much that he left the garment industry in his mid-30s to make the rounds of the off-Broadway theaters and the soap-opera casting calls of New York.
    But before too long, he realized he’d rather be producing, and in 1991, he turned his hand to behind-the-scenes work. He’s produced dozens of shows throughout South Florida, including If You Ever Leave Me … I’m Going With You, which starred Joe Bologna and Renee Taylor, and his own Food Fight, which premiered at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in 2007 and has since been renamed Waistwatchers: The Musical.
    Jacobson also ran the Florida Jewish Theatre for five years, and this past December, he took over the old Florida Stage space in Manalapan and named it The Plaza Theatre.
    “When I took the opportunity to take the space, I looked to see what the other theaters in Palm Beach County were doing, and wanted to try to do something different,” said Jacobson, 57. “I feel if we can create our own niche, then it’ll be good not just for us, but for the other theaters as well.”
    The 252-seat theater in the Plaza del Mar shopping center opened in February with a revue starring Broadway veteran Donna McKechnie, and last month, it offered Jacobson’s ’50s jukebox show Music! Music! Music! This month, he’ll present a Kevin Black-penned revue of songs by Barry Manilow called I Am Music. It runs May 10-27.
    “It’s got four fabulous singers, and four fabulous dancers,” he said, the hoofers being critical for Copacabana.
    Next month, the theater mounts Don’t Rain on Our Parade, a tribute to Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and Carole King (June 6-17), and The Way We Were, a tour of popular songs from the 1970s. Other shows on the horizon are Driving Miss Daisy (Nov. 2-18) and the 2010 Tony Award-winning musical Next to Normal (Jan. 17-Feb. 10).
    Jacobson’s wife, Melissa, performs in the shows and also runs the theater’s conservatory.
    They’re looking for donor support for the Plaza, which he said is crucial for its survival. And despite his current focus on jukebox musicals and revues, if the money was right, he said he’d go edgy.
    “I’d do Angels in America in a heartbeat,” he said, referring to Tony Kushner’s 1993 epic chronicle of the AIDS crisis. “No one’s done it in South Florida.”
    Tickets for I Am Music are $42. Call the box office at 588-1820 or visit www.theplazatheatre.net.
                                       ***
    Music notes: The Grammy-nominated concert choir Seraphic Fire ends its 10th season with a concert of music from Baroque Latin America (7:30 p.m., May 10) at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton. The choir will be returning to St. Gregory’s for a second season in October. Call 888-544-FIRE (3473), or visit  www.seraphicfire.org.
    Baroque music is also on the May calendar for Keith Paulson-Thorp’s series at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Delray Beach, when his Camerata del Re performs an all-Telemann concert at 4 p.m. May 20. Tickets are $15-$20. Earlier in the week, St. Paul’s welcomes the choir of Marywood University, a Catholic college in Scranton, Pa., which will give a free concert at 7 p.m. May 16. Call 278-6003 or visit www.stpaulsdelray.org.
    Not far away at the Arts Garage, chamber musicians associated with the South Florida Symphony perform chamber music including the Trout Quintet of Schubert and the String Quintet No. 2 of Dvorak, both featuring pianist Jeffrey Chappell (7 p.m. May 6), and cellist Ian Maksin is joined by vocalist Susana Behar for a recital with crossover flavor (7:30 p.m. May 18).
    The Gay Men’s Chorus of The Palm Beaches performs two shows (7:30 p.m. May 11-12) with widely varied music and an appearance by the Mandrews Sisters, and the Garage’s jazz series continues all month with percussionist Sammy Figueroa (8 p.m. May 5), saxophonist Troy Roberts and his Nu Jive Quartet (8 p.m. May 12), pianist Joe Negroni and his trio (8 p.m. May 19) and trumpeter Chris LaBarbera (8 p.m. May 26). Call 450-6357 or visit www.artsgarage.org.
    And if you’re looking for something a little more reminiscent of an old-fashioned concert in the park on a holiday, then for Memorial Day it’s the Robert Sharon Chorale and the New Gardens Band in a free patriotic concert at 7 p.m. May 28 at Mizner Park Amphitheatre. Call 393-7984.
                                       ***
    Art notes: In an unprecedented move, the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach has extended for a second time its showing of Bill Koch’s extensive Old West collection, Recapturing the Real West.
It’s the most successful show the Four Arts has mounted since its founding in 1936, society officials say, with more than 20,000 visitors since it opened Feb. 4.
    The show will now run through May 13, and with an admission price of only $5, it’s a unique opportunity to see a vast trove of memorabilia that for the most part has not been seen anywhere else. Call 655-7226 or visit www.fourarts.org.
    Meanwhile, the Boca Raton Museum of Art ends its exhibit of the works of the 100-year-old American master Will Barnet on May 20 (he turns 101 five days later), and on May 30 opens the 61st annual All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition.
Curated this year by Valerie Oliver of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, the exhibition will feature more than 100 works by Florida artists chosen from about 1,500 entries.
    The juried show runs through July 8. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 a.m. Wednesday, and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $8, and $6 for seniors, or you could go see the Barnet exhibit on May 19, which is International Museum Day, when admission is free. Call 392-2500 or visit  www.bocamuseum.org.

Middle school students at St. Joseph’s Episcopal School’s Acadamy of the Arts presented The Elves & The Shoemaker to students and the community April 25-27.  This is the seventh year the school has performed a public production. Shoes used as props in the play were collected and donated to Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse. Pictured above is Fredericka Evans. Photo provided

The Delray Beach Public Library celebrated its 99th birthday April 11 by kicking off a year of centennial activities. More than 785 members of the community including city officials, library board members and volunteers attended. ABOVE: Librarian Kathleen Hensman (left) and volunteer Susan Goodreds. Photo provided

By Tim Pallesen

Feeding the poor is a challenge for people of faith.
    Volunteers responded by serving 88,691 hot meals last year at the Caring Kitchen in Delray Beach.
    That’s a 50 percent increase over the 59,034 meals served in 2005, and the need continues to grow.
    “Scripture calls us to respond to people in need in our community,” said the Rev. Pam Cahoon, executive director for the nonprofit Christians Reaching Out to Society, which operates the kitchen at 196 NW Eighth Ave. “People won’t come unless they’re really hungry.”
    In addition to hot meals, C.R.O.S. Ministries also distributed emergency food last year to 47,055 people from food pantries in Delray Beach and five other cities. That’s a 58 percent increase since 2005.
    The overall effort requires over 2,000 volunteers each year from more than 100 congregations.
    “We work ecumenically, recruiting volunteers from congregations,” Cahoon said. “They won’t volunteer unless they are good, caring people.”
    Volunteers at the Caring Kitchen serve breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday plus dinner four days each week.
    “I came 12 years ago to pitch in on Christmas Day and I’ve been here ever since,” volunteer Doug Fischer said. “I get more out of it than I give. I feel good when I leave here.”
    “It’s become the highlight of my week,” Sheila McLachlan said. “I have made friends who will last a lifetime. My husband became infected by the enthusiasm and jumped in to give a hand.”
    Volunteers also deliver hot meals to shut-ins three days a week. Cason United Methodist Church distributes bag lunches on weekends.
    “I’m so proud that we never had to close our kitchen or a pantry for a lack of food,” Cahoon said. “We’ve never run out.”
    But the recession nearly made that impossible. So Cahoon appealed to churches and synagogues to increase their food donations by 20 percent to 50 percent.
    “Because the need went up so quick, we called them all and asked them to stretch,” she said. “Most of them did.”
                                    ***
    Calvary United Methodist Church celebrated the 100th anniversary of Lake Worth’s first baptism on April 15 by performing more baptisms for descendants of the congregation’s charter members.
    James and Myrtle Haney were the first to present their children Fay and Everett for baptism on April 14, 1912. The Haney family and other farmers had moved from the Midwest to raise strawberries in Lake Worth. They built Calvary’s church the next winter.
    Calvary’s centennial begins the celebration of all of Lake Worth’s 100 years of history. The architect for the first church, G. Sherman Childs, also built an ocean bathhouse in 1912 north of what is now Lake Worth Beach. The city of Lake Worth was incorporated in June 1913.
    “We’re happy about the joys of our past 100 years and looking forward to the next 100 years,” long-time church member Helen Gilmore said.
    Gilmore’s great grandson, Brett Lamar Howard III, was one of four who were baptized at the centennial celebration. The child’s great-great aunt, Lulu Forshay, was a Calvary charter member.
                                    ***
    Rabbi Ruvi New promises to reveal Jewish bedroom secrets in his Art of Marriage course that begins this week at the Chabad of East Boca.
    The provocative six-week course explores marriage from both the spiritual and psychological points of view. Lessons are from both modern and ancient Jewish texts such as the Talmud and Zohar.
    Individuals contemplating marriage are invited, along with newlyweds and couples who have been happily married for 25 years or more. Call 417-7797 for details.
                                    ***
    The soccer season under way at First United Methodist Church in Boca Raton rewards players for their Christ-like behavior.
    “It’s a combination of ministry and sports,” says Melissa Wells, director of children’s ministry. “A lot of the players don’t go to church, but they want to come because of the sports aspect.”
    About 200 children ages 4 through sixth grade participate, experiencing Christ through game-day prayer and halftime devotions.
    Every child gets equal playing time, unlike in the city’s soccer league. Coaches award colored stickers to players for soccer skills, memorizing Bible verses and their behavior toward others.
    “We have players who normally wouldn’t play because of a disability,” Wells said. “If the other players rally around a disabled child to help him make a goal, they’re showing an attitude that Christ would.”
    The Boca Raton soccer league is part of Upward Sports, a national Christian organization that oversaw 550,000 children playing soccer, basketball, flag football and cheerleading in 5,000 leagues and sports camps last year.
First United Methodist joins with Spanish River Church to sponsor a basketball league each winter.

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

A woman greets the dawn on Easter Sunday at Oceanfront Park.

Crowds gather for the Easter Sunrise Community Worship Service presented by the Boynton Beach Ministerial Association at Oceanfront Park.

The Rev. M. Randall Gill leads services.
Photos by
Charlie Crawford/City of Boynton Beach

A toy butterfly is used to illustrate the Rev. Joy Levy’s ‘kids sermon’ during the Delray Beach Interfaith Clergy Association’s Easter sunrise service.

Laura Simon photographs the sunrise over the ocean in Delray Beach.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

   The Caron Foundation can’t sue Delray Beach for denying a Seaspray Avenue sober house because the request hasn’t been officially denied, an attorney for the city argued Monday.
    The surprising twist came during a federal court hearing where the city also argued that Caron can’t claim a loss of income because it hasn’t put recovering alcoholics and drug addicts into a second house where it has approval to operate.
    Federal judge William Dimitrouleas promised to rule on Caron’s request for a preliminary injunction “as soon as I can” after the hearing in Fort Lauderdale.
    Caron claims the city council violated federal laws on Feb. 21 when it approved three ordinances to make it more difficult for treatment providers to operate and on Feb. 22 when Caron says the city refused its request to open a sober house at 1232 Seaspray Ave.
    “We contend that the city had no reason to deny us other than the hostile and organized community reaction to our attempt to locate in an affluent area near the ocean,” Caron attorney James Green told the judge.
    Green claimed public comments by Mayor Woodie McDuffie and Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Cary Glickstein prove the city’s intent to discriminate against recovering alcoholics and addicts.
    But Matthew Mandel, an attorney representing the city, countered that Delray Beach is only trying to regulate transient housing. “The ordinance is not discriminatory because it applies to all single-family dwellings,” he argued.
    Mandel said the city is waiting for Caron to provide medical justification for its request to house seven clients at the Seaspray address. “They haven’t gotten a final decision from us,” he told the judge.
    Caron wants the city to pay $55,000 per client in monthly damages because it can’t open the Seaspray house.
    But Mandel countered that Caron has another house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. to place its clients. “They have to explain how they’ve had that house available for a year and not put one person in there,” he said.
    Dimitrouleas questioned the $55,000 monthly cost for treatment. “What if you can never get seven people who can afford to pay?” he asked. Green said Caron has “more than enough” wealthy clients.
    The judge encouraged the two sides to discuss a settlement, suggesting a compromise that would allow five rather than seven clients in the house. But a settlement appears unlikely.
    The non-profit treatment provider didn’t get a response when it wrote city officials on April 2 offering three incentives if Delray Beach would allow it to place seven clients at the Seaspray house.
    Caron offered to pay property taxes on both its houses for five years, waive its claim for damages and attorney fees, and pay for classes to prevent alcohol and drug abuse in six Delray Beach schools.
    Green also asked Mandel to discuss a settlement after Monday’s hearing, but the city’s attorney declined.

By Tim O’Meilia

About that plan to build high rise condos, an oceanfront hotel and shops where the mobile homes of Briny Breezes have set for decades?

Never mind.

The nine-member board of the corporation that owns the park unanimously decided April 11 not to pursue the proposal by a New York developer to buy the park at a price to be named later.

“We did not have enough information on the sales price or the cost that would be incurred for going through all the permitting,” said Briny Breezes Inc. President Mike Gut.

Gut was instructed to inform Kean Development Co. and the park’s commercial attorneys, Duane Morris, of the board’s decision.

Kean had offered to pay the cost of seeking all the governmental zoning and land use changes with the promise that Briny would sell at price based on appraisals done when the permitting was completed.

But if the shareholders — lot owners hold shares in the corporation — didn’t like the price “Briny would be on the hook for those expenses,” Gut said.

There was no discussion of the issue after board member Tom Oglesby read a prepared statement saying that Briny was not a distressed seller, the economic climate was not right for negotiations and the park would have no option on the sales price.

Oglesby said the park shouldn’t assume the developer’s business risk. The vote was applauded by most of the 50 or so residents at the season-ending meeting.

“I think everyone is sick and tired of dealing with it,” said Tony Dugan. “We’re not selling anything. We’re not entertaining anyone coming in here [even] if they have $400 million.”

Earlier, 19 lot owners submitted a petition urging the board to reject the proposal, saying that plans for repairs of seawalls, roads and other infrastructure are under way.

Pursuing the sale “would have turned the park into chaos,” said resident Paul Sullivan, recalling the turmoil of five years ago when shareholders agreed to sell for $510 million. The deal later fell through. “I think the park in general is very happy with the decision. I think the board acted very responsibly.”

John C. Kean made a presentation to park residents last month, saying his firm would not pursue zoning changes without the guarantee that Briny would sell later.

“I thought Mr. Kean was very professional,” Gut said. “We appreciated what he presented to us.”

The decision pleased longtime sale opponent Tom Byrne. “The interesting thing is, whether you’re for or against the sale, the people in Briny are tired of being under the cloud of uncertainty. At this point, we just want to move on,” he said.

Three commissioners and the mayor took part in a TV ad supporting challenger Frank Chapman. YouTube Video

By Tim Pallesen
    
The winner in Boca Raton’s city election credits his victory to an unprecedented TV commercial in which his four fellow council members asked voters to support his opponent.
    Anthony Majhess believes the commercial backfired and won him the March 13 election with 56 percent of the vote over challenger Frank Chapman.
    “A lot of the community was absolutely shocked by it,” Majhess said. “They didn’t want to see a council that always voted 5-0.”
    Mayor Susan Whelchel, who spoke for the council in the TV ad, said she was motivated to do the commercial after seeing how much money firefighter and police unions from outside the city were contributing to Majhess’ campaign.
    Whelchel criticized the role that political action committees — or PACs — played in Boca Raton’s election.
    “I’ve never seen a municipal campaign before that had so much outside influence,” Whelchel said. “Super PACs are known on state and national levels, but they are rarely seen a little municipal election.”
    “You just don’t know where the money is coming from and who is behind it,” she said.
    Ironically, the TV ad that featured Whelchel and council members Susan Haynie, Constance Scott and Michael Mullaugh was paid for by a Tallahassee-based PAC called Restore Florida. The mayor said she’s never heard of it.
    Restore Florida isn’t mentioned in Chapman’s campaign contribution reports. But the PAC itself listed two contributors for the $55,000 commercial in a separate report required by state law.
    Ken Griffin, a billionaire who heads the Citadel hedge fund, gave $35,000. The Chicago Tribune reported three days before the election that Griffin and his wife have given $1.5 million to Americans for Prosperity, a super PAC that’s become a lightning rod for advocates of campaign finance reform because it doesn’t disclose its donors.
    Griffin, who grew up in Boca Raton, declined to comment for this story.
    Marc Bell, the CEO of a Boca-based company that owns Penthouse magazine, gave another $20,000 to Restore Florida. He is considering a run for the U.S. Congress in District 22, which covers portions of Broward and Palm Beach counties.
    Bell said he was asked to contribute by Boca Raton developer Mark Guzzetta. “He called me up and asked if I would give some money and I said OK,” Bell said.
    Guzzetta clarified that he contacted Bell only after a Chapman campaign worker first called him. “I told Marc that maybe I’d do it if you do it,” recalled Guzzetta, who then chose not to donate his own money.
    Restore Florida wasn’t the only Tallahassee-based PAC involved in Boca Raton’s election.
    Another named Voters Response spent $28,378 to send mailings, make phone calls and set up a website to criticize Chapman’s past business dealings.
Voters Response listed three other PACs — Floridians for Preserving Sight, Save Our Internet Access and Citizens for Housing and Urban Growth — as contributors in its report.
    David Ramba, the Tallahassee attorney for all four PACs, declined to comment.
    “A lot of money was dumped into the race on both sides from outside interests that aren’t clearly identified,” said County Commissioner Steven Abrams, a former Boca Raton mayor. “It’s when they start dredging up past histories on both sides that voters get lost.”
    The $237,539 spent in the election averaged $34.70 per voter.
    PAC money began flowing into the campaign last December when the county firefighters union contributed $1,000 to Majhess, a county firefighter and incumbent on the council.
    Majhess’ contribution reports show he collected more than $7,000 from police lodges and firefighter PACs from Miami to Jacksonville. Individual firefighters living outside Boca Raton gave him another $2,500.
    The flow of money raised concern that fire and police unions were trying to influence the election to negotiate more favorable pension benefits during a difficult economy, Whelchel said.
    “Firefighters are my friends,” Majhess said in defending the contributions. “First responders shouldn’t be villainized. They want to be part of the solution.”
    Chapman, an attorney specializing in personal injury, real estate and bankruptcy, loaned himself $50,000 to launch his campaign in January. Voters Response, the first Tallahassee-based PAC, began spending money against him in February. Chapman responded by giving his campaign another $30,000 in early March.
    “I never expected the race to be as contentious as it was, with money coming from outside Boca,” Chapman said.
    Money for the TV commercial featuring the mayor and three council members wasn’t raised until a week before the March 13 election.
    “I didn’t engage in the election until I realized that Tallahassee was engaged,” Whelchel said.
    “High-powered PACs aren’t the best way to weigh the issues,” she said. “They put the voters in muddy waters.”       

Boca City Council members watch as Anthony Majhess is sworn in by the Rev. Ricki Gardner.  Susan Haynie was reappointed deputy mayor. Constance Scott was sworn in, too, and reappointed as chairwoman of the CRA. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

    A judge says the Caron Foundation must pay $27,788 to Delray Beach in a public records request for more than 200,000 emails that Caron wants to investigate in its lawsuit against the city.
    Caron wants to review all email communications sent and received by 16 city officials since August 2007 to learn who said what to whom before Delray Beach approved three ordinances to restrict sober housing in February.
    “We’re trying to uncover backroom communications between the political machine and elected officials to determine the true intent of the ordinances,” Caron Executive Vice President Andrew Rothermel said.
    Caron sued the city in federal court on Feb. 24 to overturn the ordinances that the City Council approved three days before.
Caron followed up on March 27 by requesting a preliminary injunction to allow it to immediately open a sober house at 1232 Seaspray Ave. that the city refused to approve on Feb. 22.
Caron’s attorney Jim Green provided newspaper articles and meeting minutes to bolster that request.
“After going through tens of thousands of documents already, it’s absolutely clear that the city decided to retaliate against Caron for having the gumption to locate a quality home for recovering addicts and alcoholics in an affluent neighborhood east of the Intracoastal,” Green said.
To investigate more, Caron wants the e-mails of the mayor and council members, planning and zoning board members, city manager, city attorney and other officials.
    Delray Beach responded to that request by saying the e-mails would cost $21,744 for an in-house attorney to first inspect for exempt and confidential material at a cost of $60.15 per hour for 362 hours, plus another $6,043 for network engineering time.
    Caron then sued in state circuit court, calling those costs excessive. But Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley sided with the city.
    “While use of an attorney may not always be appropriate in a public records review, the evidence in this case establishes that the proposed review is reasonable,” Kelley wrote in his ruling. “While the hourly rate for an in-house attorney may be higher than other personnel, this is offset by which the counsel can identify the confidential or exempt materials.”
    Kelley also rejected Caron’s request for Delray Beach to assist in obtaining personal cell phone records from the same 16 city officials, ruling that those records are not public.
    The city’s victory is the first court ruling in what’s expected to be a long and costly battle that began last December when coastal property owners discovered Caron’s plans to open two sober houses for wealthy recovering drug addicts and alcoholics near the ocean.

Some unconvinced by Caron’s assurances
    Rothermel explained why Caron came to Delray Beach in a March 16 speech before a members-only Chamber of Commerce meeting.
    “Delray Beach is the most attractive community in the country for recovery,” he told a subdued room of Chamber members. “There’s a ton of people in recovery here.”
    Unlike sober houses located west of the Intracoastal Waterway, Caron is marketing “a highly sophisticated program for individuals of affluence,” Rothermel said.
    Clients will pay more than $50,000 a month to receive treatment in Boca Raton while living in Caron’s sober houses on Seaspray Avenue and at 740 N. Ocean Blvd.
    “People are lining up,” he said.
    Rothermel described the program’s first client as the top-ranking executive of a large European company who stayed at the Boca Raton Resort and Club during his 60 days of treatment because the Delray houses aren’t open.
    “Because our patients are highly functioning and successful, the impact on this community will be low,” he assured the Chamber members.
    “If not for a couple dozen residents on the barrier island making a big fuss about this, you would never know they were here,” Rothermel said. “Let us show you that we’re going to be good neighbors.”
    His assurance didn’t satisfy Cary Glickstein, a coastal resident who chairs the city’s planning and zoning board.
    “You don’t operate in a neighborhood where you live,” Glickstein told Rothermel at the March 16 meeting. “Don’t you see the hypocrisy?”                                 

Police were called last month when vandals destroyed about 60 signs that coastal residents had placed in their yards to protest transient housing in their neighborhoods.
About 35 signs were destroyed or stolen March 28 from Seaspray Avenue and two neighboring steets. Residents replaced them, only to have 25 new signs taken three nights later.
“We want to know who is behind not wanting us to express our right to free speech,” Seaspray resident Ray Jones said.
Police dusted for fingerprints but had no immediate suspects.
“We’ll catch who is doing this,” another resident, Jack Barrette, vowed. “We’re all watching.”                             
— Tim Pallesen

The Delray Beach Club, located just south of Linton Boulevard, has provided beach and recreational activities to its members since 1969. Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

    Stretching out on a chaise longue with a Kindle in your hands and the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop is “a heck of a nice way to spend a day,” said Ron Nyham, a proud member of the Delray Beach Club.
    Not that Nyham, outgoing president of the 43-year-old club, can spend all that much time lazing around the seashore. He’s a busy Florida Atlantic University professor, after all. But when he wants to kick back and get away from it all without having to travel farther than across town, he goes to the Delray Beach Club.
    Truth be known, Nyham and his wife really don’t indulge in much loafing when they go to the club.
    “We’re more athletically orientated,” he said. “We like exercise, sea kayaking and tennis.”
    They can do that at the club, too, and have dinner with that same stunning ocean view.
    Members have different reasons for coming to the private member-owned club, which sits on 3.5 acres of postcard-pretty ocean front property at 2001 S. Ocean Blvd.
    “We have a slogan ‘Something for everyone. Something for you,’ ” said club manager Shane Peachey. Some come to splash in the pool, paddle-board, kayak, play tennis, swim in the ocean, play bridge, participate in the book club. Some come to dine formally in the dining room, or more casually in the Grille Room.
    Some come for musical performances, children’s programs, to work out in the gym or have a massage. And they come for the parties, which are very popular.
    Amazingly, Peachey said, the club’s 490 members (and another 140 or so as summer members) divide up pretty evenly for the various activities. “You can always get a dinner reservation.”
    Marlis Hadeed, who lives nearby in Highland Beach, says she joined for the tennis program.
    “I can’t play anymore because I’m facing foot surgery,” Hadeed said. She plays bridge at the club twice a week and, as former president of FAU’s University Club, has hosted several luncheons there, as well.

Joy Banton of Delray Beach (left) and Sherry Wolfang of Highland Beach celebrate their win after coming from behind in a doubles tournament in March at the  Delray Beach Club. Weekend events tend to draw a large crowd of friends and onlookers, like the audience below. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

   Financial adviser Louise Glover, a Delray Beach native, started off with a summer membership after her son, Slane, was born six years ago.
    “They have such good children’s activities and kids camps,” she said. “They have a little playground. Slane has friends there.” She and her husband, John, have hosted birthday parties at the club and insists the club “is a destination for the holidays,” with first-rate entertainment.

Founders got traction early
    Phyllis Spinner, a Delray Beach resident since 1955 and one of the club’s first members, can relate. The club was a godsend when she was raising her three children in the early days of the Delray Beach Club, she says. Many hours were spent poolside.
    “In those days Atlantic Avenue had the Arcade Tap Room and Patio Delray, not all the many restaurants it has now,” she said. “During those early years, club members spent countless hours in the club’s original Grille Room, a smaller more intimate version of its current incarnation. It was, she said, a “cozy, informal room open late at night” and members enjoyed countless hours socializing as a piano player entertained.
    Spinner’s late husband, John W. Spinner (everyone called him “Jack”), was instrumental in founding the club in 1969. He practiced law on Atlantic Avenue for 43 years and was the son of a prominent Delray Beach developer, Fred Spinner, who at one time owned a large portion of beachfront property.
    Jack Spinner and close friend Bill Plum worked together to start the club. Many of the 10 investors came from Pine Tree Golf Club, where Spinner was a member.
    Plum, a pharmacist who had sold his two apothecary shops and medical supply stores and had experience in the banking business, and Spinner, an avid golfer who persuaded many of his Pine Tree friends to invest in the beach club, flew to Baltimore to talk to contractor and land owner Charles A. Mullen about building a beach club on land he owned.
    In an effort to gauge interest in starting the club, the men put out one advertisement, Plum, who is now in the real estate business, said. “We got over 150 $200 checks (toward a $500 initiation fee) from people who were interested in joining.” This was before a site had even been finalized.
    “By the time the club opened, we had 300 memberships,” Plum said. “It was phenomenal.”
    “It took a lot of nerve, time and hard work,” Plum said, “and we had it. The three of us were a good mix.”
    Mullen bought and developed the club which was designed by architect Samuel Ogren Jr. Plum was the first manager. The first gala dinner dance was held on Feb. 16, 1970, after construction on the 23,000-square-foot, two-story clubhouse was complete.
    Kenyon Investment Group of Greensboro, N.C., purchased the club in 1978, and in 1980, the club became member-owned.

Left: Mrs. Fred Spinner and Mrs. Edward Hauter relax beside the pool in 1970.

Mrs. and Mr. Charles A. Mullen (left), Mr. and Mrs. William M. Plum Jr., Mrs. and Mr. A. H. Harris, Mrs. and Mr. John W. Spinner and Mrs. and Mr. William Rebuth at the club’s gala opening in 1969. Photo from a club newsletter

Members find it friendly, caring
    Before the club’s $5 million renovation in 2006, summer members Ron Nyham and his wife decided to become full-time members.
    “We wanted to participate in voting for and supporting it,” Nyham says. The club, he says, is making changes needed to propel it into the future.
    “The demographics are changing,” he said. “I’ve seen a sea of change with more younger members. It’s a much more kid-friendly place.    
    “We have an unofficial slogan here that ‘the Delray Beach Club will change your life.’ It’s a social club. It’s a place to go for friendships.”
    Charles “Buck” Atherton, the new club president, takes it a step further.
    “The Delray Beach Club saved my life,” he says. “I went into cardiac arrest on the tennis courts seven years ago and wouldn’t be here today if there weren’t a defibrillator 20 feet away and a waitress trained to use it.”
    The life-saving device was purchased by five members in honor of a woman who lost her husband in a similar incident. Paramedics told her at the time her husband might have been saved had there been a defibrillator available. The five members wanted to make sure a device was at the club the next time something like that happened — and they didn’t want to wait.
    “Turns out, the next time was me,” Atherton said. “I’d do anything for this club after what they did for me. I’ve never seen such friendly people in all my life.”                                         

I have lived in Ocean Ridge for going on 30 years. In that time I’ve felt the need to contact the Police Department on very few occasions. To me that means I live in a safe place.  
    When I tell people about Ocean Ridge I always mention the frequently patrolling police cars, the dark house inspections and friendly cops with dog biscuits. Every time, the response is, “Really? I wish I lived in a town like that!”  
    Our commission should not forget this.
    How many real estate agents do you know who don’t mention the police when showing property in Ocean Ridge?
    It’s possible Gulf Stream and Manalapan are a little different and police protection is not always part of the sales pitch — I acknowledge that some residents can afford to provide serious private security measures —  but most of us count primarily on our municipal tax dollars to make sure we are safe at home.
    Every family needs kitchen-table talks about money and budgets and planning for the future. It’s no different in our small towns along the coast.
    In recent months the talk has turned to employee compensation, benefits packages, bonuses. All are good topics to visit periodically.
    But let’s not go too far. Let’s not start talking about saving money by reducing the quality of police protection that makes our small town unique.
    I’ll pay my local taxes to keep my local police force. That’s one of the reasons I live in Ocean Ridge.

— Mary Kate Leming, editor

By Paula Detwiller
    
One of Joelen Merkel’s fondest memories was the day her son graduated from the University of Florida.
    As a trustee for the university, she was perennially invited to take part in the pomp and circumstance of graduation. But this day was different: Not only was Ryan, her only child, accepting his sheepskin, but Mom had secretly asked to confer the degrees that day, to be the person who officially instructs graduates to move their tassels from one side of their mortarboards to the other.
    “It was a complete surprise to both my son and my husband,” Merkel says. “It was a very, very special moment.”
    Merkel, of Ocean Ridge, was appointed in 2001 to the UF’s inaugural board of trustees by then-Gov. Jeb Bush, and served as a trustee for the next nine years. She also chaired the board’s audit committee the entire time, reviewing the audited financial statements for the university and all of its direct support organizations — about 28 entities altogether.
    Her years as a trustee, combined with a trailblazing career in business and her continuing involvement on various UF boards and committees, recently won Merkel a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County. She’s one of six Palm Beach County public school alumni chosen to be honored this year for “achievement, service or contributions to society either locally or to the broader community.”
    A 1969 graduate of Palm Beach High School, Merkel became the first person in her family to attend a four-year university when she went off to earn her accounting degree at the University of Florida. The year before she graduated, she went to a university function where she met some accounting firm representatives.
    “They outright told me, ‘We don’t hire women.’ It was 1972,” Merkel says. “You could never do that in today’s world. I think the young women of today just don’t realize what it was like back then.”
    When she graduated from UF in 1973, Merkel landed a job at Arthur Anderson & Co., one of the “Big Eight” accounting firms at the time. She became only the second woman to be hired on to the company’s professional staff of 100 employees on the audit side.
    A couple of years later, she accepted a position as assistant corporate controller at Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., a boat manufacturer and New York Stock Exchange company. Over the next 25 years, Merkel advanced through the ranks, rising to the position of senior vice president, treasurer and principal accounting officer, reporting directly to the chairman of the board. By 1992, she broke through the proverbial glass ceiling to hold the same executive positions — as well as a board of directors seat — at BHC Communications, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of Chris-Craft that was listed on the American Stock Exchange.
    “To be a female director of an American Stock Exchange company back in 1992 was a big deal,” Merkel says. “And you know, there’s still not enough female representation on corporate boards.”
    Merkel, now 60 and retired, fully understands how today’s career women struggle to balance family and career. It’s never easy, she says.
    “I remember when my son was a baby, when I’d be away at business meetings, I would call him up and sing to him before bedtime. I’d excuse myself from wherever I was, get to a phone, and sing a lullaby to him. So you know, you do what you need to do.”
Merkel’s son Ryan now works for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as Assistant Manager of Major Gifts. Merkel says Ryan is “very comfortable asking people for money because he believes in what the Center is doing — advancing culture in our society.”
    As for herself, Merkel is now in Gainesville at least six times a year for board or committee meetings. She and her husband Robert, a retired West Palm Beach defense attorney, also attend many UF football and basketball games. They’ve been Bull Gators (top contributors to the UF athletic association) for more than 20 years, and have a number of scholarships and endowments in their name.
    “I’m just so thankful for the education I received, and the opportunities that came from that education, that I want to promote the University of Florida however I can,” Merkel says.       

Joelen Merkel’s current membership service to the University of Florida:

UF Foundation board of directors and its finance committee
UF Research Foundation board and current chair of its audit committee
Business Advisory Council for the UF Warrington College of Business
Steering committee for UF’s Fisher School of Accounting

Other trustee positions:
Norton Museum of Art and chair of its finance committee
The Florida House, Florida’s “embassy” in Washington, D.C.

In a March story, “Sides agree to plan for crowded property line landscaping,” it may not have been clear that although Manalapan resident E. Peter McLean was asked to serve as an alternate on both the architectural and zoning commissions, he was not able to and was never sworn in as a member of either board.