South Palm Beach Mayor Don Clayman conducts the Feb. 5 performance of the Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches at the Duncan Theatre at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth. Clayman won the chance to conduct the band in a raffle offered as part of the Symphonic Band’s $50,000 at 50 Donation Campaign, a cooperative effort with the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County. Raffle money goes toward the band’s goal of raising $50,000 to provide musical instruments to needy students. Photo provided

Frankie Stevens, 67,  helped organize the Sacred Heart Angels to raise money for Sacred Heart School north of downtown Lake Worth. The group also helps with paperwork, answering phones and bandaging knees.  Photo by Jean Hart Howard

Frankie Stevens has seen the world. Born in Britain, she lived in Europe and Asia as a child, became a flight attendant and flew internationally, then married a “Yank” whose career in the radio business kept them moving from city to city.
Today, after raising three children and settling in Gulf Stream, Stevens’ sights are set squarely on Palm Beach County. She’s a volunteer extraordinaire; on any given day you may find her tutoring a child, feeding the hungry, educating museum-goers, or serving at her church.
“I follow what comes in front of me to see where it’s going,” says Stevens.
It’s always been that way, she says, dating back to her college days as a radiographer (similar to a medical X-ray technician), when a friend submitted her name for a stewardess position with British Overseas Airways Corporation. Only one in 600 applicants were accepted. Stevens made the cut, and it changed her trajectory.
During one of her cross-Atlantic trips, Stevens visited a former roommate who had moved to New York City.
“My girlfriend said, ‘Come over for a drink. I have this dishy chap here who will take us to dinner.’ ”
Within four months, Stevens and the chap were married. “We had absolutely nothing in common, but we loved each other,” she says of her husband, “and it’s worked for 45 years.”
Clearly, “following what comes in front of her” has been a way of life. So when Stevens learned last year that Sacred Heart School in Lake Worth was in dire financial straits, Stevens saw an opportunity to help. She organized a team of volunteers called the Sacred Heart Angels to raise money and assist teachers and staff.
Stevens also serves on the school’s board of directors, which hopes to create an endowment to support Sacred Heart in perpetuity. And last month she was honored for her “Angels” work at a school fundraiser, the fourth annual J.K. Kenny Memorial Heroes Pro-Am Golf Tournament at the Fountains Country Club in Lake Worth.
“Sacred Heart is a school for the community,” Stevens says. “We are embracing the community and saying we’ll be there for you.”
—  Paula Detwiller

10 Questions
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. I lived all over the world. Daddy was in the Royal Air Force and then with British Aircraft Corp. I lived in Germany in 1946, Singapore during merdeka, the struggle for independence from Great Britain. I lived all over England, Scotland and Wales.
I primarily went to all-girl Catholic schools. I graduated from St. Roses in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in the Cotswolds. I then was at Kings College London and flew in the mid-1960s for BOAC. I was in the first crew trained on VC 10’s — the first rear-engine commercial jet. I flew to the Far East, Middle East, all over Africa, South America and the U.S.

Q. How did you become involved with Sacred Heart School?
A.  The Ladies Guild of St. Edward Church in Palm Beach had the Children’s Choir of Sacred Heart come to sing at our Christmas program two years ago. I was immensely impressed with the students and teachers. I then read that they were in danger of closing. That got my dander up. I felt that such a school committed to quality education and one that truly was a beacon of hope and love in this poor part of our Delray, Boynton Beach and Lake Worth community, should not be allowed to languish.

Q. Tell us about the Sacred Heart Angels and how you came to start this group.
A. So I went to the school and said, “What can I do to help?” At the same time I had had a group of my friends over for a dinner-and-a-movie night, and we discussed that we would all be able to give of our talents in any way we could. Many of us are not financially able to help, but we thought physically “being there” for the students and the school might benefit the school as a whole and maybe get the ball rolling.
I also wrote everyone I know, both here and other places, and told them to watch the YouTube SOS — Save Our School — music video. We raised over $6,000.
We called ourselves the Sacred Heart Angels. We assist the school secretary with paperwork, answer phones, and help Principal Candace Tamposi in any way we can. We help in Pre-K and kindergarten classes. We tutor reading and math in the upper grades. We bandage knees — you name it, we do it. Some of us work once a week, others twice a week.

Q. What other work experiences have you had, and what were the highlights?
A. I was a radiographer at Kings College London Hospital. I received my B.A. at Sarah Lawrence College in my mid-40s. I have volunteered at C.R.O.S. Ministries in Delray Beach. I am a docent at the Norton Museum of Art. I am a Eucharistic minister and a lector at St. Edward Church. I also have helped run the coffee after Mass program there for last 10 years. I have always volunteered in schools and in the community.

Q. What advice do you have for a young person pursuing a career today?
A. Get involved. Realize that giving is part of what makes us truly human. And follow your passion without damaging the world around you. As my father would say, “Leave everything better than you found it.”

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Gulf Stream?
A. I love the quiet neighborhood and being able to walk my dog, Wolfie, without a care and chat to everyone along the way. Plus, we benefit by having a school here. It is great to hear children’s voices. Also, being able to go to the beach — although these days I do not have much time to do that.

Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. PBS radio and, on my Internet radio, the London Classical Music Station.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. My science teacher Miss Barry at St. Roses. She encouraged my passion of exploration and enquiry. Also, the teachers at Sarah Lawrence who did the same thing, and my friend Gertrude Matthews who at 102 is still vibrant and young who never says a nasty word about anybody or anything.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, whom would you want to play you?
A. Katharine Hepburn.

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
A. I am a Brit so I love puns and situational comedy. My mother and I used to be in stitches watching I Love Lucy. Also, my husband, who is smart and very funny. 

Skiers take to the slopes in British Columbia. Local dentist Ted Ritota has partnered with a heli-sking company that flies people by helicopter to ski sites. Photos courtesy of Ted Ritota

By Dianna Smith

Everyone has heard of skiing — and the glamorous resorts that folks flock to each winter for fun — but what about heli-skiing?
This sport is for the more adventurous type. The one willing to brave mountains to ski on picture-perfect, virgin snow. To get there you need a helicopter, not a ski lift, and you have to have the passion and the skills for skiing that Ted Ritota does.
Ritota, a local dentist, has spent the past few years organizing heli-skiing trips, but even he has a hard time describing the adrenaline rush captured while gliding down a pristine mountain in the middle of nowhere.
“I can’t tell you why I haven’t gotten enough of it yet,” Ritota said. “With all that I’ve done, I still get excited about it. It’s an incredible sensation.”
Ritota met the general manager of Canadian Mountain Holidays, a heli-skiing company in western Canada, many years ago and soon after he joined a medical group that held annual heli-skiing trips with CMH in British Columbia.
The medical group disbanded not long after and in the early 1990s, Ritota re-created it and became a recruiter for CMH.
He credits his brother, John, with being able to start this side business because John is his partner in their dental practice , Ritota and Ritota on Federal Highway in Delray Beach. John runs the office while his brother is away.
Whoever goes on this brave journey is promised a memorable experience.
Once in Canada, skiers are flown by helicopter to a remote lodge, where they stay for seven days. They start their mornings with a stretch class and breakfast and then head to the helicopters with guides, who take them to various mountaintops where runs are anywhere from 500 to 1,500 meters.
Ski locations in British Columbia, Canada, the most popular place for heli-skiing, include the Bugaboos, Monashees and the Cariboo mountains.
Lunch is flown to the group wherever they are and after a long afternoon, they’re taken back to the lodge for a gourmet dinner and the evenings are booked for short medical seminars. The trip is a combination of work and play and Ritota compares the lodge and its services to a Ritz-Carlton in the middle of nowhere.
But, like the Ritz-Carlton, this trip isn’t cheap, nor is it guaranteed to be a safe sport.
It can cost anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 for a week-long trip, but Ritota adds that heli-skiing alone runs about $1,000 a day.
Forbes.com declared heli-skiing one of the world’s most dangerous sports because of possible avalanches and helicopter rides over rugged terrain.
But Ritota credits CMH for always being cautious and for having wonderful guides.
Though most of the members of Ritota’s group are in the medical profession, you don’t have to be in the medical field to take part in the trip.
Skiers must be advanced and they have to sign up for one of Ritota’s trips at least a year in advance. His next trip is scheduled for December and he’s already submitted a list of skiers for his 2012 trips.
Those who sign up are mostly doctors from all around the world, but some are local, including Dr. Ray Doremus, another dentist in Delray Beach.
When he first tried heli-skiing 12 years ago, Doremus was apprehensive because he had no idea what to expect. But he quickly became addicted and he’s continued to love it ever since.
“You’re skiing fresh powder and you’re in wilderness conditions and there’s no one anywhere,” Doremus said. “The first run you take, you pretty much know you’re going to be back.”                              Ú

Interested in heli-skiing? Contact Ted Ritota by calling 737-0470 or e-mail him at  ted@heliskier.com. Go to www.canadianmountainholidays.com for more information on CMH.

Children play in the sandbox at the Achievement Centers for Children & Families, which serves about 700 children each year. Photos by Jerry Lower

By Emily J. Minor

    It’s easy to drive by this campus with the pale-colored concrete buildings and not think a thing or two about it.
    From the outside, you can’t see all the lives changing within.
    But for more than 40 years — since a group of female social activists each threw five bucks on the table to get the Achievement Centers for Children & Families off and running — this still-growing nonprofit has been a cornerstone for Delray Beach’s needy population.
    “They did everything back then,” says Stephanie Seibel, executive director of the foundation arm that raises money and awareness for the center.
    “They drove the buses. They made the lunches. They did it all.”
    They still do everything at the center that serves children in hard-luck families. They just do it in a bigger space, with more staff, and for more families.
    First incorporated in 1969, when volunteers with the League of Women Voters saw the everyday struggles of poor parents with children, the center is now three buildings with a satellite location at The Village Academy, a public choice school. Serving children from 12 months to 18 years old, the center provides eligible families with daycare, pre-school and adolescent services. There’s also an after-care program.
    More than anything, though, the achievement center provides a loving place to learn and grow at a cost that’s affordable for each family, Seibel says.
    Back in the early days, the center was located in an old house on Atlantic Avenue. When that location met resistance from the neighbors, the mayor at the time sat on the front porch to show his support. The center moved to Lake Ida Road in 1990.
    Seibel said it was one of the center’s first teachers — today’s CEO Nancy K. Hurd — who looked at the scruffy piece of property and knew it was perfect.
    “She had a real vision,” Seibel says.
    From art classes to hot lunches, potty training and proper social skills, the center’s main focus for its pre-schoolers is getting them ready for kindergarten. “That is key,” Seibel says.
    But the center — which also houses the local Head Start program — isn’t a free ride.
    Administrators demand parent involvement. Indeed, parents have to have a job if they want to enroll a child.
    “They have to show they are making an effort,” Seibel says. “This isn’t a drop-off center. Everybody pays something and they have to come to parent-teacher meetings and get involved.”
    The results are amazing.
    The preschool rooms are bright and sunny and cluttered with the kinds of things you’d want a happy classroom to be cluttered with: artwork, backpacks, books, cots for napping.
    There’s a new library with a beautiful story corner. Seibel says a majority of the labor and materials was donated for that.
    There’s an after-school computer lab. A gymnasium with a professional stage offers the perfect setting for theater productions.
    And, a kitchen. The center serves about 600,000 free hot meals a year.
    Of course, it’s the sense of community that has made this place successful, she says. Many of the teachers live in the nearby neighborhoods and have children who have attended the achievement center.
    Volunteers provide some of the backbone, coming regularly for one-on-one reading and tutoring. And the center’s summer camp program is renowned for its fantastic programs.
    With 86 employees serving roughly 700 children, the center operates on government funding, parent fees and private money. And that means a lot of visitors, constantly examining the way things are run.
    Seibel says it makes them that much better.
    “With that funding, comes a lot of strings and audits,” Seibel says. “There’s always
somebody in here with a clipboard.”                            

A diverse group of people recently held a rally in Boca Raton to show support for those seeking democracy in Egypt. Photo courtesy of Stephanie El Maadawy

By C. B. Hanif

The whole world was watching.
The faith world was watching — including spiritually minded folks in our little corner of the world — as inconceivable events unfolded in the land of the pharaohs.
While Egypt’s relatively peaceful transition almost universally has been admired, the Egyptians, however, are hardly out of the sands — er, woods — yet.
Here in South Florida, Fady Anise, a deacon for St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Pompano Beach as well as an attorney, probably spoke for many when he said folks are “generally optimistic that things will become better for the Coptic Christians who have been persecuted, and Egyptians generally. Because we are not just Copts, we are also Egyptians. We not only care about our people there, but for all the Egyptian people. We love them all.”
Even more optimistic is Stephanie El Maadawy of Boca Raton, who organized a recent rally there joined by diverse citizens in support of those striving for democracy in Egypt.
“What I had hoped for Egypt was for them to have a clean slate, and that’s exactly what they’re getting,” she said. “They’re starting a new constitution, they’re going to have a new set of written laws, and they’re going to vote on them. And that’s exactly what my goal was for them, for them to decide their fate.”
El Maadawy emphasized that she’s traveled to Egypt and “I married into an Egyptian family. So I know exactly what kind of people they are and what to expect for the new Egypt, and I’m not concerned at all,” she said.
“Under (former President Hosni) Mubarak’s reign, Coptics were persecuted,” she added, “and that’s why they’re still hostile about it. But in the new Egypt I doubt it will repeat itself. I think Egyptians are smart enough to include everybody. There are people of all religions and backgrounds in Egypt, and I think Egyptians know better than to persecute any group of people anymore. That’s not their way. They’re not going to cast anybody out.”
Looking ahead, the challenge of liberty for the region and world suggest focusing even more on the needs of the majority rather than the ideology of the few. 
One gauge in majority-Muslim Egypt will be the degree to which life improves for the needy, for women and for religious and other minorities.
When this column last visited Egypt, President Obama had just delivered his historic Cairo University address. We playfully had accused him of stealing InterFaith21’s theme: “For uniting people of faith — or no particular faith — in the 21st Century.”
It seems the Egyptians have taken the hint. One excellent sign was in the YouTube video of Christians protecting praying Muslims from rocks being thrown by thugs.
Before that, an article (http://english.ahram.org.eg) reported that Muslims had turned out in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass, offering themselves as “human shields” for Egypt’s Christian community against militants.
Many Egyptians said they suspected the government had been involved in the extremists’ attacks to keep people divided. Millions of Egyptians have since changed their Facebook profile pictures to the image of a cross within a crescent, symbolizing an “Egypt for All.”
Egypt’s success is by no means assured. The peaceful emphasis, however, echoed a familiar line: “Your eyes won’t believe what your mind can’t conceive.” 
So sang the Jones Girls in their 1980s classic, Nights Over Egypt. Now there’s a chance that Cairo’s Tahrir Square one day may rival Egypt’s pyramids as a tourist attraction, if not one of the wonders of the world.
And for new generations, Nights Over Egypt may become an ode to Tahrir Squares around the world.


C.B. Hanif is a writer and inter-religious affairs consultant. Find him at www.interfaith21.com.

Daniel Young plays violin for students of the Renaissance Learning Center, a charter school for children with autism spectrum disorders in West Palm Beach. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Liz Best

If music makes the man, Daniel Young is headed for one doozy of an adulthood.
It doesn’t hurt his future prospects any that he’s also an excellent student, wants to be a doctor someday and just may be one of the most philanthropic 14-year-olds you’re ever likely to meet.
A few years ago, Young, of Gulf Stream, combined a love of the violin with his interest in helping others. The recipients of his efforts are the students and staff at the Renaissance Learning Center in West Palm Beach, a nonprofit charter school for children with autism spectrum disorders.
The center’s principal and executive director, Debra Johnson, loves the story of how Young became interested in raising money and donating his time and talents to the cause. It stems back to a telethon he saw on television which was aired to help raise awareness about autism.
“Daniel watched it and told his parents he wanted to do something about it,” she said.
It’s just that simple and the rest is history. His parents, Bettina and Greg, called the school and said that their son wanted to help.
Young first came up with the idea of hiring himself out to perform Valentine’s Day serenades to raise money for the school.
Later, he enlisted the help of other musicians and formed an ensemble that performs at fundraisers. Even though Renaissance receives funding from the school district, it supplements that money through private donations and grants.
An eighth-grader at Gulf Stream School, Young doesn’t limit his contributions only to raising money. On school holidays he often brings his violin to Renaissance and either works with the music therapist or goes from classroom to classroom performing everything from Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to Vivaldi.
The children, ranging in age from 3 to 14, are mesmerized, even those who are nonverbal. Young seems to have figured out that music is a universal language with the power to break through seemingly insurmountable barriers.
“It’s amazing how we can communicate through music,” he said, adding that hearing music can change the entire mood in a classroom of autistic children. “It can calm them down.”
Young has been studying music for most of his life. He remembers getting his hands on a violin for the first time when he and his family were at a family reunion.
“I think I was about 3 and I found one of those toy violins,” he said. “I kept talking about it so my mom got me lessons.”
Young doesn’t seem to suffer from a shortage of ideas. One of his latest projects for Renaissance is to collect old iPods and laptops and donate them to the center.
Johnson says that Young’s idea is right on the money since many autistic children find ways to communicate through electronic devices.
“This is really the wave of the future for autism,” Johnson said.
For this teenager, it was a no-brainer when a new generation of iPods hit the market.“I thought folks would have all these old iPods when the new ones came out and they would just throw them away,” Young said.
As for his own iPod, Young believes he has no fewer than 1,000 songs downloaded and his tastes cover just about every musical genre.
When he’s not playing sports, doing homework or practicing his violin, Young fills his time by teaching himself to play guitar or hanging out with his four siblings and friends.
Despite his affinity for music, Young doesn’t see himself becoming a professional musician. Instead, he wants to turn his knack for math and science into a medical degree. But it’s unlikely he’ll ever cast aside his trusty violin.
“I think I’ll always want to play my violin no matter
what I do in the future.”     

For more information on the Renaissance Learning Center, or to donate an iPod or similar device, call (561) 640-0270 or visit www.rlc2000.com online.           

By C. B. Hanif

The qualifying period for Ocean Ridge’s March 8 municipal election ended at 3 p.m. on Feb. 11 with three candidates having filed to run for two contested seats.

Incumbent Commissioner Elisabeth Bingham, along with challengers Ed Brookes and Zoanne Hennigan, will appear in alphabetical order on the ballot.

Terry Brown, the other potential incumbent, in a letter saying his work on the commission is done, has resigned.

The top two vote-getters will earn election.

Meanwhile Police Chief Christopher Yannuzzi has emphasized the criminal sanctions for anyone removing or tempering with political campaign signs.

This after for the second time in two days, signs were removed along Old Ocean Boulevard by unknown persons and found in the garbage, he said in an email alert.

Political signs are prohibited in the right of way of public roadways, but can be posted on private property with the owner’s permission.

The chief said that there are more deserving concerns for police attention, but that the laws would be objectively applied and enforced, and any tampering with legally displayed signs should be reported to the police department at 561-732-8331.

Gulf Stream Town Clerk Rita Taylor and Town Manager William Thrasher (foreground) count votes  from the staw ballot to approve the funding of underground utilities in Gulf Stream.  Bob Ganger and Ron Bennett work in the background.  The vote to approve the undergrounding won 175-136.

GULF STREAM—Overhead power lines are going underground, town property owners decided in a 175-136 vote.

‘’It’s a go,’’ Vice Mayor Joan Orthwein said on her cell phone shortly after Town Clerk Rita Taylor announced the results.

The vote will cost the average single-family residence $15,218, town consultants have said. Officials will look for ways to finance the project over 10 or 20 years for people who don’t want to pay the full amount upfront.

The margin was 56 percent to 44 percent, unlike the 90-10 landslide in Jupiter Island and 75-25 split in Jupiter Inlet Colony. 

— Steve Plunkett

Vice Mayor Joan Orthwein gives Civic Association President Bob Ganger a hug while Mayor William F. Koch, Jr enjoys the results of the vote. Photos by Jerry Lower