Workshop members in Boca Raton take a walking tour of U.S. 1, also known as Federal Highway.

Workshops are set this month for Delray Beach and Boynton Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    As it stretches 42 miles from Camino Real in Boca Raton to Indiantown Road in Jupiter, U.S. 1 crosses through 14 municipalities.
    In some places along the stretch, you’ll find bike paths and sidewalks, in other places you’ll see sidewalks on only one side.
 You might also find intersections that need better lighting or improved traffic signals.
    Now, the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization is working on a study that will create a blueprint for coordinated improvements along the east Palm Beach County corridor.
    “We’re creating a unified vision, but one that is feasible,” says Valerie Neilson, principal planner and multimodality manager for the organization’s U.S. 1 Multimodal Corridor Study. “We’re trying to create a plan that connects all of the communities.”
    The study, which began in February, is scheduled to wrap up by next spring and will include recommendations on what improvements can be made along the corridor. Once that is completed, the design phase can begin, setting the stage for implementation of the recommendations.
    Since U.S. 1 is a state road and falls under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Transportation, the MPO planners will be working closely with FDOT on the project to coordinate all efforts.
    While there will be a focus on bike paths and sidewalks and the “complete streets” concept, which addresses needs of pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists, the MPO study goes much further and looks at several areas of improvement.
    There’s a public transit element to the study, where teams will be looking at the stops along the way as well as schedules to ensure they’re both meeting the needs of the riders. Data show that U.S. 1 serves about 8,600 bus riders per day, making it the busiest bus route in the county. “We’re looking at how we can improve existing service,” Neilson said.
    The study also could identify bus-stop facilities to upgrade and recommend ways to improve the branding and images of buses along the corridor.
    Safety is a major focus of the study, as planners look for ways to reduce crashes.
    Between 2011 and 2016, there were 12 pedestrian fatalities and three bicycle fatalities along U.S. 1, all at night. The three bicycle fatalities took place in Boca Raton north of Glades Road.
    In that same time frame, there were 321 pedestrian or bicycle-involved crashes, with 82 percent of the bicycle crashes occurring in areas where there are no bike lanes.
    As part of the study, engineers and planners will look at traffic flow to see whether lane reductions might improve safety. They’ll also be looking at signals and speed limits.
    An innovative part of the study will include a health-impact assessment, in which planners will explore issues such as how difficult it is for people without cars to reach grocery stores safely.
    Funding for the $775,000 study is provided by the MPO, a collaborative organization governed by Palm Beach municipal and county elected leaders designed to identify and prioritize transportation projects.  
    As part of the process, the MPO team has been holding meetings with community members, the first of which took place last month in Boca Raton. During that meeting and a walking audit, the team heard from residents and community leaders who offered suggestions to improve safety and mass transit.
    A series of meetings will be held this month for Delray Beach and Boynton Beach residents and community leaders.  A combined workshop, which will include a walking audit, will take place 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 24 at the Boynton Beach Library, 208 Seacrest Blvd.
    In addition, there will be open-studio charrettes for both cities from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 27-28 at the Boynton Beach Clubhouse, 2240 N. Federal Highway.
    A workshop for Hypoluxo and Lantana will be July 22 at a location to be announced.
    The MPO will also have open-studio charrettes July 24-26 at a location to be determined. Workshops are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and open-studio charrettes are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
    For more information, visit www.us1pbcorridorstudy.com.

By Jane Smith

    The long-awaited iPic deal closed on May 16.
    The developer paid $3.6 million to the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency for 1.6 acres between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues, just south of Atlantic Avenue.
    When complete in 2020, the iPic complex will boast 497 luxury seats in eight screening rooms with a total of 44,979 square feet and a 42,446-square-foot office building where iPic has agreed to move its corporate headquarters and occupy 20,000 square feet for five years.
    The development also will include 7,847 square feet of retail space and a multilevel garage with 326 spaces, providing 90 public parking spaces.
    The deal, originally signed in December 2013, was controversial because the CRA didn’t notify nearby landowners of its intentions to sell the land. The agency relied on a change in state law that no longer required the notification.
    Over the years, the agreement was amended seven times, with the latest closing set for Jan. 31.
    As part of the closing, iPic was supposed to provide a parking plan for its construction workers and for customers in the 400 block of Atlantic while building its complex. The theater developer provided a draft version of its parking plan. Its development order from a city board called for iPic to use “best efforts” to find the temporary parking spaces for customers until the garage is finished.

James Blumenfeld, co-owner of Meridian Art Experience in Delray Beach’s Pineapple Grove,

displays works mainly from local artists and offers services for collectors.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    James Blumenfeld and business partner Susan Romaine learned from their first meeting in 2014 that they had a mutual love of art, and their combined efforts since culminated in the Feb. 2 grand opening of Meridian Art Experience in the Pineapple Grove neighborhood of Delray Beach.
    The gallery aims to make the middle-art market affordable and approachable.
    “Our vehicle is to invite people in to experience original artwork,” said Blumenfeld, a St. Louis native who enjoyed great success in the corporate world prior to this venture. “Our tag line is ‘The fine line of living with art.’ Really just to be able to integrate all the different forms of art — anything you happen to love — into an environment that works for you.”
    While it’s been more by happenstance than by design, local artists have played a prominent role in the gallery at 170 NE Second Ave. Romaine, an artist herself, has used her connection in the South Florida community to feature up-and-comers largely ranging from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach.
    “I always had a passion for art,” said Blumenfeld, 54. “It started with becoming an art history major in college, probably even before then. I took art history as a survey course to fulfill a humanities requirement. I didn’t really know what I had stepped into, but I just fell in love with it.
    “It really was the history of the world, with visual arts as your looking glass. That, to me, was attractive. I love history and I just loved the idea of studying history with a visual connection. So that was the beginning of my love of art. I’ve been an admirer and collector of art ever since.”
    A Cardinals fan, Blumenfeld said he also has a passion for baseball. “Most people would never guess by meeting me, with my background and all that, that I’m a big baseball fan.”
    Meridian Art Experience is sponsoring a Delray Beach art walk from 6 to 9 p.m. the first Friday of each month.
— Brian Biggane

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How did that influence what you’re doing now?
    A. I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis and went to school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and then moved back and got my MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. I fell in love with art after taking an art history class in college.

    Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. I had my own company for a short time and then went on a corporate track for a good stretch of time. I went to Ralston-Purina, which owned what was then Continental Baking, which was comprised of Hostess and Wonder. I helped develop Mini-Muffins, Brownie Bites, all of that, and that was great fun. I went to Nabisco from there, helped them introduce some Healthy Choice snacks and crackers.
    Then I moved on to Coca-Cola in Atlanta, where I was in the global marketing group and really learned the essence of branding. I was there for several years, traveled the globe and really learned about culture.
    Then, for family reasons, I moved back to the Northeast, up to New York, and went to work for Citibank in the late ’90s, when everybody was doing something in the Internet. I was leading a marketing group to create the virtual bank, which ultimately became Citibank.com.
    Then I went to work for Ameritrade for a while as chief marketing officer. Then the bubble burst, and the people from Ameritrade wanted me to go to Omaha, Neb., to run their marketing, and I said no thanks. … I took a [severance] package from them and ended up starting my own marketing consulting firm in Connecticut.
    My husband joined us a year later and we adopted a son, then decided to move to Central Florida to increase our son’s educational opportunities. He was 6 at the time. At that point I took some time away from the business.
    When I went back I ended up running our nonprofit piece of the business. We’ve done work in the areas of equality, education, autism, etc. I’m very proud of my efforts in that area.
    I’ve introduced a lot of new products along the way, which has been really fun. I did a Super Bowl commercial for Ameritrade.

    Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
    A. I believe people should be sponges; that’s how I’ve operated. You learn from everything, and where there’s an opportunity to take on assignments, there’s an opportunity to learn. And if you do that, it opens up your listening, it changes how you deal with people, if you sort of take that approach.

    Q. How did you choose to make your home in coastal Delray Beach?
    A. The big reason was my son, who will be 15 in July. He’s gifted in math and science and we were looking for the right place for him to move forward in his development. Having my own marketing firm made us fortunate enough to be able to live wherever we wanted.
    The move to Delray also proved to fit nicely with my own move toward the arts scene in Central Florida. One of the things we got involved with in Orlando was the Flying Horse Editions. Flying Horse is a fine-arts studio sponsored by the University of Central Florida; it’s part of their curriculum. They created a program where they had about 25 or 30 families who paid money, and that would fund three or four artists through the course of the year. Then at the end of the season each family got one piece from each of the artists. So you would get three or four pieces, a numbered print. It’s a phenomenal program. They’ve started doing art fairs and all of that, and I was on their board for a while. That was the early engage for me. I was involved with the arts to some degree up in the Northeast, but not the way I got involved in Central Florida.
    I was also one of the members of the patrons committee for the Winter Park Arts Festival.

    Q. What is your favorite part about living in Delray Beach? 
    A. The weather. I don’t like the cold. I’ve lived in St. Louis, New Jersey, and I don’t miss any of that. My favorite part about living in Florida is watching winter on TV. And I believe summer is the best-kept secret in South Florida. We never get as hot as St. Louis. They have 10-, 15-day stretches of 95- to 105-degree weather. That doesn’t happen here. If it gets to 92 that’s a hot day here, and then it rains.

    Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. I’ve just started Captivate by Vanessa Van Edwards. It’s all about social engagement. How to work a room, how to be social, how to engage people. It’s fascinating. 

 
    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    A. I like country, I like pop, I like rock ’n’ roll, I like my old ’80s music. Any sort of rock, pop, contemporary, country genre. I like the anthem songs as well, especially if I’m trying to be moved or inspired. But I’m generally more moved by the performance than by the music itself. So if I’m at a concert, or if I’m watching TV and somebody is doing a performance, it’s like, wow. So I’m more visual.

    Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
    A. Two. One I wrote in my high school yearbook. It’s from James Thurber and reads, “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.” That to me is how I wish the world truly operated. The other is something I say all the time, an expression I picked up from a friend in Winter Park: “It’s all good.” Not sure who first said it, but it works for me.

    Q. Have you had mentors in your life?
    A. Professionally I’ve had them in almost every place I’ve worked. Whether it’s a boss or a peer, usually the boss that has helped and guided me through any career situation I might have in front of me, good or bad. Personally, one of my greatest mentors is my husband, Chris Cooney. We’re good for each other that way, in being able to coach each other. And of course, my parents; they did a lot for me. Family means a lot to me.

    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. I’d love to have Brad Pitt do it, but more realistically it’s probably Stanley Tucci.

By Steve Plunkett

    Town resident Chris O’Hare’s “bad faith conduct” in seeking hundreds of public records may leave him liable for Gulf Stream’s hefty legal bill and even sanctions, a circuit judge has ruled.
    In a case O’Hare filed against the town, Judge Thomas Barkdull III said Gulf Stream did not unjustifiably delay its response to a public records request from O’Hare and his conduct bars the relief he sought, namely the records plus his own attorney’s fees.
    O’Hare’s conduct “was clearly intended to inappropriately manufacture public records requests in order to generate public records litigation and attorney’s fees,” Barkdull wrote in a final judgment May 8.
    What’s more, Barkdull wrote, “Having had the opportunity to observe O’Hare at trial, the court further concludes that O’Hare intended to harass and intimidate the town’s employees to generate litigation and fees with ‘gotcha’ type requests.”
    And, Barkdull wrote, “To that extent, he was successful.”
    In Tallahassee, meanwhile, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law last month giving judges discretion over whether to award attorney’s fees when someone successfully sues a government agency for improperly withholding records. Before, legal fees were automatic.
    “We fully expected it to be signed, actually last year instead of this year,” said former Gulf Stream Vice Mayor Robert Ganger, who testified during the 2016 legislative session on the burdens small towns face. “It was a long haul, but I’m hopeful that people will say that’s the right thing to do.”
    Gulf Stream used its hurricane reserve fund and had to raise taxes 40 percent to pay its legal bills, Ganger told state lawmakers.
    The Florida League of Cities supported the law; open-government advocates opposed it.
    The issue in the O’Hare case was a request he made after Town Hall closed for the day May 14, 2014, for “all records in any way related to any correspondence between Jones-Foster on behalf of the town and Martin O’Boyle and created or received during the period of time from March 1, 2014, through to the moment you receive this request.”
    Jones, Foster, Johnston & Stubbs PA is Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph’s firm, with about 40 lawyers in its West Palm Beach office.
    Gulf Stream answered O’Hare within two days, saying it was “working on a large number of incoming public records requests” and would use “its very best efforts to respond to you in a reasonable amount of time.”
    The judge noted that O’Hare did not advise the town that he wanted the request handled ahead of 10 other requests he made that day.
    O’Hare filed suit 46 days after he made his request, a day longer than the statutory requirement, asking Barkdull to declare the town was making an “illegal withholding” of the records and seeking attorney fees.
    In January, after a four-day nonjury trial, Robert Sweetapple, Gulf Stream’s outside counsel, told town commissioners the judge sided with them. In Barkdull’s final order, the judge invited Gulf Stream to ask that O’Hare pay its legal bill and also be sanctioned.
    At the same meeting, O’Hare told commissioners he disagreed with the ruling. “So do my attorneys, and of course we’ll appeal that,” he said.
    Before Barkdull’s ruling, a municipality that successfully defended itself against a public records dispute still had to pay its own legal bill.
    O’Hare began asking Gulf Stream for public records in 2013. From late August through December that year, he made more than 400 requests, Sweetapple said. Together, he and fellow resident O’Boyle have filed more than 2,000 requests and dozens of lawsuits.
    The 10 requests O’Hare made May 14, 2014, led to seven lawsuits, Sweetapple said.
    Gulf Stream’s legal bills soared from $3,000 a month to as much as $79,000 a month fighting the lawsuits, the town told Barkdull. It bought new computer programs and a server to handle all the public records requests and hired an attorney full time in Town Hall to help manage the cases.
    O’Hare launched his barrage of public records requests after he experienced what he described as “a series of retaliations” and “fictitious code enforcements” from the town beginning in 2012, Barkdull wrote.
    O’Hare, who lives in Place Au Soleil, also had an “ongoing dispute” with the town regarding him parking his boat on what he understood to be publicly accessible waters in a canal west of Mayor Scott Morgan’s house.

By Jane Smith
    
    With a 15-minute soliloquy, Delray Beach’s mayor cast the deciding vote to keep the Community Redevelopment Agency board independent from the City Commission.
    “The hasty manner in which we got here does not produce an environment in which cooler heads prevail,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said.
    Glickstein said he regretted not hitting the pause button two weeks ago, and that he and his commission colleagues had spent the intervening 14 days talking to residents on both sides of the issue and many in the middle.
    But his support was conditional.
    “Things must change,” he said, starting with the City Commission’s appointment of four members this month to the seven-member CRA board.
    His other conditions include: The CRA will pay for all city-identified projects in its district; the CRA will circulate documents for public land sales over 1 acre to the City Commission and city attorney before developers can submit bids; and the CRA staff will communicate better with city staff and commissioners.
    Glickstein also wants to see the CRA end “the backdoor funding game.” At times, he said, when a project was denied money by the city, the developer went to the CRA. The agency was seen “as an off-the-balance sheet, out-of-public-scrutiny source with a seemingly magical money pot that has been for far too long viewed as  something other than what it is: taxpayer dollars.”
     The mayor followed up a week later with a memo to the CRA leadership detailing the conditions for his support of an independent CRA board.
    At the May 16 commission meeting, nearly 40 people spoke on the CRA. The speakers included downtown business owners, former city staffers, a former mayor, current and former CRA board members and longtime residents. Four current CRA board members, including Chairman Reggie Cox, sat in the front row of the packed commission chambers.
    Vice Mayor Jim Chard, who agreed May 2 to discuss the CRA takeover, supported keeping the independent board two weeks later. Chard pointed out the agency’s many accomplishments, including trees along 12th Street and the Atlantic Grove development on West Atlantic.
    “The issue is communications,” he said. “Better communications will be easier to do than the nuclear option.”
    Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson also voted to keep the board independent.
    The tumultuous debate over the CRA in the past two weeks brought the city together, Johnson said. “Thirty-two years is not long in the redevelopment world,” she said. “Blight and slum conditions still exist in the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods.”
     “It’s foolish to think this conversation started two weeks ago,” Commissioner Mitch Katz said. “It started two years ago when then-Commissioner Al Jacquet was outraged that Old School Square expenses were fast-tracked in front of work that was needed in the Northwest/Southwest neighborhoods.”
    Katz supported disbanding the CRA board because he thinks elected officials should be in charge of deciding how taxpayer dollars are spent.
    Commissioner Shelly Petrolia supported the disbanding even though it would be more work for the commission to take over the CRA. “I will bite the bullet,” she said. “I can do it.”  
    In her four years as a commissioner, Petrolia said, “Many CRA decisions did not have the support of the taxpayers.”
    She also said that at a City Commission goal-setting session the previous week, all five commissioners agreed their focus should be on West Atlantic Avenue, not Congress Avenue.
    Nearly one-third of the speakers agreed.
    “I’m mad as hell, the CRA is giving you lip service,” said barrier-island resident Steve Blum. “It has nothing to do with race or historic events. It’s about who do I want to handle my $30 million.”
    Frances Bourque, the principal money-raiser for the Old School Square complex, said, “For the last 30 years I’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with the CRA.”
    Bourque, who lives in the Delray Dunes Golf and Country Club, spoke about giving the CRA board members another chance. “There’s humanity in every decision,” she said. “It’s not just about the dollars.”
    Residents of The Set have been waiting, said Cox, who lives in the area. (The Set is the new name for the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods.) “It’s time to move forward.”

Dispute over naming policy
    The uproar started at the May 2 commission meeting. Commissioners were upset that the CRA board passed a building naming policy while the city is trying to craft one. The naming policy became the tipping point after drawn-out negotiations with the iPic theater owner and the loss of a West Atlantic developer.
    When the mayor asked the city attorney what could be done, Max Lohman replied “little” because the CRA is an independent board. He proposed a “nuclear option” with a resolution dissolving the CRA board and having the city commissioners sit as the CRA members. That’s how a majority of the CRAs in Florida are run, including in Boynton Beach and Boca Raton.
    The CRA covers 20 percent of Delray Beach, from Interstate 95 to the ocean, where property values are the highest. Its current budget is $17 million from city and county tax dollars. With other sources, the agency will have $31.5 million to spend this budget year. The amount includes a $3.1 million line of credit and the $3.6 million land sale to iPic.
    Delray Beach’s redevelopment agency is considered successful. Since its 1985 start, the CRA has created a vibrant downtown and the Pineapple Grove arts district. The agency also won recent awards from the Florida Redevelopment Association for beautifying Federal Highway and offering incentives to Fairfield Inn & Suites Hotel to open on West Atlantic Avenue.
    At the agency’s May 11 meeting, the building naming policy was rescinded without discussion. The board members also evaluated their executive director and gave Jeff Costello a 5 percent raise, with Cox voting no.
    Cox said he talked privately with Costello about his low rating. The evaluation forms show that Cox rated Costello 77 on a 155-point scale over budget, personnel and communication problems. The evaluations were done prior to the latest kerfuffle with the city.

By Dan Moffett

    SOUTH PALM BEACH — Mark Harris worked for 27 years as a paramedic with the Fire Department of New York, and on 9/11 arrived at Ground Zero just as the second airplane hit the tower.
    Years later, after retiring to South Palm Beach, Mr. Harris became a popular lecturer on emergency response and told his audiences how that tragic day taught him about the random nature of life and death.
    He recalled standing in a group of first responders several hundred feet from the second building when it came down. Mr. Harris said he ran to the left. The others ran to the right. He lived. They didn’t.
    Mr. Harris died of cancer on May 13. He was 54.
    Bob Vitas, the South Palm Beach town manager who started many mornings over coffee with Mr. Harris, says the health problems that ultimately claimed his life grew out of the toxic dust and debris that engulfed him as he helped rescue survivors of the attacks.
    “He was a hero in all respects,” Vitas said. “Mark was always giving of himself. Those who heard him speak loved him.”
    Since 2013, Mr. Harris worked as a community relations specialist and fire-rescue liaison with Delray Medical Center. He gave lectures around south county on “Emergencies From A to Z” and “What Happens When You Dial 911.”
    He showed people how to perform CPR and how to detect strokes. He showed people how to save lives, and his experiences at Ground Zero resonated through his work.
    Delray Medical Center CEO Mark Bryan said Mr. Harris was the first fire-rescue liaison the hospital ever had and that he developed the position from scratch, building relationships between first responders and emergency room staff. Bryan said the hospital plans to continue the position and build on the work Mr. Harris did.
    “Mark did an absolutely fabulous job,” Bryan said. “He basically improved the care of patients throughout Delray by getting people to the hospital faster.”
    Mr. Harris served for a time as board director of The Barclay condominium and forged a close friendship with longtime Barclay resident Leonard Cohen.
    “He was more than a neighbor. He was like a son to me,” Cohen said. “He was quite a hero. What he did at 9/11 and what he’s done down here, that’s a true hero.”
    Mr. Harris looked out for those in his adopted hometown. When Town Clerk Maylee De Jesus was sworn in last year as president of the county’s Municipal Clerks Association, he insisted on making a speech to the group to contribute to the moment.
    “He helped the town whenever there were events going on with items such as first-aid kits,” De Jesus said. “He was always willing to help and be part of anything that we needed.”
    Mr. Harris is survived by his wife, Brandi, and four adult children:  Michael, 29, Sabrianna, 28, Jonathan, 27, and Torey, 24.
    Dozens of first responders and hospital staff joined friends and family to honor Mr. Harris during a May 19 service at The Patriot Memorial in Wellington, where other victims and heroes of 9/11 are remembered.
    The family asks that memorial donations go to the University of Miami Hospital’s cancer ward for children, c/o Kymberlee Manni, 1400 NW 12th Ave., Miami, FL 33126.

By Emily J. Minor

    BOCA RATON — John R. Pisapia, a lifelong student of education who loved traveling and learning from leaders in other parts of the world, died May 2 after becoming ill last summer. He was 79.
    Although unable to speak in the last months of his life, Dr. Pisapia — on staff as a professor and department head at Florida Atlantic University for the last 20 years — continued working with his doctoral students through emails and texts, said his stepdaughter, Pamela Baynes.
    “He was a teacher until the end,” she said.
    Born in New Jersey in 1937, the first of six children to his parents, Carmine and Josephine Pisapia, Dr. Pisapia attended Glenville State College in West Virginia on a football scholarship. Later, when he was invited to the Washington Redskins training camp, he was relieved when he was cut, Baynes said.
    The end of football meant he could pursue his real passions: education, leadership and helping students rise to the top.
    Dr. Pisapia earned his master’s degree and a Ph.D. from West Virginia University, and then worked as a teacher, coach, high school principal and eventually as West Virginia superintendent of schools. He later became a tenured professor at WVU, and then moved on to Virginia Commonwealth University.
    In Virginia, he founded the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, which focused on research and solutions to America’s obstacles to good learning and good teaching.
    “He was very proud of MERC,” Baynes said.
    In 1984, he married Pamela Baynes’ mother, Barbara Romano Pisapia, a special education teacher with whom Dr. Pisapia worked for many years. Although Dr. Pisapia was her stepfather, Baynes said she always considered him a father. After he became ill last summer, she eventually quit her job so she could care for him, she said.
    John and Barbara Pisapia moved to Boca Raton in 1998, coming to Florida so Dr. Pisapia could help set up FAU’s Department of Educational Leadership.
    Besides his grandchildren, his students were his great love, Baynes said. And he used his travel to ground his work on a global level.
    “Whenever he entered the room, he always made sure to do his best to make somebody feel at ease and feel welcome,” said FAU professor Daniel Reyes-Guerra. “He wanted them to know there was an important reason for them to be there.”
    Dr. Pisapia was mesmerized by leaders of other cultures. Before he became ill, he had just visited and studied in South Korea, Japan and Australia. Each year, he took such a summer trip.
    “His whole goal was to learn from those cultures and really immerse himself,” Baynes said. “He would have Chinese students come over and he’d learn from them.”
    Mrs. Pisapia died in 2009, after her retirement from special education enabled her to travel with her husband.
    “He was a remarkable man and a spectacular person,” said his sister, Jo Ann Walsh Harpster, who lives on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
    Dr. Pisapia is also survived by a son and stepson; three grandchildren; another sister, and three brothers.
    A memorial service was held May 11, with memory sharing from many of his FAU colleagues.
    The family asks that any donations be sent to: FAU Foundation (EDU300), FAU Educational Leadership and Research Methodology, ED47, Suite 260, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431.

By Emily J. Minor

    LANTANA — Ray Flow, the son of North Carolina tobacco sharecroppers who left his small hometown to join the service and then moved to Florida to marry, start a family and surround himself in community, died May 19.
    Mr. Flow was 76.
    Widowed in 1997 when his first wife, Sharon, died of breast cancer, Mr. Flow married again in 2005 and had spent those years doing all the things he loved, said his wife, Connie. The couple met in 1998 at the gym where they worked out, and had been together since.
    For years, they traveled, played squash and racquetball, went horseback riding and snow skiing, and roller bladed and danced. When Mr. Flow became sick with cancer about a year ago, it was a shock because he had always been so healthy and active, Connie Flow said.
    “Ray had a big personality and he was Type A, so we were never home,” she said, adding it was a way of life she loved as well.
    A well-known businessman in Lantana and Lake Worth, Mr. Flow and his first wife established A Little Dude Ranch child care centers in 1973 — well before child care centers were considered the everyday norm.
    “He’d go from Dude Ranch to Dude Ranch and have the children sing,” Connie Flow said. “That was his job, to make them happy.”
    Most years, he and the kids were on the float for the Lake Worth Holiday Parade. And he’d often run into former students, all grown up, who would remember him from when they were little, his wife said.
    After selling the day cares in 2005, Ray and Connie Flow invested in Lake Worth Storage — an easier business to run with less overhead, fewer regulations and a much smaller staff. This allowed them to pursue the things they loved, she said.
    Mr. Flow also invested in properties through the years and at the time of his death managed more than 175 duplexes in and around Lake Worth, she said.
    One employee, Marge Lagendyk, stayed with him through all his ventures for nearly 40 years.
    By all accounts, Mr. Flow was a self-made man, relying on hard work, great ideas, a head for business and true grit.
    A high school sports star in Broadway, N.C., Mr. Flow wanted to attend college after graduation, but his father rejected the idea. Instead, Mr. Flow joined the U.S. Army and was stationed for a time in Germany. When he got out, he worked in Myrtle Beach, where he met his first wife. The two married in Daytona Beach in 1965.
    After moving to Lantana, Mr. Flow was an immediate community mover and shaker. He loved Toastmasters and was active in many civic groups, including the Salvation Army, the Rotary Club, Golf for a Cure (an Alzheimer’s research funding foundation), the Heritage Foundation, Palm Beach Gator Ski Club and the Republican Club.
    Encouraged by his first wife, he eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in international business from Florida Atlantic University. He was also a member of Calvary United Methodist Church and later Lakeside Presbyterian Church, and sang in the choirs for both.
    Besides Connie Flow he is survived by daughters Keely and Melanie “Mimi” Flow; siblings Charmion Spainhour, and Tony, Jenette and Ben Flow; and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held 3-6 p.m. June 3 at Atlantis Country Club, 190 Atlantis Blvd., Atlantis.

By Jane Smith
    
    Fourteen years after Boynton Beach installed fire hydrants in the County Pocket, its seven hydrants were finally mapped in May.
    “We rely on water departments to send the information,” David Sauls, a fire safety specialist with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, said of hydrant locations. “Sometimes we can’t use their info because the database is not compatible with ours.”
    He could not say why the hydrants were not mapped in 2003 when they were installed, because he had a different job with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue at that time.

    Maps of fire hydrants are used by county emergency dispatchers to send out the fire-rescue and sheriff response.
    Boynton Beach installed the water mains and the hydrants and tests them annually, said Colin Groff, former head of the city’s utilities department and now an assistant city manager.
    Groff also said he did not know why the hydrants weren’t mapped because he was not working for Boynton Beach in 2003.
    “County pockets with city services are often problematic,” Groff said.
    The unincorporated pocket with narrow streets sits just south of Briny Breezes and relies on the county for public safety services. The area spans about 16.5 acres with fewer than 100 dwellings, including 52 single-family homes. The popular Nomad Surf Shop and Seaside Deli also are in the pocket.
    Residents enjoy living so close to the beach and watch out for each other, said Marie Chapman, a 10-year pocket resident. “It’s like a mini-Mayberry filled with eclectic residents,” she said.
    But in the back of her mind, she worries about fire-rescue response times because of her two young children. Chapman said her concerns stem from a friend, Bill Dunn, who died in 2009 and outsiders who park their cars on Old Ocean Boulevard while they go to the beach. Doing so blocks that street for the large fire-rescue vehicles to reach the pocket.

Insurance notice triggered investigation
    Periodically, County Pocket homeowners receive notices from insurance carriers that their coverage is being dropped, according to Stuart Malin, a pocket resident of five years.
    “A new carrier said it couldn’t find any records of fire hydrants in the area and wanted to charge me a high rate as if we didn’t have hydrants,” Malin said.
    He took photos of the hydrants and called Sauls. “He said he would come out and look … [and] not to worry in the meantime, because they can bring in big tanker trucks,” Malin said.
    Sauls came out to the pocket and found the hydrants. He updated the hydrant maps on his iPad.  Meanwhile, Malin also contacted pocket resident Mike Smollon, a retired Boynton Beach Fire Rescue captain.
    “Neighbors often ask me about fire-related issues,” Smollon said.
    Malin explained the higher rate his insurance carrier wanted to charge because the county maps didn’t show any fire hydrants in the pocket. Smollon agreed to look into the issue.
    Smollon played a leading role in improving emergency response times in late 2009 after Dunn, 48, choked to death while eating a piece of steak. County fire-rescue took more than 12 minutes to arrive from its station at Woolbright Road and Military Trail.
    “It should not have happened,” Smollon said.
    In late 2009, after Dunn died, Smollon met with County Commissioner Steven Abrams, who represents the County Pocket, then-Boynton Beach Fire Chief William Bingham, then-County Fire Chief Steve Jerauld and a county deputy fire chief.
    Smollon found and shared a mutual aid agreement from 1990 made between the fire departments of Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County. The agreement called for Boynton Beach to respond to life-threatening emergencies or when the county station was busy.
    Minor calls, such as fire on the beach or a barrel washed ashore, would be the responsibility of the county fire department.
    Boynton Beach Fire Rescue was not called the night Dunn died.
    The mutual aid agreement was further clarified in early 2011. Now, Boynton Beach sends a unit from its South Federal Highway station to respond to life-threatening emergencies in the pocket. These are defined as choking, seizure, allergic reaction, car accident, drowning, structure fire, cardiac arrest, trouble breathing, unresponsive person, electrocution, shooting/stabbing and aircraft/boating accident.
    The clarified agreement works like this: The emergency calls go to the county dispatch center, which contacts the nearest county fire station on West Woolbright Road. An officer there decides whether to send a rescue team or if Boynton Beach should be called.
 In 2015, when Delray Beach joined the county dispatch system, the county’s non-emergency calls started going to the city’s barrier island station on Andrews Avenue.
    The process sounds time-consuming, but “it adds only seconds to the response time,” Smollon said.
    In 2016, Boynton Beach paramedics responded to eight medical calls in the pocket, according to Boynton Beach Fire Rescue records. Its average response time was 5 minutes and 21 seconds. The city has its own dispatch system for 911 calls.
Delray Beach Fire Rescue responded to 24 calls in the pocket last year. Its average response time was 10 minutes and 16 seconds, according to county fire-rescue, which tracks the incidents.
    Smollon realizes the narrow and dead-end streets in the enclave can be challenging for fire trucks and rescue vehicles to navigate.  Even so, he said, “We are paying our taxes and we expect to be treated right.”

By Thom Smith

    Humans have swum naked in Florida waters for millennia, but as the state’s 1,350 miles of coastline have become more congested, pressure has grown to “suit up.” Only one beach — Haulover in Miami — is officially “clothing optional.”
    That could change if a Palm Beach County citizens group persuades the County Commission that such a beach would be good for business.
    In a May 16 letter to the commission, the Palm Beach County Freedom Initiative presented its proposal that, for starters, suggests a small northern portion of Gulfstream Park, just south of Briny Breezes.
    “There is no reason our county needs to send our dollars south,” initiative spokesman Karl Dickey of Boynton Beach wrote. He also cited Blind Creek Beach near Fort Pierce, which isn’t legally designated but does have government approval. Not only would local users stay home, he suggested, but a nude beach would attract tourists.   
    Blind Creek’s shoreline is unblemished by high-rises, luxury homes or clam stands, whereas Gulfstream’s 7 acres are surrounded by small apartments, multistory condos, single-family homes and a mobile home park.
    Briny Breezes officials aren’t enthused with the idea.
    “I don’t think it’s going to fly,” said Alderman Jim McCormick. “You’ve got families with children right over there next to the park. They don’t want it. Whose brilliant idea was this anyway?”
    Alderman Chick Behringer says a nude beach is a poor suggestion.
    “Based on surrounding areas, I think it’s going to draw a lot of the wrong people — a lot of gawkers,” he said.
    Dickey’s group is open to alternatives. For decades, a stretch known as Air Force Beach in North Palm Beach was the go-to nude beach. When Walt Disney was looking at possible sites for a theme park, he swam there — sans apparel — with its former owner, John D. MacArthur, for whom the now state park is named.

Dan Moffett contributed to this story.

By Jane Smith
    
    The city will still celebrate the Fourth of July while its beach promenade work continues.
    “Pardon our dust,” said Stephanie Immelman, executive director of the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative. “We will have a condensed event with the flag-raising taking place at 5 p.m. instead of at 3:30 p.m.
    “We have a new 60-foot flag to raise,” she said. “That’s my favorite part of the festivities.”
    Families help to hold up the flag as it is raised by a crane. The flag should not touch the ground while it is raised, according to flag etiquette.
    The marketing staff has been working with its Team Delray partners on the event, Immelman said.
    Parking will be limited along the ocean, with construction blocking parking along A1A. Festival-goers are urged to park west of the Intracoastal Waterway in city garages and parking lots and then take the Downtown Trolley to NE/SE Seventh Avenue and walk or bike over to the beach.
    Police will close Ocean Boulevard at 2 p.m. from Thomas Street down to Bucida Road, one block past Casuarina Road on the south.
    That stretch won’t be reopened until the crowds clear after the fireworks finish on the north end of the city’s beach, Immelman said.
    The fireworks show will start at 9 p.m.
    City police also will close East Atlantic Avenue at NE/SE Seventh Avenue at 1:30 p.m.  July 4.
    Festivities start at 8 a.m. with a sandcastle-building contest on the beach.
    For a list of activities and parking information, Immelman said to check the website www.JulyFourthDelrayBeach.com.

Promenade work proceeds
    Meanwhile, Delray Beach continues work on the $3.1 million upgrade to the municipal beach promenade, moving toward an early fall completion date for the entire 1.25-mile project.
    In late May, contractors began working between the Sandoway parking lot north to Boston’s Sand Bar, just south of Atlantic Avenue. Sidewalks will be demolished and parking meters, benches, plaques, stone memorials, showers, trash containers and signs will be removed.
    The Sandoway parking lot will remain open. The city is asking beachgoers to consider parking elsewhere and taking the trolley to the beach. Street parking will be limited along the municipal beach with about half of the meters along Ocean Boulevard removed for the project, according to Missie Barletto of the city’s Public Works division.
    The promenade enhancements are nearly 10 years in the making.
    The work, west of the dunes, will feature wider sidewalks and coordinated shower poles, benches, bike and surfboard racks, trash/recycling containers and signs to replace the current hodgepodge of styles. Smart parking meters will be solar-powered.
    Utility trenches were dug recently for water pipes and cables for lighting at the south end of the project. After the utility lines are installed, backfilling and compacting of the trenches will be finished in early June.
    Bicyclists can still ride on Ocean Boulevard, but they are urged to use caution. The bike lane on the east side will be narrowed with barriers to protect the public from the construction work.
    About 70 percent of the beach benches, plaques and stone memorials have been removed, mostly from the south side and some from the very north of the city’s beach, Barletto said.
    The items are stored. The city is asking donors to contact project manager Isaac Kovner at 243-7000, ext. 4119, to discuss options.

Randy Ely (left) and Nicholas Malinosky have joined Douglas Elliman to take advantage

of the brokerage’s international exposure. Their office is in Delray Beach.

Photo provided

By Christine Davis

    Randy Ely and Nicholas Malinosky joined Douglas Elliman in April. A top team in South Florida, the two Realtors accumulated more than $75 million in sales in the first quarter of 2017.
    “Their successful track record and stellar reputation in Palm Beach County’s luxury real estate market, combined with their extensive experience and passion, will further the strength and support of the expertise and services we offer our clients,” said Jay Phillip Parker, CEO of Douglas Elliman’s Florida Brokerage.
    Ely and Malinosky’s office is now at 900 E. Atlantic Ave., Suite 1, adjacent to the Douglas Elliman Delray Beach office.
    Previously with the Corcoran Group, Malinosky and Ely have “nothing but praise to say for Corcoran,” Malinosky said, adding that his team’s business model will stay the same. “We are going to remain in the high-end markets of Manalapan through Highland Beach on the barrier island.
    “Our markets are no longer small beach towns. Our clients are from all over the United States and we are dealing with international buyers and sellers, and that’s our main reason for changing. Douglas Elliman has 19 offices in Florida. The firm also has international exposure through its partnership with Knight Frank, which has many offices throughout the world.”
    More news from the team: Ely and Malinosky have just listed a new five-bedroom, six-bathroom and three half-bath home at 6161 N. Ocean Blvd., Ocean Ridge, which is expected to be completed in September. With 158 feet on the ocean, the 13,542-square-foot home is listed for $24.95 million. The residence is offered furnished with the exception of secondary bedrooms. Ely and Malinosky’s office number is 278-5570.
                                
    Gemini, the Ziff family’s 15.65-acre compound at 2000 S. Ocean, Manalapan, hit the market in mid-2015 for $195 million. In January 2016, the property was listed on the MLS, by Premier Estate Properties agents Carmen D’Angelo, Gerald Liguori and Joseph Liguori. As of May 19, Gemini is now listed by Sotheby’s International Realty agents Cristina Condon and Todd Peter for $165 million. Peter, quoted in The Wall Street Journal, said that the Ziff family hopes the price cut will “attract more buyers,” and that “they feel like it’s an excellent value at this price.”
    With 1,200 feet on the ocean and 1,300 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway, the estate offers a 12-bedroom main  residence, two four-bedroom beachside cottages, the seven-bedroom Mango house and a guest or staff house with four studios and apartments. Site details include botanical gardens with 1,500 species of tropical trees and plants, a PGA-standard golf practice area, dock and pier on the Intracoastal, freshwater pond and bird sanctuary, and sports complex with a regulation tennis court, half basketball court, playground, miniature golf course and butterfly garden with a large-scale model train.
                                
    Developer Frank McKinney has dropped the price of his 4,087-square-foot micromansion at 19 Tropical Drive, Ocean Ridge, from $3.9 million to $3.43 million. He listed the house in February. It has also been reported that McKinney hopes to start construction by July 1 on a 7,000-square-foot micromansion at 3492 S. Ocean Blvd., South Palm Beach, which will be in the $20 million price range.
                                
    NAI/Merin Hunter Codman was recognized by the South Florida Business Journal’s 2017 Book of Lists as the No. 1 property management firm and No. 4 commercial real estate firm in Palm Beach County. Also, the CoStar Group Inc., a commercial real estate analytic service organization, recognized NAI/Merin Hunter Codman with its 12th Top Leasing and 10th Top Sales Brokerage Firm awards. The firm’s chairman, Neil E. Merin, received his 13th consecutive Top Leasing Broker award; Jason L. Sundook, principal, was recognized as a top leasing broker and director; and Bruce Corn was named a top retail leasing broker. NAI/Merin Hunter Codman is headquartered in West Palm Beach and has a regional office in Boca Raton.
                                
    Sabine Robertson has joined the sales team of Silver International Realty as a real estate agent. Silver is at 55 SE Second Ave., Delray Beach.
                                
    Urban retail consultant Robert Gibbs named Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach one of the top 10 American Shopping Streets in a story for the May 5 edition of USA Today. “Once derisively known as Dull-Ray, this Atlantic Coast town has had a remarkable turnaround in the last 30 years,” the list read. “With literally hundreds of shops and restaurants, 20,000 people can visit in a day,” Gibbs said.
    Also, at the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority’s town hall in April, Gibbs presented “New Trends in Urban Retail Planning and Development,” offering his insight to property owners and developers to help them attract new tenants.
                                
    More kudos for the city of Delray Beach: The national nonprofit Kaboom honored the city with a 2017 Playful City USA designation for the second time, as a place that puts the needs of families first so kids can learn, grow and develop important life skills.
    Delray Beach was one of 258 communities recognized. In total, these communities have more than 14,000 play spaces that serve more than 4 million children.
    “The city values the recreational and leisure pursuits of our residents and visitors and currently has 24 playgrounds located within our wonderful park system,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said. “In addition to our current play spaces, the city is working together with community partners to expand our play space inventory and will install a fitness park and new boundless playground before the end of the year.”
                                
    A team of four engineering students took home the top prize at this year’s Florida Atlantic University Business Plan Competition with a system that helps prevent the theft of printed classified or proprietary documents.
    Alyssa Harris, Kris Stewart, Quintin Warren and Wesley Klemas founded Protection Against Physical Element Removal, or PAPER, in their senior engineering design class.
    Harris, previously a defense-industry intern, had read articles on how to prevent people walking out with pages containing proprietary or classified information, and came up with the idea of tracking pages by printing a radio-frequency identification onto classified documents. Using a nanoparticle ink as a tag, their system can detect documents being removed from the premises.
    While classified information is well secured and encrypted, government and large businesses haven’t had a way to secure their printed classified documents, which has led to online leaking.
    The PAPER team won a $10,000 first-place prize in the competition, with an additional $1,000 for being named best interdisciplinary team.
                                
    The Golden Bell Education Foundation’s inaugural teen fashion show, hosted by Town Center at Boca Raton, attracted more than 100 attendees. The models were high school students from Boca Raton’s public schools.
    “This event was all about spreading the message that the Golden Bell Education Foundation exists to provide funding for local public schools, and it felt great to have our efforts recognized,” said Christie Workman, foundation manager for Golden Bell.
                                
    Among Palm Beach Poetry Festival winners of the Fish Tales Poetry Contest was Sarah Brown Weitzman of Delray Beach, who was awarded $25 for her poem, Catch of the Day. To participate, writers submitted up to 30 lines of original poetry inspired by photography in the Delray Beach Historical Society’s Fish Tales exhibit, which featured stories, memorabilia, artwork, writing and history on fishing in Delray Beach. All winning poems can be read at www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org.
                                
    The League of Women Voters Palm Beach County, ACLU Palm Beach County and the National Council of Jewish Women Palm Beach County Section are co-hosting “Why Courts Matter 2017.”
    Jacqueline Delgado will be the main speaker in “The Role of the Courts in Immigration,” the first event of the three-part series, which is June 13. Delgado, the daughter of Cuban immigrants, is an active immigration lawyer. The free event will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Palm Beach Post auditorium, 2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. The series is made possible by a grant from the Progress Florida Education Institute.

Max’s Grille co-owner Patti Max holds a plaque from Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie (left).

At right is Max’s friend Maria Salvaggio.

Photo provided

    Patti Max, co-owner of Max’s Grille, was named an Ambassador for the City of Boca Raton by Mayor Susan Haynie.  The mayor presented Max with a plaque representing a key to the city during a luncheon at Max’s Grille in April. The restaurant recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. It is at 404 Plaza Real in Mizner Park.
                                
    Bark Avenue Hotel and Spa, which until April had offered grooming and retail services only, has added an indoor, climate-controlled dog day-care and hotel.
    Beth Chulock of Boynton Beach, one of the original owners, restructured and formed a partnership with Eileen Fleming, a native New Yorker who lives in Ocean Ridge. Fleming previously owned a dog hotel, day-care and spa in Westchester County, N.Y., for 12 years.
    Bark Avenue has a custom-built dog play house and cabana-style suites. There’s a senior center with comfy couches, chairs and dog beds.
    Dogs are supervised 24/7. For more information on the hotel and spa, at 640 E. Ocean Ave. in Boynton Beach, call 739-8663.
                                
    Meridian Art Experience, 170 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach, has a new exhibit, new summer hours and a new gallery manager, Kimberly Ross. The exhibit features the work of photographer George Dern, painter Carin Wagner and others. Summer hours are noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; or by appointment Monday and Tuesday.
    Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.

Community Greening project

transforms rocky field into orchard

Volunteers plant mango trees for Community Greening at Catherine Strong Park in Delray Beach.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Delray Beach Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson and Grass River Garden Club member Margie FitzSimons

chat during the planting in the Southwest community. The garden club helped fund the project

for the nonprofit Community Greening.

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    To celebrate Arbor Day in late April, Mark Cassini and Matt Shipley, with more than 100 volunteers, turned a weedy, rocky field at Catherine Strong Park into a young orchard of leafy fruit trees.
    As the co-founders of Community Greening, a Delray Beach nonprofit that builds community through planting trees, the two have been responsible for adding more than 300 trees to the city’s canopy since October. With their most recent project, they are turning back time for residents of the Southwest community.

Community Greening co-founders Matt Shipley and Mark Cassini.

Volunteer Ann Heilakka puts mulch around trees at the Community Greening project.
 Delray Beach Parks & Recreation employees Rachel Ivey and Samantha Roland participate in the planting.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

    “Fruit trees have always had a cultural and historical importance to this neighborhood,” said Cassini, 37. Many of the older residents fondly remember when the “Ponderosa” was available for picking. It was a grove of fruit trees — mostly guavas — that grew untended near what today is the park.
    But with development and the building of Interstate 95, the trees disappeared. Now they have been replaced by 75 large fruit and native trees on this acre that was once a drag strip and later a makeshift garbage dump.  
    As the trees mature, the community will be welcome to pick the fruits of their labors, including mangoes, sugar apples, avocados and guavas. And there could be other benefits, Cassini said.  
    Data from across the country show that more tree canopy correlates with higher incomes, increased home values, better storm water retention, cleaner air, increased carbon capture and better mental health.  
    Given their upbringings, it’s no wonder that these young men have taken such an interest in the well-being of those living in Delray’s Southwest community and adding to the natural beauty of the area. Cassini remembers growing up along a creek in Indiana from which he filled his bedroom with tanks and cages of snakes, turtles, fish and frogs. “I was a kid who wanted to be outside all the time,” he said.
    Shipley, 30, grew up in Delray Beach, where his father was “Johnny Delray,” a well-known surfer. “He had me surfing since I was able to stand,” said Shipley. “Being out on the ocean was special to me.”
    After their schooling, both men traveled. From 2007 to 2008, Cassini helped refugees in Kenya prepare to resettle to the U.S. In Miami, he worked with refugees who were torture survivors. In 2013, he came to Delray Beach to work at the Achievement Centers for Children and Families, which provides quality child care for low-income families.
    Meanwhile, Shipley went to college at the University of San Diego, where he saw a time-lapse depiction of just how much garbage an individual produces in a lifetime. “By the end, the garbage covered block after block after block. That woke me up that my impact on the world is serious,” he said.  
    Because of his desire to help people and have a positive effect on the world, he joined the Peace Corps, which sent him to Paraguay.  
    “The people there think we are happy because we have things. But I think they are the happiest people on Earth with just shelter, food, water and family,” he said.  
    When he returned to Delray Beach in 2016, his mother was working alongside Cassini at the Achievement Centers.
    “She told me I needed to meet Mark because we share the same values,” said Shipley.
    Over a cup of coffee, the two hit it off and the result is Community Greening. Since then, they have organized tree plantings at Church of God Resurrection Life Fellowship in Delray Beach and at people’s homes throughout the Southwest community.
    They, along with a host of volunteers, also have planted 100 native trees at Barwick Park, more than 50 natives at Orchard View and more than 30 on Bexley Trail Community Park. Their goal is to plant trees throughout the city, the county and then the state.
    “It doesn’t matter your age, race or gender, everybody loves planting a tree,” said Shipley.  
    The Arbor Day tree-planting event at Catherine Strong Park in Delray Beach was a milestone for Community Greening because it was made possible by a $20,000 grant from TD Bank’s Green Streets program and $6,200 from the Grass River Garden Club of Delray Beach.  
    To see videos of the planting, visit the Community Greening Facebook page. You can visit the new orchard in Catherine Strong Park at the southwest corner of Southwest 125 Terrace and Southwest Sixth Street in Delray Beach.
    To learn more or donate, visit www.communitygreening.org. Or contact founder and CEO Mark Cassini at 305-632-6211, mcassini@communitygreening.org; or co-founder Matt Shipley at 789-2005, mshipley@communitygreening.org.

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a certified master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net.

Louie the English bulldog listens to Kyle and Mya Laman (photo below) as they read books

to him during a Tale Waggin’ Tutor session at the downtown Boca Raton Library.

Photos provided

By Arden Moore

    Inside the downtown Boca Raton Library, siblings Mya and Kyle Laman take turns reading out loud from the pages of a book called Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd.
    The words come out easily and with enthusiasm to their attentive audience of one: a lovable English bulldog named Louie. Yes, this Fido fashionista often sports colorful fedoras and scarves, according to his pet parent, Laura Wasserman.
    Watching nearby with unspoken joy is the children’s mother, Marie Laman.
    “Like many parents, I find it hard to get my kids off the computer and smartphones and put a book in their hands, but Louie is making it all happen today so easily,” said Laman, of Boca Raton. “This is our first time participating in the library’s Tail Waggin’ Tutor program, and trust me, we will be back.”
    Her 11-year-old daughter, Mya, agrees. After the reading session, she declared, “Louie is adorable and I really enjoyed how he would look right at me when I was reading. He drooled a little and he sheds, but that’s fine with me.”
    And what about reading the pages of a book versus reading the electronic type on a tablet or computer?
    “Actually, I feel it is better to read a book than an electronic device because sometimes, the device is so bright it irritates my eyes,” she says.
    The Lamans share their home with a couple of dogs: Brandy, a 13-year-old Labrador, and Katie, a 4-year-old American bulldog.
    Credit well-mannered canines like Louie for sparking genuine interest in reading books among preschool, elementary and middle-school-aged children enrolled in the Tail Waggin’ Tutor program, which has been offered for the past nine years at Boca Raton’s two libraries — downtown and Spanish River.
    “When you sit down to read out loud to a dog, there is no judgment,” said librarian Amanda Liebl, in charge of youth services. “If a child messes up on a word or reads slowly, the dog doesn’t care. With these dogs, we can offer a safe environment for kids to practice their reading and comprehension skills.”
    This dog-listens-to-child reading program features certified therapy dogs in all sizes, ages and breeds, including Labrador retrievers, Shih Tzus, cocker spaniels and mixed breeds.
    There’s a sweet senior dog named Sadie, who is blind, and the charming Nigel, a Lab who has a fondness for dressing up for every holiday. The dogs enter the libraries at their designated one-hour time slots Mondays through Thursdays and on Saturdays.
    Their owners must undergo background checks, register with the library and show proof that their dogs are therapy dogs with up-to-date vaccinations.
    “Some of the dogs will just put their heads in the kids’ laps as the kids read to them,” says  Liebl.
    “We have thousands of books for the kids to choose from. The younger kids seem to like the illustrated books while the older kids like the chapter books where they can just pick up and read the next chapter to the dogs.”
    Wasserman is among the pet parents who see the value of bringing their therapy dogs to this library reading program for kids. Her dog, Louie, an English bulldog, suffered through pneumonia, an eye disease known as cherry eye, and needed surgery to open his nose in his first year of life. The upside?
    “Louie became very comfortable being handled by the veterinarian, staff and others,” says Wasserman, of Boca Raton. “He is now 2 and healthy and whenever we are out, people stop and ask to take pictures with him. That’s when I knew he would make a great therapy dog.”
    In addition to making his weekly visits to the library, Louie makes regular appearances at the Regents Park nursing home and Palm Beach School for Autism.
    And, yes, this canine fan favorite has his own Facebook page, called Therapy Dog Louie & Friends.
    “I think this reading program is a great idea,” says Wasserman. “It’s amazing how the kids love and are responsive to Louie. And, yes, he is a great listener.”
    Dogs may never be regarded as wordsmiths, but they certainly possess a talent for inspiring our youngest generation to read.
    
    If you are interested in signing up for the Tail Waggin’ Tutor program or have a therapy dog happy to be read to, contact librarian Amanda Liebl of the Boca Raton Library system at aliebl@myboca.us or 544-8584.
    
Arden Moore, founder of www.FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on www.PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

Music therapist Howard Sherman demonstrates a Q-chord digital guitar

with students (l-r) Barbara Kennedy, Jill Gray, Cathy McCormick and Karen Martin.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Lona O'Connor

    A curious shopper follows Howard Sherman into a meeting room at the Greenlands health and wellness store in Delray Beach.
    Sherman is an irresistible Pied Piper, hauling bags of percussion instruments — portable drums and other objects that shake, rattle and roar.
    He is a music therapist. He has worked with children with autism, elders with Alzheimer’s, people with cancer or head trauma and victims of abuse.
    He recently moved to Delray Beach from Boston, where he worked for 38 years. Now semiretired, he takes some clients and is doing demonstrations to explain music therapy.
    Although it is often pleasant to listen to music, music therapy means doing music, to whatever degree a person is capable.
Sherman has worked with patients with profound physical disabilities and has always been able to find some way for them to participate. It might mean singing, shaking a tambourine or just feeling the vibrations while someone else plays.
    A licensed mental health counselor, Sherman has found that talk therapy and music therapy often complement each other. Music therapists, like other therapists, see patients who are referred to them by medical professionals.
    Sherman points out that music and other sound can lower blood pressure, increase the amount of oxygen in the blood, relieve anxiety, improve appetite, stimulate endorphins, aid sleep and reduce the need for antidepressants and some other medications.
    At the Greenlands demonstration, five people show up. Sherman starts off singing to his audience but soon hands out small black plastic eggs filled with sand that make a soft shushing noise when shaken.
    Suddenly strangers are smiling and swaying and shaking their eggs in time to the song. Health and wellness was never this much fun.
    Music therapy developed in the 1950s and now can be pursued at various graduate levels, like other modes of therapy. These days, neurologists using functional MRI technology can see areas of the brain light up when test subjects play music.
    Sherman shows a video of patients he has treated. In the video, filmed in the 1970s, a man sits in a chair and stares out the window. Sherman approaches, handing him a drum. With Sherman on the guitar and the man hitting the drum, they do a spirited rendition of Hava Nagila.
    Even after the song has ended, the camera shows the man still waving his arms like a conductor.
    “He was lifeless and regressed before,” says Sherman. “Look at his arms.”
    After a session ends, the patient may not remember what he did but is likely to continue to feel good for an hour or two afterward, Sherman says.
    Rhythm, a component of music, also shows powerful effects. In his video, Sherman asks an Alzheimer’s patient where she is. She is unable to tell him. Her eyes are blank. Then he coaxes her to recite a poem. She launches into several stanzas of a poem she memorized decades ago. When she is done, her eyes are bright and focused.
    “Where are we?” he asks again. And she tells him, immediately.
    A common problem in frail elderly people or people with long-term medical conditions is learned helplessness, or losing the desire to act for oneself.
    “The TV is their best friend; people feed them and make their bed,” says Sherman.
    He worked with a woman who had long ago taken to her bed and refused to get out. In a video of her treatment session, Sherman first asks her to take a short walk down the hall with him but she firmly says no. Then they sing When Irish Eyes Are Smiling together.
    “I sat on her bed, I was invading her space, but she’s looking at me and smiling,” says Sherman.
He asks her again to take a walk, and this time she practically bounces out of bed.
 
Music gets by defenses
    “Music  can help motivate the withdrawn,” says Sherman. “She said she didn’t feel like getting out of bed, but playing or singing stimulates physical activity and social interaction. And there is improved self-confidence when you learn an instrument.”
    Musical activity can also help people express emotions without using words.
    “There was this fellow dealing with depression and anxiety, but he would say, ‘I don’t want to talk about that.’ I helped him write a song about the issues in his life and he was able to break that negativity and resistance. He had a history of alcoholism, apathy, depression and weight gain,” Sherman says.
    “When I would get into personal issues, he would block the process. I asked him if he would write a song for me and he became expressive and creative. Music therapy allows for the defenses to retreat and help a person gain control of the issues.”
    When Sherman was brought to the bedside of a head trauma victim, who was not apparently responsive, he played his guitar sitting close to her on her bed.
    “She could feel the rhythm on her shoulder,” he said.
    In Sherman’s video, he visits a woman in the later stages of Alzheimer’s. Even though she seems almost comatose, he eases her fingers across the strings of an autoharp while he sings Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That’s an Irish Lullaby).
    At the Greenlands store, Sherman ends his demonstration with a song and the group sings the chorus, “Let it roll off your back.”
    Barbara Kennedy was the first in the Greenlands group to take a chance on participation. She perked up when Sherman brought out his musical instruments. She laughed when he told her the black eggs were called Chicken Shakes.
    “I just love that sound,” she says. “And I love that name.
    “When I was a little girl, we used to watch Mitch Miller on television and we would sing along, me and my mother and my siblings,” Kennedy says.
    But she’s also the first to leave. She apologizes that she has to rush off to Boca Raton for another form of music therapy. She’s going ballroom dancing.
To reach Howard Sherman, call 781-799-0871 or violinhw@comcast.net. He offers a sliding scale for sessions dependent on what the client can afford.

Lona O’Connor has a lifelong interest in health and healthy living. Send column ideas to Lona13@bellsouth.net.

Mike Minia of Boynton Beach, a member of the Bootlegger fishing team, caught this 47.7-pound

African pompano south of Boynton Inlet in March. His fish was about 3 pounds shy of the

International Game Fish Association world record for that species.

Photo provided

Rosie Nocera and Paul Sheridan of Delray Beach show the 94-pound wahoo they caught

on a trolled ballyhoo off Boynton Beach on May 8 while fishing on the Sea Hottie.

Photo provided by Paul Sheridan

By Willie Howard

    Spring fish have arrived. As the water warms and days get longer (and hotter), anglers are pulling some amazing fish from the waters off south Palm Beach County.
    Mike Minia of Boynton Beach, a member of the Bootlegger fishing team, caught a 47.7-pound African pompano while bottom fishing in 110 feet south of Boynton Inlet on March 10.
    Minia was fishing the bottom for snapper with a dead sardine on a 5/0 circle hook tied to 30-pound-test fluorocarbon leader when the African pompano hit.
    His fish was about 3 pounds below the all-tackle world record for African pompano, based on records from the International Game Fish Association.
    (The all-tackle world record African pompano, 50.5 pounds, was caught by Tom Sargent on April 21, 1990, while fishing the bottom off Daytona Beach with a live pinfish, according to the IGFA.)
    Minia also caught a 12.5-pound mutton snapper on the same trip while fishing with Andy Alvarez of X-Generation Custom Rods in Lantana, Brian Humphreys of Wellington and Alicia Lipscomb of Boynton Beach.
•
    Two days before the full moon, on May 8, Paul Sheridan and Rosie Nocera, both of Delray Beach, caught a 94-pound wahoo while trolling a ballyhoo behind a planer in 300 feet of water off Boynton Inlet.
    Sheridan said a hammerhead shark tried to eat the wahoo as he pulled it toward the boat by hand. While Nocera ran the boat, Sheridan gaffed the big ’hoo and grabbed its tail to haul it over the covering board before the shark could reach it.
    Although huge for the waters off South Florida, the 94-pound ’hoo is not even close to the all-tackle world record wahoo caught off of Mexico in 2005. The record ’hoo weighed 184 pounds.

•

Terry Joyce of Boynton Beach with the 18.6-pound gag grouper he caught while fishing

off Highland Beach. At left is mate Michael Stemle.

Photo provided

    On Mother’s Day, Terry Joyce of Boynton Beach caught an 18.6-pound gag grouper on a dead sardine while fishing off Highland Beach on the Southern Comfort IV, a drift boat based at Palm Beach Yacht Center.
    Capt. Bill Cox said one of the Southern Comfort IV anglers also pulled a pair of 9-pound mutton snappers from the reefs off Highland Beach.
    Anglers on the Lady K drift boat based in Lantana were catching blackfin tuna of more than 20 pounds on dead sardines in early May, but the tuna bite slowed after the full moon arrived on May 10, owner Marc Lee said.
•
    In the Sail Inn KDW fishing tournament, held May 6, team Slimer weighed a 45.4-pound kingfish to win largest fish and $7,300 in the 32-boat event, based at Boynton Harbor Marina.
    John Manera of West Palm Beach, captain of team Change Order, said most of the big kingfish were being caught north of Palm Beach. Manera ran north to the Loran Tower off Hobe Sound to catch the 42.1-pound kingfish that placed second in the Sail Inn tournament.
    Sarina Heine of Glen Ridge caught a 40.6-pound cobia to win the mystery fish division. Her mother, Ramona Heine of Lake Worth, won top lady angler with a 20.7-pound kingfish.
    The Heines were fishing on the 36-foot power catamaran Weak Moment, skippered by Dave Kalil, whose wife, Pam, served as mate.
•
    Even though May is supposed to be one of the best dolphin fishing months in South Florida, only one dolphin, or mahi mahi, was weighed in the Sail Inn tournament – a 9.3-pound fish taken by Capt. Billy Blackman’s team on Serve It Up.
    Joseph Modenos won top junior angler in the Sail Inn tournament with an 8.6-pound kingfish caught aboard the Royalty Check with his dad, Phil Modenos of Lake Worth, at the helm.
    Boy Scouts from Troop 301 in Delray Beach helped with the weigh-in at the Sail Inn event and earned $700 toward their summer camp.
    The Sail Inn tournament raised $10,000 for the Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation.

Full-moon wahoo tourneys begin June 10
    The West Palm Beach Fishing Club is hosting a summer wahoo tournament centered on the full moons in June, July and August.
    The “e” tournaments costs $60 per tournament or $150 for all three events.
    Anglers must be West Palm Beach Fishing Club members to register a team, but anyone can participate as members of the team.
    The weigh station will be at Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach Shores (Singer Island). Catches must be verified with live video footage.
    Prizes include $500 and a Boone fish bag for the heaviest wahoo in each tournament. Second- and third-place prizes also will be awarded.
    The top team for the three-tournament series wins $1,000 and a special entry rate for the Old Bahama Bay Wahoo Charity Cup.
    The captain’s party is set for 6 p.m. June 8 at Twisted Trunk Brewing in Palm Beach Gardens.
    For details, contact Tom Bzura at 309-1397 or email: Tbzura@westpalmbeachfishingclub.org

Lionfish derby set
    The Boca Raton dive shop World of Scuba is hosting the Gold Cup Lionfish Derby again this year to encourage removal of the invasive, nonnative fish from South Florida’s reefs.
    This year’s lionfish derby will begin June 16 with a kickoff party. Divers will spear lionfish June 17 and bring them to the docks at the Waterstone Resort & Marina in Boca Raton.
    The awards party is scheduled for June 18.
    For details, call Sean Meadows at World of Scuba in Boca Raton: 368-2155.

Kingfish rules modified
    Anglers can keep three king mackerel, better known as kingfish, daily instead of two in Monroe County (the Florida Keys) and on Florida’s west coast.
    The new kingfish bag limit, approved by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, took effect May 11 and applies only to kingfish caught in state waters south and west of the Dade/Monroe county line.
    The recreational daily bag limit on Florida’s east coast remains two kingfish per angler. The minimum size is 24 inches to the fork of the tail.

Coming events
    June 3: Palm Beach County KDW Classic fishing tournament for kingfish, dolphin and wahoo based at Riviera Beach Marina. Begins with captain’s meeting at 6 p.m. June 2 at the marina. Entry fee: $300. Call 832-6780 or www.kdwclassic.com.
    June 3: Basic boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the headquarters building at Spanish River Park, 3939 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. Fee $35 for adults or $20 ages 12 to 19. Register at the door. Bring lunch. Call 391-3600 or email: fso-pe@cgauxboca.org.
    June 24: Boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the classroom building next to the boat ramps, Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park, 2010 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. Fee $20. Discounts for ages 14 to 18 and family groups. Register at the door. Call 704-7440.
    June 28: Capt. Mike Beebe discusses summer fishing tactics for wahoo, 7 p.m., West Palm Beach Fishing Club, 201 Fifth St., West Palm Beach. Free. 832-6780 or www.westpalmbeachfishingclub.org.
    June 30: West Palm Beach Fishing Club outing on Living on Island Time drift boat (for club members). Fee of $55 includes cash prize for big fish and lunch. Reservations required. Call 832-6780.

Tip of the month
    If you fish the ocean waters off Palm Beach County, you probably catch dolphin (mahi mahi). Many are small “peanut” dolphin. The minimum legal size off Florida’s east coast is 20 inches to the fork of the tail, but many anglers choose to release all dolphin under 25 inches.
    Before releasing small dolphin, consider taking a little extra time to tag them. Taggers jot down key information about their catch to benefit dolphin research, including the amount of Sargassum (floating weed) present, the length and sex of the fish, if known, along with the date and coordinates of the release. Anglers who tag and release more than 20 dolphin a year can win prizes such as fishing rods and reels. For more information, go to www.dolphintagging.com.
    
Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Reach him at tiowillie@bellsouth.net.

By Christine Davis

    Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine has received initial accreditation from the national Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for a university-sponsored residency program in psychiatry, in collaboration with its member teaching hospitals in the FAU College of Medicine Graduate Medical Education Consortium.
    This new four-year psychiatry residency program, which will launch in 2018, is based at Delray Medical Center, with primary sites at the South County Mental Health Center in Delray Beach and Boca Raton Regional Hospital. Program director Dr. John W. Newcomer will lead the psychiatry residency.
                                
    Boca Raton Regional Hospital is the first hospital in Palm Beach County to offer the smallest pacemaker for patients with bradycardia. The Medtronic Micra Transcatheter Pacing System is one-tenth the size of a traditional pacemaker. It is comparable to a large vitamin capsule in size and  weighs about as much as a penny.
    Dr. Martin Kloosterman, an electrophysiologist and director of the Lynn Heart & Vascular Institute, performed the first procedure at Boca Regional in late April. Introduced through a catheter in the femoral vein and attached directly to the heart via small tines, the pacemaker delivers electrical impulses as needed, pacing the heart through an electrode. The procedure eliminates the need for a surgical incision.
                                
    Boca Raton Regional appointed four neurologists to the hospital’s Marcus Neuroscience Institute and BocaCare physician network. They are Drs. Roy C. Katzin, Jonathan Harris, Marc Swerdloff and Thomas C. Hammond.
                                
    In April, Boca Raton Regional Hospital’s Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Cancer Institute director Maureen Mann received the 2016 American Cancer Society award in recognition for her service as a volunteer. She’s been a Florida Division board member since 2006, and was division board chair of the executive committee from 2015-2016. She is secretary to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network national board of directors.
                                
    In May, Boca Raton Regional Hospital announced its primary-affiliated physicians who were listed as “Top Doctors” by the research firm Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. The selection process included reviewing a peer-recommended list for standards, including medical education, training, board certifications, hospital appointments, administrative posts, professional achievements and malpractice and disciplinary history. Find list of doctors here.
                                
    West Boca Medical Center appointed Rosie Inguanzo-Martin, president and CEO of Allegiance Home Health, as a governing board member. Inguanzo-Martin is on the trustee board of the YMCA of the Palm Beaches; she’s an active member of Junior League, Impact 100; a board member of Downtown Boca Raton Rotary; and a trustee of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. She was named Small-Business Leader of the Year 2016 by the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce and was a nominee for the Junior League Woman Volunteer of the Year 2016 and Soroptomist 2011.

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

By Janis Fontaine

    You can find religion in the strangest places.
    Like at lunch.
    You’re quietly chowing down on a burger and fries and the guys at the next table are talking about religion. You don’t really mean to, but soon you’re joining the conversation. And the guys are just fine with that.
    A couple of years ago, one of those  friendly guys was Boca Raton’s Thad Schoen. “It was $5 burger day at the Biergarten in Royal Palm Plaza. We were just talking. People were always joining in our conversations.”
    It helps if you’re interesting, and Schoen is. He’s a retired scientist and professor and a cancer survivor.
    “I specialized in hematology and oncology clinical research,” Schoen said.
    If a life devoted to science and to God seems like a contradiction, Schoen says, it’s not. “Many very serious scientists were and are convinced there is a God.”
    Schoen decided those impromptu meetings were helpful and should be more official. He had heard about a group called Theology on Tap. Its website is a virtual how-to manual on starting your own casual club devoted to topics of faith.
    Schoen talked to the senior staff at his church, First United Methodist Church Boca Raton, and they supported the idea. But the name Theology on Tap was a trademark of a Chicago-based Catholic corporation, so they came up with a new name: Pub Theology.
    The group, which is open to people of all faiths, meets twice a month in Boca Raton. “All perspectives are welcome” is the club creed.  
    “We wanted to reach out to the community,” Schoen said. “We wanted a place where people could discuss questions of faith, God and religion in a nonthreatening environment.”
    The group generally attracts 10 to 15 people but as few as six and as many as 40 have turned up. Ages range from college age to octogenarian. Some return every week, while others are one-and-done.
    The group sometimes begins with a topic for discussion in mind, and no topic is taboo — even politics. Senior Pastor Marcus Zillman, who sometimes moderates, says the questions and comments surprise the clergy, but that’s what it’s all about: Always questions, and sometimes answers.
    Schoen says the group will continue to meet through the summer, but without him for the first time since the group started two years ago. He and his wife, Loretta, a writer and blogger, are moving to Oviedo, northeast of Orlando, to be closer to their grandchildren.
    Pub Theology: Beer, Conversation & God meets at 7 p.m. the first Tuesday of the month at the Biergarten, 309 via de Palmas, No. 90, Boca Raton, and 7 p.m. the third Thursday at Barrel of Monks, 1141 S. Rogers Circle, No. 5, Boca Raton. Conversation, fellowship, open discussion. 395-1244;  www.fumcbocaraton.org

Fatima celebration
    St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church and School joined the rest of the Catholic world in recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions. Between May and October 1917, Mary Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, appeared six times to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal.
    On May 13, hundreds of worshippers from the five-county Diocese of Palm Beach came together in prayer and reflection on the messages of Our Lady of Fatima. The event began with a 5:30 p.m. vigil Mass followed by a candlelight procession of prayer and song.
    In Portugal, Pope Francis canonized two of the Portuguese shepherd children, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, honoring their visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago. Those sightings made the tiny town of Fatima one of the world’s most important Catholic shrines, a destination for tens of thousands who wanted their prayers to be heard.
    St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church is at 840 George Bush Blvd., Delray Beach.

Coming soon
    First United Methodist Church Boca Raton is hosting a Chili Challenge and Bingo Night beginning at 5 p.m. June 3, on the East Campus, 625 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton. This fundraiser will help send 25 kids to Warren Willis Methodist Summer Camp. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for children, which includes samples of five chilies and five rounds of bingo. Cast your ballots for the best chili and play for prizes. Purchase advance tickets online.
    Info: 395-1244; www.fumcbocaraton.org

Music minister performs
    Paul Cienniwa, the new director of the music ministry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, will perform his first South Florida concert, “French Sweets on Harpsichord,” at 3 p.m. June 11.
    The program will include suites by Francois Couperin, Johann Sebastian Bach and Jean-Philippe Rameau. Admission is free.
    St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 188 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. Call 278-6003 or visit www.stpaulsdelray.org.

    Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at fontaine423@outlook.com.

Darlene Duggan measures at 3 feet what is thought to be a rare blanket octopus that washed ashore

near the Gulf Stream Golf Club on May 11. The pelagic species carries more than 100,000 eggs

until they hatch. The deep-sea creature was given to FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

for DNA testing and scientific research since it died shortly after washing ashore.

Photo provided by Joan Lorne

(From left) Dr. Larry Wood sits with sea turtle volunteers Jim Jolley, Darlene Duggan, Jackie Kingston

and Joan Lorne. Wood was on hand to present them with a $750 National Sea Turtle Foundation Award

grant for their turtle monitoring and educational efforts. The volunteers monitor

a three-mile stretch of beach in Gulf Stream, the County Pocket, Briny Breezes and Ocean Ridge.

Photo provided by Colin Lorne

John and Gail Field built the We Rock the Spectrum gym in Boca Raton three years ago

as a place for their son, Jayson, and other autistic children, but it’s open to all.

Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine
    
    John and Gail Field didn’t set out to be gym directors or special needs care providers or corporate officers for an international organization working on one of the world’s most pressing medical and family issues.
    They just wanted a place for their son to play.
    Jayson, now 7, was diagnosed with autism, also called autism spectrum disorder, at about 18 months old. The Fields were constantly looking for activities that would stimulate him, but not overly so, and simply wanted a safe place where Jayson could play and be accepted. But there just wasn’t anywhere that Gail and John felt they and their son belonged.
    “We gave up looking,” John said. “The thing with autism is it doesn’t have a ‘look.’”
 Other parents just think the child is spoiled or poorly parented, John Field said. It made them uncomfortable to see the looks on other parents’ faces.
    But now Jayson has a place where he and any other kids are welcome.
    His parents own it. The Fields opened We Rock the Spectrum gym on State Road 7 in Boca Raton three years ago. We Rock the Spectrum is an international franchise opportunity founded in 2010 that provides sensory-safe play for kids with autism, special needs, and developmental challenges and delays. Each gym is independently run but gets corporate support from WRTS.
    At the gym’s third anniversary party in April, a group of dancers with ASD ­—  who take lessons from Michele Mirisola at WRTS Boca — performed a recital, to the delight of family and friends.
    Mirisola’s company, Dancing on the Spectrum, teaches dance to kids with special needs. But dance lessons are just one of the classes offered at the gym. Others include Kindermusik with Miss Susan, Zumbini (a class that helps with bonding) and a social skills class.
    The gym, which John Field built, is an 1,800-square-foot space fitted with therapeutic equipment specifically designed to help kids with sensory processing issues.
    “We created a place where parents can be comfortable,” Field said. He’s seen friendships blossom when parents meet others who understand their situation. “We’ve become a hub for parents with kids with special needs. It’s like a support group. And parents know that everyone, including the people behind the desk, know what they’re going through.”  
    The isolation that parents may feel when they have a nontypical child can lead to feelings of inadequacy and loneliness. John says that the attitude at the gym is “inclusion.” He says the gym sees kids on the spectrum “as different, not less.”  And the company motto supports this: “Finally a place where you never have to say I’m sorry!”
    The gym has an intimate feel. It’s designed to be small so it doesn’t overwhelm kids or bombard them with too much sensory stimulation. Field stresses that the gym isn’t only for kids on the spectrum. “Everybody is welcome.”  
    In the past three years, both John and Gail have poured their hearts, sweat and tears into their gym and helping kids on the spectrum. Since Gail met Dina Kimmel, the founder and CEO of We Rock the Spectrum, on Christmas Eve 2013, Gail has embraced the WRTS organization — and it has embraced her.
After years of training with the corporate office, Gail Field is now the company’s chief operating officer. There are about 36 gyms in the U.S. and six in Florida, including one in Jupiter/Tequesta.
    The first WRTS gym just opened in Malaysia, and Dubai is next.
    There’s no question that autism is reaching all parts of the globe. Almost everyone knows someone with a child on the spectrum. The demand for services and safe places for kids on the spectrum will only increase. Parents from all over the county bring their kids to western Boca Raton to play. People drive down from Royal Palm Beach, John said, for a safe place and friendly face.
    The cost for three hours of play at WRTS is $12 (siblings pay $10), but the more time you buy, the cheaper it is.
    But it’s not about the money, John says.
    “My favorite sound in the world is children laughing,” Field said. “And when they look at you and smile, that does something to you.”
    WRTS Boca is at 19635 State Road 7, Suite 46. For more info about We Rock the Spectrum, call 218-0128 or visit www.werockthespectrumbocaraton.com.
    For more information on Dancing on the Spectrum, call 954-655-2712 or visit www.dancingonthespectrum.com.
•
    For outdoor play, visit the updated Science Playground at Boca Raton’s Sugar Sand Park, now better for kids with special needs.
    In March, after more than a year of renovations costing about $3.2 million, the Science Playground reopened, stronger and safer, with softer surfaces and ramp access, making it more accessible to kids with special needs.
    The park replaced mulch with a wheelchair-friendly rubber mat surface, added new swings and slides, replaced all the railing and decks, improved parking and bus access and made entry into the playground safer. The park also has more places for groups to gather.
    But the tri-level climbing play area is the dominant feature. The carefully constructed tree house-like structure contains interactive components that demonstrate scientific principles.
    For parents, it has clear sight-lines that make it easier to keep track of their kids, and its softer surfaces lessen the impact of falls.
    Sugar Sand Park is at 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton. Visit www.SugarSandPark.org or call 347-3900 for more information.
•
    Another cool spot for kids with special needs is the swamp-themed Congress Avenue Barrier Free Park at 3111 S. Congress Ave. in Boynton Beach. With 37 acres, views of ponds and sunsets in the west, the park is not just for children with disabilities. Amenities include a fitness trail, pavilion, picnic tables with umbrellas, benches, drinking fountain, open play area, specialty play structures for different age groups and abilities, spray-ground and accessible restrooms. The adjacent tennis center has 17 Har-Tru and four composite courts, restrooms with shower, drinking fountains and canopied areas with picnic tables.