A $1 million donation has been made to the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation’s Keeping the Promise Campaign to support the current and future needs of the medical facility.

The monetary source: Sun Capital Partners Foundation founders Rodger Krouse and Marc Leder.

“This generous gift from the Sun Capital Partners Foundation, Rodger and Hillary Krouse, and Marc and Lisa Leder, will enable our hospital to better serve the evolving health care needs of our community for years to come,” Boca Raton Regional Hospital CEO

Lincoln Mendez said. “We are deeply appreciative of their past support and this new commitment to our efforts to modernize and renovate our campus, add key services and new technology capabilities and continuously improve the experience for patients and their families, physicians, staff and visitors.”

For more information, call 561-955-4142 or visit https://donate.brrh.com.

$85,000 in grants go to South County initiatives

The Jewish Women’s Foundation of South Palm Beach County graced nine organizations with donations that will aid and empower women and children in the community.

The money — $85,000 total — comes from the pooled resources of trustees who contribute a minimum of $2,000 annually. Through an intensive, hands-on process, the philanthropists decide which organizations will most effectively achieve the agency’s goals.

“I am very proud to be part of JWF,” said Amy Rosenberg, grants chairwoman. “Reviewing grants, researching organizations and having in-depth discussions about key issues are an empowering experience for our trustees. We come from varied backgrounds and experiences, yet we all bring a strong desire to collaborate together to help improve the lives of Jewish women and children and strengthen Jewish families.”

For more information, call 561-852-6027 or visit https://jewishboca.org/jwf.

Community Foundation awards 88 scholarships

The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties has granted 88 local students more than $1 million in scholarships, averaging $11,000 per recipient.

The recipients were evaluated by an advisory committee based on applications, essays, interviews and résumés.

“The process of choosing who will be awarded each of these scholarships is undertaken with dedication and discipline,” said January Reissman, the foundation’s vice president for community impact. “The process is never easy because our student applicants are outstanding.”

Since 1983, the organization has awarded $15 million-plus in scholarships and helped nearly 2,500 youths.

For more information, call 561-659-6800 or visit www.yourcommunityfoundation.org.

Amid pandemic, nonprofits share $250,000 allocation

The Quantum Foundation has distributed $250,000 to select area charities to help their clients pay the bills and put food on the table.
A total of 20 nonprofits assisting the community’s most vulnerable residents were allocated funds in the wake of the coronavirus.

“The COVID-19 pandemic brought forward longstanding health inequities in disinvested communities, exposing the impacts of the social determinants of health such as economic and social conditions that influence a group’s health status,” Quantum Foundation President Eric Kelly said. “Health is not the absence of illness but rather a positive state of physical and mental well-being, and these grants are a step in the right direction.”

For more information, call 561-832-7497 or visit www.quantumfnd.org.

Delray Beach museum selected for $50K grant

To maintain operations and staffing during the pandemic, the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum landed $50,000 in grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The nonprofit was one of three arts organizations in Palm Beach County — and one of 855 nationwide — to receive funding from the NEA through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

The Delray Beach museum received additional funding stemming from the CARES Act: $7,500 from Florida Humanities Council and $1,929 from the Florida Department of State’s Division of Cultural Affairs.

“All of us at the National Endowment for the Arts are keenly aware that arts organizations across the country are hurting, struggling and trying to survive, and that our supply of funding does not come close to meeting the demand for assistance,” Chairwoman Mary Anne Carter said.

“That said, I am enormously proud of the over-and-above efforts of the arts endowment staff to swiftly and professionally manage such a large amount of additional work in a relatively short period of time on behalf of the American public.”

For more information, call 561-279-8883 or visit www.spadymuseum.com.

Underserved kids get much-needed computers

With the shift to distance learning amid the pandemic, a longtime Achievement Centers for Children & Families supporter saw the need for access to laptops for underserved children.

The anonymous donor partnered with the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County to donate 55 Chromebooks to ACCF, which in turn were distributed to students enrolled in the Delray Beach-based organization’s programs. Families of the students will receive training on how to use the devices.

“We were thrilled to receive this generous donation of 55 Chromebooks to distribute to our students for the upcoming school year,” Achievement Centers CEO Stephanie Seibel said. “These devices are a basic component to a student’s ability to work virtually and be successful.”

For more information, call 561-266-0003 or visit www.achievementcentersfl.org.

South County residents join Impact 100 board

Impact 100 Palm Beach County has named Emily McMullin and Nicole Mugavero of Boca Raton and Lisa Warren of Boynton Beach to the board for the 2020-21 season.

The women will help advance the nonprofit’s mission of elevating philanthropy by combining members’ donations to create high-impact grants.

“Impact 100 Palm Beach County welcomes Emily, Nicole and Lisa to the board of directors,” President Kathy Adkins said. “With all of their combined nonprofit leadership experience as well as their passion for giving back and many years of involvement with Impact 100 PBC, they will be exceptional assets to the board.”

For more information, call 561-336-4623 or visit www.impact100pbc.org.

Diabetes foundation names execs, board members

Dr. David Lubetkin, former chief of staff at West Boca Medical Center, has been named president of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Greater Palm Beach chapter.

In addition, Donna DeSanctis, a financial adviser who has served in several roles at the chapter, has been named vice president.

Joining Dr. Lubetkin and DeSanctis on the board are members RoseMarie Antonacci-Pollock, Summer Dennis, Neil Efron, Steven Fried, Scott Meece, Deborah Morawski, Nicole Oden, Dr. Miladys Palau, Dr. Michael Patipa, Mark Patten, Debbie Roosth, Ryan Rothstein, Dane Sheldon, Marc Tanner, Daniel Tumba and Bryan Weinstein.

For more information, call 561-686-7701 or visit www.jdrf.org/southernflorida.

By Mary Thurwachter

Not long after the coronavirus prompted stay-at-home orders last spring, Michelle Donahue noticed how many people from both the Manalapan and Lantana sides of Hypoluxo Island took advantage of the time to walk, jog or bike around the neighborhood. Beaches and parks were closed, and residents were eager to get outside.

Donahue, a history buff who is president of the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association and author of the Brown Wrapper newsletter, used the quarantine to fast-track a project that she had been considering for a while — creating a self-guided tour of Hypoluxo Island.

The island, just 3 miles long and a half-mile wide, boasts fascinating history that few seem to know, she says.

Her online guide came out just before the Fourth of July — an appropriate time, Donahue determined, since people would be looking for fun things to do and the beaches were closed for the holiday weekend.

She thought it would be nice for residents and others to “get out their phones and flip through the pages of the brochure and at least walk through the neighborhood and get exercise and learn a little something about where they lived.”

She explains: “You ask people about Hypoluxo Island and they say, ‘Oh, it’s a hidden gem,’ but no one ever really knows what the history is here.”

Donahue thought about doing the guide, but given her job as a Realtor with Douglas Elliman and other commitments, “it took me a few months just to kind of get it together.”

Since the online version of the tour came out, Donahue, 51, published a printed version as well, and on the first Friday of each month, she began a Happy Hour History Tour of the island. Donahue, a Miami native who grew up in Delray Beach, paid for the printing and did all the writing and research.

Hannibal Pierce, an assistant keeper at the Jupiter Lighthouse, settled on the island in 1873. He built a thatched-roof cabin and other pioneers followed suit, carving a community out of the wilderness. Until the 1950s and 1960s, when snowbirds started putting up cottages, the island was sparsely settled.

Donahue’s guide points out many historical sights, from McKinley Park, originally known as Beach Curve Park but renamed in the mid-1970s for Floyd Charles McKinley to honor his many years of community service to Lantana; to Casa Alva, the 26,000-square-foot, Maurice Fatio-designed home built for Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan.

Producing both the Brown Wrapper — a local history publication that debuted in 2017 — and the self-guided tour are labors of love, she says. The Property Owners Association pays printing costs of the newsletter, an annual publication.

“When you’re passionate about something, it’s more enjoyable than anything else,” Donahue says. “I really have gotten such great pleasure out of doing this and learning from it.”

She particularly enjoys connecting history with people who still live on the island, such as Narine Ebersold, who has lived on Hypoluxo since 1946; and Don Edge, an architect who helped create Manalapan’s La Coquille Club, where the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa stands today.

Both have become great sources of information for Donahue, who delights in visiting with them, even now when it’s socially distanced through screen doors and wearing masks.

“It’s so important because if we don’t capture it now, we’re going to lose it forever,” she says. “It’s too important not to tell the story of the island. I just feel like it’s never really had that opportunity.”

Donahue and her husband, Sean, live in an Addison Mizner home built in 1927. The historic house is called Casa Lillias, after Lillias Piper, a nationally known interior decorator who first owned the home. Since 1999, it has been declared the oldest house on the island.

Donahue’s day job keeps her very busy, and to keep in shape she runs in the morning.

“As much as I love to run, that’s my passion every day, this is just as much my passion,” Donahue says of her historical research and writing. “After dinner, when things settle down here at the house, I’ll just jump on the computer and do some more research. It’s always so fun. Especially when I find articles that are so relative to what I find to write in the papers.

“Of course, I don’t want to put anything out there that I haven’t totally documented or researched and … sometimes it can take days to get the answers. But it’s a good journey to be on.”

A car drives along Ocean Avenue in downtown Boynton Beach in 1915. Photos from Boynton Beach City Library collection

The city’s evolution from incorporation in 1920 to a dazzling new $118 million Town Square in 2020

By Ron Hayes

On July 14, 1920, a Wednesday that year, 50 qualified voters gathered to decide whether their little Florida community should incorporate.

Forty-eight of them said yes, one said no, and one apparently said nothing.

They adopted a town seal, elected a mayor, five aldermen, a marshal and a clerk, and a week later, on July 21, the town of Boynton (pop. 602) made it official.

Sun worshippers relax near the Boynton hotel, which opened in 1897 and was torn down in 1925.

History doesn’t record if the occasion was toasted with food and drink, but a century later, on July 21, 2020, in the towering lobby of a gleaming new City Hall, 100 vanilla bean cupcakes topped with buttercream frosting offered themselves to anyone in the city (pop. 79,000) who wanted to celebrate its centennial.

“Boynton Beach,” a sign behind the cupcakes boasted, “100 Years In The Making.”

Of course, some might argue that there should have been 125 cupcakes that morning.

Or at least 122?

Actually, the making of Boynton Beach began long before July 21, 1920.

•

Sometime in 1895, a charter boat called the Victor carried a former Union Army officer named Nathan Smith Boynton of Port Huron, Michigan, down what would become the Intracoastal Waterway in search of real estate.

Major Boynton liked what he saw, bought some land on an ocean ridge, and started building a beachfront hotel.

“The Boynton” opened two years later — 45 rooms, six cottages, a showplace.

A year after that, on Sept. 26, 1898, Birdie and Fred Dewey recorded a plat to be known as “the Town of Boynton.”

By 1920, when the town finally incorporated, Nathan Boynton had already been dead nine years.

•

The town of Boynton had incorporated just in time to enjoy the Florida land boom of the 1920s.

That first year, a Police Department was organized and a bridge built across the Intracoastal Waterway. The town got electric streetlights, a sewer system and a Chamber of Commerce.

By 1925, Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems Sr. had opened the town’s first doctor’s office. A Woman’s Club building designed by Addison Mizner was being built, Nathan Boynton’s hotel was being torn down, and an inlet was being cut between the waterway and the ocean to flush out the brackish water flowing in from the Lake Worth Inlet to the north.

Completed in 1927, the inlet was 130 feet wide, 8 feet deep, and cost $225,000.

That would be about $3,331,000 today.

The town of Boynton was thriving, unless you weren’t white.

•

Of the 602 total residents counted in the 1920 census, 157 were Black.

The oldest church in town was the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded on Feb. 5, 1892. The original building, built in 1900, stood at the northeast corner of what is now U.S. 1 and Boynton Beach Boulevard, along a stretch of Black-owned homes and businesses. But it didn’t stay there.

On Feb. 19, 1924, the town passed Ordinance 37, which created a “Negro section” west of town.

The Black citizens living along U.S. 1 packed their belongings, put their small church building on a wagon and hauled it over to the new “Boynton Colored Town” along Wells Avenue, on land platted by Robert Wells.

“My great-grandfather helped build the church,” says Victor Norfus. “It was the family church on my mother’s side.”

Norfus, 57, is the great-grandson of Allen Meeks, who came to the area from Tallahassee in 1896 to work for the Florida East Coast Railway when it ended in West Palm Beach. He is the author, with Odessa Holt, of Foundations of Faith, a privately published history of Boynton’s Black community.

“The value of land went up in the early 1920s,” Norfus says, “so all the Blacks living on Boynton Beach Boulevard were forced to live in that area. It was like a reservation.”

But even then, some thought Black property rights mattered.

On July 18, 1924, the town sued James Butler, Nebraska B. Lee and Rhodia Lee for refusing to sell their property in the new “whites only” part of town. The property had been condemned so a new city hall could be built. The town won and was ordered to pay the Black landowners $2,500 for the two lots.

On Oct. 5, the town sued again to have the payment reduced to $2,000, which Butler and the Lees accepted.

•

Boynton hadn’t been incorporated two years when Charles Stanley Weaver was born on Jan. 19, 1922, in a wood frame house on South Federal Highway, just north of Southeast Fifth Avenue.

The young Weaver, the son of Marcus A. Weaver, who owned a small dairy farm west of town, was only 6 when the great “Okeechobee hurricane” of 1928 struck.

“The wind was so strong that even with the windows closed, water was coming in,” Weaver recalled in an oral history recorded for the Boynton Beach City Library in 1992. “In our dining room, which was on the east side of the house, Dad finally got a carpenter’s drill and drilled a couple holes in the floor. We had about 2 inches of water in the dining room.”

•

On May 15, 1931, the small community on the ocean ridge that had dubbed itself Boynton Beach split from the town of Boynton. Each municipality agreed to take on half the debt.

Boynton and Boynton Beach remained separate municipalities until 1938, when Boynton Beach, on the ocean ridge, changed its name to Ocean Ridge.

Three years later, by a vote of 155 to 3, the town of Boynton became the city of Boynton Beach.

•

Boynton’s Black citizens had been forcibly moved to a segregated district along Wells Avenue, but they didn’t stay in their place.

On Nov. 7, 1933, the town fathers passed Ordinance 136, a “sunset law” making it unlawful for any “person of the Negro race over the age of 18 years to loiter, wander, stroll or be about” in the “White District” after 9 p.m. in the winter months or 10 p.m. in the summer. To be fair, the law also prohibited “any person of the Caucasian race” from loitering in the Black District after dark.

•

The first of Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems’ seven children arrived in 1927 and grew up to become Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems Jr.

When he was a teenager in the 1940s, his hometown still had only 1,357 residents.

“It was a lot slower pace,” he would recall for the library’s oral histories. “Boynton was sort of a small town between Delray and Lake Worth. There was a movie usually at both of those places and not one in Boynton. A municipal swimming pool over on the beach in both Delray and Lake Worth, but not in Boynton.

“I’m not sure when the first red light went in between here and Fort Lauderdale,” Dr. Weems said. “I think it was probably in the ’50s.

“There was a caution light in Boca.”

•

In 1956, C. Stanley Weaver’s younger brother, Curtis, married Nathaniel Weems Jr.’s younger sister, Alice.

A year later, they had Curtis Weaver Jr.

The Weaver dairy farm stood west of town in an area now filled with shopping centers. Marcus A. Weaver (1887-1960) and his son Marcus (1924-1997) pose with a heifer. M.A. and his son C. Stanley Weaver each served as Boynton’s mayor. Photos from Boynton Beach City Library collection

Between 1950 and 1960, the city burgeoned from 2,542 residents to 10,467, and the Weaver Dairies had grown to 3,000 acres and 1,500 cows.

Bethesda Memorial Hospital opened in 1959.

Boynton Beach may have called itself a city, but even in the 1960s it was still a small town to Curtis Jr.

“We used to take our horses into town once or twice a month in the summer and ride them on the beach,” he recalled recently. “Right down Boynton Beach Boulevard all the way into town, up and over the bridge where the Two Georges restaurant is and go right up to the beach. All that wasn’t developed in the 1960s.

“We sold the horses and got motorcycles when I was 13 or 14.”

•

As in many Southern communities, Boynton Beach schools were segregated in the early years.

TOP: In 1924 teacher Ella Lakin posed with her class of sixth-graders at the Boynton Beach Elementary School.

BOTTOM: Still segregated in 1950, teacher Blanche Girtman with her class at Poinciana Elementary.

The 1960s were a decade of change, and Boynton Beach changed a lot in the coming decades.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensured African-Americans’ right to stroll, eat and swim where they wished.

In the 1950s, the Negro Civic League served as an unofficial Black city commission because Black residents had no formal representation in government.

Today, the five-member City Commission has two Black members.

Interstate 95 was completed through the city in 1977, and in 1985 the Boynton Beach Mall opened.

C. Stanley Weaver, who served on the Boynton Beach Commission from 1951-1956 and was elected mayor in 1955, died Sept. 1, 2010.

Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems Jr. practiced medicine in the city from 1957 until 1990. He died Aug. 14, 2015.

Victor Norfus continues to work for historic preservation and redevelopment in the city’s Black community.

Three years after being moved to Wells Avenue, the St. Paul AME Church was destroyed in the 1928 hurricane. A new church was built on the site a year later, and in 1954 the present church building rose directly across the street.

Wells Avenue is now called Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

•

Along with those 100 cupcakes, the centennial brought a proclamation from Mayor Steven B. Grant.

“As significantly important it is for the city of Boynton Beach to honor and celebrate its beginning,” the proclamation read in part, “it is equally important to look to our future and create future legacies.”

And then, 100 years to the day after the city was incorporated, he cut the ribbon on a beautiful new City Hall/Library complex called Town Square, which cost $118 million to build.

On July 21, 1920, it would have cost about $8.6 million.

By Ron Hayes

BOYNTON BEACH — When Alice Weems Weaver and Curtis Weaver Sr. died five days apart in late June, the city of Boynton Beach lost a treasury of local memories, and their love story found a bittersweet ending.

Alice, known to all since childhood as Nainie, died at home on June 25. She was 89.

Curtis, 92, died at home on June 30 — their 64th wedding anniversary.

Trying to separate their lives from the city where they were born, lived and died would be as fruitless as trying to separate their love for each other.

Nainie Weems was born March 24, 1931, the daughter of Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems Sr., the town’s first physician, who opened his practice in 1925. Among the 7,500 babies Dr. Nat delivered during his 40-year career was the boy who would grow up to become her husband.

Curtis A. Weaver was born on March 18, 1928, the son of Marcus A. Weaver and Marion Grace Knuth. The Weavers owned a 90-acre dairy farm at what is now Old Boynton Road and Military Trail.

Both families were founding members of the First Methodist Church, where Curtis and Nainie were baptized, met and married.

As children, they attended the town’s one-room schoolhouse for the entire 12 years. As adults, they worked with others to resurrect the aging building as the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum.

After graduating from the University of Miami, Mrs. Weaver taught history and home economics at Seacrest High School in Delray Beach.

Mr. Weaver graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in milk chemistry and animal husbandry and, after service in the U.S. Air Force in the early 1950s, returned to work at the Weaver Dairies.

The couple were married in 1956, saw 350 friends and relatives attend the reception at the Boynton Woman’s Club, and honeymooned in Cashiers, North Carolina.

Their first child, Curtis Weaver Jr., was born in 1957, and a second, David, two years later.

Weaver Dairies grew into a 3,000-acre farm with 1,500 cows and nearly 100 employees.

“We moved to town when I was 4 years old, when David was born,” Curtis Weaver Jr. recalled recently. “Before that we lived on the farm in a small house — very, very small, wood-frame on cinder blocks with a wood joist floor with a porch patio. I would call it a shanty house or a row house.

“There were two roads built with housing, just for employees, where they lived with their families. I remember going to the barn and riding in the truck to pick up the employees.”

In the mid-’60s, the Weavers sold much of the dairy land to developers from Miami.

“And the western corridor of Boynton went from cows to townhouses,” their son said.

Later, Mr. Weaver and his siblings bought land on the south end of Nassau, Bahamas, and started another dairy farm, Golden Isles, which they later sold to Canadian developers.

In 1970, the couple renovated a small hotel in Cashiers, where they had spent their honeymoon 14 years before. For the next 20 years, they rented rooms and cabins at the Silver Slip Lodge to fellow vacationers from Boynton Beach.

In retirement, they traveled to Europe and Alaska, New England and the Canadian Rockies. But Boynton Beach was always their home, and their history.

Mr. Weaver was a president of the Boynton Beach Historical Society and a 35-year member of the local Rotary Club.

In addition to their sons Curtis Jr. and David Weaver, they are survived by their daughters-in-law, Diane and Eileen; grandchildren Josh and Brittany Weaver; Chelsea Weaver and her fiancé, Thomas McKeen; Leslie and Nate Beals; Lauren Weaver and her fiancé, Cage Regneris; and four great-grandchildren.

“My parents took a great deal of pride in being from Boynton and having been a part of the history of Boynton,” Curtis Weaver Jr. said. “They were tremendously loyal people to the town, and to their church.”

A memorial service will be held at a later date at the First Methodist Church of Boynton Beach.

The Butcher and The Bar opened in August and offers takeout and dining inside and out. Table service wasn’t available at first, but customers could place orders at the sandwich bar. The establishment includes a retail butcher shop. Photos provided by Jupiter Compass Digital Marketing Agency

By Jan Norris

Partners in The Butcher and The Bar worked through the COVID-19 shutdown and have managed to open — at least partially — their new eat-in butcher shop in Boynton Beach.

Eric Anderson, business partner, says the old-school, retail butcher shop and sandwich counter are open for takeout, and diners can sit inside or out and eat, but as of late August there was no table service.

“We were kind of supposed to open in April, but then contractors couldn’t send as many people at once to a job so there was a delay. We opened early August,” he said.

“Once Phase 2 is in place... we’ll be able to open the bar. We’ll start serving small plates there.”

In late August, the partners were still waiting for their liquor license to be approved.

From the counter, they serve breakfast biscuits from 9 a.m. until they’re sold out, and offer a variety of sandwiches and other prepared foods at lunch. The retail butcher case is open all day.

First and foremost, TBTB is a whole-animal butcher shop, Anderson said. “We bring in whole cows, pigs, chickens, and butcher them on site.” Fresh meats and poultry, most sourced in Florida, are cut to order in the retail side.

Jason Brown, a junior partner, is the butcher. He is largely self-taught but has taken classes in butchering from noted chefs. He and others from the shop visited several farms in Florida to see animal operations before choosing their meats.

Pork and chicken sausages and slaw are among the menu items. Everything is made from scratch. Photos provided by Jupiter Compass Digital Marketing Agency

“We get our hogs from HertaBerkSchwein Farms in Groveland, and cows from Watkins High Pasture Ranch, and Fort McCoy near Zolfo Springs,” Anderson said. For now, Bell and Evans chickens from Pennsylvania are on the menu until they find a quality poultry producer in Florida, he said.

All ground and smoked meats from the kitchen are house-made, including pork and chicken sausages, smoked bacon, tasso ham, porchetta, chicken meatballs and kielbasa.

“Everything is from scratch,” Anderson said. “All our condiments — our mayonnaise, ketchup, bone broth — we make everything here.” They have a “pickle program” as well.

Daniel Ramos, of the critically acclaimed Red Splendor Bone Broth, is a chef/partner, overseeing the menu, which changes daily.
Anderson said despite the name and concept, the shop has vegetarian and even vegan offerings.

“We had a party of three vegans who came in, and Chef Dan made them a whole vegan meal. There’s a joke there,” he laughed.

“Three vegans walk into a butcher shop. ...”

Hours for the shop are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, but once Phase 2 is initiated and the bar is open, hours will change.

The Butcher and The Bar, 510 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach. Phone 561-903-7630; www.butcherandbar.com.

Feeding South Florida, the food bank that partners with other nonprofits throughout the county, has expanded with a 5,000-square-foot kitchen and food prep area that can now handle the production of 10,000 hot meals weekly. The Boynton Beach facility on Park Ridge Boulevard opened in July.

It’s just in time to meet much greater needs, said Sari Vatske, executive vice president.

“The need has doubled because of COVID,” Vatske said. She listed as recipients homebound older adults, school kids out on summer break, and numerous nonprofits that help food-insecure populations across the county.

Add to that people who are newly unemployed in the food and hospitality business, who find themselves needing basic help, and a potentially threatening hurricane season.

The organization also took over serving Boynton Beach’s homebound seniors for the Community Caring Center of Boynton Beach.

“We’re doing 1,000 meals weekly for CCC,” Vatske said.

The new facility has a pantry up front. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients can come in and get cleaning supplies, canned goods and dairy perishables as part of the program. The facility acts as a drive-through distribution center as well, providing boxes of SNAP benefit food weekly.

In the main production area, a gleaming new commercial kitchen line is in place.

“This is the culinary training kitchen,” Vatske said. “We’re going to have 10 to 12 people at a time, for 16 weeks, training here.”

Feeding South Florida chefs, led by Chrissy Benoit, will team with volunteer guest chefs from the community to train people to work in the culinary field, both kitchen and front-of-house positions.

The goal is for graduates to find work in commercial restaurants. The program is open to anyone with at least a GED who wants to get into the culinary field or improve his or her career, she said.

The plan is for classes to be sponsored, Vatske said, with the goal that they are free for the trainees.

For now, the teaching kitchen is idle because of COVID-19. “We are hopeful by October we’ll have teaching and training,” Vatske said.

The organization also will add commercial events, such as catering large affairs.

“We will have a revenue-generating component. The money earned will be reinvested into our program,” she said.

In the past, Feeding South Florida relied on vendors to help produce its meals; FSF now will become a vendor to others, supplying hot meals for recipients of other programs.

For special events and catering work, the agency will hire from its grad pool.

“We’ll also have an incubator program for food products,” Vatske said. Entrepreneurs can learn to make and market their own products in a commercial environment.

“Right now, we’re focusing on scaling our production. We’re still hiring and training for current production.”

Workers on the production side are cooking and packing meals for distribution. Soups are prepared in one of the giant tilt skillets — cream of celery was the choice on a recent day. The menu rotates through a four-week plan.

Meals are cooked rapid-fire in the new combi ovens. These are high-volume ovens that perform multiple functions such as baking, steaming, poaching and roasting.

“These are amazing,” Vatske said. “They are state-of-the-art,” allowing them to turn out hundreds of complete meals much faster.

Volunteers are used to pack and seal the food trays.

A cold storage area is being added; for now, it shares space with the major distribution area. There’s also a small laundry room where kitchen linens and uniforms are laundered, keeping everything in house.

The agency also works with FEMA and Florida’s CERT (the emergency response team coordinators), as well as community groups to provide meals for emergency workers and people in shelters during disaster relief efforts.

Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that devastated parts of Texas and Louisiana in 2017, wiping out resources for food, spurred a new program for Florida, Vatske said.

The state funds FSF and other organizations, which have high-production meal-distribution plans ready whenever a storm approaches.

Other funding comes from federal agencies, as well as a number of local partners such as Publix, the Quantum Foundation and other private groups.

Volunteers and donations are still needed from the community, she said, more than ever to help people outside the government programs.

Vatske said FSF is grateful for all donations. “Absolutely. We have general programs and supplies to fund.”
For information about the programs or volunteer opportunities, go to feedingsouthflorida.org.

Chef James Strine has taken the helm at Taru, the new moniker for the restaurant at the Sundy House.

It is billed as “New Florida Cuisine,” and puts a twist on Florida influences from the Caribbean (jerk ribs with tamarind barbecue sauce); Cuba’s croquettes (turkey and stuffing croquettes with cranberry mayo), or a Florida bouillabaisse (local fish, clams, shrimp, grits). He also dips into Asian influences, with Dynamite rice (furikake, crab, pork belly) and rice noodles and clams, with wine, garlic, bone marrow and Thai basil. Taru also gives a nod to a hot trend by offering poutine (fries covered with burrata and foie gravy).

Though Strine is a master at meats — he’s noted for charcuterie and his butchering skills — he knows vegetarian plates as well (cauliflower steak and waffles).

Strine comes from a string of noteworthy kitchens, including Cafe Boulud, Buccan and Grato, as well as his most recent gig at The Trophy Room in Wellington.

The restaurant is still open for its acclaimed Sunday brunch in the garden — a romantic setting on any occasion.
Taru at the Sundy House, 106 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. Phone 561-272-5678; www.sundyhouse.com. Open for dinner Monday-Saturday; brunch Saturday (a la carte) and Sunday (prix fixe buffet).

In brief … Viva La Playa, a new Latin restaurant, takes over the former Mulligan’s space at the Lake Worth Casino beachfront plaza. Chef Jeremy Hanlon of Benny’s on the Beach, the sister restaurant, brings flavors from South America through Latin America to the menu. The eatery planned a September opening. ...

Plans are still on hold for the season’s green markets, but Delray’s GreenMarket is celebrating its 25th year anyway — with a new cookbook. Residents are asked to send in their favorite recipes to be included in the Community Cookbook Tastes of the Season. To participate or for more information, email Lori Nolan at nolan@mydelraybeach.com. The Vol. 2 cookbook is still available for $12 by calling the Community Redevelopment Agency at 561-276-8640.

Jan Norris is a food writer who can be reached at nativefla@gmail.com

By Christine Davis 

COVID-19 vaccine development is in the works across the globe with one Phase 3 trial — the final step before U.S. government approval — in progress locally. Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc. — in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health — aims to enroll 30,000 adults in Phase 3 of its testing with volunteers from all over the country.

In West Palm Beach, at the Palm Beach Research Center, a clinical trial began July 31 and has already enrolled and vaccinated hundreds of volunteers. It is still enrolling, said David Scott, president and CEO of the research center.

The study will continue for two years. The first visit takes 3-4 hours, with other quicker visits at days 28, 57, 209, 395 and 759, plus or minus a couple of days, he said. Participants will be paid up to $1,190.

Scott describes the vaccine: “Moderna uses a biodegradable lipid nanoparticle, which allows it to more effectively be absorbed by the body than any current vaccine technology. It carries a messenger RNA, which creates a protein that looks like COVID-19’s outer shell.

“It causes the body’s immune system to create proteins that look like COVID-19 (with spikes), but they are empty — they don’t have COVID-19. Since it looks like COVID-19, the body will be prepared; in the future it can recognize COVID-19 and eliminate it.

“While the trial is ongoing, if the data shows it’s effective, Dr. Fauci is confident the FDA may do an interim analysis and begin to manufacture it this winter and distribute soon after,” Scott says.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of the government’s top advisers on the coronavirus pandemic.

This is a randomized, double-blind trial, which means that volunteers are randomly assigned to either receive the vaccine or a placebo, and neither the vaccinated person nor the researcher knows which was given to each person until the end of the trial.

To volunteer, go to https://palmbeachresearch.com/2020/03/02/covid-19-vaccine-study/ or call 561-689-0606.

Researchers at Brain Matters Research are looking for participants age 50 and older with no memory loss to take part in the Alzheimer Prevention Trials web study, an online study that detects if people experience memory loss over time and need early intervention.

Volunteers take no-cost tests online every three months to monitor memory changes. If changes are observed, volunteers may be invited to in-person evaluations to determine eligibility for additional Alzheimer’s studies. To learn more and enroll, visit www.APTWebstudy.org.

Four researchers from Florida Atlantic University received the National Science Foundation Early Career Awards in August. The awards support early-career faculty members who have the potential to lead advances and serve as academic role models.

The award winners are Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., associate professor; Behnaz Ghoraani, Ph.D., associate professor;  Feng-Hao Liu, Ph.D., assistant professor, all within the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science; and Marianne E. Porter, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological sciences in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.
Asghar received $500,000 over five years to develop a low-cost disposable point-of-care platform to detect current and emerging infectious diseases.

Ghoraani, who is also a fellow in FAU’s Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering, was given $524,191 over five years to develop a cognitive screening tool for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease using wearables and a smartphone.

Liu got $500,000 over five years to develop new ways of coding to enhance cybersecurity.

Porter’s $625,943 over five years is for research to better understand how marine animals tune, or dynamically adjust their movements using their skin and skeletons.

In July, Boca Raton Regional Hospital received certification from DNV GL Healthcare as a comprehensive stroke center.

This signifies that the hospital’s Marcus Neuroscience Institute meets standards for providing care to all stroke patients, including endovascular embolization and surgical clipping of brain aneurysms, tPA administration and mechanical endovascular thrombectomy, a procedure used to remove a blood clot from the brain during an ischemic stroke.

JFK Medical Center received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award in July, recognizing the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment.

Additionally, JFK Medical Center received the association’s Stroke Honor Roll Elite award, recognizing that the hospital meets quality measures developed to reduce the time between the patient’s arrival at the hospital and treatment.

JFK was also recognized by Healthgrades with a Five-Star Recipient Award for Treatment in Stroke for three consecutive years, 2018-2020.

The Palm Beach Health Network’s Delray Medical Center also earned the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Stroke and Heart Quality Achievement Award.

The hospital achieved high performance marks in the category of heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for the state of Florida in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2020-2021 Best Hospitals rankings for adult clinical specialties.

Dr. Lloyd Zucker, who has more than two decades of practice in South County, was named medical director of neurosurgery for Delray Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical Center.

An honor graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Zucker was invited as an undergraduate to do research at the National Institutes of Health.

A neurosurgical residency at the University of Connecticut-Hartford Hospital followed his medical training at Rutgers University/University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. His extended training was completed by a fellowship in complex spinal surgery at the University of South Florida/Tampa General Hospital.

FoundCare, a nonprofit health center, has expanded its women’s health services to include OB/GYN care, well-woman exams, preventive care and screenings, bone density testing, breast and cervical cancer screening, sexual health services, birth control, Pap smear and HPV testing, pregnancy services, and prenatal and postpartum care. 

With 35 years in the community, FoundCare Inc. has several locations throughout Palm Beach County, offering services that include pediatric and adult primary care, new women’s health services, chronic disease management, behavioral health services, dentistry, pharmacy, laboratory services and X-rays.

FoundCare’s mission is to fulfill unmet health care and social service needs of individuals and families in Palm Beach County. For more information, call 561-432-5849 or visit www.foundcare.org.

A new exhibit at the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, “Real Bodies,” will run from Sept. 28 through April 11.
It will give visitors a tour of human bodies that have been preserved using a process known as polymer impregnation, where bodily fluids are replaced by liquid plastic, which is then hardened to create a solid, durable anatomic specimen that will last indefinitely. The process leaves fine delicate tissue structures intact, down to the microscopic sphere, making the process invaluable for medical study.

The exhibit will feature a COVID-19 component, where visitors can learn more about the pandemic’s impact on the human body.

The South Florida Science Center and Aquarium is at 4801 Dreher Trail N., West Palm Beach. For more information, call 561-832-1988 or visit www.sfsciencecenter.org. ;

Send health news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.

Carol Ann Keller for years has incorporated gratitude into her meditation sessions, but the practice can be as simple as jotting down thoughts on paper. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Joyce Reingold

Gratitude swept into Carol Ann Keller’s life in “full force” in 1993, when she felt she had absolutely nothing to be grateful for.

“Everything was a giant mess, mostly of my own making,” says Keller, a Lantana resident who works in the interior design field. “I had to make extreme life changes in order to change my own life. It was introduced to me that maybe a power greater than myself existed — whatever that looked like, whatever that would be called — and that was very humbling. And once humility started entering into my existence, the gratitude just came up, and I really learned … what gratitude looks like.”

She started with baby steps, acknowledging her good fortune at having a roof over her head and food in the refrigerator — basic but life-sustaining needs. Keller says as her gratitude practice grew, so did her sense of peace and well-being.

While skeptics may regard practicing gratitude as woo-woo, a phalanx of researchers says otherwise. Keller’s experiences mirror findings reported in “The Science of Gratitude,” a 2018 report from the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California in Berkeley, a locus for research into the psychology, sociology and neuroscience of well-being.

“In general, more-grateful people are happier, more satisfied with their lives, less materialistic, and less likely to suffer from burnout. Additionally, some studies have found that gratitude practices, like keeping a gratitude journal or writing a letter of gratitude, can increase people’s happiness and overall positive mood,” writes author Summer Allen in the report, which documents more than two decades of research. (To read more, visit ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Gratitude-FINAL.pdf)

In one cited study, Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough define gratitude as having two components: “Recognizing that one has obtained a positive outcome and recognizing that there is an external source for this positive outcome.” That external source can be a higher power, as it is for Keller, or someone whose actions have bestowed a kindness, or gift.

The important part, experts say, is to get outside of ourselves, acknowledging that navigating life does, indeed, take a village.
Expressing thanks to others directly is another way to practice gratitude. It can come in many forms, such as a letter of thanks. (And you can say thanks to the U.S. Postal Service at the same time by ordering its “Thank You” stamps, just issued in August.)

You might share appreciation in a conversation or as a random act of kindness. The nightly cheering, clapping and pots-and-pans clanging to honor front-line workers during the coronavirus pandemic upped the feel-good ante by giving thanks and building community.

As the pandemic upended life as it was, it prompted many of us to reflect on what we previously may have taken for granted — from lingering with a friend over lattes to visiting far-distant family members or hugging loved ones just across town. With gratitude, surely hindsight counts, too.

Keller says gratitude is helping to sustain her through the fear and uncertainty of the pandemic.

“When everything just kind of blew up, and nothing looked like it ever did before, I had to take myself down a notch to relieve that inner angst, because when I get anxious, it’s usually because I’m trying to control things that are out of my control,” she says. “And so, I go back to gratitude. Gratitude brings me back and I have so much to be grateful for in my life, I really do.”

Michelle Maros, co-founder of Peaceful Mind Peaceful Life in Boca Raton, a nonprofit organization offering mindfulness classes and workshops and other inspiration activities, believes gratitude is especially beneficial during times of crisis.

“Finding things to be grateful for, no matter how small, can allow us to feel a sense of optimism, hope and peace,” she says. “During difficult times, our minds may convince us that everything is going wrong. Gratitude can help shift that mind-set and allow us to remember that there is still so much light in the world, even when it feels dark.”

If you have room in your life to grow your gratitude, the good news is that you already have everything you need. Think about the people, pets, places and things for which you’re grateful. You decide on the where, when and how.

Some jot down their thanks on paper, a couple of nuggets at a time. Keeping a running list builds a storehouse of goodwill that may boost your mood when you review it.

Others, like Keller, make it part of a meditation practice, “an inner journey” that starts and ends her day. “Gratitude keeps me out of the headspace of, oh, why does that person have that, and I don’t?” she says. “It really alleviates any of that because when I’ve been grateful for really small things, bigger things have come along. And I don’t know how that works, I don’t know why that works, but it’s worked.

“My gratitude is increasing by leaps and bounds the older I get. I don’t know. Maybe I’m growing up at 66. Hopefully not,” she says, laughing. “But I’ll still be grateful.”

Joyce Reingold writes about health and healthy living. Send column ideas to joyce.reingold@yahoo.com.

By Janis Fontaine

Just as the response to the coronavirus varies in different cultural, social and political arenas, the same is true in local churches. The one thing they share is a desire to serve and help, and they are on the front lines when families are in crisis.
Here’s what’s happening at some churches.

At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach, Father Paul Kane reports that “our Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida has mandated closure of all churches at least until there is a 14-day, gradual decrease in COVID-19 cases in Palm Beach County. So far, our numbers are not heading in the right direction.”
Kane says the church has a reentry plan that gives details on the protocols it will follow when it is deemed safe to reopen for in-person worship.
In the meantime, Kane says that online giving, the backbone of the church’s community support, has increased. People who used to put cash in the collection plate have signed up to give online. The congregation’s needs have increased as well, but its members have stepped up to help.
Kane says the complexity of the pandemic, and the myriad issues driving the demand for church support, make everything harder to manage.
“Consider,” he says, “we’re dealing with the health and well-being of our congregants, especially those living in nursing homes and crowded public housing facilities; the mental health of our entire community, especially those who live alone and those who suffer from addictions; the strain on our health care system; the economic impact, especially on small businesses and newly unemployed people; and the spiritual impact of not being able to gather in-person for worship.”
To help, Kane says, “Our clergy provide ongoing pastoral care by phone, and we have six ministries who have dedicated themselves to praying for those people on our parish prayer list. We have also initiated a Prayer by Phone ministry, with prayer partners available five days per week.”
Kane said the church hadn’t lost any members to COVID as of mid-August, but members have lost family, friends and co-workers to the virus. The prayer partners have been especially helpful to people who are grieving, he said.

Advent Lutheran Church reports in-person worship resumed at both its locations — Boca Raton and Lantana — under CDC and local guidelines. In Boca, attendance was increasing in August.

One happy first: Andrew Hagen, lead pastor for Advent Life Ministries, says the church performed its first socially distanced baptism in the church since the crisis began.
Hagen says donations are up slightly over previous years.

At Unity of Delray Beach, the Rev. Laurie Durgan reports, “We’re keeping members and guests close via digital virtual means.”
Programs to help keep people connected include:
• Sunday: Guest speakers and meditations, minister talks and children’s videos and music by musical director D. Shawn Berry and soloist Daniel Cochran.
• Tuesday: Prayer services
• Wednesday: Meditation services
• Thursday: The Morning Prosperity Class with Charlene Wilkinson (phone) and the Lunch Prosperity Class with Dymin Dyer (Zoom).
If you need prayer, listen to new prayers on the Dial-a-Prayer line at 561-900-2559, email a prayer request to unitychurch@unityschool.com or speak to a prayer chaplain at 561-276-5796. Info at www.unityofdelraybeach.org.

Hot news!
In early August, Pastor D. Brian Horgan of St. Lucy Catholic Church in Highland Beach says divine intervention woke him in the middle of the night to alert him to an electrical fire in the rectory, “right outside my bedroom door.”
The parish priest likes to play the radio to fall asleep at night, and the radio, plus the breathing device he uses for his sleep apnea, prevented him from hearing the smoke alarm. Instead, he says, God woke him.
Horgan tried to use a fire extinguisher he keeps on hand to fight the flames, but the fire was too big. He called the Fire Department, which quickly traveled the quarter-mile to the church to take care of the blaze.
“The place is mess,” Horgan said, and his clothes all smell like smoke, but he’s grateful.
“I was very lucky,” Horgan said. “I used to joke about divine intervention. I don’t anymore.”

By Janis Fontaine

The Jewish High Holy Days — Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement — both take place in late September.

In Judaism, these are two of the most important holy days, and services featuring special prayers, feasts with significant foods, and 25 hours of fasting are planned. Congregations gather together with great joy to celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the universe during Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 18-20).

Then the devout come together again a week later for Yom Kippur (Sept. 27-28), the holiest day of the year. Having spent time evaluating their lives, repenting their wrongs, praying and fasting, the worshipers are granted acquittal and the cleansing of their sins. The congregation dresses in white for solemn — but not sad — services at the synagogue.

This year, because of COVID-19, communal worship is limited, and some synagogues won’t have in-person services.

Rabbi Shmuel Biston of Chabad of East Delray expects 30 or 40 people to attend his socially distanced, carefully abbreviated services.

“The service will last about 30 minutes,” he said, “and if we get more people wanting to come, we’ll add a second staggered service and clean in between.”

For those who still don’t feel comfortable in a group setting, Chabad of East Delray offers “Stay at Home” kits, so people can mark the holidays at home. The Chabad resumed weekly services in August and Biston meets in private (socially distanced, masks required) with people who are struggling.

“We want to offer any type of safe interaction we can, any way we can connect,” Biston said.

Most of what he does is listen and talk things through, so the phone is good, but in-person is better for some people. “A lot of people are lonely and they really need that personal connection. It’s been tough for some people to adapt.”

Rabbi Joe Fishof of Temple Beth Ami in Boca Raton agrees. “Many are afraid, and we don’t want to subject them to a situation that makes them uncomfortable.”

So, this year, a limited number of members will come to services, but most will watch them on Zoom, Fishof says.

Many synagogues depend on the sale of tickets for these two important holidays for financial support throughout the year, but most have received special donations from members.

“We reminded them, ‘Don’t let the shul suffer,’” Fishof says, “and people were generous.”

Tickets for services are lower in cost this year, from $50 to $120, but these are suggested donations and no one is ever turned away because he can’t pay.

Leaders of Temple Beth El in Boca Raton suggest that with so many in the congregation suffering as a result of COVID, members who have purchased High Holy Day tickets in the past should consider making a donation in the amount they would have spent.

At Beth Ami, two 90-minute services are planned. Guests will be limited to 50. Cleaning is planned in between services. Fishof is keeping most of his sermon under wraps, but he plans to comfort and encourage people whose routines have been disrupted.

“With so many people suffering, we should make an effort to be more compassionate,” he said. “I also want to remind them to be grateful for what they have. I want to tell them to have hope, to pray and stay in faith.”

To Fishof, Yom Kippur is about “cheshbon hanefesh,” a spiritual accounting of the soul. Self-improvement, perfecting one’s character and forging closer relationships with God and our fellow men are the essence of Yom Kippur.    

“It’s about introspection,” Fishof said. “Look inside yourself and ask, ‘How can I be a better person, more compassionate, more understanding this year?’”  

Local services
• Temple Beth Ami — 1401 NW Fourth Ave., Boca Raton. www.bacboca.org.
Temple Beth Ami will hold both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services by reservation only and by following CDC guidelines. Masks will be required. Bring your own hand sanitizer. Temperatures will be taken at the door. Two 90-minute services are planned: 9 to 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., with cleaning planned in between. Call for tickets: 561-347-0031.

• Temple Beth El — Schaefer Family Campus, 333 SW Fourth Ave., Boca Raton. www.tbeboca.org.
Temple Beth El’s services will be celebrated online. The synagogue invites everyone to watch services livestreaming on the website, Facebook page or YouTube channel. For members, there are additional benefits, like a special High Holy Day gift bag for pickup and the ability to borrow a High Holy Day machzor (prayer book). For more info, call 561-391-8900.

• Boca Beach Chabad — 120 NE First Ave., Boca Raton. 561-394-9770 or www.ChabadBocaBeaches.com
Rabbi Ruvi New said the synagogue plans to host its services at Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, instead of its facility. He said Mizner Park has enough room to accommodate everyone even with social distancing. Ages 12 and older. Some programs require tickets.
Services are as follows:
Rosh Hashanah evening: 7:05 p.m. Sept. 18
First-day Rosh Hashanah: 9 a.m. Sept. 19
Mincha: First-day Rosh Hashanah: 7:05 p.m. Sept. 19
Second-day Rosh Hashanah: 9 a.m. Sept. 20
Shofar sounding: 11:30 a.m. Sept. 20
Mincha: 6 p.m. Sept. 20, followed by tashlich and second shofar blowing at the Intracoastal at the northwest corner (Wildflower) of east Palmetto Park Road and Fifth Avenue, Boca Raton, at 6:45 p.m.
Kol Nidrei: 7 p.m. Sept. 27. Reservations required. Seats are $120.
Yom Kippur morning: 9 a.m. Sept. 28
Yizkor memorial: Noon Sept. 28. Reservations required. Seats are $72.
Mincha: 5:15 p.m. Sept. 28
Neilah closing service: 6:15 p.m. Sept. 28

Additional events:
The synagogue will host Mincha at 3:15 p.m. Sept. 27 at the synagogue.
Three special children’s programs are planned at the synagogue: first-day Rosh Hashanah at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 19; second-day: 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sept. 20; and Yom Kippur: 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 28

• Chabad of East Delray — 10 SE First Ave., Delray Beach. www.jewisheastdelray.com.
An outdoor shofar-blowing and shortened services in both Hebrew and English are planned complying with social distancing guidelines. All seats are reserved. Adults only. Masks required. Between services, the shul will be cleaned and disinfected thoroughly. A donation of $50 is suggested.
For congregation members who feel more comfortable staying at home, kits are available for pickup with a selection of the key prayers and insights, apple and honey, challah and candles. To reserve a kit, email rabbi@jewisheastdelray.com.
Services are:
First-day Rosh Hashanah: 10-10:45 a.m. Sept. 19.
Second-day Rosh Hashanah: 10-10:45 a.m. Sept. 20.
Outdoor shofar blowing: 5 p.m. Sept. 20 (location TBA)
Kol Nidrei: 7:15-7:45 p.m. Sept. 27
Yom Kippur day: 10-10:45 a.m. Sept. 28
Neilah: 7:15-7:45 p.m. Sept. 28

Costa d’Este Beach Resort in Vero Beach offers humans a free stay if an accompanying pet pays a rate starting at $184 a night. Photo provided by Costa d’Este Beach Resort & Spa

By Arden Moore

Raise your paw, er hand, if you are feeling a little stir-crazy. Got a dose of cabin fever due to the worldwide pandemic that seems to hover over Florida?

The silver lining for many stuck at home since mid-March is having a safe companion who never disagrees on which Netflix show to binge watch next. Yep, I’m referring to our dogs and cats, who have sacrificed oodles of me-alone-at-home nap time to cuddle and console us during our many moods.

Paws up for pets, for sure. At this stage of the coronavirus, opportunities are growing for us with pets to engage in safe activities and to take short getaways to pet-welcoming places. If you are ready to sport your mask, bring plenty of gloves and hand sanitizer, the

Visit Florida team may have a fit for you.

Visit Florida represents more than 13,000 tourism industry businesses throughout the Sunshine State. Recognizing that pet adoptions have surged by more than 300% since April, this group is promoting “fur-babymoon” adventures for people and their well-mannered pets.

From the Panhandle down to the Florida Keys, opportunities exist for you and your pet to safely paddleboard, take beach strolls, hike, sail, rent pet-friendly Airbnbs and dine outdoors.

One of the most fetching options includes free stays for people at the Costa d’Este Beach Resort & Spa in Vero Beach. The catch?

Their accompanied dogs must pay daily rates from $184 a night.

“We put a playful spin on a traditional hotel package from the dog’s perspective,” explains Jessica Milton, regional director of public relations for Benchmark Global Hospitality. “This is a small hotel with 94 rooms, so you won’t be walking into a massive resort. The hotel has plenty of safe things to do outside and definitely will pamper your dog with a beachside dog massage, water bowls and toys your dog can take home, use of a plush doggie bed in the room and even a doggie menu that includes Muttballs.”

Lisa Radosta, DVM, a veterinarian who operates the Florida Veterinary Behavior Service in West Palm Beach, recently spent a month living in a pet-friendly hotel while her family’s new house was being completed. Their old home sold quickly, so the entire family, including Maverick, a Labrador retriever, and a cat named Chewie were hotel dwellers.

“We chose the hotel based on the fact that they took pets and that we would have enough room (a suite) for us and both pets,” she says. “Factors to consider when traveling with your pets these days definitely include the ability to have space for the pets, a place to safely walk pets and pet-friendly restaurants and attractions nearby.”

Equally important is knowing your pet’s temperament and adaptability to being in new places with new sights, sounds and smells.
When they arrived, their normally easygoing Maverick had issues with the hotel elevator. But having a veterinary behaviorist for a pet parent helped as Radosta steadily built up Maverick’s exposure to elevator rides.

“My husband and I are pretty fit, so we took the four flights of stairs up and down as much as possible to give Maverick a break from the elevator,” she says. “We learned that he needed treats before he got on the elevator and tolerated the ride much better if I asked him to lie down. He rides the elevator just fine now.”

If you want to bring your pet on a day trip or overnight at a hotel, vacation rental, RV campground or cabin in a park, Radosta advises making a pros/cons list with your pet’s needs and personality in mind.

Some pets are genuine homebodies, who prefer staying at home under the care of a professional pet sitter who is practicing CDC health and safety guidelines. Dogs feeling stressed may chew or damage hotel furniture or bark excessively.

“You can’t come and go as you please on vacation, because you have to go back to the RV or hotel to take care of your pets,” Radosta adds.

Know your pet’s likes and dislikes.

“Going out with your dog is really fun — for you! Is it fun for your dog?” she says. “If not, take some time to get your dog used to going to the beach or getting on the kayak before you expect him to spend significant amounts of time in that activity.”

For well-socialized pets, however, such trips are viewed as added adventures spent with their favorite humans. Never before has the unconditional love unleashed on us by our pets felt so good.

If You Go...
Taking COVID-19 precautions into account, numerous pet-welcoming places and activities are available in the Sunshine State. To learn more, go to www.VisitFlorida.com.
To learn more about Dr. Lisa Radosta’s practice, visit www.flvetbehavior.com. Radosta is the co-author of From Fearful to Fear Free. The book spotlights the national Fear Free program created by veterinarians to reduce fear, anxiety and stress in pets at home, in the car, at veterinary clinics and during outdoor activities.

The crew of the Hypoluxo-based Southern Comfort IV holds the 51.3-pound wahoo caught July 11 to win the Big Dog/Fat Cat KDW Shootout. From left are mate Josh Joyner, Capt. Bill Cox and mate Ashley Mann. Winning angler Mark Boydston reeled in the wahoo, which hit a trolled bonito strip/sea witch combination in 250 feet off Sloan’s Curve. It was the heaviest fish of the 233-boat tournament. Photo provided by Southern Comfort Charters

Hurricane Isaias passed Florida as a tropical storm. It provided a morning of rough seas, then an afternoon of beautiful surf and spectacular dismounts. Thousands of surfers hit the beaches along Florida coasts, including these off Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes. By the following day, the surf was back to its normal summertime flatness.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Patricia Maguire and her granddaughter Daniella. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

Patricia Maguire of Ocean Ridge and her granddaughter Daniella Maguire of Boca Raton have always been exceptionally close, so the social distancing protocols of the coronavirus had them both craving more of a connection than FaceTime and phone calls could offer.

At the same time, Dani, 9, was empathizing with her mother, Viviana, who is Pati’s oldest daughter. She was struggling to virtual-school Dani while caring for Dani’s brothers, Mikey, 1, and Noah, 3. When Viviana’s birthday came around, Dani wanted to make her a special gift and enlisted Pati, whom she calls “Noni,” to help.

Dani wanted to write a story that portrayed her mom as the heroine and she wanted Pati, an accomplished artist, to illustrate it. “I wanted my mom to know how much I appreciate her,” Dani said.

“Dani is very creative, and I’d been wanting to get her involved in a game or a project to stay in touch,” Pati recalled, and so she jumped on board.

Dani had learned to write essays in the fourth grade at Addison Mizner Elementary. “I wanted to be the author,” Dani said, but neither realized how big the project would become or how much work it would take.

In the end, the duo created Fiona the Fox and the Magic Crystal, an 18-page book with 14 color illustrations. Pati learned to use a medium called gouache, an opaque watercolor-like paint thickened with a binding agent.

Many discussions took place over the phone. Dani would write a few pages, and send the story to Noni, who would type it up. They would discuss how to best illustrate each of the scenes. Later they met a few times outdoors — at the beach or the pool, practicing social distancing — to work on the project.

“I kept it a surprise from my mom,” Dani said, so they had to be secretive. Afterward Dani apologized to her mom for “being mean and shutting her out.” But such is art!

Dani loves most animals (“I don’t like reptiles”) and knew they would be central to the story.

Her story was inspired by the pandemic and something she saw happening around her. Dani noticed there were more birds singing and squirrels playing. The news reports said air pollution was clearing up in the biggest cities because people were traveling and driving less.

“We noticed how nature responded,” Pati explained.

Their central theme — if nature could cause the pandemic, nature could fix it — depended on Fiona the Fox and the brave and brilliant mom solving a mystery together, with the help of all the forest animals and a bit of magic, of course. In all, it took Dani and Pati almost three months to complete their book, which Pati had self-published at www.blurb.com.

“I was so excited to see it and I was so proud of her,” Pati said. Dani had stuck with the project long-term, which can be tough when you’re not even in fifth grade yet.

“Dani got to experience the creative ebb and flow,” Pati said. “We motivated each other.”

“I was really proud of myself,” Dani said, “and my mom was really happy.”

Now if we could just find that magic crystal.

Pati and Dani’s book, Fiona the Fox and the Magic Crystal, is available for purchase at www.amazon.com. See Pati Maguire’s paintings, including several inspired by COVID-19, at www.patimaguire.com or at her Facebook page at patimaguirepaintings.

By Steve Plunkett

The number of COVID-19 cases in South County cities and towns is up by more than five times the total reported two months ago, state health figures show.

On June 4, when Boynton Beach (669 cases) overtook Boca Raton (660 cases) as the most infected South County municipality, they and other coastal towns posted 1,922 coronavirus reports.

On Aug. 5 Boca Raton had easily retaken the lead with 4,807 cases, a 628% increase, while Boynton Beach had 3,154 cases, up 371%.

Also on Aug. 5 Highland Beach posted its first case, losing its distinction as the only coastal municipality from Boca Raton to South Palm Beach to be COVID-19-free. The next day it added three more cases.

“We have mostly older residents and they’re being more cautious,” Highland Beach Mayor Doug Hillman said.

In all, the pandemic in South County grew from the 1,922 coronavirus cases on June 4 to 10,802 cases on Aug. 5. Delray Beach went from 518 cases to 2,418 in that time, a 367% increase, and Lantana’s cases grew from 66 to 375, up 468%.

Among smaller towns, South Palm Beach went from 1 case to 4, Hypoluxo from 7 to 27, and Ocean Ridge from 1 to 9. Towns that had no cases on June 4 but have since shown up on the daily counts are Briny Breezes (1), Gulf Stream (4) and Manalapan (2).

Meanwhile the total caseload for Palm Beach County rose from 6,688 cases on June 4 to 35,737 cases on Aug. 5, an increase of 434%. Boca Raton has the third highest concentration of cases, behind West Palm Beach (8,945) and Lake Worth/Lake Worth Beach (6,328).

The county-wide coronavirus positivity rate is 13.2 percent. More than 277,000 county residents have be tested so far, with a cumulative 36,600 having COVID-19, state figures show. 

Rich Pollack contributed to this report.

The bridge and bridge tender's house on A1A over the inlet will change from light blue to a darker blue. Photo provided

By Steve Plunkett

The bridge over the Boca Raton Inlet, which connects the south barrier island to all points north, will close to land traffic later this month for a 60-day paint job.

The Florida Department of Transportation, which is responsible for the bridge on State Road A1A, said the construction schedule is actually 80 days, not counting weather delays and holidays. It expects the project to be finished by late fall. 

"The bridge is anticipated to close in mid-August while it is being painted. Advance notice will be provided prior to the closure," project spokeswoman Angel Streeter Gardner said.

The bascule bridge, officially named the Haven Ashe Bridge after a long-term bridge tender, will change in color from light blue to a darker blue called Federal Standard 15052.

Tarpon Springs contractor Seminole Equipment Inc. won the $802,818 contract to clean and paint structural steel and concrete portions of the bridge as well as its concrete barriers, deck, overhang and bridge tender house.

Highway vehicles will be detoured to Federal Highway via Palmetto Park Road and Hillsboro Boulevard. The bridge, which normally opens on demand, will be kept raised so the repainting does not affect boat traffic.

The original wooden bridge was replaced by the current structure in 1964, a year after Ashe died. It opened electrically but had to be closed manually by Ashe, who became its tender in 1942, according to wikimapia.org.

By Mary Hladky

Former Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie’s trial on public corruption charges has been pushed back for the third time.

The new trial start date is Oct. 26, but there is no certainty it will begin then.

Palm Beach County Chief Judge Krista Marx in early July extended her suspension of all trials until further notice because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen set the new date on July 10 after both the prosecutor and Haynie’s criminal defense attorney agreed on the change. They also agreed on the previous Sept. 21 trial date.

In both instances, they said the pandemic has made it difficult to complete pre-trial discovery and expressed concern that not enough potential jurors would be available.

The original date for Haynie’s trial was March 23.

Haynie, 64, was arrested on April 24, 2018, on charges of official misconduct, perjury, misuse of public office and failure to disclose voting conflicts. She faces more than 20 years in prison if she’s convicted.

Prosecutors contend that Haynie used her position on the City Council to vote on six matters that financially benefited James Batmasian, the city’s largest downtown commercial landowner, and failed to disclose income she received from him.

She has pleaded not guilty. Her attorney, Bruce Zimet, has repeatedly said she will not accept a plea deal.

Following a spike in COVID-19 cases in Florida reaching 100,217 cases reported as of June 21 and then doubling in two weeks to 203,376, local hospitals are adapting

Since the beginning of July, Bethesda Hospital-East, Bethesda Hospital-West and Boca Raton Regional Hospital are temporarily rescheduling elective procedures that require an overnight stay to ensure they have sufficient capacity to handle coronavirus patients. Hospital staff will communicate directly with affected patients. At this point, outpatient procedures remain as scheduled.

Delray Medical Center is still offering elective surgeries, and allows one support person for each elective surgery, maternity or pediatric patient.

In Boynton Beach, JFK Medical Center suspended services at its Freestanding Emergency Room on July 7. Temporarily closing the facility at 10921 S. Jog Road will allow JFK Medical Center to move key clinical staff and physicians to its other facilities across Palm Beach County that are experiencing a greater volume of COVID-19 and suspected COVID-19 patients.

“As a leading health care provider in the community, it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to provide care during this unprecedented challenge,” said Gina Melby, CEO. “Thank you to all of our staff and caregivers – and those throughout our community – for their continued selfless work caring for those in need throughout this crisis.”

JFK Medical Center’s main facility in Atlantis and its North Campus in West Palm Beach will remain open and will continue to treat COVID-19 patients in addition to offering inpatient services.

To see how many hospital beds are available in Palm Beach County, go to this website offered by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration: 

https://bi.ahca.myflorida.com/t/ABICC/views/Public/HospitalBedsCounty?%3AshowAppBanner=false&%3Adisplay_count=n&%3AshowVizHome=n&%3Aorigin=viz_share_link&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&%3Aembed=y&%3Amobile=true

JFK Medical Center temporarily suspended services at its Freestanding Emergency Room in Boynton Beach as of July 7. Temporarily closing the facility at 10921 S. Jog Road will allow JFK Medical Center to move key clinical staff and physicians to its other facilities across Palm Beach County that are experiencing a greater volume of COVID-19 and suspected COVID-19 patients.

“As a leading health care provider in the community, it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to provide care during this unprecedented challenge,” said Gina Melby, CEO. “Thank you to all of our staff and caregivers – and those throughout our community – for their continued selfless work caring for those in need throughout this crisis.”

JFK Medical Center’s main facility in Atlantis and its North Campus in West Palm Beach will remain open and will continue to treat COVID-19 patients in addition to offering inpatient services.

– Christine Davis

Seaside Deli cashier Audrey Bazil rings up a purchase by Andrew Estevez as others wait at an appropriate distance. The deli refuses to admit people without masks and limits the number of customers in the store, near Briny Breezes. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

County masks up in renewed effort to contain virus

By Charles Elmore 

Within days of summer’s formal start, hopes for a season of easing restrictions on daily life collided with a wave of troubling reports of COVID-19’s spread, spurring Palm Beach County to make masks mandatory for customers at businesses like Annie Blake’s restaurant in Delray Beach.
She hopes people understand, and maybe also accept an “air hug” instead of a traditional embrace.
“It goes against the nature of us being hospitable, but it’s the new normal,” said Blake, who co-owns Death or Glory on Northeast Sixth Avenue.
She knows people want to relax, get together and enjoy life a bit after months of strain. Yet the situation has forced the rethinking of even the simplest human impulses, such as blowing out candles on a birthday cake that guests are about to eat.
Now masks in public no longer can be left to personal choice, as far as county commissioners are concerned. Palm Beach County was slower to take that step than other big counties in South Florida, but then went on to announce it would mail masks to all households in the county of 1.5 million people.
“From a guest perspective, it will be interesting,” Blake said. “I guess we will have to do some mask policing if people don’t wear them. On the other hand, it’s a little easier if we can blame someone as bad cop.”
Employees were already wearing masks, she noted, and now patrons are required to do the same under county rules passed June 23.
County Vice Mayor Robert Weinroth said he “hates” the idea of requiring people to wear masks. It goes against his grain, he said.
But Weinroth, whose district includes communities along the county’s southern coast, said he felt compelled to join fellow commissioners in a 7-0 vote to make masks compulsory.
“The numbers we saw this week were just out of this world,” he said.
Those numbers grew more challenging in the days after the vote, with Florida setting daily records of new cases including 9,557 by June 26. Four days later, the state reported more than 152,000 total cases.
In Palm Beach County, 18.2% of those tested were confirmed as positive for the virus on June 23, spiking above an average that has typically landed in single digits.
Palm Beach County had more than 14,000 cases reported by June 30, with 13% of those resulting in hospitalization and 4% in deaths, state records show.
The death rate, disproportionately affecting those 65 and older, has been falling as more people become infected. New infections are increasingly occurring among younger people, ages 25 to 34, who are statistically less likely to need hospitalization.
Still, county officials noted two 17-year-olds have died in Florida and many younger people have experienced painful symptoms. And in the larger picture, each new case increases the risk of spreading the virus to others of varying ages and health conditions, and it can take weeks or months to know how many cases of initial infection might end in hospitalization or death.
“This is our wake-up call, folks,” Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner said June 26.

Jess Lee and Bridgette Smith of Delray Beach talk with hosts Terraine Dowles and Alec Leonardo at Tin Roof in Delray Beach prior to entering the food, drink and music establishment. Tin Roof requires all patrons to wear masks upon entry, exit and while moving around the premises. Customers are not required to wear masks while sitting at tables. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Local officials voice support

The county’s mask order introduced a new layer of governmental authority to a range of policies that businesses, organizations and municipalities already had adopted.
Catholic churches in the Diocese of Palm Beach, for example, announced in a May 11 letter from Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito that “it is highly recommended that face masks be utilized while in church except for the reception of Holy Communion.”
The return of Sunday and daily Mass was accompanied by precautions, including social distancing of 6 feet and the “use of every other pew.” 
Under the county order, exceptions exist for people with medical conditions such as asthma, those eating and drinking, children aged 2 or younger, those exercising while social distancing, and people “for whom a facial covering conflicts with their religious beliefs or practices.”
The diocese “will follow the directives of the county commissioners and the CDC,” said Jennifer Trefelner, director of communications.
Before the county move, Ocean Ridge reopened its town meetings to the general public, with restrictions.
“Chairs are spaced out by 6 feet for proper social distancing and masks must be worn in Town Hall,” said Town Manager Tracey Stevens. “No-touch hand sanitizer stations have been installed. Teleconference is still available for those that wish to attend from home.”
Mayor Scott Singer in Boca Raton said he supported the county’s mask policy “instead of potentially confusing measures to be enacted city by city.”
Law enforcement officers are expected to issue warnings and correct people first, but fines start at $25 for individuals, $50 for a second offense and $100 after a third, under rules approved by county officials June 29. Businesses face fines starting at $250, and up to $500 after repeat offenses.
“Of course, some individuals cannot wear a mask because of health concerns, and it is our hope that neighbors continue to act with kindness and respect,” Singer said in an email to constituents. “If you see someone not wearing a mask, there’s no need to be confrontational.”
He asked residents not to call 911 to report someone not wearing a mask, saying that should be reserved for emergencies.
Instead, concerns about compliance can be relayed to covidcompliance@pbcgov.org or 561-242-6843, where county staff will track such matters, he said.
It all leaves businesses coping with a new form of hospitality that might not feel entirely comfortable to either customers or staff. But the alternative could mean a higher risk that someone ends up in a hospital.
“Some people say, ‘Hey, take off your mask and give us a hug,’” Blake said in Delray Beach. “I hope they are not offended. I would hope it would make us all hyper-aware.”

Turtle nest monitor Jim Jolley passes four marked nests on the beach in Ocean Ridge north of Beachway Drive. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Larry Keller

South Florida beach closures because of the coronavirus pandemic may have annoyed some people, but if sea turtles could talk, they likely wouldn’t complain.
The turtles’ nesting season along South County beaches is off to a strong start, and false crawls — incidents where turtles come ashore at night to lay their eggs but turn back without doing so — are down.
“So far this has been a very busy and successful season,” said David Anderson, Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s sea turtle conservation coordinator. He oversees monitoring of sea turtle activity over 5 miles of Boca Raton beach.
False crawls can occur when turtles are disturbed by things like bonfires, flashlights, cellphone lights and beach furniture. With beaches closed for several weeks, those impediments all but vanished.
This season began with a success ratio of up to six nests to every four false crawls. That is a significant improvement from previous years, where the ratio was the reverse. Anderson said the ratio has dropped lately, with false crawls now exceeding the number of nests since people have been back on the beach.
It has been a similar story in Delray Beach. Last year, there were 290 nests and 538 false crawls, said Joseph Scarola, senior scientist at Ecological Associates Inc., which monitors nests on the 3-mile beach for the city. That’s a ratio of 65% to 35%, false crawls to nests. As of mid-June, Delray Beach recorded 170 nests and 180 false crawls — a ratio similar to that of Boca Raton at the time.

Impact of closings uncertain
Nobody can say for sure if closed beaches resulted in the reduction in false crawls or the robust number of nests so far.
Jackie Kingston, president and founder of Sea Turtle Adventures, is skeptical. Her organization monitors a 3-mile expanse of beaches in Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes and part of Ocean Ridge and has noticed fewer false crawls this year.
But, Kingston said, turtles “nest where they want to nest.”
In Highland Beach, there have been about 50% more nests than last year at this time, and fewer false crawls, said Barbara James, the marine turtle permit holder there. Since the beach has no public access, she said she couldn’t attribute this to fewer people being on the beach.

Most stretches of South County beaches are experiencing higher than normal nesting success, as evidenced by these markers. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Sea turtle nesting season is March 1 to Oct. 31, although small numbers of nests are dug before and beyond those dates. The first nest discovered this year in Boca Raton was on Feb. 23. It was a leatherback.
That was less than a week before a nourishment project began with beach bulldozers widening the northern 1.5 miles of Boca Raton’s beach from 50 to 250 feet. One early nest was moved to an unaffected area. The first loggerhead in Boca Raton was spotted on April 21, just after the beach nourishment project was finished.
“It went really fast, was really successful,” Anderson said.
Green turtles could be most affected by the wider beach. “Greens are notorious for nesting in the dunes,” Anderson said. Now “it’s a long crawl, but it doesn’t seem to matter to turtles.”
Green turtles have alternating high and low seasons. Last year, a record 393 nests were spotted, but there were only 19 the year before that. This season, 35 had already turned up by June 29. They usually continue to come ashore through September.

All local species are ‘listed’
Five sea turtle species nest on Florida beaches. All are listed as either endangered or threatened.
Only loggerheads, greens and leatherbacks typically deposit eggs in South County, and very few of the latter, which are the largest of the species, sometimes weighing 1,500 pounds or more.
By late June only 13 nests of leatherbacks had been discovered this year on Boca Raton’s beach. They usually finish nesting before June. Still, it’s no cause for concern. Only 18 leatherback nests were found in each of the past two years.
Boca Raton’s modest numbers were more than offset elsewhere. Delray Beach recorded 21 leatherback nests, surpassing last year’s record of 15, Scarola said.
And 20 leatherback nests were found on the beaches that have been surveyed by Kingston’s group for 21 years. That too was a record, topping the previous high of 16 in 2009, she said.
Leatherback nests are more common to the north. There were 397 nests for all of Palm Beach County, and 380 in Martin County in 2019, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That was 70% of all leatherback nests statewide.
There have been more nests overall so far this year on the beaches Kingston monitors. They include about 400 loggerhead nests, well above the total for the same time last year, she said.
“I think it will be a pretty good year,” Kingston said.
It’s been a banner year for loggerhead nests in Boca Raton too. There were 495 by June 29, putting that beach on track for a strong season, Anderson said.