By Joe Capozzi

As Briny Breezes continues looking for the big dollars needed to repair or replace its seawall along the Intracoastal Waterway, the town may soon take a preliminary step to move the project along.  
At a workshop July 22, the Town Council directed the town manager to include some money in the 2021-22 budget for a survey of underground utilities — a move that not only would provide a useful tool for general needs, but also could help streamline efforts to fix the seawalls. 
“I think it’s time to start moving forward on the seawall,’’ Manager William Thrasher told the council. “If we believe in the seawall project, we’re going to have to start doing our limited amount of work towards that end and it should probably start sooner than later.’’ 
Incorporated east of Boynton Beach in 1963, Briny Breezes is a co-op consisting of 488 mobile homes on 43 acres between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.   
It is extremely vulnerable to hurricanes, storms and king tides. The western part of the town, where many seawalls are low, already sees frequent tidal flooding. 
Town officials are working with state Rep. Mike Caruso and state Sen. Lori Berman on securing state money and grants for the project, which will cost millions. 
Completing a survey of underground utilities, which could cost up to $85,000, “is one of the next-step requirements for any, in my opinion, grant applications,’’ Thrasher told the council.
“It’s basic information for our town. It would be useful whether or not the seawall project proceeds, because it would allow us to look at a stormwater master plan,’’ which could cost $60,000, he said. 
One option Briny will consider is the Resilient Florida program, which provides grants created from new legislation aimed at helping Florida communities prepare for the potential impacts of climate change, including sea level rise, intensified storms and flooding. The deadline for grant applications is Sept. 1. 
But the seawall isn’t the only important piece of Briny Breezes infrastructure in need of repair. 
“The big project we are working on right now is relocating our water mains because they are right next to the seawall and before we can do work on the seawalls we’ve got to move those water mains away,’’ council President Sue Thaler said after the July 22 meeting. 
Thrasher said he would massage his proposed $887,857 budget to free up money for the utilities survey. 
Briny will again be capped at the statutory tax maximum of $10 per $1,000 of homeowners’ property value next year, as the tax rate has been since 2009.
Public hearings on the rate will be Sept. 7 and Sept. 23 at 5:01 p.m. 
Despite its infrastructure issues, Briny Breezes saw a 10.4% jump in taxable valuation, one of the largest increases among Palm Beach County municipalities.   
In other business, the council approved a $500 fee to American Legal Publishing to add the town’s code of ordinances online. It would be accessible at the company’s website.  
“It’s not much money to bring us into the 21st century,’’ said Alderwoman Kathy Gross. “It would be more
professional.’’

The Delray Ace will close Aug. 24 after nearly 50 years with a new owner taking the property.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

Pam Schafer, 65, and her son Glennon, 26, have sold Delray Ace, at 50 SE Sixth Ave., meaning the hardware store will close after nearly 50 years.
The business was started by Pam’s father-in-law and Glennon’s grandfather, Frank Shafer, in 1972 and taken over by Pam’s husband and Glennon’s father, Bud, in 1989.
The store is scheduled to close Aug. 24 and is running a 40%-off sale until then. The Schafers had hoped that someone would keep the store running, but the new owner bought the property, not the business, they explained.
“It’s bittersweet,” Glennon says. “But with e-commerce and COVID, it’s been tough. The demographics have changed. People are not doing things around the house so much anymore.”
Pam Schafer — who has other longtime work at St. Joseph’s Episcopal School in Boynton Beach, first as a teacher’s aide and now as an administrative coordinator — has been overseeing the store and spends about 30 hours a week there, she says.
“After my husband bought the store from his father, he ran it until he passed away in 2005. I had to quit the school when Bud got sick to take care of him and started working part time at the hardware store.
“I ran it with my manager, Dale Hussey, all those years, but then he got sick and Glennon came in.”
“It was my turn to step up to the plate,” Glennon said. “I didn’t have much of a choice. I was going to college and teaching tennis at the time.
“I’ve been in charge of IT, behind-the-scenes stuff.”
Now, though, Pam has decided to focus on her work at St. Joseph’s, and Glennon, with an MBA from Florida Atlantic University, has realized that retail is not his thing.
However, the highlight of the business for both has been the service it provided to the community.
“l love Delray Beach and all our very nice customers who came in here all the time,” Pam said. “They are a good group of people, and trying to accommodate everyone’s needs, I really enjoyed that aspect of the store, but Glennon and I are ready for different chapters.”
They say they will look at other ways to further their family’s legacy.
“We’d like to continue from where my grandfather and father left off, something that will serve the community in some realm,” Glennon said.

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In July, the Boca Raton Resort & Club unveiled its new name, The Boca Raton, referencing “a new golden era,” beginning with a $175 million Phase One transformation set to be fully complete by winter 2021/2022. 
The resort’s owners, MSD Partners, L.P. and Northview Hotel Group, are stewarding the property into its new era with the architecture and design firm Rockwell Group, landscape architecture firm EDSA, branding and marketing agency King & Partners, and GarciaStromberg, a firm of architects, designers and artists.

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Skye at Boynton Beach LLC, tied to LeCesse Development Corp., sold 500 Ocean Apartments, 101 S. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach, for $105 million to four Delaware entities, with three tied to Avanti Residential in Denver, the property management arm of Capital Real Estate. The fourth entity, 101 S. Federal Highway Ground Owner LLC, is tied to Safehold, a New York-based real estate investment trust. The sale was recorded on June 25.
The Avanti entities financed the purchase with a $42 million loan from Berkeley Point Capital. Records show LeCesse paid $4.7 million for the 4.5-acre property in 2015, and built the complex in 2018. 500 Ocean Apartments consists of one- to three-bedroom units that range from 744 square feet to 1,306 square feet, according to its website. Amenities include a bowling alley, an infinity pool, a parking garage and a theater room and game room in the clubhouse. The property includes office and retail space.

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Real estate investor and motivational speaker Grant Cardone of Cardone Capital LLC announced on May 28 the acquisition of Camino Real Apartments, a 235-unit apartment midrise at 33 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton. According to The Real Deal, it was purchased for $69 million from Morgan Properties in an off-market deal. Morgan Properties purchased the complex in February for $46.8 million. Cardone plans to make $10 million in capital improvements to the apartments and common areas.

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John Krediet’s ocean-to-lake estate on 1.9 acres at 1780 S. Ocean, Manalapan, sold for $29,144,675 to 1780 SOB, LLC, according to public records dated July 8. Krediet, founding partner of C.F. Capital Management, bought the property for a recorded $4 million in 2010. The buying entity took out a $20 million loan from First Republic Bank, according to records, with James D. Robinson IV signing as the borrower.
Douglas Elliman agents Nicholas Malinosky and Randy Ely co-listed the property at $35 million. Agent Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group represented the buyer.
Built by Mark Timothy Inc., designed by Affiniti Architects and furnished by Marc-Michaels Inte-rior Design, the custom estate has 160 feet of waterfront on the ocean and Intracoastal Wa-terway, a tunnel under A1A, full-floor master wing, custom wine cellar, heated saltwater infin-ity-edge pool, and expansive grounds.

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Michael Cantor’s 1160 Manalapan LLC sold the 20,075-square-foot estate at 1160 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, to a land trust managed by City National Bank of Florida for $28 million, according to property records dated June 1. The trust financed the purchase with a $20.3 million loan from HSBC Bank.
The recently renovated seven-bedroom estate sits on a 1.7-acre lot with a tennis court and 160 feet of waterfront on the Intracoastal and ocean.
Holly Meyer Lucas of Compass and Sara Eavenson and Missy McCloskey of Douglas Elliman represented the seller. Casey Flannery of Equestrian Sotheby’s International Realty brought the buyer. Michael Cantor is the CEO of Cantor Enterprises. Michael Cantor’s father, Edward Cantor, paid just over $1 million for the property in 1987.

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Randal Perkins, through 1111 South Ocean LLC, bought the oceanfront mansion at 1111 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, from Thomas and Michell Marra for $21.1 million in May. Perkins, the founder of AshBritt Environmental, a national disaster response and environmental services contractor, then sold the house on July 9 for $21,910,500. The new owner is 1111 Ocean Land Trust, with Boca Raton attorney Stuart R. Morris. It was purchased with a $14.2 million loan from Bank of America.
The 21,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom mansion, situated on an acre with 120 feet of oceanfront, includes a theater, gym, game room, an eight-bay garage, and a four-hole putting green. The house was designed by Randall Stofft and built by Cudmore Builders, according to the listing, which was held by Douglas Elliman’s Nick Malinosky and Randy Ely. They represented the buyer and seller in the earlier transaction but said they could not comment on the second sale.

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The late shoe mogul Bobby Campbell’s waterfront estate at 819 Orchid Drive in Boca Raton sold for $17.9 million in June.
The buyer was Florida-based 819 Orchid Drive LLC, with Eric Glazer as the LLC’s registered manager and agent. Oren Alexander of Douglas Elliman represented the buyer and seller.
The deal marks a record for single-family home sales in Boca, according to the brokerage, topping the $17.375 million sale in 2017 of 201 New Castle St.
Campbell, who died last year at age 82, was chairman and CEO of BBC International, a footwear property whose brands include Cole Haan, Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Nine West.
Campbell paid $3.8 million for the property in 2000 and built a new house in 2019.
The 12,673-square-foot mansion, with nine bedrooms, four infinity pools, a dock, and atrium-like interiors, sits on a 0.59-acre corner lot with 343 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway.

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Joseph A. and Melissa L. Walsh bought the estate at 1315 N. Ocean Blvd. in Gulf Stream for $12.6 million from the Sharon Ann Millar Revocable Trust Agreement, with Sharon Ann Millar and Lawrence A. Sala acting as trustees. The sale was recorded July 7.
Joseph Walsh is CEO and president of the Dallas-based software support company Thryv. Melissa Walsh is a founder of Capital Blackbook, an event design and management firm near Washington, D.C., according to her LinkedIn page.
Sharon “Sherry” Millar is the widow of James F. Millar, who died in 2020. According to his obituary, he was president and CEO of Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health. He also served on the board of Wendy’s International, First Industrial Realty and Columbus Industries.

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Miami-based Sabal Development’s founder, Pascal Nicolai, paid $9.85 million in June for an oceanfront, 55,000-square-foot lot at 3050 S. Ocean Boulevard, Manalapan. He plans to build a 12,000-square-foot, six-bedroom home with a movie theater, gym,  lounge, elevator, and a beach house with a dock. Architecture and interior finishes will be designed by TOGU Design of Miami. 
The sellers, Kenneth Brodlieb, chairman of New York-based car dealership East Hills Auto Group, with his wife, Andrea, paid $7.9 million for the lot in October 2020. The lot was listed in March for $12 million, then cut by $1 million in April, according to Realtor.com. Christopher Leavitt with Douglas Elliman represented the sellers, and Gilles Dalco of Bonaparte Real Estate represented the buyer, according to Zillow.com.

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Joshua D. and Victoria Frank purchased the waterfront home at 429 E. Alexander Palm Road, Boca Raton, from Cindy Barad Elias, a trustee of the Alexander Palm Revocable Trust. The 8,082-square-foot, six-bedroom home, with 88 feet of waterfront, sold for $9.6 million, with the sale recorded June 2.
The estate was built in 2012 by SRD Building Corp., with amenities include a club room with a bar, custom wine room, gym and infinity pool. Elias bought the property in 2013 for $6.456 million.
Bambi Ross of One Sotheby’s International Realty represented the seller, while Devin Kay of Douglas Elliman represented the buyer. Joshua Frank is a partner and the co-head of research at Trian Partners, an investment management firm with offices in New York and Palm Beach, according to its website.

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David Gibbs and his wife, Sharon, paid $8.465 million in May for an Intracoastal home at 550 Middle Road, Gulf Stream.
Gibbs is CEO of Yum Brands, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
The seller is listed as a trust in Patricia Moran’s name. Moran is the former chair and CEO of JM Family Enterprises, a Deerfield Beach-based auto company that was founded by her father, Jim Moran.
She purchased the 6,401-square-foot home in 2016 for $6.7 million. The estate was built in 2001 on a 9,001-square-foot lot with 330 feet of waterfront.

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The Boca Raton Arts District Exploratory Corp. has appointed Matthew Cimaglia, the CEO and co-founder of Third Summit, to its board of directors.
BRADEC is seeking a deal with Boca Raton to build a $130 million performing arts center in Mizner Park. The project would be funded by donations from cultural arts supporters and corporations.
“It is critical to our mission to have an experienced professional of his caliber on our team in order to support the center’s focus on technology and innovation,” BRADEC President Andrea Virgin said in announcing Cimaglia’s appointment in June.
Third Summit is a network of digital media and financial companies, whose flagship platform is Alteon, a cloud-based, artificial intelligence-driven ecosystem for digital content creators.
Cimaglia, who grew up in Boca Raton, also has worked with Fortune 100 and 500 companies.

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In a 4-0 vote of the City Commission, FAU Tech Runway was approved on July 20 to lease the 1,850-square-foot, ground-floor office space at City Hall at Boynton Beach Town Square, 100 E. Ocean Ave.
Boynton Beach’s Department of Economic Development and Strategy is providing a one-time $50,000 grant for programming within the space.
Tech Runway, which received a five-year lease, is a startup incubator that connects entrepreneurs with educational resources, mentors and funding opportunities.

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The Executive Women of the Palm Beaches Foundation has named its new board for the 2021-22 year, with Amy Brand, CEO of Philanthropy Tank, to serve as president.
The selection came June 23 at the organization’s annual meeting at the Beach Club in Lake Worth Beach.
Brand will be joined by Cecilia Hudnet, director of sales with the Chesterfield Palm Beach, as vice president of resource development/membership; Kae Jonsons, director of development with the Delray Beach Public Library, as vice president of resource development/fundraising; Kathy McGuire as vice president of programs and education; Angie Francalancia of The Connection Public Relations as secretary, and Trudy Crowetz as treasurer and immediate past president.
Cindy Pollack, a vice president at Edward Jones, is treasurer-elect, and Nellie King is legal counsel.
Board members include Jessica Clasby, Sailynn Doyle, Lisa Huertas, Barbara Scarlata, Lena D’Amico, Jackie Halderman, Marlene Ryan, Marcella Scherer and Trixy Walker.
During the meeting, Jonsons was named 2021 member of the year, and Jo-Ann Clynch was named new member of the year. 

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Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of Discover The Palm Beaches, received the Presidents Award during the Gold Coast PR Council Bernays Award presentations announced July 20 via Zoom.
Pesquera was honored for aggressively promoting and protecting South Florida’s vital tourism and hospitality industry during the pandemic.
Lisa De La Rionda, director of Palm Beach County’s Public Affairs Department, was named PR Star for how she communicated the county’s response to the pandemic to the public and the media.
The Founders’ Award went to the Gold Coast PR Council’s treasurer, Michael Turnbell, for keeping the organization solvent and viable during the difficult economic environment.
Other award recipients included: Palm Tran, in the nonprofit project or campaign, small category; T. Leroy Jefferson Medical Society, in the nonprofit project or campaign, large category; and Loggerhead Marine Life Center, in the social media campaign, nonprofit category.
The Crisis Communications award went to Food For The Poor. Labor Finders received the award for marketing materials, print, internal and external category. Multi-Media Works, Inc. was the winner in marketing materials, digital/video, internal and external category.
Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County won in the special event, live or virtual category.  Boardroom PR won the award for social media campaign, for profit category.
Kaye Communications Inc. won for PR campaign by a small company or firm, and Lynn University for PR campaign by a large company or firm.
The awards were hosted by Rich Pollack of Pollack Communications, Anne Dichele from the Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization, and David DiPino from Tenet Florida Physician Services.
The annual awards recognize excellence in public relations campaigns, marketing programs, and media coverage.

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Robert Carlo is now Florida Peninsula Insurance’s director of litigation. Carlo began his claims career at Progressive Insurance and continued with roles at GMAC Insurance, American International Group, Acceptance Insurance, Direct General Insurance, Windhaven Insurance Co., National General Insurance, and Fed Nat Insurance. 
Carlo is a native Floridian who completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida and earned his MBA at the Keller Graduate School of Management. Carlo will work out of the company’s Boca Raton office.

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New degree and certificate programs in construction and the health sciences are slated to begin this fall term at Palm Beach State College, aiming to meet industry demands. Fall term classes begin Aug. 23.
The building construction management associate degree and building construction specialist college credit certificate focus on managing the construction process and high-demand knowledge and skills. For more information, visit www.palmbeachstate.edu/career-pathways/pathway-industry. 
The health services management associate degree will prepare students to work on the business and financial sides of health care delivery. The surgical services associate degree will prepare surgical technologists. For more information, visit www.palmbeachstate.edu/career-pathways/pathway-health. 

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

Diana Bush, owner of the retail boutique Salutations of Delray, accepts the second-place prize of $10,000 in the Batmasian Family Grant small business award competition. Also at the presentation are (l-r) attorney Ken Ronan, Troy McLellan of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce, and Lauren Ricks of Into The Blue Agency, which promoted the grant competition. Photo provided

More than 150 Broward and Palm Beach County businesses applied to be considered for the Batmasian Family Grant for small business.
In June, 15 grants were awarded. Founders of Investments Limited, Propel, and Changing Lives, Jim and Marta Batmasian support both small businesses and nonprofit organizations with a goal to make a difference in the community.
The first-place winner, Invictus Barber Shop, was awarded $20,000. The second-place winner, Salutations of Delray, received $10,000. The third-place winner, K&E Travel Agency, was awarded $10,000.  
The remaining top finalists each received $5,000. They were: Doria Media, Swim Boca, Wine House Social, Urban Youth Impact, Six Tables, Music For Young Voices, Toby Center, The Loft At Congress, Everyday Learning, ScentsAbility, Project Speech and Atlantic Allcare.
The judging panel was made up of business leaders, with the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce reviewing all applications. Winners also received three months of one-on-one consultation sessions with the Batmasians and the judging panel. 

— Christine Davis

Coastal Star photos by Dave Meeks, Tim Stepien and Jerry LowerContestants await results of Lantana’s ‘Most Patriotic Baby’ competition. One of the three winners was Lantana resident Logan Castillo, 10 months, pictured top right with his father, Danny Castillo.

Lantana Mayor Robert Hagerty recognizes the Kresak family visiting from North Carolina. The family is descended from Lantana pioneer M.B. Lyman and his father, M.K. Lyman. Mark and Brenda Jamison Kresak have seven sons (l-r): Ian, Landan, Brendan, Ethan, Ryan, Aidan and Nolan. The boys are seventh-generation Lyman descendants. Brenda is Cindy Lyman Jamison’s daughter. Cindy’s father was Capt. Kenny Lyman. Kenny’s father was Walter ‘Pop’ Lyman. Pop Lyman was Morris Benson Lyman’ s son. Morris Kennedy Lyman and Morris Benson Lyman came to the region in 1884.

Zach Gorman of Boynton Beach was one of six co-winners in the watermelon- eating contest that was part of the festivities at Bicentennial Park.

Michelle Jackson, a traveling nurse from Tennessee who spent the previous three months working at JFK Medical Center, was one of the winners in the hula hoop contest. She and two children outlasted a field of more than 20 participants.

The fireworks lasted for a half hour, and many in the crowd commented on how exciting they were. The town didn't have fireworks last year because of the pandemic, so it spent twice as much, $60,000, this year.

Jamie Sauer, president of the Junior League of Boca Raton (from left), Lynne Moyer, Sosy Faradyan, Mado Faradyan, Fabiola Padernacht, Irina Oyfe and Jocelyn Mijares box food at Boca Helping Hands. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Boca’s Junior League celebrates long tradition of helping, from providing diapers, meals for children to keeping community garden

By Ron Hayes

You’ll find them right around 6 p.m. any Thursday, eight or 10 women lining both sides of a worktable on the second floor of a warehouse on Northwest First Court in Boca Raton.
For the next hour or two, they will pick up individual servings of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Pop Tarts, Pringles or mixed fruit cups and place one of each in cardboard boxes.
Fruit cup after fruit cup, Pop Tart after Pop Tart, this would be awfully boring work if they were just packing boxes. But these women are at Boca Helping Hands to make sure about 700 South County elementary school students don’t go hungry every weekend.
They are the Junior League of Boca Raton, and on Sept. 23 many of their 600-plus members will gather at The Addison to celebrate 50 years of service to their community.
“We find a need, and we work to fill it,” says Jamie Sauer, the league’s president. “In the past 50 years, we’ve volunteered more than a million hours.”

Members of the Junior League of Boca Raton gather at an event in the 1980s. This chapter of the league began in 1971. Photo provided by the Junior League of Boca Raton

That’s a million hours of volunteerism since 1971, when 26 young women declared themselves the Junior Service League of Boca Raton and set about to gather 100 members under 35 so they could be recognized by the national organization.
Mary Lavalle joined in 1973. She’ll turn 78 in December and is still active with the league.
“It was a way of making new friends,” she recalls. “I had children, they had children. When I joined there were not so many women working outside the home. I’m a volunteer. I like to do things, and the league has taught me how to be a productive volunteer.”
By 1984, the Junior Service League had found its 100 members, been recognized by the national body, and dropped the word “Service” from its name.
They’ve never dropped the commitment to service.
In the earliest days, that meant puppet shows and consignment shops, or supporting the Morikami Museum, Planned Parenthood and Children’s Home Society.
Then they helped found the Boca Raton Historical Society and the Children’s Museum.

Members of the Junior League of Boca Raton entertain underserved children at an event. Some of the league’s members say they are motivated to help children after raising kids of their own. Photo provided by the Junior League of Boca Raton

In 2010, the league was entrusted with launching the Boca Raton Community Garden on 1½ acres by the railroad tracks on Northwest Fourth Street, land donated by the city.
Ground was broken on Earth Day 2010, with residents who leased the 100 plots agreeing to donate 10% of their fruits and vegetables to Boca Helping Hands.
A decade later, on May 10, 2021, ground was broken on a new community garden at Meadows Park on Northwest Eighth Street to accommodate the Brightline station to be built near the Downtown Library. Brightline underwrote the new garden’s construction and the city donated the land and water, but it will continue to be managed by the league.
“We’ve had a volunteer shift working together with Brightline, Kaufman Lynn Construction and the city to build the 100 garden boxes,” Sauer reports. “We’re very excited to get started in August.”
When league members learned that food stamps and the federal Women, Infants & Children program don't cover disposable diapers, they marked their 40th anniversary in 2011 by setting up the Junior League Diaper Bank.
A decade later, they’ve given away more than 5 million diapers and are currently serving about 3,000 children through 23 local nonprofits.
“On average, we distribute between 100,000 and 200,000 diapers every other month,” Sauer reports. “We’ve helped over 15,000 families in the past 10 years.”
Next year, the Diaper Bank will become an independent nonprofit. “But the Junior League will continue to be supportive, with members on the board, volunteer shifts and more,” Sauer emphasizes. “We’re eager to see what we started 10 years ago grow even more as a new nonprofit.”
And then there’s the Done-In-A-Day project, in which members volunteer to spend two to four hours at area nonprofits, such as Twin Palms Center for the Disabled, CROS Ministries, or parks and beach cleanups.
On July 23 and 24, volunteers filled backpacks with school supplies in support of the Spirit of Giving Network’s Back to School Bash.
“I was a homeroom mom,” says Jocelyn Mijares, who chairs the Done-In-A-Day committee. “Now my kids are older, so I volunteer a lot.
“My whole thought is, there but for the grace of God go I,” she says, placing another fruit cup in a box at Boca Helping Hands. “One different decision and I could be on the receiving end of these boxes.”

Junior League of Boca Raton members attend a 1986 fundraiser. By then, the group had more than 100 members. Photo provided by the Junior League of Boca Raton

No more white gloves and pearls

And still there are some who think “Junior League” means pampered women in white gloves and pearls who lunch on lobster and make chitchat. But the cliché didn’t come out of nowhere.
The national Junior League was already 70 years old when those 26 women in Boca Raton formed their chapter.
Originally called the Junior League for the Promotion of the Settlement Movements, it was founded in 1901 by Mary Harriman Rumsey, a student at Barnard College and the sister of W. Averell Harriman, a future governor of New York, and the daughter of Edward H. Harriman, a railroad executive. She was 19.
Perhaps she wore white gloves and pearls at times — along with Eleanor Roosevelt, 19 when she joined, too — but they worked to aid poor families who had arrived in the country during the influx of European immigrants in the late 19th century.
Today, the Junior League of Boca Raton is one of 295 chapters with 125,000 members in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom, and women can now join at 21.
The helping hands at Boca Helping Hands are not wearing white gloves, and they are not lazy. When the women left on June 24, they had packed 185 boxes of food.
“The Junior League has been volunteering here since 2009,” says Bill Harper, Helping Hands’ director of food and warehouse operations. “They generally pack about 200 boxes a week.”
Each box contains six small meals of macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and beef, and three snacks that provide 2,400 calories to feed poor children every weekend.
Before the pandemic, the meals went in backpacks. Now, they’re delivered in the cardboard boxes rather than repacking backpacks that, going from their homes to the schools to the Helping Hands warehouse, could carry the virus.

Jamie Sauer, president of the Junior League of Boca Raton, and Mary Lavalle, a president in the early 1980s, united at Boca Helping Hands with several other volunteers to pack meals for distribution to children in need. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

“During the school year, we feed about 700 students in six South County elementary schools,” Harper explains. “That’s 700 boxes a week in a full 38-week school year. Now we’re distributing at summer camps and Boys & Girls Clubs.”
Of the 185 boxes the women of the Junior League packed on June 24, 117 alone were scheduled to go to feed students from Boca Raton Elementary School.
For Lynne Moyer, a member of the league’s public affairs committee, this was her first stint packing food at Boca Helping Hands.
“I joined three years ago after retiring,” she said. “I was a Latin teacher. Now I play tournament croquet, but I need to do something for people in need.”
And so she found the women of the Junior League, who have done just that for 50 years.

50th anniversary celebration
The Junior League of Boca Raton will celebrate its 50 years of service to the community with a dinner, an open bar, entertainment and a silent auction.
Where: The Addison of Boca Raton, 2 E. Camino Real
When: 7 p.m. Sept. 23
Tickets: Cost is $171 per person, available at www.jlbr.org.
For more information: Call 561-620-2553 or email 50anniversary@jlbr.org.

An ACCF student practices a coding workshop before meeting Coco Gauff via a Zoom call. Photo provided

By Amy Woods

As a professional tennis player and full-time remote student, Coco Gauff sees firsthand the ways technology benefits education.
While completing classes despite maintaining a rigorous training and tournament schedule, the local celebrity was inspired to provide some of the same tools to Delray Beach students.
“This community has given me a lot, so it’s definitely important to give back,” the 17-year-old Gauff said of her hometown.
Teaming up with Microsoft, she helped refresh the main computer lab and build two additional labs for the Achievement Centers for Children and Families with the donation of new devices.
“We are extremely thankful to have been chosen as the recipients for this collaboration,” said Stephanie Seibel, the nonprofit’s CEO. “We want to extend an enormous thank you to Coco and Microsoft for this generous contribution.”
For more information, call 561-276-0520 or visit https://achievementcentersfl.org.

Quantum awards $1.5 million to nonprofits

Through its Quantum in the Community initiative, the Quantum Foundation allocated nearly $1.5 million in grants for the first and second quarters of 2021, the largest of which went to FoundCare, one of the government’s federally qualified health centers.
FoundCare will apply the $250,000 toward construction of a new in-house pharmacy at its West Palm Beach location.
“We are deeply grateful for the generous support we have received from our friends at Quantum Foundation,” CEO Yolette Bonnet said.
The other grant recipients include The Women’s Breast & Heart Initiative; Center for Family Services of Palm Beach County; Children’s Bereavement Center; Helping Our Wounded Foundation of South Florida; Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County; Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches; TeleHealth Access for Seniors; Education Foundation of Palm Beach County; Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Palm Beach County; Farmworker Coordinating Council of Palm Beach County; Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired; Palm Beach County Health Department; Promise Fund of Florida; T. Leroy Jefferson Medical Society, and Northend RISE.
For more information, call 561-832-7497 or visit https://quantumfnd.org.

Roots and Wings keeps soaring during summer

This year’s Honda Classic golf tournament donated $5,000 to Roots and Wings, a charity that works to improve the quality of education in South Florida, and its Project UpLift program.
A check presentation took place in June featuring executives from the tournament, board members from Roots and Wings and Plumosa School of the Arts Principal Cathy Reynolds.
Project UpLift helps second- and third-graders who have been identified by their teachers as needing extra help in reading.
Roots and Wings’ education celebration also took place in June, recognizing recipients of the Above and Beyond Award.
More than 100 winners and their guests joined Janet Meeks, the city of Delray Beach’s education coordinator, at the Arts Warehouse for the affair, which included a buffet, a raffle and plaques to the Above and Beyond champions.
For more information, call 561-404-0455 or visit https://rootsandwingsinc.org.

Send news and notes to Amy Woods at flamywoods@bellsouth.net.

By Amy Woods

The George Snow Scholarship Fund’s Ballroom Battle returns for its 14th year and its second as a televised event to raise money for aspiring college students.
The Dancing with the Stars-themed competition is set for 7 p.m. Aug. 14 and will air on WPTV-TV from the station’s studios as well as online. It features eight dancers, each paired with a professional, strutting their stuff during choreographed routines.
“Over the last 13 years, our event has become the do-not-miss event of the season as eight of our community’s most recognizable personalities take to the dance floor for a good cause,” said Tim Snow, the organization’s president. “Not to mention that coveted fundraising Mirror Ball trophy.”
Among those vying for the trophy awarded to the top fundraisers is Dr. Jeffrey Stein, 63, a Boca Raton internist.
“Am I going to be the best dancer?” Stein mused. “I don’t know. But I do know I am going to have the most fun.”
He plans to channel his inner John Travolta in a rhinestone-studded disco outfit.
“There’s a lot of people who do this, and they get out of their comfort zone,” Stein said. “This was a fundraiser that was so easy for me to do. I’m enjoying learning certain dances. At the same time, I’m hopefully going to put some kids through college.”
Dancing always has been part of his life, especially while he attended medical school at the American University of the Caribbean in Montserrat.
“It was my release,” Stein said. “I just used to put on a cassette and listen to ’70s music and dance in my dorm room to take the pressure off an exam or to distract me. It was my way to decompress.”
The other dancers are Elmar Benavente, Kelly Fleming, Dre Garcia, Dr. Melyssa Hancock, Ryan Reiter, Mindy Shikiar and Robert Snyder. Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Boca Raton is giving all of them a series of lessons to perfect their moves.
“Whether I win or not is immaterial because the only people who are winning are the kids who are going to get a scholarship,” Stein said. “My life is not going to change with what happens, but if I can change kids’ lives, that’s what matters.”

If You Go
What: Ballroom Battle for George Snow Scholarship Fund
When: 7 p.m. Aug. 14
Where: On air at WPTV-TV, online at www.wptv.com and https://scholarship.org/ballroom-battle
Information: 561-347-6799 or www.ballroombattle.com

The evening event put on by Changing Lives, an organization focused on meeting the immediate needs of homeless people in Palm Beach County, gave guests a better understanding of a day in the life of a growing population and what the nonprofit has done to help. Nearly $147,000 was raised. Celebrities lined up to show their support for the cause, including former NFL linebacker Darius Fleming and Grammy Award winner Gloria Gaynor, whose hit song inspired the title for the fundraiser. ‘It was truly heartwarming to see the community come together to help those in need, especially during these trying times,’ said Lesly Morales, director of operations for Changing Lives. ABOVE: Marta and James Batmasian. Photo provided

The Institute for Regional Conservation, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and restoring ecological diversity in Delray Beach, celebrated the United Nations’ annual holiday by planting populations of species that historically grew in the area but have become extinct or underrepresented. Staff members Cara Abbott, George Gann and Michelle Smith worked with a group of volunteers from the community on the Restoring the Gold Coast program. ‘While sandy beaches have been renourished, sea oats have been planted and turtle nests protected, the vast diversity of coastal uplands has remained in a depleted state,’ Gann said. ABOVE: (l-r) Smith, volunteer John Campanola, Gann, volunteer Tina Pugliese and Abbott. Photo provided

The Faulk Center raised awareness about mental health amid the COVID-19 crisis with a livestreamed event on Facebook. Butterflies symbolize transformation and renewal and represent hope and strength for people struggling with mental illness. ‘Understanding the impact of the pandemic on mental health, and on those with serious mental illness, is critical,’ said Jonathan Price, the center’s CEO. Its mission is to promote emotional well-being through free and low-cost programs. ABOVE: (l-r) Lois Weisman, Marla Kosec, Rita Thrasher and Price. Photo provided

More than 35 years ago, Il Circolo, The Italian Cultural Society, donated $5,000 to Florida Atlantic University to kick-start an Italian program. Myriam Ruthenberg was hired to teach it. Since that time, Ruthenberg’s class evolved into a full-study curriculum recognized by the Italian government. The charity lauded the recently retired professor and gave her a clock as a gift (above). ‘The investment Il Circolo made has brought the richest of returns, taking pride knowing that our young students have benefited from our support,’ volunteer Sally Valenti said. ‘We salute Dr. Ruthenberg for skillfully and relentlessly making this possible and wish her a peaceful and enjoyable rest.’ Photo provided

Dozens of golfers showed their support for the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County at an outing that included lunch and a silent auction. A total of $25,000 was raised for programs serving children and adults in need. The winning foursome was Craig Tanner, Dennis Drucker, Devin Rosenberger and Luciana Garcia. ABOVE: (l-r) Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County CEO Kristin Calder with board members Robert Mitchell, Nancy Vera, Joe Grant, Regine Bataille, Sharon Hill, Debra Ghostine, Len Gray and Maggie Dickenson. Photo provided

SeaSpray Inlet Grill enjoys a prime view of Lake Boca Raton at the Waterstone Resort, and has a dock for boaters. Photo provided

By Jan Norris

August is Restaurant Month in Delray Beach, a promotion set up by the Downtown Development Authority to fill empty dining rooms during a usually slow season.
That’s not the case this year, as diners are often seeing long waits at restaurant doors — even with reservations.
Laura Simon, executive director of the DDA, points to an extended season, saying Delray Beach is marking higher tourism numbers this summer, long past the usual time for both visitors and seasonal residents to head North.
“We’re fortunate to live in Delray and with the great work we’re doing together to promote the city, we’re seeing higher hotel occupancy than usual this time of year,” she said.
“It’s also a combination of things that are contributing to the wait times.”
These include good weather, plenty of outdoor seating — still popular with diners — and the variety of choices available within the downtown area.
Simon also acknowledges the diminished workforce, as many hospitality workers go North in summer to work in resorts or sister restaurants. Others changed jobs altogether during the pandemic. That has created a dwindling pool of servers as well as kitchen staff in Delray and across the country.
Some restaurants have begun parsing out seating during busy times to accommodate diners according to their serving capabilities; others are shrinking operating hours.
Ali Carr, who handles the host station and reservations at Lionfish, said early diners have the best chances at snagging seats, while those who prefer to eat at 7 p.m. or later may have an hour or more wait. Large parties are advised to book well in advance.
Popular spots like Elisabetta’s, Rocco’s Tacos, Rose’s Daughter and Caffe Luna Rosa also have long waits, especially on weekends, but they provide a check-in so diners can stroll around the area until they are notified by phone that their table is ready.
“Restaurants are trying to be creative, and encourage reservations well in advance,” Simon said.
The restaurants that are signed up for special prix fixe lunch and dinner meals for the Restaurant Month program have partnered with Open Table to secure reservations for their diners wanting the specials.
Restaurant Month, which offers special menus or discounts for three- and four-course meals, expanded from a weeklong program in years past to a monthlong affair last year, Simon said. Owners whose restaurants had been closed or had implemented restricted capacity appreciated the extra time to showcase their specialties.
“The community likes the opportunity to have that time to explore smaller restaurants or those that aren’t usually in the spotlight,’’ Simon said.
More than 30 restaurants were on the list to participate before Aug. 1, with more being added to the website (www.downtowndelraybeach.com) as word gets around. Newcomers Amar, Lionfish, and Avalon Steak & Seafood are joined by old favorites such as The Office, The Wine Room, The Grove, Rose’s Daughter, Dada, Death or Glory, Deck 84, the Atlantic Grille and Caffe Luna Rosa.
Diners are encouraged to give feedback, and return to support the restaurants they discover in the program.

New at the Waterstone

Many restaurants used the downtime in the last year to renovate or redesign. At the Waterstone Resort in Boca Raton, a $500,000 renovation led to a redo of the site’s restaurant, now called the SeaSpray Inlet Grill, along with the addition of a marina.
It’s now Boca’s only restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway with docking. Boaters can tie off there and choose from an American grill menu or come for happy hour and eat at the bar. Serving the resort, the al fresco SeaSpray is open for breakfast through dinner daily.
Chef Kelley Randall, who cooked at Venu, The Office, and Vic and Angelo’s, keeps the menu tight with crowd pleasers. Grilled octopus, a mahi Reuben and frutti di mare are among the seafood offerings. The menu has skirt steak, chicken paillard and a pear tortellini in a truffle cream sauce. Several sandwiches fill out the list, as well as a few vegetarian options such as sticky cauliflower appetizer with a sesame-soy glaze.
The waterside brunch has become the place to be on the weekends — expect a wait.
SeaSpray at the Waterstone Resort, 999 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton. Phone 561-368-9500; www.seasprayboca.com.
Fine dining at Boca resort
The Boca Raton, the recently transformed resort, now has the Flamingo Grill as its signature restaurant.
New owners of the 95-year-old property, MSD Partners, L.P. and Northview Hotel Group, are calling the $175 million Phase One upgrade “A New Golden Era.” They joined with Major Food Group to create a restaurant evocative of the fine dining prevalent in the mid-1900s.
The menu created by Mario Carbone and executive chef Will Cox highlights foods familiar to diners but with contemporary twists. Dressed lobster is napped with a French curry aioli and served with pickled green apple, while tomato gazpacho includes watermelon. Entrees include whole branzino and prime steaks along with a half zesty chicken with roasted garlic vinaigrette.
Traditional service includes dinner captains in the main dining room, which is decorated in a tropical theme by the Rockwell Group. Al fresco seating on the veranda, as well as at the bar, is available. An outdoor terrace has a bar with a lighter-bites menu and signature cocktails.
Other restaurants will be added as the resort continues renovations. During the winter season 2021-2022, MFG management plans to open Sadelle’s, a popular brunch eatery with locations in New York and Las Vegas, and others focused on Japanese and Italian fare.
Currently, the Flamingo Grill is open to hotel guests and members of the resort for dinner only, Tuesday through Sunday. Lunch is expected to launch by summer’s end.
The Flamingo Grill at The Boca Raton, 501 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton. Phone 561-447-3000; www.thebocaraton.com.

Pizza goes and comes

The closing of Mellow Mushroom in Delray Beach had some pizza lovers feeling not so mellow, but the space will see new pies soon.
Nick’s New Haven Style Pizzeria and Bar in Boca Raton's Glades Plaza signed on to lease the place at 25 SE Sixth Ave. as soon as the ink dried on Mellow’s exit contract.
Nick’s is known for thin crust, coal-charred, Neapolitan pies, as well as white clam pizzas — and they’re pronounced colloquially “apizza.’’
Loyalists of the coastal city and the unique style with plenty of sauce have kept Boca’s locale busy; the owners are banking on even more exposure close to Atlantic Avenue.
No opening date has been set.

More pies for the Grove

The opening of Izza Pizza in Pineapple Grove has others, notably the vegans, doing a happy dance.
Izza Pizza has both conventional and vegan pies, as well as gluten-free. Plant-based meatballs and cashew ricotta along with cauliflower land on the animal-free list, while the omnivores can relish specialty pizzas such as bulgogi and kimchi, or bacon and onion jam, or pineapple, prosciutto and jalapeño.
Described as a cross between New York and New Haven style, with a thin, crispy crust, the conventional pizzas offered include traditional pepperoni and mushroom. You can mix and match. Order plant-based cheese with the sausage if you choose. They don’t judge.
This is one for the night workers, too. Izza Pizza says it is open 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily.
Izza Pizza, 25 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach. Phone 561-455-2442; www.izzapizza.com.

Vegan smoothies in Delray

A talent executive who helped launch Lady Gaga’s career has opened an outdoor vegan smoothie spot behind a hot yoga studio in north Delray Beach, and is getting rave reviews from her followers.
The products at Joyfull, ranging from a soft-serve dessert to smoothies and lattes, also are organic, dairy- and gluten-free.
Leah Landon, a former smoothie chain vice president, opened the tropical, sand-covered yard this summer. It’s studded with bright benches, chairs and tables, and shaded by poinciana and cassia trees and a few palms.
Joyfull is aligned with Anuttara Yoga Shala in a health and wellness partnership.
Smoothies have oat milk and coconut milk bases. A variety of fruits, berries, plant powders and spices are added for flavors. The soft-serve dessert is oat-milk based and available in house-made waffle cones.
Add-ins for protein and energy boosts and beneficial antioxidants are on tap.
Joyfull, 2219 Seacrest Blvd., Delray Beach. Open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. www.choosejoyfull.com.

In brief

• Talk about pivoting: Burt Rapoport of Delray Beach’s Deck 84 has offered up a number of restaurant concepts over the decades, from American grills to Mediterranean and Italian. The latest in the works is a new homestyle Chinese called Pagoda Kitchen. It is scheduled to open in the Delray Marketplace on West Atlantic Avenue sometime in October.
Rapoport has based it on his former San Francisco Chinese restaurant, Betelnut. Peking duck, bao buns and lo mein will be on the menu, which is described as “comfort” and “neighborhood” Chinese fare.
• New England restaurateurs are buying up space to open eateries in South County. Among them is Meso Beach House, a New York Mediterranean seafood restaurant expected to open in November. It will take over the spacious former Che!!! Argentinean chop house on the Intracoastal off Atlantic Avenue. Che!!! closed in June.
Owner Bobby Khorrami, a part-time Delray resident, closed two restaurants in New York because of lack of business during the pandemic. The Big Apple was particularly hard-hit, with tourism at a standstill and severe restrictions. South Florida, in contrast, is attracting visitors, has low taxes and welcomes businesses. Meso Beach House plans to offer a trendy, modern seafood menu that also includes land fare and vegan offerings.
• Flavor Palm Beach returns after a year’s hiatus in September. The monthlong restaurant program with a fixed-price menu for participating restaurants was slow to take off, said Briana Beaty, the program’s founder.
“The restaurants were reluctant at first because they said we bring so much business, they were afraid they won’t have enough staff to accommodate all the diners,” she said.
They’ve come aboard, she said, with newcomers such as La Goulue and Almond in Palm Beach, True Food Kitchen in Boca, Amar in Delray Beach, and in West Palm Beach, the new Planta. In all more than 40 restaurants have signed up with up to 50 expected. The program benefits the Palm Beach County Food Bank this year. Find the list and information at www.FlavorPB.com.
• Jason Emmett stepped down as president of the Duffy’s Sports Grill chain, and partnered with Carl Berry and Amy Siegel to create Paradigm Hospitality Group. They’ve acquired three restaurant concepts during the pandemic. They own the American Icon Brewery in Fort Lauderdale and Vero Beach, the Agency Kitchen & Bar in the Delray Marketplace, and have taken over the Sundy House in Delray Beach. Expect more from the group, now that the dust seems to have settled.
• Coming to Mizner Park this fall: Pure Green, a smoothie and bowls meal outlet, and Subculture Coffee, a coffee and sandwich shop owned by Rodney Mayo’s group. Look for other dining and shop additions as Mizner undergoes a redo.

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

Delray Medical Center recently honored its first two graduates from the Florida Atlantic University Cardiovascular Fellowship at the center: Dr. Priya Bansal and Dr. Haider Al Taii. Under the leadership of Dr. Brij Maini, national and Florida medical director for cardiology for Tenet Healthcare and fellowship director of cardiovascular diseases for the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU, the fellows trained with Delray physicians and nursing staff. ABOVE (l-r): Maini with Al Taii, cardiologist Dr. Houman Khalili, Bansal, and Maggie Gill, CEO of Delray Medical Center. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

The Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Cancer Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital has opened the Lynn Cancer Institute at Bethesda — Radiation Oncology, at Bethesda Health City, 10301 Hagen Ranch Road, Boynton Beach.
Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Bethesda Hospital East and Bethesda Hospital West are all part of Baptist Health South Florida. The institute will be under the direction of Michael Kasper, M.D., medical director of radiation oncology at Lynn Cancer Institute.
“We look forward to this partnership that will help us bring state-of-the-art comprehensive oncology care closer to our patients and community,” said Nelson Lazo, CEO of Bethesda Hospital East and Bethesda Hospital West.

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Haroula Protopapadakis Norden was appointed chief operating officer of Boca Raton Regional Hospital, part of Baptist Health South Florida. Protopapadakis Norden is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and served as the 2020 president of the South Florida chapter’s board of directors. She comes to Boca Regional from Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where she was associate administrator.

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Cardiac and thoracic surgeon Ahmad Hamzah, M.D., has joined Baptist Health Medical Group North. Previously, he worked at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in Hudson. Hamzah will see patients at Boca Raton Regional Hospital and Bethesda Hospital East.

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Seif Elbualy, M.D., has joined Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, as the director of interventional pain management. Previously, Elbualy was director at the Comprehensive Center for Pain Management at Boca Regional. He will see patients at 800 Meadows Road in Boca Raton.

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Mary Elizabeth “Libby” Flippo is now a member of the Florida Board of Nursing, as appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The board has 13 members. It licenses, monitors, disciplines and educates licensees. Flippo is the chief nursing officer for the Palm Beach Health Network, which includes Delray Medical Center, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Palm Beach Children’s Hospital, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center. 

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Dr. Erica R. Podolsky, a general surgeon with expertise in bariatric and minimally invasive surgery, recently performed her 500th robotic surgery with the da Vinci robot at Delray Medical Center.
Podolsky is the medical director of the Surgical Weight Loss Program at Delray Medical Center, where she specializes in robotic laparoscopic abdominal surgery. She also serves as the chair of quality and patient safety on Delray Medical Center’s Medical Executive Committee.
Podolsky’s office is at 4600 Linton Blvd., Suite 340, Delray Beach. Visit DrEricaPodolsky.com or call her office at 561-939-0455 for more information.
For more information about Delray Medical Center’s bariatric and robotic services, call 844-474-8378 or go to www.delraymedicalctr.com.

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In May, JFK Medical Center North campus began performing joint replacement surgery using the Mako robot, which allows surgeons to perform a more customized joint replacement surgery.
“The 3D CT allows me to create a personalized surgical plan based on each patient’s unique anatomy,” said Dr. Lyall Ashberg, orthopedic surgeon at JFK Medical Center North. “During surgery, I can validate the plan and make any necessary adjustments. This allows me to execute the procedure with the highest degree of precision and accuracy.”

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Heartland Health Care & Rehabilitation Center of Boca Raton, 7225 Boca Del Mar Drive, was recognized as a 2021 recipient of the Silver — Achievement to Quality Award by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living. The distinction is the second of three progressive award levels that honor association members across the country that have demonstrated their commitment to improving quality of care for seniors and people with disabilities. The awards will be presented during American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living’s 72nd convention and expo in National Harbor, Maryland, in October.

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Hanley Foundation is offering a series of training at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Aug. 25. Free and open to the public, the Recovery Leadership Institute Summer Advocacy Training was designed to produce equitable outcomes for people impacted by substance use disorder, including recovery and addiction specialists and leaders, families of people with addiction disorders, people in recovery, and families who have had life-adjusting experiences related to addiction.
The workshops have in-person and online attendance options, and the members of the public can choose which ones they want to attend. All presentation recordings will be made available Sept. 1 in honor of the start of National Recovery Month.
Participants are encouraged to join the livestream or in-person sessions as these sessions are interactive, led by credentialed volunteer instructors. In-person presentations take place at the Palm Beach County HUB at 2120 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach.
To view the remaining workshops and to register, visit Hanleyfoundation.org/public-policy/recovery-leadership-institute/ or contact Clarice Redding Louis, Hanley Foundation’s chief recovery community officer, at Clarice@HanleyFoundation.org. 

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

This purr-fect pour has a cat’s portrait. Photo provided

By Arden Moore

Mega coffee chains like Starbucks can offer you many varieties of coffee, but they can’t serve you a latte with a purr. That combination is available only at cat cafés, places to savor coffee and other beverages while interacting with cats up for adoption.
A few years ago, I visited Koneko in downtown Manhattan, where the felines roaming inside come from the Anjellicle Cats Rescue group. Koneko means “kitten” in Japanese.
It was a unique experience that motivated me to seek out other cat cafés to visit. My total is now five, including ones in San Diego, Chicago and a couple in Texas.
But now, you won’t have to leave Palm Beach County to partake in this experience, because plans are underway to open a cat café at the Peggy Adams Rescue League center in West Palm Beach.
“We hope to open our cat café in about a month,” says Rich Anderson, executive director/CEO at Peggy Adams. “We thought our community would love being able to spend time and get to know adoptable cats in a super-comfortable setting, and to do so while enjoying coffee or tea. Each day, a few cats will be introduced to the café and our human guests will also be able to watch cats playing in the adjacent catio.”
This cat café is inside the newly opened Lesly S. Smith Pet Adoption Center, which includes a cat adoption wing, three dog wings plus a new humane education center, a grooming room, veterinarian’s office and much more. In total, the facility is 28,000 square feet and is designed to showcase pets in need of adoption and offer classes and other programs to the pet-loving public.
“Lesly Smith has served as chairman of the board of Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League since 2009, and no person has meant more to the organization or the animals of the community than she,” says Anderson. “It was never Lesly’s intent to see the new pet adoption center named for her. Prior to the launch of the capital campaign, Lesly’s daughter, Danielle Moore, approached us with her wish to make the lead gift in her mother’s honor.”
This new wing with a cat café represents an evolution in how successful animal shelter centers operate. The days of shelters referred to as pounds and found in seedy locations in cities are thankfully disappearing. Surfacing are shelters like Peggy Adams that seek to become community centers that go beyond housing cats and dogs and other companion animals to be adopted.
“So much has changed for the better in the last 20 years nationwide for shelter animals,” says Anderson. “Adoption and foster programs have become so successful that more attention and resources have been able to shift toward programs meant to prevent animals from entering shelters in the first place. Our Safety Net programs — affordable and free veterinary care, our free pet food pantry, behavior training and support — continue to expand.”
Cat cafés exist all over the globe. Honors for being the world’s first belong to Cat Flower Garden, which opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998. The United States has an estimated 140 cat cafés.
And, yes, they strive to have playful feline names, such as The Tipsy Tabby in Newmarket, New Hampshire, Eat, Purr, Love Cat Café in Columbus, Ohio, and Purrington’s Cat Lounge in Portland, Oregon.
Some cafés serve coffee and/or alcoholic beverages. Some offer food, but all offer an opportunity to hang out with cats in a relaxing, living-room like setting.
Quality cat cafés ensure all cats are up-to-date on vaccinations. Think of them as cageless shelters for cats and kittens. They feature cat trees for felines to survey activity from preferred high places as well as cubby holes to nap uninterrupted, comfy beds, toys and much more. Litter boxes are often out of sight, but accessible to the cats.
This enriching environment enables cats to feel safe, relax and display behaviors that may win them forever homes.
Each café has its own rules for visitors, but topping the list is practicing good hygiene by thoroughly washing your hands before and after handling cats, and never picking up a cat, but rather, allowing the cat to come to you.
Until the new cat café opens at Peggy Adams, I will enjoy sipping my coffee inside a ceramic mug sporting the photo of my favorite feline, Pet Safety Cat Casey, who assists me in my pet first-aid and pet behavior classes. And, I will look for new episodes of Call Me Kat airing on Fox this fall, starring Mayim Bialik as an owner of a fictional cat café in Louisville, Kentucky.
Coffee and cats definitely blend well together.

Learn more

For more information about the cat café, the new Lesly S. Smith Pet Adoption Center and other activities at the Peggy Adams Rescue League, visit www.peggyadams.org.

Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, author, speaker and master certified pet first-aid instructor. She hosts Oh Behave! weekly on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more at www.ardenmoore.com.

A vaccinated man gives a thumbs up during the Rev. Joseph Dawkins’ campaign to protect his congregation. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

For the Rev. Joseph Dawkins of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Delray Beach, serving the senior community has been a passion since he was a young man. When ambition took him to Dallas and he had to leave his mother behind in Ocala, Dawkins worried.
When she told him a young man, without being asked, had been coming by to mow her lawn for free, Dawkins was first suspicious, then grateful. That man’s act of kindness made such an impression, Dawkins made a commitment to help people who can’t do for themselves. It’s a passion the pastor shares with his wife, Reather.
When the coronavirus came along 18 months ago, it seemed to draw a bead on the population Dawkins was most committed to serving. An unexpected blessing was that the church had already been getting ready to add virtual services.
“We were ahead of the curve,” Dawkins said. “We’d already bought the equipment. We had brought in installers and hired a few experts and we were ready to go.”
The church was ready to reach and be reached on Facebook or YouTube or the church’s website.
But people were still vulnerable. When vaccines against COVID-19 became available to older adults, it became Dawkins’ mission to see that St. Paul MBC’s seniors got the shots. “Our vaccination rate is high among age 55 and older,” he said. “Almost 100% are vaccinated.”
The church accomplished this through a series of vaccination outreach efforts, which initially included helping people register with public health agencies, then hosting a series of vaccination days in April and May in partnership with Meadows Pharmacy.
The church became a state-sanctioned vaccine distribution site, but when the rate of vaccinations fell to a trickle, it became easier to send people directly to Meadows Pharmacy than to host clinics.
Still, vaccination rates among ages 54 and younger in his church community are lower than Dawkins would like: He guessed only about half have taken the shots.
At first the impediments were getting people registered for the vaccine and arranging transportation. But the team solved those issues, almost on a one-by-one basis. Don’t have computer access? We’ll enter the data. Can’t get out of your car? We’ll come out to you. Don’t have an appointment? We take walk-ups. Don’t have transportation? We’ll drive you or find someplace easy to get to on public transportation.
Those were easy problems to solve, Dawkins said. And it’s still easy to register, whether you’re a church member or not. Just call the church to set up your appointment at the pharmacy and “skip the line.”
Today the biggest hurdle is misinformation. But Dawkins deals with this issue the same way: calmly and one on one.
“We went knocking on doors and talking to people sitting under the trees. We tried to explain facts and dispel rumors. It was a boots-on-the-ground effort,” he said.
The Rev. Howard Barr of St. Paul “has a live prayer line every morning from 7:30 to 8 a.m.,” Dawkins said. “He does more than pray. He tries to get the facts out. He answers questions and settles arguments.” With listeners from New York to Dallas, he tries to calm the vitriol of social media and cable news.
But it’s not just negative reporting that keeps people away. Dawkins says some cultural obstacles exist, including a general mistrust about medical procedures.
But right now, Dawkins is excited about another milestone: The church will commemorate 92 years of service to the community in August with a series of events. This will include a celebration on the fourth Sunday, Aug. 22.
Check www.saintpaulmbc.org or call 561-278-7149 for details. The church is at 46 SW 10th Ave.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.

Ruvi New teams up on a video offering a message of love.

You may not know that Rabbi Ruvi New, co-director of Chabad of East Boca Raton, is a talented songwriter. His latest music video, featuring Canadian Hasidic Jewish cantor and singer Shlomo Simcha, is called It’s Never Too Late.
It’s a catchy, upbeat, folk-inspired song, offering encouragement amid the current political climate. Its primary message is one of love, followed closely by the advice “Be proud to be a Jew,” and “Be the leader you were born to be.”
In 2017, New fulfilled his lifelong dream by making Storm the World, an album featuring 12 original songs.
See the latest video at www.StormTheWorldProject.com.

Changing of the guard at Congregation B’nai Israel

It’s the end of an era at Congregation B’nai Israel of Boca Raton. After 27 years, Rabbi Robert A. Silvers was elevated to rabbi emeritus. Generally, the role of a rabbi emeritus involves stepping back and being suitably honored, but Silvers is not in the habit of stepping back. Perhaps he’ll spend his time pursuing his interest in reading and collecting Jewish stories and in Sephardic history and spending more time with his family.
Silvers’ promotion cleared the way for Rabbi Rony Keller, the synagogue’s senior associate rabbi, to become senior rabbi on July 1. Keller, a native Floridian with a degree from the USF, joined CBI in 2017. He has updated and improved the school curriculum, led Shabbat and High Holy Days services and helped restructure the congregation’s bylaws.

Visit www.cbiboca.org for more information on the synagogue and the clergy.

St. Paul’s to hold series of discussions on race

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Delray Beach will host the 2021-22 “Sacred Ground Dialogue Circle,” a program that focuses on anti-racism and reconciliation through small-group discussions.
The 13-session series will begin with an orientation on Monday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. Subsequent sessions will meet periodically at 7 p.m. Mondays through March 28.
The program is free but you must register at https://stpaulsdelray.org.
St. Paul’s is at 188 S. Swinton Ave. Call 561-276-4541.

— Janis Fontaine

Garden coordinator Veronica Green pulls weeds from a raised bed to prepare it for the next crop. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

On three-quarters of an acre just a block from the Delray Beach courthouse and active Atlantic Avenue is a tiny garden just for kids. In the Delray Beach Children’s Garden, kids can climb trees and rope-ladders, plant and harvest vegetables, make mud pies and mud soup, find friends in a colony of worms, and learn about the importance of green space.
To its founders, the garden is a place to nurture eco-consciousness in children because kids who love nature will want to protect it. It’s their legacy.
But it’s also about having good, clean fun, being a kid and getting wet and dirty. On Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the garden is open to the public for playtime. The garden is closed on Sundays through August but will reopen for play on Sundays too in September. A donation of $5 is requested.
Playgrounds are nice, program manager Veronica Green said, but some have hard surfaces or rubber mulch. Nothing compares to real dirt under your feet, the sweet fragrance of the plants and herbs thriving in the South Florida sun and access to nature everywhere you look.
Green says the garden is about “unstructured play. We added a lot of features to encourage free play.”
A water table with bins and buckets is popular. A wash-away art board with bright tempura paints is ready for creative moments. The worm farm, where delicate red wigglers (Eisenia foetida) make the world’s best fertilizer by eating your nasty old banana peels, is a marvel.
Nooks and crannies throughout the garden provide comfy seating where parents can mingle and enjoy the shade — there’s plenty — while kids make new friends with beetles and butterflies, lady bugs and goldfish. A repurposed rowboat allows for imaginary voyages, and fruit trees yield delicacies such as cotton candy berries and chocolate pudding fruit.
The garden was founded by Jeannie Fernsworth, a horticulturist, and Shelly Zacks, a retired preschool teacher, in 2015. Green is a certified educator through the Eastern Regional Association of Forest and Nature Schools and keeps the trains running on time. She and Executive Director Christina Nicodemou facilitate the classes the garden offers.
Mother Nature & Me, offered every Thursday, is designed for ages 1-5 years. In addition to unstructured playtime, kids have time for arts and crafts and to listen to Ms. Veronica’s story time under the Simon Grass River Chickee Hut. Registration for the class is required and a donation of $10 per child is requested.
Green is also a children’s book author, and her series The Adventures of Veggie Vero features a vegan superhero who rescues animals and teaches children about compassionate living. The books also teach the importance of a plant-based diet, and at the end of each book Green includes a recipe kids can make.
In fall and spring, the garden offers an extensive Nature Education Cooperative for home-schoolers. The 10-week program, for ages 3 to 8, meets weekly for three hours of science, cooking, art, math, language, mindfulness activities, and gardening. The September program is full but registration opens in November for the spring session, which begins in January.
The coronavirus pandemic hit the garden hard, Green said. For almost a year, no children could visit. The garden, which leases its space from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, recently started a Sponsor of the Month campaign.
By paying the garden’s monthly rent ($1,000), sponsors get a beautiful sign in the garden, acknowledgment in the garden’s monthly newsletter, on its website and on social media, and the appreciation of the community.
The Delray Dunes Garden Club sponsored the garden in July. A sponsor is still needed for December. Check the children’s garden website for other ways to help.
Delray Beach Children’s Garden is at 137 SW Second Ave. Visit www.delraybeachchildrensgarden.org.

Casey Kiernan runs toward the finish as the overall winner of the 2021 Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, an 80-mile open ocean competitive stand-up paddle race. Paddle boarders, kayakers and a wake boarder completed the crossing from Bimini in the Bahamas to Lake Worth Beach. The event raised more than $635,000 to support families affected by cystic fibrosis. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The gated property has after-beach amenities such as a summer kitchen, an outdoor shower, a full cabana bath and a serene beachfront terrace with firepit.

This serene three-story beach house was artfully redesigned with clean lines and superb finishes. It has a design focused on comfort, convenience and laid-back luxury living.
The house sits on 101 feet of oceanfront and features an executive office with conference room and a complete one-bedroom apartment on the top floor overlooking the ocean.

The high-end, fully equipped kitchen has Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, and a temperature- controlled wine room for about 1,000 bottles.

A formal dining room on the first floor has a built-in granite-top table with sofa style seating and french doors leading to the oceanfront terrace with a screened-in pool loggia.
Take the elevator to the sumptuous master suite on the second floor, which has a sitting room, an oceanfront balcony, a linear gas fireplace, a morning bar, and a massive walk-in island closet.

The living room with coffered ceiling also has ocean view floor-to-ceiling impact windows.

Also on this level are a gym, two additional ensuite bedrooms and a two-bedroom staff suite.
Fine details such as marble, stone and wood floors, motion-sensitive lighting, a barrel tile roof and updated CBS construction complete the checklist of amenities in this prime location property.

The home is accessed through an enclosed front entry brick paver motorcourt with three garage bays.

Offered at $14,500,000 by Pascal and Antonio Liguori, Premier Estate Properties, 900 East Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33483, 561-789-8300.

Each month, The Coastal Star features a house for sale in our community. The House of the Month is presented as a service to our advertisers and provides readers with a peek inside one of our houses.