Steven Bernstein and his daughter Abby Rose Bernstein Henderson. Photo provided

By Amy Woods

Boca Raton resident Steven Bernstein has made a $1 million gift to “Keeping the Promise — The Campaign for Boca Raton Regional Hospital.”
Bernstein’s contribution emanates from the Bernstein Family Foundation, which he runs with his daughter, Abby Rose Bernstein Henderson, and brings the total funds raised through the initiative to more than $215 million.
“We are delighted to welcome Steven Bernstein and the Bernstein Family Foundation to our treasured group of Keeping the Promise donors,” hospital CEO Lincoln Mendez said. “This is the Bernstein Family Foundation’s first gift to Boca Regional, and we are eternally grateful it comes in the midst of our largest ever capital campaign and the most significant campus initiative in our history.”
The ambulance entrance to the emergency room will be named in the foundation’s honor.
“The Bernstein Family Foundation prides itself on supporting local charities and is excited to help fund the expansion of Boca Raton Regional Hospital,” Bernstein said. “We believe the hospital upgrades will enhance the quality of medical services provided to our community.”
For more information, call 561-955-4142 or visit https://donate.brrh.com.

Dream Makers milestone: 10,000 beds provided
In five years of serving Palm Beach and Broward counties, the nonprofit Sweet Dream Makers has now distributed more than 10,000 beds at no cost to families in need.
The bed sets each include a new mattress, mattress protector, box spring, bed frame, bedding, comforter and fresh pillows. As a result, nearly 5,000 recipient families are better rested and more prepared to face the day.
“Families experience bedlessness for a variety of reasons, and each family has their own story,” says a news release from the group. “Some of these causes include co-sleeping, housing placement after being homeless, sleeping on an air mattress or blanket, surviving domestic abuse, mold or unsanitary conditions, eviction, cribs needed for a baby due soon or the economic strain of buying new beds.”
For more information, call 561-571-7363 or visit https://sweetdreammakers.org.

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

The 12th annual fundraiser for the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County generated $65,000 for programs that will help children and adults succeed in school and life. More than 400 bicyclists, runners and walkers joined 200-plus donors and sponsors in supporting the popular event.

ABOVE: (l-r) Coalition CEO Kristin Calder with Steve and Lori Leveen.

Photo provided by Tracey Benson Photography

The sold-out audience at LIFE’s 28th annual event was treated to performances by legendary singer Dionne Warwick, entertainers Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo and comedian Rita Rudner. More than $1.5 million was raised for Pups4Patriots and Lois’ Food4Kids. ’ Everything that we have achieved with the Lady in Red Gala over 28 years — all the lives we have touched for the better, the difference we have made in helping disabled veterans, impoverished and hungry children, in saving dogs and cats, and so much more — is because of you and your generosity, empathy, friendship and commitment,’ event chairwoman Lois Pope said.

ABOVE: (l-r) Robin Ganzert, Pope and Marti LaTour.

RIGHT: Dr. Peter and Simone Bonutti. Photos provided by Capehart

The Highland Beach chapter of UNICO National donated $10,000 to Love Serving Autism, a nonprofit that works through the sport of tennis to reach children on the spectrum. Founder and former pro player Lisa LaCroix proudly accepted the first check, totaling $2,500, of the service organization’s pledge.

ABOVE: (l-r) LaCroix, chapter President Giulia Merklein and Love Serving Autism outreach coordinator Alexis Broussard. Photo provided

Roberto Coin jewelry, in partnership with Hamilton Jewelers and Purist magazine, honored Audrey Gruss, founder and chairwoman of the Hope for Depression Research Foundation, during an afternoon of shopping and sipping to raise funds for the nonprofit’s mission — delving into the origins, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of depression and related disorders. Gruss founded the organization in 2006 in memory of her mother, Hope, who suffered from the illness. To date, Gruss has helped direct more than $40 million to 125-plus research grants.

ABOVE: (l-r) Cristina Cuomo, Peter Webster and Beatrice Rabassa. Photo provided by Nick Mele Photography

Miami-based chef and restaurateur Michelle Bernstein mentored Lindsay Autry, now executive chef at The Regional in West Palm Beach. Photos provided

A growing number of establishments are owned and led by females

By Jan Norris

Professional kitchens have come a long way since the 1970s when women were making small inroads into the male-dominated culinary field.
Although the changes followed those in other patriarchal industries, cracking the centuries-old kitchen batteries led by stereotypical angry male chefs was different, according to Miami chef and restaurateur Michelle Bernstein.
Bernstein, who hosts the PBS show Check, Please! South Florida and owns MB Catering, knows the challenges very well. Women’s places in the hospitality industry and entrepreneurship will be the focus of her talk as the keynote speaker at a luncheon sponsored the Jewish Women’s Foundation of the Greater Palm Beaches.
The second annual Investing in Women luncheon is March 9 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.
Bernstein, who opened the restaurant at the former Omphoy resort in Palm Beach — now the Tideline — is frank about her experiences as a woman breaking into the culinary world when females were generally relegated to serving positions. There were very few executive woman chefs as role models.
“It isn’t easy,” she said. “But I can’t think of anything else I’d have done. I’ve been doing this for 30 years — since culinary school. I don’t look backward. Never, ever once did I reconsider or thought maybe I should think about doing something else.”
Because of the pandemic and a brief shutdown, she got “a little glimpse of a life.” She experienced what a “normal” working woman’s life looks like, with time to have girlfriends to hang out with over dinner, or enjoy Hanukkah at home with her family, she said.
Being a chef, “I missed out on that. COVID is the first time I stopped, and made girlfriends. I was loving it.”
The independent kitchen was a rough place. Along with scrutiny and sexual harassment from coworkers, she was taunted with bets made against her success. “‘You’re too Jewish, too little, too weak,’ they said. ‘You can’t do it.’”
She proved them wrong.
“It lit a fire in me. Thanks to all those schmucks, all those insults and constant tests, I actually grew into someone bigger. I became a strong person.
“I took the BS the first three-quarters of my life. I was the demure, want-to-please person who went along. I was pushed and bullied to the point I asked, ‘Why not me? Why can’t I?’” she said.
Instead of becoming a “sour grapes” worker, which she said she saw a lot of among other women, she decided she would not be bitter.
She had given up a promising ballet career for the kitchen, and as on stage, she knew “a lot of angry people who never made it. I never wanted to be that way. I’m a happy person — a very patient one at that.
“I said, ‘You’re going to be a strong, amazing woman. I’m not going to take shit. I’m not going to use all this anger and bitterness against them. Who would want to work for these women?’”
She gained confidence and experience working as one of several females for renowned chef Jean-Louis Palladin in Washington, D.C. He helped her realize the dream of becoming an executive chef and restaurant owner.
She found national fame after opening Azul in Miami in 2001, and won the prestigious James Beard Best Chef South award in 2008, cementing her place among the pros.
Since then, she has opened her own award-winning Michy’s, and now has Cafe La Trova, La Cañita and Sweet Liberty, all in Miami.
She plans to open two fast casuals in the coming months, Michy’s Chicken Shack and Luncheria, both in downtown Miami.
Investing in Women luncheon, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 9 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. 561-275-2200 or https://jwfpalmbeach.org/iiw2022.

Lindsay Autry
Bernstein is proud of all the chefs, both women and men, whom she’s mentored and who’ve found their own success. They include Lindsay Autry at The Regional in West Palm Beach, and Timon Balloo at his new restaurant, The Katherine, in Fort Lauderdale.
“I’m humbled they call me their mentor. They have surpassed me a long time ago,” Bernstein said.
Autry as an executive chef still looks up to Bernstein, however. “She’s like a big sister to me. I got to see how to handle it, and she taught me how to manage it.”
She also remembers a day when female chefs were scarce. “There were only two of us girls at Azul — me and Michelle,” she said. She knew of only a few women’s names that were associated with high-end kitchens — Cindy Hutson and Hedy Goldsmith, a noted pastry chef.
“Our industry is starting to evolve,” Autry said. “There are a lot more females in the kitchen now.”
But there’s still a puzzle to solve: “We need to figure it out — how to be a mom and a chef. It is hard,” Autry said.
She has a 2-year-old and must find ways to spend quality time with him yet still run a restaurant.
“For me, the hardest part about myself is myself. I’m always terrified something’s going to go wrong if I’m not there. If I take one night off a week, someone’s going to ask for me and wonder why the chef isn’t there,” Autry said. “The diners expect the chef to always be there. I used to be there seven days a week.”
She’s seeing the attitude change, but said, “It has to be more forgiving for everyone.”
For example, the people coming back to work after having time off during the pandemic are asking for better hours and work conditions.
“I’m proud of them for doing that — asking for it,” Autry said. “We need to find a new way to work our staff. They don’t deserve to have to work 80 hours a week.”
More women than ever before are applying as kitchen workers, she said. “I have five women out of 12. It’s a lot more balanced than it’s ever been.”

Suzanne Perrotto owns the Brulee and Rose’s Daughter in Delray.

Suzanne Perrotto

Perrotto, chef and owner of the Brulee and Rose’s Daughter restaurants in Delray Beach, is the daughter of a female chef and grew up in the business, yet even her father was against her running a kitchen, she said.
“He told me I’d never make it. He said the only reason my mother made it was because of him.”
Like Bernstein, she says all the challenges made her a better chef.
“Those days were interesting,” Perrotto said. “I experienced issues on several occasions. It got ugly. I got pushback in all the kitchens, but especially in French kitchens.”
But, she said, she always found a positive person to encourage her and make her feel worthy. “I was always a positive person in the kitchen. I was the harder worker. I had to make sure my knife skills were perfect, all my work was better.
“They doubted me at first: They’d throw down a whole fish, assumed I didn’t have a sharp enough knife. They’d watch you, and I’d break it down perfectly, then they were like, ‘Oh, OK.’”
Respect eventually came. “It all made me a better chef. I love to say that in the end, it was all worth it.”
Still, Perrotto would like to see the culture change more. As a single mom, having a family and still working every night in the kitchen made her aware of how hard it is to balance a culinary career and a family.
“I always lived close to my son’s school. But I was the only single mom in culinary school. Later, as a chef, I’d show up at my son’s soccer game after plating 800 salads, then go back to the restaurant to oversee desserts. It was definitely a challenge,” Perrotto said.
Her son now works with her in the kitchen. She has turned into a mentor and brings in young cooks for proper culinary training they don’t get in fast-food jobs. They’re then able to go out on their own and get other restaurant jobs that help them grow.
Challenges from the pandemic are nothing Perrotto can’t handle. “Our profit margin has shrunk,” she said, “But we’re still standing.”

Lisabet Summa runs Elisabetta’s in Delray and is a partner in Big Time Restaurant Group.

Lisabet Summa
Like the others, Summa is a testament to a strong work ethic and self-confidence that comes with experience and maturity. She says she’s had them all along, and that has made a difference.
“I’ve been cooking since I was 19. I’m 61,” Summa said. “Running restaurants and being a chef has been a really great career for me.”
She’s executive chef and co-owner of Elisabetta’s in Delray and partner in Big Time Restaurant Group, which also includes Louie Bossi’s, City Cellar, City Oyster, Grease Burger Bar and Big City Tavern.
She did not find that being the only female in the kitchen ever handicapped her. “My experience was a little bit different. It was very positive. I was lucky: I wasn’t perceived as being inadequate by being a female. I wasn’t exposed to gender adversity as much as others.”
She says people have told her, “You’re a high performer, highly intelligent, people knew not to mess with you.”
Yet Summa admits she’s had to try harder as a woman, “But that’s true in any profession. Most work environments have been a part of patriarchy.”
Today’s women in business are emboldened, she said. “Young women are fierce, enlightened, educated and bold. They are not demure.”
Men have changed, too, especially since the ’70s, Summa says. “The younger generation of men are more aware and enlightened.”
The new women coming to kitchens have been exposed to healthier lifestyles and seen the farm-to-table and artisan food movements along with social changes. And they’re willing to push to have both career and family, Summa said.
“Women shouldn’t have to make a choice between having a family and working as an executive chef. There has to be systemic change.”
She says nighttime child care is one change that women in culinary are pushing for today. “Women feel they have options. They are prioritizing career and happiness in everyday life.”

***

Feeding South Florida’s 2022 culinary training and warehouse training programs have been announced. The culinary training is a 12-week program led by chef Lindsay Autry. Graduates will be placed in jobs in area restaurants. The warehouse training enables graduates to move to warehouse work elsewhere.
Contact Feeding South Florida in Boynton Beach at 561-331-5441 for more info.

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

By Joyce Reingold

Sharon L’Herrou’s voice breaks when she tells the story:
“I’m just sitting at my desk and I get a call from a mom. I don’t even know how she got my number. But she called me and said, ‘I just wanted you to know that my son is alive today because of you and your team. He called in the middle of the night. I didn’t even know anything was going on until the call, and he would’ve been dead. But he is OK. We got him to the hospital. You guys saved his life. I’m still a mom today because of you.’”
He had dialed 211, a helpline, hotline, lifeline.
“It chokes me up every single time that I think about her voice when she talked about her son and how she almost lost him,” says L’Herrou, who is president and CEO of 211 Palm Beach/Treasure Coast, which was founded in 1971 as a drug hotline and has grown to offer crisis counseling, suicide prevention, information and referrals.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States, and the second-leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 34.
Last year in Palm Beach County, the 211 Helpline received close to 50,000 requests for help; 604 of them were suicide-related. 211 has highly trained resource specialists available 24/7 to provide confidential crisis intervention and connect people to vital resources.
“One person’s crisis may not seem like a crisis to another person,” L’Herrou says. “We’ve gotten calls from teenagers who are actively suicidal because their boyfriend or girlfriend is breaking up with them. So, depending on the situation … they may actively say, ‘I am thinking about killing myself,’ or they may say something that’s a little more vague like, ‘I just wish I wouldn’t wake up in the morning.’
“We are going to ask them some questions about that and talk to them about where they are with the goal of deescalating and keeping them safe. … Our primary goal is to help them live through that day. So, we’re not necessarily thinking longer term in that moment.”
During the call, the resource specialist will try to extract a promise that the caller isn’t going to harm himself, L’Herrou explains.
“We say, ‘We want to talk to you again tomorrow. Can I call you again tomorrow?’ And then if we get that permission, and we know that they have promised to stay safe, we’ll follow up with them the next day, and maybe even a few days later. We can follow up several more times to the point where they may then be willing to talk with us about ongoing supports and services, which we will do in a follow-up call.”
L’Herrou says quite a few support options are available in Palm Beach County, including counseling and therapy services that are offered free or on a sliding scale. Support groups are another possibility.
“There are support groups for different populations that are facing specific stressors. It’s been commonly talked about recently that people in LGBTQ community have higher instances of challenges with mental health and suicidal thoughts. Our veterans are a group that have higher rates of suicide. In fact, on our team, we’ve added two veteran peers to work with veterans specifically,” she says.
And we can all try to prevent suicide by becoming better educated and improving our awareness.
“Everyone has a role to play to save lives and create healthy and strong individuals, families and communities,” the CDC says.
L’Herrou fervently agrees.
“I think that there are so many things we can do and honestly, at its most basic level, what we have to do is just remember to care about each other. Really, really just care about each other. We have to step back a little bit from some of our harsh viewpoints … that lead us to be maybe a little bit harder on our neighbors and our colleagues and our friends.
“And to remember that we don’t know what’s going on with people under the surface. So, if we can just start from a place of caring, that’s huge,” she says.
“And then, for the people that we’re close to, if we can be there for one another, check on each other, make sure that we are reaching out to the friend that maybe we haven’t heard from in a while. … The human touch is the most important thing of all.
“And that’s why the work that we do is so valuable, because it’s one human talking to another. Sometimes people who are thinking about suicide say … and this chokes me up, ‘No one cares if I live or die, no one cares.’ And so, when they reach out to us, our team is able to say, ‘I care, I am talking to you right now. And I care.’”

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

How to get help
If you or someone you know might be at risk of suicide, dial 2-1-1 or text your ZIP code to 898211.
The 211 Helpline can be reached 24/7/365 for support. Online chat is available from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Visit www.211PalmBeach.org/get-help-now, or www.211TreasureCoast.org/get-help-now, or email help@211pbtc.org.
Calls to the 211 Helpline are free and confidential.

Warning signs
People may need help if they are:

• Talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves
• Looking for a way to kill themselves, like searching online or buying a gun
• Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live
• Talking of feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
• Talking about being a burden to others
• Using alcohol or drugs more often
• Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly
• Sleeping too little or too much
• Withdrawing or isolating themselves
• Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
• Having extreme mood swings

Source: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

By Christine Davis

Baptist Health South Florida Foundation announced the promotion of Barbara James to vice president of development and development support. 
James will continue to lead the foundation’s philanthropic efforts and be responsible for its corporate philanthropy partners program, research and prospect management efforts and systemwide events team. 
James holds a BA in English and business management from Christian Brothers University and Lean Six Sigma and fundraising certifications from the University of California, Irvine. Additionally, she has completed management and leadership coursework at Western Governors University.
She is a member of Palm Health Foundation’s board of trustees and serves on the board of the Palm Beach County Medical Society. She is a member of Impact the Palm Beaches and Impact 100 Palm Beach County, the International Women’s Forum Palm Beach and Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.

***

Boca Raton-based JFS at Home, a nonprofit licensed home-health agency that is affiliated with Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services, has entered into a new partnership with Toby & Leon Cooperman Sinai Residences, a continuing care residential community in Boca Raton.
Through the partnership, JFS at Home now offers 24-hour licensed nursing support for independent living residents at Sinai Residences.
“Our mission is to promote healthy aging and we look forward to ensuring that the residents we support continue to live independently with the added security of our trusted and compassionate nurses,” said Marissa Gordon, administrator for JFS at Home.
For more info, visit https://jfshome.org.

***

As part of Florida Atlantic University’s Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute’s “Brainy Days of 2022: A Celebration of Neuroscience,” several events are scheduled this month. The presentations and lectures aim to educate the public about the importance of brain research and wellness and reducing the stigma associated with brain disorders. Among the events:
• On March 15, author John Marzluff will speak about his book Gifts of the Crow at Spanish River Library in Boca Raton.
• On March 25, the Diversity in Science Festival will be hosted by NeuroSquad and Neuroscience Student Organization at FAU’s Boca campus.
• On March 31, a talk on “The Past, Present and Future of Alzheimer’s Prevention” will be presented by Richard Isaacson, M.D., at the Spanish River Library.  
For more information, contact Nicole Baganz, director of community engagement and programming for the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute, at  BI-outreach@fau.edu or 561-799-8100. 

***

Sollis Health, a 24/7 members-only VIP medical service, plans to open a flagship location at 324 Royal Palm Way, Palm Beach, this month. The 4,000-square-foot space, staffed with ER physicians, will offer an alternative to hospital emergency rooms and public urgent-care facilities.
It will serve medical needs from ear infections to coronavirus testing, IV infusions, stitches and EKGs. It will be equipped with labs and advanced diagnostic imaging capabilities, including MRI, CT, ultrasound and X-ray. 
Individual pricing for Sollis Health memberships starts at $3,000 per year. Membership includes unlimited access to all Sollis Health medical centers, 24/7 consultations with physicians, telemedicine, plus expedited appointments and referrals and amenities such as house calls and travel medicine.

Performers in the B’nai Torah Congregation concert series include (belowt) Israeli singer Noa accompanied by Gil Dor; and (above) pianist Guy Mintus. The four-show series will be at the congregation in Boca Raton. Photos provided

By Janis Fontaine

B’nai Torah Congregation announced the return of the synagogue’s popular concert series for the 29th year. The 2022 Concert Series will include four live, in-person performances in the sanctuary at B’nai Torah Congregation, 6261 SW 18th St., Boca Raton. A virtual option will also be offered. Tickets are $25-$75 for members and $36-$100 for non-members. Call 561-392-8566.
The live performances scheduled are:
• Noa accompanied by Gil Dor — 7:30 p.m. March 9. Noa is an Israeli singer, songwriter, poet, composer, percussionist, speaker and activist who has released 15 albums with her longstanding musical collaborator Gil Dor.
• Boaz Davidoff with cantor Magda Fishman — 7:30 p.m. March 22. The congregation’s former cantor returns.
• Pianist Guy Mintus with Fishman — 7:30 p.m. March 30. This young performer has been described as “George Gershwin meets the Great Israeli songbook.”
• The New York Cantors — 7:30 p.m. April 5. A presentation of the PBS program featuring Yanky Lemmer, Netanel Hershtik and Chaim Dovid Berson, three of the world’s most highly acclaimed cantors, in a concert of Jewish sacred and secular music.

St. Vincent Ferrer to have raffle to support school
St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach canceled its annual Parish Festival fundraiser this year because of road work that would have made it difficult and dangerous for people to attend. But the festival is the main fundraiser for St. Vincent Ferrer school, so the leaders found a solution: a raffle. A big one.
The grand prize is $25,000. Second place gets $5,000 and third place $2,000. Tickets are $100. The drawing will take place April 27. Get tickets at www.stvincentferrer.com. Click on “Giving.”

Progressive dinner set for St. Gregory’s
St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, 100 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton, will hold its 2022 progressive dinner March 12. The theme is “Fabulous Building, Fabulous Dining,” with your choice of culinary journeys inspired by the world’s most famous sites, including the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids of Giza, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Opera de Paris and Machu Picchu.
The festive event begins with wine, champagne and hors d’oeuvres at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. and dessert at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $125 per person and must be purchased by March 6, available at www.eventbrite.com.
An alternative to make arrangements is to call 561-702-6964 or 561-302-2351, or email arely@coxpartners.com or andimo31@gmail.com.

Love Delray event needs more volunteers
Love Delray, a quarterly volunteer initiative, takes place March 19. Volunteers from local churches participate in community projects, but more volunteers are needed.
Volunteers will meet at 8:15 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 400 N. Swinton Ave., in the courtyard for a brief prayer, fellowship and coffee and light snacks.
Projects this quarter include outdoor work like helping clean and replant the Delray Beach Children’s Garden and indoor jobs like helping Forgotten Soldiers Outreach sort and pack toiletries or write notes of encouragement and cards to troops.
To register, go to https://lovedelray.com and pick the project you want to help with.
For more information, email Allison@theavechurch.com or call 561-901-1302.

Legacy Polo Brunch for the Fuller Center
The Fuller Center Foundation will host the second annual Legacy Polo Brunch on March 13 to support the Fuller Center in Boca Raton, which has provided under-resourced children with educational opportunities for more than 50 years.
A private reception starts at 1 p.m. with a champagne brunch at 2 p.m., followed by the USPA Gold Cup polo match at 3 p.m. at the International Polo Club Palm Beach, 3667 120th Ave. S., Wellington.
Tickets are $275 per person. Attire is polo chic, and hats are encouraged. Call 561-391-7274, ext. 134 or email alagerstrom@ffcdc.org for more information.

Bill exempts houses of worship from shutdowns
Under a bill approved in January by the Florida Senate, churches and other religious institutions would not have to turn congregants away during future emergencies and will be treated like businesses. The Senate voted 31-3 to approve Senate Bill 254, which says if businesses are allowed to stay open, churches and synagogues can’t be directly or indirectly prevented from conducting services or activities.
The House has a similar bill in the works.
The new rule would apply not only to a pandemic, but any other emergency, lawmakers said. Of course, churches could still follow mandates of local dioceses.

Environmental analysts Antonio Rodriguez and Victoria Strange look at an insect in the midst of a saw palmetto, one of the dominant scrub area plants.  Photos by Joe Capozzi/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

For nature lovers, Palm Beach County’s best-kept secret might be a 36-acre oasis of wilderness surrounded by an industrial park, police station, public health facility, ballfields and residential homes on the north end of Lantana.
The Lantana Scrub Natural Area, tucked inside a densely populated area between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1, would seem like an easy place to reach. But getting there is part of the adventure.
The newest of the county’s 34 natural areas, the Lantana Scrub has no parking lot. Eight parking spaces will be designated later this year at the Palm Beach County Public Health Department parking lot off Southwinds Drive, which borders the Lantana Scrub’s southwest boundary. 
For now, visitors can access a half-mile hiking trail and maintenance roads by entering two public maze gates, at the northeast and southeast corners of the property. There is no designated parking at those entrances, either. And the maze gates, open to the public from sunrise to sunset, are tucked away from the road. 
The gates are fairly easy to find if you have a little patience and determination. At both entrances, noise emanates from trucks coming and going from a Waste Management Recycling Center on Hillbrath Drive.
Once you are on the interior paths, all signs of the busy urban surroundings give way to the peace and solitude of towering scrub pine trees, lush silver and green saw palmettos and tweeting songbirds. 

Fallen trees, like this one near a path, are left to naturally decompose in county-managed natural areas like Lantana Scrub.

Formerly part of the now closed A.G. Holley State Hospital property, the Lantana natural area is named for its Florida scrub and scrubby flatwoods, home to Florida rosemary, powder-puff lichen and hog plum. 
Wildlife includes gopher tortoises, Eastern Phoebe songbirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, golden-winged skimmer dragonflies and raptors like osprey, Cooper’s hawk and swallow-tailed kite.
The only reminders of civilization are the faint buzzing of airplanes taking off from the nearby Lantana airport. 
“It’s a great start. I want to see more of this,’’ Abbe Gleicher of Boynton Beach said on a recent Lantana Scrub tour guided by analysts with the county’s Environmental Resources Management Department.
“Every area needs nature. Nature decreases anxiety and increases a sense of well-being and health,’’ she said.
The Lantana Scrub is owned by the state, which has leased it to the county since 2012 for an annual $300 fee. Before the county started preparing it as a natural area, the site historically had been used as a homeless encampment. 
The maze gates, with information kiosks, were added in 2018. Hiking trails were cut in 2020. The county is waiting on additional signage before designating the eight parking spaces at the health department later this year. 
“This is a really cool site. It’s very intact considering how much development surrounds it,’’ said Victoria Strange, an ERM analyst. 
Abundant flowering tillandsia, dancing lady orchids and air plants can be found in the open scrub of the eastern half, just west of the Lantana Sports Complex. 
The dancing lady orchids were introduced to the site by Pine Jog Environmental Education Center.
“There’s a lot of wildlife that uses this little fragment, too, because there’s nothing else in the area until you get to Hypoluxo,” the scrub area about 2 miles south, Strange said.
“There’s a bunch of predatory birds. There’s a Cooper’s hawk nesting pair that is very active on site. An osprey comes here with his fish and hangs out with his fish on the snags’’ of the scrub pine, she said. 
ERM’s recent tour of Lantana Scrub highlighted some of the natural area’s tiniest inhabitants — insects, from silver garden spiders to ox beetles.
“It’s kind of like bird- watching,’’ said ERM analyst Antonio Rodriguez, who used his i-Naturalist app to identify the diverse invertebrates. 
“It’s pretty fun to collect a whole bunch of different species, to say you’ve seen it.’’

If You Go
What: Lantana Scrub Natural Area
Where: Adjacent to the Lantana/Lake Worth Health Center at Andrew Redding Road and Southwinds Drive.
Open: Sunrise to sunset; no designated parking, accessible by pedestrian traffic only.
For more information: https://discover.pbcgov.org/erm/NaturalAreas/Lantana-Scrub.aspx

Toni Cvetko is chairwoman of Art in Bloom, set for March 4-5. Garden club members create floral arrangements based on students’ artwork. Here she is at the 2019 show. Photo provided

This is the third in a series on five local garden clubs.

By Jan Engoren

Think a green thumb and a basic knowledge of plants are prerequisites to becoming a member of a garden club?
Not so, says Lorelei Wolff, co-president of the Boynton Beach Garden Club along with Delray Beach resident Toni Cvetko. The two are friends from New Jersey and past members of a junior woman’s club there.
“It’s a misconception to think that you need to have a knowledge of plants to join the Boynton Beach Garden Club,” Wolff says. “I knew nothing about gardening before I joined. But, I had an interest.”
The club, which began in 1938 with its first president, Bertha Chadwell, is open to all and members do not have to live in Boynton Beach.
The club, which had 44 members as of February, was founded to encourage home and civic beautification. Those goals still stand, but have widened in scope to include more environmental and conservation issues.
Expanding the knowledge of gardening, cultivating an appreciation of floral arts and realizing beautification efforts in the community are all part of the mission. Over the past two years of the coronavirus pandemic, the club has been meeting by Zoom.
One of the club’s earliest projects, in 1952, was to create a proper cemetery for residents. That year, the club turned the cemetery over to the city. Another project in the early years was to plant trees, including the now 65-year-old kapok tree that stood in front of the Boynton Beach High School on Ocean Avenue until it was uprooted and replanted across the street three years ago, as part of the city’s redevelopment plan.
Before it was known as Federal Highway, Route 1 was the only highway to run up the eastern coast. When it was widened and renamed Federal Highway, the Garden Club planted and maintained 2 full miles of the road.
In 2017, Cvetko saw a program the club was having about orchids and wanted to learn more.
“I thought — why not try it?” she remembers.
Before joining the club, Cvetko had no plants on her lanai. As a full-fledged member and co-president, she now has 15 plants thriving on her patio, including a spider plant, a ponytail palm tree in a pot and seven blooming orchids.
The current programming theme is “Go Wild, Go Native!” — as in using wildflowers and opting for native plants whenever possible.
Some outgrowths of that philosophy are the Butterfly Garden the club members created and maintain at the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum on Ocean Avenue; the memorial garden they planted at the High Point Condominiums where they hold meetings; and the community garden where they planted firebush, milkweed, elderberry, blue porterweed and the club’s flower, the allamanda, at Northwest Sixth Avenue and Seacrest Boulevard, on a plot the city donated in 2018. Last year, the club added orchids to the mix. Wolff gives credit to the city and its mayor for their encouragement.
“Mayor Steven Grant has been very supportive of our efforts,” says Wolff.
The club also does philanthropic work with the Rustic Retreat Retirement Home on Federal Highway, maintains the Blue Star marker on Federal and is a member of the Mounts Botanical Garden.
In January the club held one of its main fundraising events — a potluck lunch and auction — at Sterling Village condominiums.
On March 4-5, the club will host one of its signature events, the annual Art in Bloom, a Boston tradition that began at the Museum of Fine Arts 40 years ago. The event is replicated in Boynton Beach every March at the Schoolhouse Museum.
Art in Bloom, of which Cvetko is chairwoman, invites garden club members to create floral arrangements based on the works of student artists from Poinciana Elementary School. The arrangements are then judged in a variety of categories, including best use of color, best use of texture, best interpretation of the art as well as a category for people’s choice.
Cvetko lists a few other characteristics that make the club distinct. The monthly newsletter includes informative columns including one titled, “Ask AMI,” which stands for Any Member Interested.  
“It’s an opportunity to get advice from the collective wisdom of our fellow BBGC members,” she says.
Another column, “The Culinary Gardener,” details information on an herb, then includes several recipes using that herb.
“The Butterfly Corner” column provides detailed information about butterflies and how to make sure that they have the necessary plants and flowers to thrive.
“Joining the Boynton Beach Garden Club is a great learning experience,” Cvetko says. “You have the chance to learn from every chairperson and committee member.
“You get the opportunity to go places such as the McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach and the Heathcote Botanical Gardens in Fort Pierce, and do things you might not ordinarily do,” she says. “I’ve created so many friendships and met so many interesting people and learned how to garden all at the same time.”

For more information, visit the club on Facebook or at boyntonbeachgardenclub.org.

Art in Bloom
Where: Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, 129 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach.
Evening reception: 5-7 p.m. March 4, desserts and refreshments included. Free.
Art display: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 5. Entry is free. Admire the artworks and vote for the people’s choice honor.
More info: 908-757-0116 or 561-742-6780

Mia Bonutti, a senior at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, stands inside the 30-foot camper she renovated for her independent study project, which allowed her to tackle a real-life topic of interest. She hopes to donate the RV to an organization that will use it to house homeless people. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Janis Fontaine

Mia Bonutti likes solving problems. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, she hunkered down with her family in Manalapan, watching news reports. At the same time, Mia, a student at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, was considering ideas for an independent study project.
The tiny-home craze caught her attention, and she likes woodworking and getting her hands dirty. Homelessness is a huge problem. She thought: Could I build a tiny home and give it away to a homeless person?
She talked it over with her dad, Peter Bonutti, an orthopedic-reconstructive surgeon and inventor.
“My dad and I know nothing about plumbing,” Mia said, so her dad suggested they find an older RV with good bones and refurbish it. Before long, a 30-foot, 10-year-old trailer with a small pop-out and intact plumbing was parked at Oxbridge Academy, ready to be worked on. She and her family paid $7,000 for the camper and eventually invested $4,000-$5,000 in improvements.
Mia gutted the vehicle, then renovated it mechanically and remodeled the interior. Teachers and advisers helped her with things she wasn’t familiar with, like electrical work.
“The demolition,” she said, “was the hardest part.” It took five months, working part-time, and recruiting friends to help.
Once the RV was stripped down to the bare walls, the fun part started. The camper, once a boring brown, is now finished in tasteful white and gray. The kitchen has white cabinets and bead-board paneling, an oven, stove and microwave and blue gingham-check curtains on the windows. The counters are a combination of gray and white synthetic material that looks like quartz and butcher block.
The living area is bright and airy, with flowing white privacy curtains. There’s plenty of storage, and a flat-screen TV is tucked into the built-in shelving unit. A dining table and chairs, and two couches with animal print pillows, offer comfortable seating.

Mia shows off the remodeled interior, a far cry from the stripped-down RV. Gutting it took five months. Her advice? ‘If you have a dream, keep at it.’

The bathroom has a corner shower and the bedroom has more built-in storage and a headboard that resembles black subway tile.
Finding a place to donate the camper has come with its own challenges. She was just a day away from donating the RV when a friend’s research showed her that her ideals didn’t line up with those of the charity. The group wanted to auction the RV for cash and use the cash to help the homeless.
“I wanted someone to live in it,” Mia said. Throughout the project, Mia had imagined a person making the space a home. Plus, she questioned how much of the proceeds from the sale or auction would actually go to help homeless people.
Mia had to make a difficult decision and a difficult phone call. Her mother, Simone Bonutti, is the vice mayor of Manalapan and could have easily handled the matter, but Mia didn’t ask her to do that.
Eventually, Mia connected with the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States in Ocala. The VFW is a nonprofit service organization that can help veterans find housing — and hope.
Mia learned the VFW planned to use the RV as part of transitional housing to get veterans off the street until the organization found permanent housing. The RV would be a temporary home for a plethora of people passing through the Ocala facility on their way to self-sufficiency.
“It seemed like a good fit,” Mia said. But that plan didn't pan out and as of late February, nearly two years since she hatched the RV idea, Mia was in search of other options.
Mia, now a senior, hoped to have the issue resolved to let her focus on lacrosse season, which she calls “long pants season” because of her leg bruises. Mia is team captain and goalie, after first being recruited from the soccer team, where she’d already proved fearless on the field.
“I just stay focused and keep my eye on the ball,” she said. “I know my teammates are there to help me out.”
In the fall, Mia will move to Charlottesville to attend the University of Virginia, where she’ll study chemical engineering. She says CE is a degree with lots of applications and opportunity, and that a path heavy on math and science and light on English fits her.
Mia, the oldest of six kids, says being big sister brings a lot of responsibility — especially when she was the only kid with a driver’s license and everyone else needed rides.
At 18, she already has one patent with her dad and a few in the works. For athletes, pierced earrings and sports add up to a problem, so Mia and her father designed and patented unisex sports-safe earrings.
Mia also makes stuffed animals and hats for the babies in the NICU at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, where her aunt is a nurse.
“My mother calls me a grandma because I like to knit and crochet,” Mia says with a laugh.
But really, Mia likes doing things for other people. Her altruism even got her a bit of national attention: Kelly Clarkson’s daytime television show has asked Mia to submit a video about her project.
A significant part of the Oxbridge Academy philosophy is its focus on character development within a culture of kindness.
Mia and her classmates take the “kindness” seriously, participating in canned food drives and other volunteer activities. It goes hand in glove with the self-directed independent study programs that ask students to tackle real-life issues.
“I learned a lot from the project,” Mia said, “but I think the biggest life lesson was: If you have a dream, keep at it. Nothing happens overnight.”

Photo provided by Mia Bonutti

Cats have delicate systems and can become ill if their diets change abruptly. This is an issue because of pandemic-related shortages, rising prices and shipping delays. Photo provided

By Arden Moore

Since the pandemic began two-plus years ago, grocery shopping has never been the same. It has turned into a treasure hunt of hope as you push your cart up and down the aisles in search of fresh eggs, your favorite brand of toilet paper or even pizza dough.
Or, you find yourself reading signs that limit how many paper napkins, sports drinks or pounds of bacon you can buy.
We aren’t the only ones feeling the impact of product shortages, rising prices and shipping delays. So are thousands of cats in Palm Beach County who depend every day on the generosity of volunteers to feed them in community cat colonies, small shelters and foster homes.
Before the coronavirus hit, Susan Carmichael, founder of Florida’s Forgotten Felines, never had an issue fulfilling her standing order of 100 cases of canned cat food with a PetSmart store in Boynton Beach to feed more than 400 community cats.
John Wood of Adopt a Cat Foundation Inc. could count on buying plenty of canned cat food at bargain prices at Pet Supplies Plus for his group’s kittens and cats up for adoption.
Dawn Herrmann of Truly All Cats Trapping and Rescue used to breeze into Publix any time to pick up ample amounts of Friskies canned food for her group’s cats in foster homes and in cat colonies. The shelves were always well stocked.

Empty shelves like these at a Boynton Beach Publix are a common sight. Coastal Star staff

Today, they and other cat rescue groups are traveling farther, paying more and seeking food alternatives for their dependent felines.
“Friskies pate is a favorite canned food for many of the cats, but now, it is the hardest to find,” says Herrmann, a registered nurse from Lantana who co-founded the group with Kara Sullivan. “The shelves are empty at Walmart and Publix. We pay about 50 to 60 cents a can for Friskies, but sometimes have to buy more expensive brands that cost up to $2 a can.
“Making matters worse, some of our cats only eat pate or they will lap up the gravy and leave the rest of the food. It is easier to mix medications in pate than gravy-based cat food.”
Carmichael has been feeding cats in need since 2002. She is 76 years old and is doing her best to locate affordable canned food in chicken flavor, a protein favorite for her felines.
“Not all cats like fish and will not eat say, a tuna-flavored can of food,” she says. “It’s very challenging now, but my biggest reward is when a sweet feral cat I feed finally lets me pet her.”
Wood is the president of Adopt A Cat Foundation, committed to finding permanent homes for rescued cats and kittens. The game plan for his team of volunteers is to communicate and be creative in searching for affordable canned cat food.
“When any of us are able to buy 24 or 36 cans at a time, we consider it a major score,” says Wood, a property management administrative assistant from West Palm Beach. “It is not good for a cat’s digestive system to suddenly switch diets, so we work together and do the best we can to find the canned food.”
If you abruptly switch a cat’s diet, it may cause vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain. Feline tummies can be sensitive, especially if changes in food flavors and forms happen suddenly.
Veterinary nutritionists recommend the 3-3-3 rule, in which you give a cat two-thirds of his current food mixed in with one-third of the new food for the first three days. Then during the next three days, switch the amounts to one-third of the current food with two-thirds of the new food.
Within seven to 10 days, most feline digestive systems are able to tolerate the new food without digestive upset.
Fortunately, large shelters in the area, such as Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League based in West Palm Beach, are not experiencing cat food shortages.
“Large brick-and-mortar places like ours and Tri-County Animal Rescue in Boca Raton have contracts with major pet food manufacturers who supply us with food to feed our animals at the shelter at deeply discounted prices in exchange for promoting their brand of food at our shelters,” says Paul Bates, communications manager who oversees the trap-neuter-vaccinate-release program at Peggy Adams.
Bates works with several TNVR groups in the county that feed cat colonies. He has been suggesting that they expand their searches by looking for canned cat food at major wholesale stores like Sam’s and Costco or going online at Chewy.com.
“These big-box stores and online places like Chewy have large warehouse space to house the cat food. Supermarkets don’t have that kind of storage space or the money to place large-quantity orders,” Bates says.
Herrmann hopes that the supply of preferred canned cat food will catch up with demand soon.
“This canned cat food shortage is not just affecting us, but everybody, so any donation of wet food is much appreciated,” she says.

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

How to Help
All three of these are designated 501(c)3 nonprofits and accept donations of food, money and volunteer time:

Adopt a Cat Foundation: http://adoptacatfoundation.org, 561-848-4911. Its shelter is at 3110 45th Street, Suite E in West Palm Beach and its thrift shop is at 889 Donald Ross Road in Juno Beach.
Florida’s Forgotten Felines: https://floridasforgottenfelines.org, 561-252-2545. Founder Susan Carmichael prefers phone calls over email.
Truly All Cats Trapping and Rescue: https://trulyallcats.org, 561-801-8228, rescueme@trulyallcats.org.

ABOVE: A beamed-ceiling great room with floor-to-ceiling windows features a living area, casual dining arrangement and wet bar. BELOW: This estate in Delray Beach is walled and gated for complete privacy and has 110 feet +/- of direct oceanfront. Photos provided

This recently reinspired contemporary home has 8,566 +/- total square feet. It has a crisp architectural design that features an open floor plan built around the incredible views of the ocean. With seven en suite bedrooms, three of which are on the ground floor, there is plenty of room for a larger family or one who welcomes plenty of seasonal visitors. An additional family room (with custom built-ins) and a morning bar, two bedroom suites plus an expansive VIP suite, all overlook the ocean from the upper floor.
Outside, recreational amenities abound: a covered dining loggia and a freestanding arbor surround the beachfront heated pool and spa — all set within a huge patio connected to the wet bar and kitchen for seamless indoor/outdoor entertaining opportunities.
Inside features include wood-plank and slate flooring, detailed ceiling features and stunning window design through which to view the ocean.

Offered at $21,995,000. Contact the Pascal Liguori Group at Premier Estate Properties, 900 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, FL 33483. Pascal Liguori, 561-789-8300 or PascalLiguoriGroup.com. View more at www.rx10758571.com

The master suite has a sitting area as well as sliding doors in a bay configuration that opens to the deck and ocean beyond.

Dramatic skylights and task lighting crown a center island gourmet kitchen, which has polished concrete countertops.

Second-floor balcony overlooks the dune walkover to the beach and ocean.

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 homes.

Atlantic Crossing is at Atlantic Avenue and northbound Federal Highway in Delray Beach. Photo provided by Edwards Cos.

Related story: Delray Beach: Bar planned for Atlantic Crossing postpones request for 2 a.m. closing

By Larry Barszewski

Atlantic Crossing is ready to make a splash in downtown Delray Beach.
There could be ripple effects for decades as the 9-acre project east of Federal Highway transforms a critical section of the city’s bustling Atlantic Avenue.
The $300 million project, in the works for more than a decade, will — by April, if the developer’s latest estimate is accurate — let people shop in its first stores, eat at its first restaurants, work in its first offices, live in its first apartments and stroll through one of the tree-graced plazas that its owners hope will make it a destination within a destination downtown.
“It’s a huge project for the downtown as it fills in a transitional gap that we’ve seen for a while, from our core historic downtown to the bridge,” says Laura Simon, executive director of the city’s Downtown Development Authority.
Where to begin?

The missing link
Atlantic Avenue is booming, with a restaurant and nightlife scene that rivals other famous South Florida destination streets such as Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale and Clematis Street in West Palm Beach. On the beachside, the avenue is a hot spot for visitors enamored with the “sea” in the city’s Village by the Sea moniker.
But the stretch of the avenue from northbound Federal Highway to the Intracoastal Waterway bridge has struggled over the years to find its identity.
The Blue Anchor restaurant and pub, with its imported façade from a 19th-century London establishment, made a home on the south side of the avenue there, along with a few other restaurants, shops and a bank. The north side was marked by a blighted vacant lot of a one-time gas station, along with an antiques mall and financial center. Atlantic Plaza, the main attraction, had a combination of restaurants, shops and offices geared more to drivers pulling in than to pedestrians strolling by.
Atlantic Crossing will take up the whole northern portion from northbound Federal to Veterans Park at the base of the bridge. It aims to attract both motorists and pedestrians — as well as have a built-in customer base of people taking up residence in its apartments and condos.
“We have always viewed Delray as a highly desirable location for residents, workers and retail/restaurant customers,” says Don DeVere, vice president of the Ohio-based Edwards Cos., which is developing the project.

Hidden parking
A key to integrating the project into the pedestrian-friendly nature of the downtown is its out-of-sight parking. While the surface layout is geared for walkers, the underground space accommodates the cars that will bring the visitors to Delray Beach.
There will be more than 1,000 parking spaces in the development when it’s completed. The single-level main garage, underneath the buildings along northbound Federal Highway, can be accessed from a street into the development from Federal Highway or by taking Northeast First Street and then entering the project.
The underground garage, with its 442 spaces, covers 3.6 acres. That’s almost the size of three football fields.

By the numbers
When built out, Atlantic Crossing will have 261 apartments, 82 condos, 83,462 square feet of Class A office space, 39,434 square feet of restaurants and 37,642 square feet of shops.
It has been opposed over the years by nearby residents who fear it will create a traffic jam at the bridge and is too big to fit Delray’s village character.
Only a portion of the space is in the first phase — and only a portion of the first phase is getting set to open: just two of the six buildings that are part of the overall project which broke ground in 2018. The two buildings have ground-level shops and restaurants, with 85 apartments on the upper floors of one and two floors of office space over the shops in the other.
“For us, that corner has been dormant for a very long time,” Simon says. “To have those opening up for business and the additional parking that’s there, it’ll just continue to bring more pedestrians and spread the downtown out and really bring back life to that area.”

A different downtown vibe
While Atlantic Crossing doesn’t have the ambiance of the restaurant-lined, two-lane portion of the avenue between Swinton Avenue and Federal Highway, it’s ready to set a different mood. The narrower, oak-tree-canopied historic section of the avenue will now give way to a more open, palm-tree-lined gateway to the beach.
“Landscaping on both sides of Atlantic has been installed and the patio at the corner of Atlantic and Federal has been carefully detailed to entice customers,” DeVere says. “But most important are the buildings themselves, which have been carefully designed to contribute to the Atlantic Avenue streetscape.”
Walkways within the development will have plenty of trees, art and seating, and will connect to Veterans Park along the Intracoastal Waterway.
Instead of a monolithic project design, the buildings each have their own theme, to give the impression they developed organically over time. The styles range from Mediterranean architecture to the sleek look of Florida stone sidings, some buildings classic and others modern.
Simon appreciates the open space in Atlantic Crossing, but wishes it had more.
“Open space is very important in urban centers,” Simon says. “Our hope is we can really enhance the Veterans Park area to become an accessible area for people to be outside and take advantage of that open space in a denser area, because it’s going to be dense.”

Economic impact
Data going back to 2014 estimates the construction itself will create more than 1,000 jobs exceeding $60 million in annual salaries, while there’ll be 600 permanent jobs once the project is finished, accounting for about $30 million a year in wages.
Atlantic Crossing is expected to produce $2.6 million in new annual tax revenues for the city and $2 million in building permit fees.
As for the people who will be living at Atlantic Crossing, it’s estimated they will be spending about $6.1 million a year in the city.

Construction crews work on Atlantic Crossing, a $300 million project that will span two blocks from northbound Federal Highway to Veterans Park. Two of the six buildings that are part of the first phase are expected to open by April and include apartments and a few restaurants and other businesses. Tim Stepien/ The Coastal Star

Long-awaited opening
Projected completion dates for the first phase have come and gone, and now the developer is saying the initial openings are just around the corner, by April. “We expect at least one retail store, offices and the first set of apartments to be open the first quarter of this year,” DeVere says.
His company initially thought 2020 would see some openings, but that time line got pushed back to mid-2021, then late 2021. The more recent delays, the developer says, are directly attributable to labor, material and supply chain problems brought on by the pandemic.
“It’s hard to predict with so many variables,” DeVere says. In addition, even if construction is completed, it may take businesses or offices extra time to build out and occupy their interior spaces.

Signed and on board
A number of the businesses moving into Atlantic Crossing are coming from their previous digs at Atlantic Plaza, including Merrill Lynch financial services and Chico’s, a women’s clothing store that will now have full frontal exposure on the avenue.
“We have seen very strong demand for office [space] at this location and hope to have the remaining space leased within 60 days,” DeVere said on Jan. 25. “We already have significant interest in the phase two office space.”
Le Colonial, a Vietnamese restaurant with a French flair, has the prime spot at the corner of Atlantic and Federal, in the same building as Chico’s and Bounce Sporting Club, a high-end bar that combines sports and nightlife and plans to open in the summer.
In the building to the north are two other restaurants, The Hampton Social — a nautical-themed restaurant out of Chicago, with a coastal menu that aims to replicate the feel of the Hamptons in New York — and Ó·Ra Cucina and Bar. As many as eight first-floor suites are available in the two buildings for other businesses wanting in.
As for the new apartments, Atlantic Crossing plans to begin leasing in February.

Wide, but not so tall
Atlantic Crossing, when completed, will be the biggest project ever downtown.
It has a large footprint of two full city blocks, but it’s not reaching for the sky. Developers say the size of the buildings is more in keeping with the small-town vibe the city tries to exude, with two at three stories, two at four stories and two at five stories.
“The sun always shines here in Delray Beach. We’re not shaded by tall skyscrapers,” Simon says. “You’ll hear that from some of our long-standing retailers, that they enjoy being on the sunny side of the street. It makes a difference. People feel different, happy.
“Atlantic Crossing is on the sunny side of the street,” she says. “The good news is it’s not a 40-story building.”

Farewell, Atlantic Plaza
Members of Delray’s Simon family designed and built Atlantic Plaza, with its easily remembered 777 E. Atlantic Ave. address next to Veterans Park and the Intracoastal, drawing customers from the beach to the east and the city to the west.
The plaza was a shot in the arm for Atlantic Avenue when it was built in 1985, the year before the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency was created and the renewal of Atlantic Avenue began in earnest.
“It was meant to be that catalyst for change, to also enhance that part of the district, to expand that district to the bridge,” the DDA’s Simon says.
Her father, Roy Simon, designed Atlantic Plaza, and her uncle, Sandy Simon, was its lead developer. The family is sad to see it go, but knows Atlantic Avenue is ready for a new catalyst, which the city hopes Atlantic Crossing will be.
“My father has lived here for 91 years in Delray Beach,” she says. “Our family has been here since 1912. So, there’s change. That happens. It’s part of life.”

By Larry Barszewski

King tides are serving as an early warning system for communities along the Intracoastal Waterway, providing seasonal examples of flooding that — in future decades — will become more frequent and more intense as sea levels rise.
The main barriers keeping salt water from flooding even more waterfront property and streets during the king tides are the existing sea walls, but most of those structures probably aren’t high or strong enough to protect against the rising sea levels to come.
In January, Delray Beach became the first city in southern Palm Beach County to shore up its sea wall regulations to address climate change. City commissioners at their Jan. 11 meeting set a minimum height for sea walls and approved other policies for when new or replacement sea walls will be needed.
The new regulations won’t force all property owners whose sea walls are lower than the minimum height to come into compliance. They will apply only to new sea walls, those on properties undergoing major renovations, those in need of major repair and those that fail to stop water from washing over them and flooding neighboring properties or streets.
If cited by the city, owners will have a year to make repairs and meet the new height requirements.
“It’s not just about water coming through your sea wall or over your sea wall and affecting your neighbors, it’s also if your sea wall is damaged to the point where you’re losing material through the sea wall and into the Intracoastal Waterway,” Delray Beach Public Works Director Missie Barletto told waterfront property owners at a December forum about the changes.

Different approaches
Other coastal communities are still considering what to do.
In South Palm Beach, Town Manager Robert Kellogg is looking to see if the state approves new building inspection requirements in response to the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside in June.
“We are waiting to see if the state does anything with requiring inspections to high-rises,” Kellogg said of legislators. “If they do, we would then incorporate sea wall standards into any changes we would make to the code.”
Other communities know it’s only a matter of time before they will have to act. Many belong to the Coastal Resilience Partnership of Southeast Palm Beach County, which developed a climate change vulnerability assessment for its partners last year.
“We are still working together as a group to update the vulnerability assessment, and have started discussing sea walls as an action area,” Ocean Ridge Town Manager Tracey Stevens said in an email to The Coastal Star.
Besides Ocean Ridge, the other partners are Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Highland Beach, Lantana, Lake Worth and Palm Beach County.
Highland Beach has had a minimum sea wall height for new construction on its books for years, but Mayor Doug Hillman said the town needs to take a closer look at how it will adapt its regulations to the growing threats from global warming.
“It’s a very big subject and a very costly one for our residents, so it’s not just something we can ignore,” Hillman said. “You don’t want water flowing over the land and then getting into the homes. And you can’t make a decision when it’s too late.”

Full disclosure
The Delray Beach regulations require someone selling property in an affected area to disclose in the sale contract — in all caps — that the property is “in a tidally influenced area.” The notice says the buyer may have to meet minimum standards “during construction or substantial repair to the property or the sea walls,” or when needed “to abate nuisance flooding.”

How high to build
One of the most confusing aspects of sea walls is how their heights are measured. If the height is based on an old surveying system, known as NGVD 29, the recorded height is about 1.5 feet lower than if measured on the newer system, called NAVD 88. Some cities, such as Highland Beach, may use another Federal Emergency Management Agency standard called “base flood elevation.”
NAVD 88 is “a surveyed elevation, which is a benchmark point in space,” said Cynthia Buisson, assistant public works director in Delray Beach. “Sometimes when we think of elevation, we think well that’s just the water level, but the water level changes with the tide, with the season, and what I’m referring to is a surveyed elevation.”
Highland Beach last year began using base flood elevation because its previous 6 feet NAVD 88 minimum requirement was getting confused with that height using NGVD 29, which is lower, said Jeff Remas, the town’s floodplain administrator. The change also makes the town proactive as sea levels rise, he said.
“This way, as the flood maps raise the base flood elevation, the sea wall height requirement also increases without the need for legislative intervention,” Remas said in an email to The Coastal Star.
Delray Beach’s new requirements are lower than what’s already on the books for new construction in Highland Beach. In fact, what Highland Beach has as the minimum allowed for new sea walls — the base floor elevation — is the maximum height for Delray Beach.
In Delray Beach, using the NAVD 88 measurements, the city is requiring sea walls be built to a minimum height of 4.2 feet and that the structure be able to accommodate a cap that reaches a height of 5 feet if needed in the future.
“We’re going to continue to monitor sea level rise. There may be changes that come forward. Instead of having to replace your entire sea wall, you can just add a cap for that additional level of protection,” Buisson said.
Delray’s 4.2 feet minimum compares to minimum sea wall heights of 3.9 feet in Fort Lauderdale, 5.7 feet in Miami Beach and 5 feet for Broward County.
Delray’s maximum height of 5 feet or the base flood elevation, depending on location, compares with maximum heights of 4 feet in Lighthouse Point and 5 feet 10 inches in Pompano Beach. Fort Lauderdale also uses base flood elevation as a maximum.
About 70% of current sea walls in Delray Beach are below its new minimum and only about a quarter are in good or satisfactory condition, a 2018 city survey showed. The survey covered about 20 miles of privately owned sea walls and 1 mile of public sea walls.
Buisson said a sea wall has a life expectancy of about 30 years, so Delray Beach officials don’t want to make them be higher than needed during that time.
“Some folks think that we’re not going high enough,” Buisson said. “The whole idea is to still allow you to live on the water, enjoy why you bought the house on the water, while still protecting yourself and your community.”

Hank Davis of Delray Beach rescued this green turtle while fishing along the beach in Briny Breezes. Photo provided

By Larry Keller

As if a green turtle dubbed Brontosaurus didn’t have enough obstacles to reaching old age — ingestion of and entanglement in plastic debris and fishing nets, boat strikes, discarded fish hooks, ocean pollution and climate change — it also had to fend off a shark attack.
In late December, Hank Davis was fly fishing in Briny Breezes when he noticed a group of children staring at a turtle struggling to swim no more than six feet from shore.
“I thought that’s strange, because turtles don’t usually come in that close, especially if there are a lot of people around,” said Davis, a retired psychology teacher in the international baccalaureate program at Atlantic High School and a Delray Beach resident.
“I got this guy to hold my fly rod … and I put one arm underneath her and tried to support her head. She didn’t try to get away. I’m pretty confident she was in shock. She was sort of flipping her fins and looking around. Her right flipper was just shredded … there was a lot of ragged tissue.”
Davis carried the turtle up to the beach. Then he called Joan Lorne of the conservation group Sea Turtle Adventures. She came immediately.
Davis placed the turtle on a wet towel on the floor of the passenger side of Lorne’s vehicle and she drove the critically wounded critter to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, which provides medical care and rehabilitation to injured and sick sea turtles.
The turtle was “quiet and docile” during the drive, Lorne said.

Emily Mirowski, Gumbo Limbo sea turtle rehabilitation assistant, displays the turtle, named Brontosaurus, which lost most of its right front flipper. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

“The front right flipper was for the most part bitten off,” said Emily Mirowski, Gumbo Limbo sea turtle rehabilitation assistant. “She still has her shoulder area.”
The turtle’s front left flipper was intact but had some teeth marks, and there also were shallow bite marks along the carapace, or shell.
Gumbo Limbo’s veterinarian and rehab specialists gave the turtle iron and vitamin supplements for blood loss, and sutured wounds to both front flippers. The injuries were cleaned with a solution, and raw honey — which has antibacterial and antifungal qualities — was applied to them. The turtle continues to receive antibiotics.
“She was a really healthy turtle before the shark injury.” Mirowski said. “She was robust. I don’t think she had any barnacles on her, or algae growth.”
She was named Brontosaurus because Gumbo Limbo is giving its patients dinosaur names until it reaches the end of the alphabet. And while Brontosaurus is called “she” by everybody, her gender won’t be evident until she’s at least a more mature 20 years old, said Gumbo Limbo’s manager, Leanne Welch.
The most common sea turtle malady the nature center treats is fibropapillomatosis, Welch said. That’s a disease that produces cauliflower-like tumors on a sea turtle’s body, even its eyes and mouth. Shark bite injuries to local sea turtles are neither common nor rare.
“We see maybe three or four a year,” Welch said. “There aren’t really a whole lot of sharks in our area that can take out a full-grown sea turtle. Our sharks here have a tendency to be a little smaller.
“With sea turtles, what we’ll see more often is evidence of an old injury that is healed.” But a turtle that is already sick and floating on the surface “is an easy mark.”
So is a youngster like Brontosaurus. She is estimated to be 5 to 7 years old and weighed a dainty 23 pounds when she arrived at Gumbo Limbo. Adults on average weigh about 350 pounds, but can reach 500 pounds.
Brontosaurus will be released back into the sea, likely in the spring, when it’s expected she will be fully healed and finished with her course of antibiotics, Mirowski said.
Until then, Gumbo Limbo visitors can view her swimming in one of the tanks she and other patients occupy.
“She is a popular turtle and we get a lot of questions about her,” Mirowski said.
“She’s already super strong and healthy. She’s swimming pretty well. She’s not struggling. That’s a good sign she’ll do really well in the wild.
“She still has the humerus bone near the shoulder region of the flipper. She’ll be able to use it, especially if she’s a female. She would still be able to come up on land and use it to nest.”
Unlike other species, green sea turtles eat a mostly vegetarian diet of sea grasses and algae. This gives their fat, not their shells, a greenish hue and accounts for their name. They are a protected, threatened species. Green sea turtles nest in more than 80 countries, and generally do so on south Palm Beach County beaches from May through September.
They can live to age 70 or older. Even with all the impediments Brontosaurus must overcome to survive that long, she has a chance. After all, sea turtles have endured for 100 million years — and perhaps were contemporaries of the actual brontosauruses.
Welch wouldn’t bet against her making it. “Sea turtles are remarkably resilient,” she said.

A morning walk on my birthday produced an unusual find along our shoreline. Mary Kate Leming / The Coastal Star

Gifts come in many forms. Some wrapped, some written, some plucked from the side of the roadway. Flowers, music, books, chocolate, wine are all received with gratitude. My favorites, however, are most often those found in nature: a hummingbird hovering nearby, eye contact with a sea turtle just off shore, a whale breaching within sight of the dune. And sunrise — the magical kaleidoscope of shifting colors just before the sun pushes above the horizon.
On Jan. 17, my birthday wish was to extend my normal morning walk all the way to the Boynton Inlet. My husband joined me and as the sun rose on a spectacularly beautiful, crisp, clear day, we picked up bits of sea glass and lovely little shells as we strolled along. The morning was surely a gift.
As my bare footprints followed me north, living starfish and sea cucumbers washed ashore. This doesn’t happen often on this stretch of beach, so we joined other beachcombers in returning them to the sea in hopes the incoming tide would carry them back beneath the waves. It was a shared effort in a good cause.
At the north end of Boynton Beach’s Oceanfront Park, a large shell rolled up the empty, smooth beach and landed near my feet. I was giddy. In my 35 years of walking this beach, I’d never found a shell like this. It was flawless and beautiful. I looked around to see if someone perhaps had placed it there, but saw only two young women on beach chairs, staring hard into their cellphones. I scooped up the shell and walked on. They never looked up.
What was this shell, where did it come from and how did it end up on this beach at this moment? My shell book provided few answers.
I decided to search out a shell expert to determine how rare a find it was. On the Broward Shell Club Facebook page I posted a photo and a description of where the shell was found.
Members of the page were as blown away as I was. I was getting psyched that maybe I’d found something truly rare and valuable.
Then one of the administrators posted: “GREAT SHELL! Sadly, it must have been dropped there because it is found Live in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Not the Atlantic.”
He included a Wikipedia link for Tonna tessellata. There it was, my shell from another ocean.
I’ll likely never know who left this gift on a cold January morning, but I thank them. It reminds me that not only are the best gifts often from nature, but also sometimes from complete strangers.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Professor emeritus Eric Shaw reclines at home 21 stories above Boca but does not feel retired. He mentors Ph.D. students and says life is a self-improvement project. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Tao Woolfe

After four decades of telling students that neither marketing — nor money — is inherently evil, Dr. Eric H. Shaw stepped away from the lectern to powerfully demonstrate this principle.
Just before Christmas, the marketing scholar and professor emeritus pledged $2 million to Florida Atlantic University, his alma mater and longtime employer.
“Most people believe money is the root of all evil, but it’s not — it’s greed,” he said.
Money can, and should, be used as a force for good, Shaw believes. Giving back to the college, he said, is his way of paying it forward.
Shaw’s donation will help students involved in various fields of study, said Chris Delisio, FAU’s vice president for institutional advancement.
“Dr. Shaw is a special, special person,” Delisio added. “Gifts like this do not happen every day. We are incredibly grateful for his kind generosity.”
Specifically, the $2 million donation will provide scholarships and excellence awards to student athletes, and to business, honor society and music students. Shaw said the money will be awarded as a series of gifts while he is alive and will continue to be distributed as a planned endowment after his death.
Shaw, 78, who is unmarried, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from FAU in 1972 and 1973, and earned a Ph.D. in 1985 from Temple University.
He began teaching marketing at FAU in 1973 and has since held positions as marketing department chairman, dean and a member of FAU’s board of trustees, among other roles.
Shaw also has been an active member of Boca Raton and Palm Beach business and charitable organizations.
Although retired from regular teaching duties, he has served as FAU’s emeritus professor of marketing since 2014. He also mentors marketing Ph.D. students around the world, he said.
“These students have a narrow area of study — the history of marketing thought,” Shaw said. “They take a broader view than most, looking at how marketing impacts society and how society impacts marketing. It’s not just about how to make money.”
Shaw said he made much of the money he is giving away by serving as an expert witness in court cases involving several South Florida businesses and national corporations. He was called to testify about such issues as wrongful termination of marketing contracts, deceptive marketing practices and trademark infringement, according to his extensive curriculum vitae.
Shaw has written extensively about marketing history, practices and schools of thought. He is cited as an expert and scholar in many marketing books and essays by other authors.
In a 2015 piece he wrote for the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Shaw discussed how much he loved teaching — and learning from — his students.
“I thoroughly enjoy teaching the history of marketing thought class,” Shaw wrote. “Every time I reread familiar sources and hear the fresh perspectives of my students, I learn from the process. It improves my understanding, forces me to rethink ideas long taken for granted. …
“This old professor, of course, can only hope that his youthful students learn as much from such a class as he does.”
Asked about his future plans, the longtime Boca Raton resident said he enjoys his ocean view and his unstructured lifestyle, but he is still a driven man.
“I think of myself as a self-improvement project,” he said. “I am continually working on getting better.”

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Even on a cool, foggy morning like Jan. 28, Old Ocean Boulevard is busy with pedestrians, pets, bicyclists and occasional motor vehicle traffic. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

Ocean Ridge officials are seeking volunteers to serve on a task force to come up with ways to protect the growing number of pedestrians flocking to Old Ocean Boulevard. 
Keeping pedestrians safe on the oceanside road has been broached off and on over the years, most recently in 2016 when commissioners explored the idea of changing the traffic flow to one way to create a promenade. 
Although that idea never advanced, Vice Mayor Susan Hurlburt in early January said the issue needs to be addressed as more and more residents move to the area and discover the road as a walking route.
“Old Ocean is becoming crowded,’’ Hurlburt, who takes walks on the road twice a day, said at the Jan. 3 Town Commission meeting. “I’m seeing a lot of speeding, running stop signs, plus it’s really packed. Between the walkers, the bikers, the dogs, the skateboarders and the cars, I’m afraid it’s an accident waiting to happen.’’
The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 has contributed to growing crowds as more people seek outdoor leisure activities, Police Chief Richard Jones said. 
“Old Ocean is a roadway and that is what many folks don’t realize,’’ he said. “They have earbuds in. They don’t pay attention to anything that’s going on around them. They’re just on a mission to walk or exercise, and it’s a beautiful place to do it, but it’s always potentially an unsafe place to do it if you’re not alert to your surroundings.’’
Commissioner Steve Coz said an obvious solution is to increase police patrols to cite motorists who run stop signs or stop along the road to unload beach chairs.  
Hurlburt wants to collect ideas that haven’t been considered in the past, including different traffic calming measures. “Anything we can do to make a safer environment,’’ she said. 
Old Ocean Boulevard runs nearly a mile from Corrine Street in Ocean Ridge to Briny Breezes, east of and parallel with State Road A1A. Much of the Ocean Ridge stretch offers unobstructed views of the ocean.
“It’s the only street of its kind in Palm Beach County,” said Commissioner Geoff Pugh, who suggested the one-way promenade with planters in 2016 when he was mayor.
“You can be the poorest guy in the world and the richest guy in the world and you have the same opportunity to walk directly next to the ocean. It literally is a gem for the town of Ocean Ridge.”
Town commissioners agreed to form a task force of residents. Volunteers should contact Town Manager Tracey Stevens at tstevens@oceanridgeflorida.com or 561-732-2635.
In other business:
• Town employees and visitors will decide on their own whether to wear protective masks in Town Hall. Commissioners considered whether to mandate masks because of the omicron surge and agreed to let employees take an anonymous survey of their preferences. More than 92% voted to make mask-wearing a personal choice, Stevens said. 
• The commission voted 4-1 to participate in a proposed $26 billion nationwide settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors. If the deal is approved, Ocean Ridge stands to get $32,000 to $36,000 over 18 years. 
The lone no vote came from Commissioner Martin Wiescholek, who offered a sharp rebuke of the deal, noting it will come from a fraction of the combined profits of Johnson & Johnson and drug distributors Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson.  
“I’m going to make a very bold statement here: Keep your free money. I don’t want it. This is not what this town should be about. We should be ashamed of taking $32,000 for a settlement of 500,000 people that have been killed,’’ he said. “It’s the settlement culture that we have come to accept as part of our daily lives, where corporations can do whatever they want and if they get caught, they pay a little settlement.”