By Mary Thurwachter

    The final vote on whether to dissolve the Lantana Nature Preserve Commission, which had been scheduled for the March 14 Town Council meeting, has been postponed until April 25.
    The town made its first vote to disband the commission at its Feb. 22 meeting.
    Town Attorney R. Max Lohman recommended the move, saying the commission, to which the town appoints members, and the Friends of the Lantana Nature Preserve, a nonprofit organization, frequently duplicate efforts and that only one of the groups was necessary. There are some common members to both groups and only one is covered by the Sunshine Laws regarding open meetings.
    Lohman said the town was trying to protect itself and members of the two groups from getting into trouble with the Sunshine Laws.
    But at the town’s March 14 meeting, past and present members of the Nature Preserve Commission, who opposed the move, said that insufficient notice was given to them about the plan to dissolve the group.
    “We only meet twice a year,” said Nature Preserve Commission Chairman Paul Arena. “Our next meeting is April 5. Let us meet to discuss this.”
    Former nature preserve commission member Richard Schlosberg said that “insufficient notice was given” and “the Lantana Nature Preserve Commission had stood in good service for protecting the Lantana Nature Preserve.”
    Schlosberg added the commission and the Friends were “not overlapping functions but dovetailing them.”
    Some residents worried that the preserve could one day disappear without proper vigilance. But council member Phil Aridas said that “the Nature Preserve will always be there.”
    Lohman agreed. “When the property (former home to a town dump) was sold, there was a deed restriction that it always has to be a passive park,” he said.
    “Early on, it wasn’t the same people on both so it wasn’t a problem, but as time went on, with fewer people interested (in serving on the committees), it became one,” Lohman said.
    A coastal hammock between the Carlisle senior living facility on East Ocean Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway, the Lantana Nature Preserve was created by a 1997 ordinance and came out of a lawsuit. The Carlisle pays the town $40,000 a year to maintain the park. No money comes from the town’s general fund to pay for its maintenance.
    In other action, the council:
    • Voted 3-1 (with Lynn Moorhouse dissenting and Tom Deringer absent) to support an effort by the County Commission to put the 1-cent infrastructure surcharge proposal on the ballot in November. The sales tax increase would yield about $220 million annually countywide, of which Lantana would receive $650,000 a year for projects such as renovating the library or Town Hall and for paving roads.

    • Denied a request by Nicholas Arsali of 505 S. Atlantic Drive for a code variance to allow him to build a 6-foot-high wall along the front of his property.

Helen Bass puts the hammer into the project as soon-to-be-homeowner Gethro Phaitus

keeps watch during a roof-raising at 421 SW Fifth Ave. in Delray Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The Phaitus family — mom Yvescar; daughter Geica, 4; son Liam, 2; and dad Gethro —

stands at the homesite. It takes Habitat for Humanity four to six months to finish a house.

Photo provided

By Lucy Lazarony

    For 25 years, Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County has been building homes for families and changing lives.
    “We’ve built 124 homes,” says Mike Campbell, executive director. “They are complete and have families living in them and we currently have three homes under construction. We’re bringing people together to build homes, community and hope.”
    A group of retired IBM executives hatched the idea for Habitat for Humanity in south Palm Beach County in 1989.
    They had traveled up to West Palm Beach to help Habitat build a home in the Westgate community, and when they found out there wasn’t a program for South County, they said, “We can fix that.”
    And they started the process to do just that, finishing on April 29, 1991, Habitat of Humanity of South Palm Beach County’s official anniversary date.  
    The first house was built at 164 NE 11th St. in Boca Raton. The gross cost of the house was $10,425 and the gross cost of a house today is $120,000.
    The house was started on Sept. 7, 1991, and completed on June 24, 1992.
     “We do much better than that now,” Campbell says.
    Now Habitat homes are completed in four to six months. Habitat does it with a staff of 42 and 1,700 volunteers.
    “Last year, we had just over 1,700 different individuals participate in 46,000 hours of service,” Campbell says. “Seventy percent of every Habitat house is built by volunteers and 30 percent is contracted labor.”  
    There’s no building experience required to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.
    “You don’t need any experience at all. We have paid staff and volunteer crew leaders that will show you everything you need to know,” Campbell says.  
    To volunteer, visit the Habitat for South Palm Beach County website, www.habitatsouthpalmbeach.org, and click on the volunteer button.
    Volunteer John Shelly of Boynton Beach has helped to build 98 houses.  
    “It’s fun,” Shelly says. “It’s rewarding seeing a house go together and see the family move into the house, how excited they are. It’s just an American dream come true.”
    There was a roof-raising for the future home of the Phaitus family — Gethro and Yvescar Phaitus and their daughter, Geica, 4, and their son, Liam, 2 — in Delray Beach on March 19.    
    “It’s a good experience,” says Gethro Phaitus. “It’s like you are working with your family.”  
    Like every family helped by Habitat, Phaitus is pitching in to help build other Habitat houses as well as his own.  
    Jermain Fashaw and his wife, Meshell, and their two children, India, 14, and Jermain II, 12, having been living six years in a Habitat house that they helped to build in Boynton Beach.
    “I can’t say enough about Habitat. It was just a total blessing,” Fashaw says. “It was a step up for us.”  
    There is a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County celebrating its 25th anniversary planned for April 21 at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach.
    Swing for Habitat, featuring live music by The Garrison Elliott Band, includes dinner, dancing, an open bar, silent auction and raffle prizes. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $75 per person. To purchase tickets, visit www.swingforhabitat.com.
    Habitat also is looking to raise money through a Women’s Build Week in May. Volunteers are required to make a minimum, tax-deductible donation of $50 to register.
    “We’re going to do a weeklong women’s build,” Campbell says. “They are going to put roofs on a couple of homes if we raise enough money. You’ve never seen a house straighter or more square than when women build.”
    Another way to support Habitat’s mission is with donations to and purchases from its three thrift stores. Habitat ReStores are at 1900 N. Federal Highway in Delray, 272 S. Dixie Highway in Boca Raton and 10055 Yamato Road in west Boca Raton.

By Dan Moffett

    Town Attorney Ken Spillias retired in March after 17 years on the job in Ocean Ridge and 41 years practicing law.
    “I’ve seen good government and I’ve seen very bad government,” Spillias told the commission. “I want you to know that from my perspective, working here has been an absolute pleasure.”
    Spillias’ last couple of years were stormy ones for the town, with the forced resignation of Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi, a failed recall attempt, personnel changes and no shortage of political infighting.
    “This is a small town and there are a lot of systemic changes that need to be made,” he said. “Small towns tend to resist that. They have their way of doing things and it works. And it has worked here, and it has worked very, very well.”
    Spillias suggested that recent disputes should be kept in perspective.
    “You are lucky people,” he said. “You live in a really nice town, and for the most part, people are nice to each other. You have your dust-ups and you have your battles. But I’m going to tell you something — compared to other cities, and you read about them right here in Palm Beach County — you have a great group of people, both citizens and commissioners and staff, who are all working, sometimes at odds with each other but with the right attitude, to make this stay a wonderful place to live.”
    Mayor Geoff Pugh said Spillias had been “almost like a mentor” to him. Pugh said he’d miss the sound from the end of the dais of Spillias’ clearing his throat when commissioners considered actions that might have legal risks.
    Spillias’ successor, Glen Torcivia, gave him Greek candy and vintage Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cards as parting gifts.
In other action:
    • Town Manager Jamie Titcomb told the commission that public records requests “are up exponentially” and his staff is overwhelmed. Titcomb won the commission’s approval for the extraordinary step of closing Town Hall for a day (on March 25) to allow staff to catch up with requests and purge unneeded documents.
    Titcomb said the town should make the transition to electronic record-keeping and a more modern archival system. Commissioners agreed and told Titcomb to investigate alternatives.
    • The commission gave unanimous approval to Police Chief Hal Hutchins’ plans for overhauling his department’s administrative structure and for updating its radio system.
    Under the restructuring, the department would add an administrative lieutenant position, at a cost of about $7,400 in salary and benefits. Hutchins also said he would promote two officers to fill vacant sergeant and investigator positions.
    The first phase of a two-part upgrade for the town’s 10-year-old radio system will cost about $84,000, with an additional $62,000 expected in next year’s budget to complete the overhaul. The new radios enable the town’s police to communicate more efficiently with neighboring agencies.

Albert Richwagen III and his mother, Bertha, in their shop in Delray Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

55 years ago, Robert Richwagen posed at the entrance of their first store, and framed the first dollar they made (below).

Photos provided

By Ron Hayes

    On April 22, 1961, Robert and Bertha Richwagen put a dollar bill in a picture frame and hung it on the wall of their newly opened scooter shop in Delray Beach.
    Now, 55 years and five addresses later, that first dollar Richwagen’s Cycle Center earned is still on a wall in Delray Beach, and Richwagens still run the business.
    “In 1960, my dad was a tool and die maker at Pratt & Whitney,” his son Albert Richwagen III recalled. “My older brothers were GoKart racers and they needed a place to work on their GoKarts, so he opened a GoKart and Vespa scooter store at the corner of Southeast First Avenue and First Street.”
    The GoKarts and scooters took off, and after a couple of years Richwagen moved the business to 205 E. Atlantic Ave., where Starbucks stands today.
    “My mom would run the store during the day and Dad would come in at night to do repairs,” his son explained.
    Another few years and business was so good that Richwagen left Pratt & Whitney, able at last to make a living off the store. They moved again, to 217 E. Atlantic Ave., home to the Buddha Sky Bar now, and stayed for the next 25 years.
    Bob Richwagen’s success was not surprising. A native of Boston, he had learned machine work in high school, then labored as a welder in the Boston Shipyard during World War II. At Pratt & Whitney in Hartford, Conn., where he turned engineers’ designs into working models that could then be manufactured, he was part of the team that built a periscope used in America’s first nuclear submarine.
    Now he brought that same ingenuity to his bike shop.
    In the early 1960s, the Beach Boys sang “Let’s go surfing now, everybody’s learning how.” Delray’s teenagers were among those learning how, so Richwagen designed the “Richie,” a handmade surfboard he made at the shop and sold along with Raleigh bicycles. (You can see a rare surviving Richie at the Delray Beach Surfing Museum, 255 N. Federal Highway.)
    When the surfing fad faded, Richwagen noted the area’s growing number of retirees and designed a three-wheeled bicycle for adults.
    Bob Richwagen died of a heart attack on July 8, 1988, at 59. His widow, Bertha, took over the business with sons Paul and Albert, and Richwagen’s Cycle Center was renamed Richwagen’s Bike & Sport a year later.
    “When I took over, we were the only Raleigh dealer around,” Albert Richwagen says. “I still have my Raleigh Chopper from when I was a kid, hanging on my living room wall.”
    The business moved to 32 SE Second Ave. for a couple of years, then to 401 NE Second Ave., by the railroad tracks, for two more. In 2007, it came to the current location, 298 NE Sixth Ave., at the corner of Third Street.
    Addresses are not the only thing that’s changed in the 55 years since Bob Richwagen framed that first dollar.
    The GoKarts, Vespas and Raleighs are gone. Today, Richwagen’s sells mainly the Electra line, along with a few Schwinns, as well as powerboards.
    The cost of a good bike has gone way up, with prices ranging from $249 to $5,000.
    And the number of kids who ride bikes has gone way down.
    “To be honest,” Richwagen says, “bike riding for kids has been on the decline for several years.”
In August, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the good news that bicycle deaths among children 15 and under had plummeted 92 percent since 1975.
Safety helmets helped, of course, but more significant, the number of children who rode bikes to school dropped from 48 percent in 1969 to a mere 13 percent 40 years later, according to the National Center for Safe Routes to School.
    And those kids’ good old American bikes aren’t even American anymore.
    “Every bike under $1,000 is made in Japan, China or Taiwan,” Richwagen says.
    But some things remain.
    At 79, Bertha Richwagen still shows up for work on Saturdays and holidays, and the Richwagens take pride in giving back to the community that’s supported them for 55 years.
    The store participates in bike safety rodeos at Spady and Pine Grove elementary schools and the Bike Valet service at the city’s weekly green market.
    Working with Human Powered Delray, a local nonprofit, Richwagen’s rehabilitates bicycles confiscated by the Delray Beach Police Department, after which they’re given to needy and deserving students at Toussaint L’Ouverture High School for Arts and Social Justice.
    In addition, Sandoway House Nature Center, St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic School and Unity School have had Richwagen bikes donated for fundraising raffles.
    “It’s the give-back,” Albert Richwagen says, “the paying forward.”
    And now, the looking forward.
    “I don’t plan on moving,” he says. “I want to expand.”
    Even with a store boasting 3,000 square feet, Richwagen feels cramped.
    “The only way to get a good deal on bikes is to buy 75 or 100 at a time,” he says, “so I have off-site storage I’m paying for.” And about 100 rental bikes live in the fenced yard behind the store.
    “I’d like to build another building back there, with a mezzanine for storage, move the repair shop back in there and make this all one showroom,” he says.
    The bike business, and bikes themselves, have come a long way since a tool and die maker from Boston started selling GoKarts in 1961, and his son is pedaling right along with the changes.
    “Nowadays, the guys who are selling a lot of really high-priced road bikes, they have an espresso machine, a bar, leather couches and a computerized fit station to customize the bike to your body,” Richwagen reports. “I’d love to add that addition and then create a fit station and relaxing area for our customers.”
    But that’s not what he loves about the business.
    “Bikes are the breeze in your face,” he says. “When you’re in a car, you’re in a capsule. On a bike, you take it all in. You’re smelling it, hearing it, feeling it. It’s all green.
    “I could get to the beach faster on a bike than you can in your car.”

Correction

    A story in the April Coastal Star misstated the reason the town of Ocean Ridge paid $50,000 in legal fees to Commissioner Richard Lucibella’s attorney. The payment was reimbursement for Lucibella’s legal defense of a failed recall effort against him last year. The fees were not due to his lawsuit against the recall’s organizers, which also named the town clerk as a defendant because of her ministerial role in certifying elections.

By Dan Moffett

    Political newcomer Steve Coz pulled off an upset in the March 15 election when he ousted Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Lynn Allison, who held a seat on the Town Commission since 2004.
    Coz, 58, a 31-year resident of Ocean Ridge who has served on town zoning and adjustment boards, captured 55 percent of the vote in defeating Allison, 445-358, a strong turnout of 54 percent of registered voters.
    “It’s disappointing. We worked very hard,” said Allison. “But I’m hopeful the new commissioner will keep some of the promises he’s made and work for the good of the town.”
    Coz, the president of a publishing company, won the endorsements of the four other commission members and campaigned on a commitment to work toward preparing the town for projected development and population growth across the bridge.
    “It’s not Ocean Ridge residents causing the trespass problems at McCormick Mile Beach Club,” he told voters. “It’s not Ocean Ridge residents robbing our children at gunpoint in the center of town. It’s not Ocean Ridge gangs breaking into cars at the south end of town. We have serious problems past our town limits. Outside population pressure will define our town in the years to come.”
    Allison was sympathetic last year toward the failed recall efforts against Commissioner Richard Lucibella, a movement that grew out of the forced resignation of Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi.
    Defending itself against Lucibella’s suit over the recall cost the town some $50,000 in legal fees and also a toll in political acrimony within the commission.
    Mayor Geoff Pugh believes neither the recall dispute nor the commissioners’ support for Coz dictated the outcome.
    “Those issues are relegated to a small volume of the population,” Pugh said. “The large volume of voters gets direction on who to vote for from their neighbors. Petty backbiting is relegated to just a very few. I think most people just believed that maybe, after 12 years, it was time for someone else.” Pugh credited Coz with running a forward-looking campaign that did not revisit the town’s political turmoil.
    “Mr. Coz got out there and was more upbeat than Lynn,” Pugh said. “Lynn Allison gave 12 years of her life to the town of Ocean Ridge and was an excellent commissioner. One reason she lost was that people want to see change.” Pugh said he’s hopeful that the newly formed commission will work for Ocean Ridge’s best interests.
    “We don’t have a lot of big issues. But in a small town, issues are created — especially in a paradise, they’re created,” he said. “My biggest concern is when people come (onto the commission) that they do it for the town and don’t do it for their ego.”

$39.95 million for this Delray Beach house.
Rendering of the $13.635 million house being built in Ocean Ridge.

Photos provided

By Christine Davis

    With another season winding down, home sales on Palm Beach County’s southern coast continue to break records.

    Listing in January with a price of $39.95 million, a 33,500-square-foot home on 1.7 acres at 921 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, closed Feb. 29, selling for $34 million. That was a record for the oceanfront area from Manalapan to Highland Beach, said Pascal Liguori of Pasqual Liguori & Son Premier Estate Properties, who represented the seller, 921 South Ocean Boulevard LLC.
    “The 21,000-square-foot ultramodern home, which was built in 2013, is on a very deep gorgeous lot with 155 feet on the ocean,” he said.
    The buyer, Chicago investor Richard A. Chaifetz, was represented by Michael O’Rourke of Estates Registry Realty.
    Holding the record previously in Delray Beach was a property at 901 S. Ocean, which sold in February 2015 for $19 million. For the area, the record holder was 800 S. Ocean, Manalapan, which sold in September 2015 for $33 million.
                                
    In February, a pre-construction oceanfront spec mansion, on a little over an acre at 6125 N. Ocean Blvd., sold for $13.635 million, a record-breaking price for Ocean Ridge. Agents representing the seller, 6125 North Ocean Boulevard LLC, which is linked to Boca Raton builder Mark Timothy Inc., were Nicholas Malinosky and Randy Ely with the Corcoran Group.
    It was purchased by Watersedge 21 Properties LLC, a company with a New York City address, which was represented by Russell Newman, an agent with Lang Realty.
    Slated for delivery next year, the 12,700-square-foot home will have five bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, a four-car garage, guest quarters and a pool. Previously, an estate at 6017 Old Ocean Blvd. sold for a record $9 million in 2009.
                                
    Going from news to brews, the Lake Worth Herald building, at 130 S. H St., Lake Worth, has sold through Carmel Commercial Real Estate & Management of Delray Beach. And thanks to recent zoning changes, the property will be transformed into Lake Worth’s first micro-brewery by Mathews Brewing Company. On site, beer will be brewed and distributed, and a tasting room will be open to the public. The Lake Worth Herald’s offices are now at 1313 Central Terrace, Lake Worth.  
                                
    On Jan. 19, Mitchell Millowitz and Ryan Rosalsky, of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, brokered an $18.5 million acquisition for PetMed Express Inc. with 420 South Congress Inc., an affiliate of the Atlanta-based Stockbridge Real Fund, for the Delray Distribution Center complex, at 420 S. Congress Ave., Delray Beach. The complex’s two buildings comprise about 185,000 square feet, with one building fully leased to shipper DHL Express.
    PetMed Express Inc. will take over the first floor of the second building, and Levenger Co. will continue to lease the second floor.
                                
    Changes are completed at Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel & Luxury Villas: its top-to-bottom  $1.2 million renovation, a new website at www.cranesbeachhouse.com, and also, Bill Kinsloe was promoted to front office supervisor. Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel & Luxury Villas is at 82 Gleason St., Delray Beach.
                                
    The Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Delray Affair, April 8-10, which celebrates its 54th anniversary this year, traces its roots back to the late 1940s as the annual Delray Beach Gladiola Festival, which featured a gladiola parade and Miss Gladiola beauty pageant.
    While free to eventgoers, it has an economic impact of an estimated $40 million to Delray Beach over its history. The Delray Affair, in downtown Delray Beach, features more than 500 exhibits by artists and crafters as well as an array of food vendors.
    Highlights this year include a poster by Dr. Ella Remenson, a bus showcasing the GEICO Traveling Tour, the Delray Honda Family Fun Zone, the Games on the Go Mobile Arcade, Solid Waste Authority and Boy Scout Troop 301’s “An Affair to Recycle” (by the way, they recovered 5,780 pounds of recyclables at the Garlic Fest), the town merchants’ Behind the Booths, and more.
                                
    In honor of Rotary International’s Feb. 10, 1905, founding, the Delray Beach Rotary Club gave itself a birthday party in celebration of the Rotary’s 111 years. While not quite as old, the Rotary Club of Delray Beach was chartered 68 years ago on Feb. 10, 1948, at the Colony Hotel under the sponsorship of the Rotary Club of Boynton Beach.
    It was established with 27 charter members and guided by its first president, Lauren C. Hand. Since then, the club, together with its charitable, tax-exempt corporation, Delray Beach Rotary Fund Inc., has been involved in many local and international projects, including contributing more than $100,000 for scholarships to local high school students and more than $65,000 for Polio Plus, a Rotary International project to eradicate polio throughout the world.
    The money to finance these projects was raised through golf tournaments, bingo and the club’s annual hot dog and soft drink sale at the Delray Affair. The club has a lunch meeting at 12:15 p.m. Tuesdays at the Delray Beach Public Library, 100 W. Atlantic Ave.,  Delray Beach.
                                
    At its May 20 annual Business Awards Luncheon at the Boca Raton Resort and Club, the Boca Chamber will recognize Jim Dunn, vice president and general manager of JM Lexus, as the Business Leader of the Year, Joe and Rosie Martin, owners of Allegiance Home Health, as the Small Business Leaders of the Year and 3Cinteractive as the Business of the Year.
                                
    At the Boca Chamber’s 10th annual Diamond Award Luncheon in February, nine previous recipients were honored, a new mentor program was unveiled and its inaugural “Diamond in the Rough” recipient, Rachel Zietz of Gladiator Lacrosse, was announced. Zietz was a participant in the Chamber’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy in 2012 and in two years grew her business to sell more than $1 million of lacrosse equipment. At 9 p.m. May 13, Zietz will appear on ABC’s Shark Tank.
    Through the chamber’s new mentoring program, the previous Diamond Award recipients Mary Wong, Rocki Rockingham, Victoria Rixon, Cheryl Budd, Margaret Mary Shuff, Dr. Marta Rendon, Jackie Reeves, Yvonne Boice and Mary Sol Gonzalez will mentor students from the Young Entrepreneurs Academy program.
                                
    In conjunction with other chambers and advocacy organizations, the Boca Chamber is part of the Business Rent Tax Coalition, which is working to remove Florida’s 6 percent sales tax on commercial leases.
    “As a pro-business advocate, the Boca Chamber strives to maintain an environment where organizations provide opportunities for employees and Boca Raton families. Eliminating the business rent tax would entice more businesses to our great state, thus contributing to the cycle of commerce,” said Troy McLellan, Boca Chamber’s president and CEO.  For information about the Business Rent Tax Coalition, visit www.cutmybizrent.tax.
                                
    Also, in their search for funding, Boca Chamber’s Golden Bell Education Foundation’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy students will present their business plans to local investors April 6 at FAU Tech Runway. The investor panel will include Palm Beach executives Beth Johnston, Florida Blue; Angela Mastrofrancesco, Comerica Bank; Sam Zietz, TouchSuite; and Andrew Duffell, the Research Park at FAU. To RSVP to this free and open-to-the-public event, for directions, or to join the panel, contact Jenna Reed at jreed@bocachamber.com.

Posh Properties of Delray Beach celebrated its fourth anniversary on Feb. 27.

Above: (l-r) Niki Pepper, Donna Benson, Michelle Yales, Jerilyn Walter, owner/broker, Jacie Paulson and Susie Fernandes.

Photo provided

                                
    In February, at the fourth annual Barrier Free 5K races, which benefited the Congress Avenue Barrier Free Park in Boynton Beach, Bella Natale, the honorary starter, received a very special send-off: a Cinderella-inspired carriage from Magical Wheelchair Inc.
    Among the 140 participants, overall winners were Matt Triggs and Cori Gauff. At age 11, Gauff is now the youngest overall winner in the race’s history. Master winners were Richard Bowers and Erika Williams, and grand master winners were Mike Schengber and Amy Triggs.
    Barrier Free Park offers opportunities and a support network for children of all abilities to play, and the annual race has raised more than $17,000 for the park since 2013. The park is at 3111 S. Congress Ave., Boynton Beach.
                                
    From 8 a.m. to noon April 30, the Delray Beach-based Institute for Regional Conservation will hold a volunteer day at Atlantic Dunes Park in Delray Beach, focusing on restoring biodiversity by removing invasive plant species and planting species native to Palm Beach County’s dune systems.
    The cost of supplies was  covered through a mini-grant awarded to the Institute for Regional Conservation by Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, Inc. Volunteers are invited to bring lunch and stay afterward for a picnic. Atlantic Dunes Park is at 1605 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach.
                                
    The Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties chose Sandoway House Nature Center as one of 10 winners of the Forever Arts & Culture Endowment Challenge, which provides $250,000 in grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fund. The center will receive a dollar-for-dollar matching grant of $25,000 to establish a permanent endowment fund at the Community Foundation.
    Located at 142 S. Ocean Blvd. in Delray Beach, the Sandoway House Nature Center offers a variety of programs, experiences and opportunities, including shark and alligator feedings in its coral reef pool, guided historic tours, nature walks and astronomy nights.
                                
    In March, the Boys & Girls Club of Delray Beach’s “Be Great Celebration Dinner,” at the Delray Beach Marriott, raised more than $132,000 for the club and honored Tony Wilson, chairman, president and CEO of Seagate Hospitality Group, as well as the Youth of the Year of Delray Beach Karah Pierre.
    At the event, Seagate Hospitality Group made a gift of $25,000 as an endowment fund toward the Youth of the Year program. From this gift, every year for 25 years, the Youth of the Year will receive a $1,000 scholarship to help cover his or her educational expenses. Pierre, 15, a member of the Delray Beach Boys and Girls Club for 10 years, was the first scholarship recipient.
                                
    In March, Hypoloxo Island resident James DeGerome, a retired gastroenterologist who practiced in Palm Beach County for 31 years, was awarded the Digestive Disease National Coalition’s Lifetime Service Award at its 28th Annual Public Policy Forum in Washington, D.C.
                                
    Women’s clothier Evelyn & Arthur will donate the rounded-up amount of each sale May 3 during the third annual Great Give, run by Palm Beach County and the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties.
    Evelyn & Arthur also will sell orange pashminas for $28 with 100 percent of the proceeds supporting the Great Give. It will donate a prize to the nonprofit that raises the most funds during one of the drive’s hourly contests. Evelyn & Arthur’s Manapalan store is at 277 S. Ocean Blvd. in Plaza del Mar. Hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

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

Susan Duane (left) and Suzy Laniga

By Amy Woods

    A half-million donated dollars will flow into South Palm Beach County’s philanthropic community following a membership meeting of the women of Impact 100.
    The nonprofit, which supports local organizations by helping them achieve their goals, will gather April 19 for its fifth annual Grand Awards Ceremony, where money will be granted to five charities.
    “We hope to give away $500,000-plus,” said Susan Duane, co-president of Impact 100. “We’re very, very close. We’re excited.”
    Each member who joins agrees to contribute $1,000. Those checks are pooled to generate $100,000 grants that are “truly transformational for the organizations that receive them,” Duane said.
    In 2014, the Achievement Centers for Children & Families applied for a grant to start after-school and summer programs at Pine Grove Elementary School in Delray Beach. The organization received the money in the spring and was able to get the programs up and running immediately.
    “By the end of the first school year, they went from being almost an F school to being almost an A school — in one school year — and that would not have been without us,” Duane said. “We’ve got lots of stories like that.”
    Impact 100 awards grants in five focus areas: arts and culture, education, environment, family and health and wellness. Letters of inquiry are sent out in the fall and must be returned in October. This year, nearly 80 organizations submitted applications.
    “The need is great and we of course would like to fulfill every need,” Duane said.
    The members whittle down the list to a handful of semifinalists who are invited to the ceremony to present their projects. After the presentation, a vote takes place behind closed doors while guests enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvres. When the meeting reconvenes, the recipients are announced.
    “There’s something about it that each member somehow feels they have given $100,000 personally,” Duane said. “You feel such a sense of accomplishment.”
    Suzy Lanigan, chairwoman of the event, agreed.
    “It’s heartwarming because the grant is given out that night,” Lanigan said. “It is very emotional and awesome to see the faces and how happy they are to receive their award.”

If You Go
What: Grand Awards Ceremony
When: 6 p.m. April 19
Where: Lynn University, 3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton
Cost: Free for members
Info: Call 336-4623 or visit www.impact100pbc.com.

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Timolin Cole and Casey Cole, sisters of the late Natalie Cole and twin daughters of legendary singer Nat King Cole, were excited to hear that family friend Patti LaBelle would be performing at the Boca West Community Charitable Foundation’s annual Concert for the Children on April 5.
    A tribute to Grammy Award-winner Natalie Cole, who was originally scheduled to perform at the event, will be included in the concert.
    Diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension after a kidney transplant in 2009, Natalie Cole died Dec. 31 after struggling with multiple health problems, said Timolin Cole.
    “I think it’s so wonderful that Patti LaBelle has stepped up to do this event,” Timolin Cole said. “Boca West is known for putting on such great concerts at their outdoor venues. And the fact that it’s a tribute to our sister, I think it’s a great combination.”
    The concert at Boca West Country Club and a Golf Challenge on April 4 will benefit 21 charities for at-risk children and their families in Boca Raton and south Palm Beach County.
    The Cole sisters’ music foundation, Nat King Cole Generation Hope, is one of those charities. Generation Hope has helped more than 40 schools and music programs, supporting mentoring and teaching, collecting and refurbishing used instruments and supplying new instruments.
    Patti LaBelle replaced Aretha Franklin, who was scheduled to stand in for Natalie Cole but had to cancel because of health problems.
    “Patti was, needless to say, devastated when she heard of Natalie’s passing, and she just really feels honored to be able to give a tribute to her in this way,” said Casey Cole. “We  all are very pleased and very happy that Patti will be doing this.”
    The Cole sisters, both Boca Raton residents, started Nat King Cole Generation Hope in 2008 to provide music education to children with the greatest need and fewest resources in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. When budget cuts hit South Florida schools, music programs were among the first to go. That’s when they sprang into action.
    Their pet project is the Summer Strings Concert at Lynn University, the exciting finale of a strings camp for 80 to 100 students.
    “We will be extending it from one week to a two-week program this summer, and that’s because the Boca Foundation increased their support and funding for us.
    “We are thrilled about that,” said Timolin Cole.
    One of the sisters’ projects is providing guitars for Guitars Over Guns, headed by Chad Bernstein, who founded the program at two middle schools in North Miami. Bernstein was named a CNN Hero in 2015 because of his program.
    The sisters said Natalie Cole was a big supporter of their foundation, and they know their father would have been, too.
     “Our father stressed patience, perseverance and passion. And you can add goodwill and humility. That’s what resonated with their fans,” said Timolin Cole.

If You Go
What: Golf Challenge
When: 11 a.m. April 4 (1 p.m. tee time; 5:30 p.m. cocktail party and awards)
Where: Boca West Country Club, Boca Raton
Cost: Player spots are $600 and include a ticket for the concert. Additional cocktail party tickets are $150.

What: Concert for the Children, with the Atlantic City Boys and Patti LaBelle
When: 8 p.m. April 5 (doors open at 6 p.m.)
Where: Akoya Amphitheatre, Great Lawn of the Boca West Country Club, Boca Raton
Cost: $175; seats will be assigned by lottery

Information for both events: 488-6980 or foundation@bocawestcc.org
    
The Nat King Cole foundation needs volunteers, old and new musical instruments and donations. 213-8209; www.natkingcolegenhope.org.

By Thom Smith

    No big football game at West Boca High … no free golf at Osprey Point … yet traffic on Glades Road west of 441, on Sunday evening, March 13, was at a virtual standstill a mile from the entrance to South County Regional Park.
    The attraction: a rally for America’s newest political phenomenon — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. A few protesters were escorted away, because the amphitheater, although in a public park, had been rented by Trump. He could exclude whom he chose.
                                
    In contrast to the art of the deal out west, a crowd back east at the Mizner Park Amphitheater on March 6 soaked up the art of music, courtesy of the 10th annual Festival of the Arts Boca — a FAB fortnight of stunning entertainment and critical thought from A to Z.
    Sunday’s A-plus show featured Herb Alpert, who turned 81 March 31, and wife Lani Hall, her voice still magical at 70. With teenage zeal, they raced through hit after hit, new compositions and a stunning encore tribute to Brazilian genius Antonio Carlos Jobim.
    The high grades continued March 11 with another A-show. Joey Alexander, 12-year-old piano prodigy from Bali, made his first appearance ever with a full orchestra, mixing his own compositions with those of Thelonious Monk.
    For much of the show, music director Constantine Kitsopoulos stood, arms folded, and nodded in amazement. Chairman and producer Charlie Siemon couldn’t contain a broad smile when asked how the festival landed Alexander: A year ago co-producer Wendy Larsen saw a video of Alexander and immediately made contact through Lincoln Center. “His father is his manager,” Siemon said. “Joey was just settling in, but he said yes. I still can’t believe what we got him for. Today we couldn’t afford him.”
    FAB’s program, of course, intersperses music and intellect, which takes us to Z, as in Fareed Zakaria. The globe and the United States may be in turmoil, the CNN host, journalist, author and economist conceded, but times are not as bad as many claim.
    Addressing early on Marco Rubio’s surprising debate reference to Trump’s “small hands” and Trump’s retort that Rubio was “not factually accurate,” Zakaria observed: “It doesn’t really measure up to ‘Ask not what your country can do for you …’ ”
    Educated at Harvard and Yale, Zakaria was born in India, where I Love Lucy reruns and the opening credits to Dallas shaped his first impressions of the United States as a land of tomorrow, the shining city on the hill. Despite what Trump and others claim, he still considers it the best nation on Earth.
    But he cautions that many problems created by centuries of failed policies and mistakes will not be solved overnight. Radical Islam, for example, was spawned by Western meddling after World War I, oil production and despotic regimes. Protest, driven from the streets, coalesced into the one place the government couldn’t interfere — the mosque.
    As the Husseins and Gadhafis were toppled, the nations had no supporting civil structure and ultimately no country. The radicals filled the vacuum. But now ISIS must contend with opposition from all directions — the United States, Lebanon, Turkey, the Kurds, Russia and Iran. Its ability to spread terror is limited.
    Problems exist, Zakaria said, but Americans have to be realistic: Fears must be reasonable. Since 9/11, 45 people have been killed in this country by Islamic terrorists; 150,000 have died from gunshots.
    The United States remains the strongest nation on Earth economically, growing twice as fast as Europe and four times faster than Japan. It has recovered from the worldwide recession faster than any other nation. It is the world’s largest producer of oil. For three years, net immigration from Mexico has been zero.  
    “The living, breathing reality of America remains that it is an extraordinary place where people can be themselves and live out their dreams.  But it’s hard work,” Zakaria said.

                                 
    Leave it to Bill O’Reilly. Taking a break in Delray Beach, the Fox News TV host spent at least part of St. Patrick’s Day… in an English pub.
    “I think he had fish ’n’ chips,” Blue Anchor owner Lee Harrison said.
    Shamrocks and pigs aside, England is loaded with similarly named pubs, Harrison explained, particularly in port cities where the blue anchor symbolizes good luck.
    Perhaps O’Reilly was looking for some luck, given the turmoil in his “No Spin Zone” in recent weeks. Fellow conservative Charles Krauthammer even rebuked Battling Bill on-air for using “weaselly words” to condemn Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric at campaign rallies.   
                                
    Before becoming a pub owner, Harrison was in the news business. In 1973, he was writing for the Hemel Hempstead Evening Post-Echo (that’s a mouthful) just outside of London, when National Enquirer publisher Generoso Pope offered an outrageous salary. Harrison and dozens of fellow Brits moved to Lantana.
    Harrison later became editor of The National Examiner, but as often happens in the tabloids, he was fired. Done with ink, he and a partner latched onto the Blue Anchor, then a London pub about to give way to a parking lot. In 1996 they salvaged its oak doors, paneling and stained glass and had them shipped to and re-erected in Delray Beach.
                                
    Harrison isn’t the only Enquirer staffer to pursue new paths. At least two now hold public office.  
    Steve Coz, who served as editor at The Enquirer, formed Coz Media in 2005, became editorial director at Newsmax, then took over media affairs and communications for Uta Pippig and Take The Magic Step fitness programs. In his first run for public office, the Harvard-educated Coz, 58, unseated veteran Ocean Ridge Town Commissioner Lynn Allison.
    Incidentally, Coz loves paddleboards, but they don’t work too well on land, so he may head to commission meetings on his bike.
    Malcolm Balfour was just re-elected to the Lantana Town Council. He first came to the States on a track scholarship to Mississippi State, where he took a controversial stand against segregation. He returned to his native South Africa, where he reported on civil unrest, then joined The Enquirer and covered such juicy subjects as the Kennedys and the Pulitzers. Malcolm stayed on seven years before returning to freelancing in print and TV.
    Active in programs to save town parks for boaters and fishermen and a longtime member of the Lantana Nature Preserve, he was elected to the Town Council in 2013 and currently serves as vice mayor.
                                
    The hot spring continues in Boca with the 14th annual Boca Bacchanal Wine and Food Fest. On April 8 at the amphitheater at Mizner Park, guests will sample dishes from 30 area restaurants, fine wines and craft beers. Action moves April 9 to local homes for dinners pairing top international chefs and vintners. Tickets for the Bacchanalia ($125), vintner dinners ($325) and the new pre-party for Bacchanalia ticket holders ($50) are available at bocabacchanal.com. Proceeds benefit the Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum.
                                
    A week later, the popular Taste of the Nation returns to the Kravis Center for the sixth year.  More than 50 restaurants, vintners, brewers and purveyors will join co-chairs and top chefs Lindsay Autry, Zach Bell, Clay Conley and Tim Lipman. Proceeds go to local programs that fight childhood hunger. Tickets: VIP with early admission (6 p.m.) and special perks, $200; general admission (7 p.m.) $125. (ce.nokidhungry.org/palmbeach)
                                
    Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday. Hello, Juniors.
    As many restaurants seem to fail as succeed in Mizner Park, but two properties from up the coast are taking a shot. Brooklyn legend Juniors was looking for another borough where it could hawk its $50 cheesecake, and the empty Ruby Tuesday fits the bill. Third-generation owner Alan Rosen hopes to open by September.
    Also, Jazziz will give way to Zorba. Two Baltimore restaurateurs, Alexander Smith and George Aligeorgas, are bringing their popular Ouzo Bay concept to Mizner with seating for 325, a patio, “chic bar atmosphere,” and one unique Jazziz holdover — the 30-seat cigar room. Matthew Oetting, previously at The Continental Miami Beach before heading to New York, will run the kitchen. They are hoping for a late summer opening.  
                                          
    The new Hyatt Place, rising at the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Palmetto Park Road, has landed a restaurant client. The name is new but the operators are area vets. Louie Bossi’s Ristorante Bar Pizzeria (named for the chef) is the latest offering from Big Time Restaurant Group. The prototype Louie’s opened last summer on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Special touch: a bocce court.
                                
    Nick Lioce lived large and had a big heart, but in the end, it was his heart that gave out. He died March 10 from heart surgery complications. He was 65. A respected lawyer and accountant, Nick was best known outside legal circles as a rock ’n’ roller, leading one of the most popular and most cleverly named groups anywhere — Nick-O-Rockwa and the Contra Band.
    A graduate of Riviera Beach High School, Lioce earned accounting and law degrees at Florida State, then returned home to open his practice and practice his music.
    He took inspiration for the band’s name from the Iran-Contra crisis of the early ’80s. Lioce handled lead vocals on a huge catalog of rock and R&B hits as the band played just about every local live music venue in the county plus private parties and fundraisers.
                                
    Lynn University’s music program continues to grow, and Dean Jon Robertson wants to show off his students to the public with seven concerts in April and May. Two master classes featuring outstanding international performers will be free.
    Avery Fisher Prize-winner Elmar Oliveira opens the series with a violin master class at 7 p.m. Friday, April 8 in the Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall. Saturday night, same time, same station, flutist Nestor Torres will follow suit. For ticket information for all performances, go to lynn.edu/events.
                                
    The 21st annual Palm Beach International Film Festival opens a nine-day run April 6 with Money. That’s the movie’s title.
The festival, however, may save a little by staging opening night festivities at The Palm Beaches Theatre in Manalapan. It happens to be owned by the festival’s new president and CEO, Jeff Davis.
    As with previous incarnations, this festival won’t present many big stars, onscreen or in person. Very little information about personal appearances has been released, but chances are slim that the likes of Christian Slater and Ed Harris (The Adderall Diaries), David Arquette (Evan’s Crime) or Eric Roberts, Sean Young or Armand Assante (Leaves of the Tree) will show for their screenings.
    Odds are better for Money’s Spanish-born director, Martin Rosete, since his film is the festival opener. The closing night film at Cinemark Palace in Boca offers a huge hook: Silver Skies stars somewhat-local hero George Hamilton, as well as Valerie Perrine, Alex Rocco, Mariette Hartley, Barbara Bain and Howard Hesseman as condo residents whose homes are sold out from under them.
    Features include entries from Holland, Bulgaria, South Korea and Iran, and the festival offers loads of shorts, student films and several promising documentaries.
    In addition to The Palm Beaches Theatre and Cinemark Palace, films will be shown at Muvico Parisian and G-Star School of the Arts in West Palm Beach. (pbifilmfest.org)

                                
    Luck on the links… Leave it to two lucky Irish men to beat the odds. Palm Beach Kennel Club owner Patrick Rooney Sr. and his buddy Dan Boyle both scored holes-in-one on March 19, two days after St. Patrick’s Day. The men, part of a foursome, hit their lucky shots on the 135-yard fourth hole at Trump National in Jupiter.
    Boyle, of Philadelphia, played first, hitting an 8-iron that appeared to be on a good line, but a large bunker obstructed the hole.
“I saw the ball roll right off the hole and then it disappeared,” the salesman said.
    Rooney, of Palm Beach Gardens, used a 6-iron to hit his shot on the same line as Boyle’s.
    The hole-in-one was Boyle’s first, but Rooney had scored four previously.
    The odds of two amateurs scoring a hole-in-one in the same foursome are 1 in 26 million, according to The National Hole In One Association.
    Call it the luck of the Irish.

Contact Thom Smith at thomsmith@ymail.com.

April 21: Place of Hope will bring together supporters of the agency’s Leighan and David Rinker Campus for an event featuring a festive brunch and spring blooms. Time is 11 a.m. Cost is $125. Call 483-0962 or visit placeofhoperinker.org. ABOVE: (front, l-r) Committee members Melissa Bonaros, Veronica Parzygnat, Martha Yacoub, Bonnie Judson, Sung Knowles, Trisha Saffer, (back) Karyn Turk, Jennifer Gene, Joy Dolgon, Suzette Hernandez, Jeannine Morris, Lisa McDulin, Deborah Gaslow, Bonnie Wintz Boroian and Neil Saffer.

Photo provided by Carla Azzata Photography

The crowd cheers and records the proceedings at Brogues Downunder in support of the St. Baldrick’s

Foundation, which raises money for childhood cancer research.

Lake Worth resident Brian Lasure, 25, gets his head shaved during the fundraiser.

He had been growing his dreadlocks  for more than eight years.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Scott Simmons/The Coastal Star

The Plate: Broccoli e Salsiccia
The Place: Caffe Luna Rosa, 34 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach; 274-9404 or www.caffelunarosa.com.
The Price: $10
The Skinny: Broccoli rabe is one of life’s simple pleasures.
    At Caffe Luna Rosa, the broccoli makes a delightful starter, with the bitter greens pairing perfectly with the slightly sweet house-made sausage that fairly sings with notes of fennel.
    You could just about make a meal of the broccoli, but then you’d be missing the beautiful pasta, meat and seafood dishes chef Ernesto DeBlasi prepares.
    We also enjoyed the Rigatoni Pomodoro, whose San Marzano tomato sauce had the right blend of spice and sweetness, and the Insalata Luna Rosa, which combined arugula, chopped tomatoes and a tangy lemon/olive oil dressing.
Mangia!
— Scott Simmons

Ken and Sue Gross hold paintings from Haiti that they display in their Briny Breezes home.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Sue Gross looks at the water found in one community in Haiti.

Gross and her husband, Ken, say most people cannot afford

the $30 ceramic filters that would make water safe to drink.

Photo provided

Briny couple makes mission of aiding island

By Janis Fontaine

    Sue and Ken Gross first saw Port-au-Prince on their honeymoon in 1972. They were told not to leave the airport.
    Almost 30 years later, the Briny Breezes couple returned to Haiti on what turned out to be a life-changing mission trip with friends.
    “We were never the same again,” Sue Gross recalls.
    The couple founded the Haiti Lutheran Mission Project and have been working on projects in Haiti for 15 years, making nearly 50 trips over that time. They’ve taken medical and dental teams, and done eyeglass clinics. They built a school with construction teams from the United States.

Children gather at a mission in Haiti.

    They raise money to support an orphanage and feed 200 children in a school in Dame Marie one meal a day of beans and rice.
    “Now we’re making microloans,” Sue Gross says. Amounts are small, about $200, but used correctly, these tiny loans can reap big benefits.
    Some recipients buy rice in bulk and resell it in portions at the market. Some buy goats which they raise for milk that they can sell. A few can buy motorcycles and start their own taxi service, but this privilege often goes to the pastor or teacher who is working (and paid only sporadically) in the community.
    The Grosses work in an area called Jeremie, which has tiny clearings in a landscape of rubble and rock, dead gray dirt in which nothing can grow and that leaves everything covered with dust when it’s dry and mud when it’s not. People call piles of sticks “home.”
    They save their best dress for church, and the women prize their Sunday hats above almost all of their possessions. “Church is hope,” Sue says.
    There’s the story of the mud cookies. Most people don’t really believe that anyone would feed mud to a child, but desperate to fill her child’s empty belly, a mother can do strange things. Like beg a stranger to take her child — not because she doesn’t love her child, but because she does. “That was hard to witness,” Sue says.

The terrain is dusty when it’s dry, muddy when it’s wet.

Photos provided

    “At first, it’s shocking,” Sue admits, to see such overwhelming poverty. Everywhere you look, there is need. Sue finds peace within her faith: “We pray harder.”
    Ken and Sue have built a relationship with the people and with Father Isaac Jacquet, who has 20 tiny churches scattered about in the mountains. They’ve built a school, and through the school they feed children a single meal each day of beans and rice. It’s probably the only meal they’ll have.
    One boy found a way to share his food with another child, not a student, by feeding him through a hole in the fence.
The orphanage is a place for hope to begin, but there’s not enough room for all the children. Many want to get in, yet there’s no place to put them.
    School and education is another way, but there are few schools and few teachers willing to live in the conditions required.
    “A fair number who come (to the U.S.) to be educated return to help their people,” Ken says.
    But the problems are so broad. Everyone knows the “teach a man to fish” parable. But how do you teach a man who doesn’t have a pole, a line, a hook or bait and has no way of getting one?
    Throughout Haiti, devastation still reigns from the 2010 earthquake. The most basic needs — food, water and shelter — are still out of reach for so many people.
    Their water source and their laundry is a dirty river.
    Sue and Ken Gross have been raising money to buy inexpensive, reusable home water filters to clean the water. The cost is about $30; but that’s a fortune to someone who makes $1.25 for a day’s work, if he or she can find it.
    On the last trip, Sue Gross took dresses for the little girls made by the ladies of Briny Breezes Hobby Club. She had 46 dresses, but “There were about 200 kids and I didn’t have enough! The ladies vowed to make twice as many dresses this year, and they’ll also make some shorts for the boys.” One boy received a single pair of underpants but he was happy to have them.
Volunteers are even happier, Sue notes. “They come back more changed than those they sought to help,” she says. “It’s a privilege.”
    “When God gives you a talent, you have to give it back,” Ken says. “Everyone brings their own talent to the table, and Sue’s talent is leading the teams.”
    Now the Grosses are officially full-time residents of Briny Breezes, leaving behind the frozen Chicago winters. They’ll continue to take groups to Haiti, which is a lot easier from Florida, as long as there is a need.
    “We do get so much more out of it,” Sue Gross says. “For anyone who wants to help, there’s always something you can do.
    “It’s all important.”

Water and the world

• More than 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. 
• An estimated 25,000 people die every day from the lack of clean water and proper sanitation. That’s one person every 3.45 seconds.
• One-sixth of the world’s population is ‘water-stressed.’
• Nearly 80 percent of all disease in the world stems from unclean water and poor sanitation.

Haiti facts

Population: 10.6 million
4.5 million lack access to safe water
7.6 million lack access to improved sanitation
58 percent of the total population lives on less than $1.25 per day
80 percent of people live below the poverty line
SOURCE: waterprojectsinternational.org

What you can do

Five suggestions from www.haitilutheran.org:
    1. Buy a ceramic water filter that will provide clean water to a family of six people for five years. These sustainable filters meet or exceed the World Health Organization’s standards for water filters at an astonishing 99.999 percent pure. Cost? $30.
    2. Pay a teacher’s salary. Haiti’s Lutheran schoolteachers earn $50 a month but do not get paid regularly. They often must leave their teaching jobs to find other employment so they can feed their families. Without teachers, the schools close and the feeding program stops.
    3. Give the gift of sight. Buy eyeglasses or sponsor an eyeglass clinic.
    4. Make dresses or shorts and shirts for the orphans.
    5. Join a missionary trip. Volunteers pay their own way. It costs about $2,000 per person for eight days, which includes airfare, meals and transportation.

By Amy Woods

    From her first day to her last, the director of community relations at the Delray Beach Public Library loved her job.
    “It spoke to all the things that I enjoyed doing,” said Bonnie Stelzer, who officially retired Feb. 29 after 17 years of creative ingenuity. “Every day was a great day.”
    Stelzer’s charismatic career led the library to grow its volunteer corps to 100 from 10, debut the annual “Authors Showcase” featuring 12 regional writers and their books and introduce the popular, punch-line-packed fundraiser “Laugh with the Library.”
    On her watch, the Children’s Department expanded by 5,000 square feet thanks to a successful “Foothold on the Future Campaign” she helped shepherd, and hundreds of programs for the littlest readers to the oldest rolled out for all to enjoy. “We were able to create so many things without having to be subject to the branches or the county system or the city,” Stelzer said.
    The West Atlantic Avenue facility operates as an independent nonprofit with a mission to provide an extensive collection that includes audio and large-print books, DVDs and other electronic media, materials focused on Florida and a nonstop events calendar.
    “The possibilities were endless, and my imagination went crazy,” Stelzer said. “There are more than 300 free programs at the library now.”
    She founded the Lifelong Learning Community Institute, one of two statewide housed in a library (the other is in Winter Park), brought in area artists to hang their works (the exhibitions are booked through 2017 with a waiting list after that) and developed a four-month concert series now sponsored by MorseLife Health System.
    “It was most fun for me because I really was able to take any idea that I had and run with it, and most of them were successful,” Stelzer said. “It was a feeling of accomplishment. It’s been very rewarding.”
    The Brooklyn, N.Y., native plans to travel, try her hand at painting and visit more with her two adult sons.
    “It’s time for me,” said Stelzer, who declined to give her age. “There are things that I haven’t tried that I want to try. Now, every day is like Friday. It’s really quite wonderful.”
    Library Director Alan Kornblau said her news-release skills, task-mastery and way with words will be missed.
    “She was very well-organized and very independent,” Kornblau said. “She brought a lot to the library. She created a buzz.” Stelzer worked so efficiently that her position now will be divided into two jobs.
    “We do more adult programming than any other library I’ve been associated with, and she was in charge of all that,” Kornblau said. “It’s a better place because of her. She was very successful.”

Story and photos by Mary Thurwachter  
    Once known as the Pink Plaza, Royal Palm Place is no longer pink — it’s more of a variety of beige hues now. But the shopping center, off Federal Highway south of Palmetto Park Road, retains the old-world charm it has been known for over the years.

    Boutiques, salons, art galleries, spas, bars and restaurants serving international cuisines surround Mediterranean fountains and tranquil piazzas.  
    On Saturday mornings, a green market occupies the southwest corner of the center near a 54-foot monument topped with a bronze statue of famed architect Addison Mizner and his pet spider monkey, Johnnie Brown. The statue was commissioned by shopping center owners Jim and Marta Batmasian in 2005.

    Surrounding the monument is the Walk of Recognition, where names of people who have made significant contributions to Boca Raton have been set into the sidewalk.
    In addition to the monument and Walk of Recognition, here are five spots not-to-miss at Royal Palm Place:

Saquella Caffe  
    (410 Via de Palmas). Sit down at a table here and feel like you’re in Italy. The baristas prepare cappuccinos like they do in the movies and the coffee is divine. Diners won’t want to pass up the freshly baked breads, pastries and quiches and the bacon is hard to resist. Everything is made fresh in house, from pestos to braised roast beef. And, like many restaurants in Royal Palm Plaza, Fido is welcome — as long as he dines al fresco.

Biergarten  
    (309 Via de Palmas #90). If you feel like you’re in Italy at Saquella, you’ll feel like you’re in Bavaria at Biergarten, an authentic beer garden with whimsical touches. The indoor/outdoor bar comes with tree stump barstools, festive lighting, vintage Oktoberfest artwork, an entertainment stage and, oh yes, 50 craft and bottle beers. For beer, brats and bands, this is the place. Prost!

Yaacov Heller Gallery 22   
    (282 Via Naranjas). Even if shoppers don’t walk into his gallery, they can view some of Yaacov Heller’s bronze sculptures outside his shop. His 12-foot bronze Fiddler on the Roof, dancing musicians and Eve tempting Adam with an apple sculptures all grace the garden outside his shop. His creations, he says, celebrate the inspiration of the Bible, the traditions of Judaica, the beauty of nature and the joys of living.

Be-Friend Boutique    
    (406 Via de Palmas, No. 83). This trendy fashion shop has everything from torn blue jean short-shorts to sparkly dresses perfect for clubbing. Shoppers here will also find inexpensive tiaras, handbags and chic hats to show their style. The young and sleek are attracted here.

Swimland   
    (350 Esplanade, #55). The young and sleek can find a swimsuit anywhere — but for those who require a bit more bathing suit structure, Swimland stands ready to serve. The shop has been at the center for 55 years and offers a variety of swimsuit choices to satisfy any woman’s sense of style, regardless of age, shape or size. Specialists are on hand to make sure customers are fitted with just the right style and cut to emphasize best attributes and camouflage areas of concern.

This is the last in a series of five shopping areas The Coastal Star has featured this season. If you have suggestions of shopping destinations for next season, please send them to maryt@thecoastalstar.com.

Inside the Secret Garden Café, chef Lynn Dorsey shows off her vegan ‘crabcake.’

Ocean Ridge resident Naomi Donner receives a ‘sacred sound session’

by Randall Rodriguez at the Bean Scene Sunset Marketplace.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lona O'Connor

   Twice a month in a small parking lot on Boynton Beach Boulevard, you can get a tarot reading, a massage, a vegan meal and top it all off with a burly man who strategically places Tibetan singing bowls along your prone body and then gently strikes the bowls with a gong, sending vibrations through your body.
    This is the Bean Scene. It may be small, but the funky vibe is unmistakable.
    “There are people blissing out, right on Boynton Beach Boulevard, even though the train might be coming,” said Bean Scene founder Nina Kauder.
    As if summoned, a freight train rumbles by. A crescent moon hangs in the dark blue evening sky. A drummer provides a hypnotic backbeat to the Bean Scene.
    The Bean Scene, which began in September, is thought to be the only all-vegan market in Palm Beach County. During South Florida’s winter months, there are organic vegetables growing around the perimeter of the parking lot. There are vegan meals, wine and beer available inside at the Secret Garden Café, the anchor of the scene.
    Even products such as jewelry and art are “ethical and vegan in spirit — no leather or feathers,” says Kauder, a chef by trade and a teacher at heart.
    “My whole focus is on how fun, easy and affordable being healthy can be,” said Kauder, who has also taught gardening and nutrition for the Community Caring Center of Greater Boynton Beach, a nonprofit group that also incubates fledgling businesses and delivers low-cost meals to senior citizens and others in the surrounding neighborhoods.
    CCC also runs the Secret Garden Café, where chef Lynn Dorsey is busy whipping up the Thursday evening vegan menu, which includes barbecue tempeh (a soy product cut in strips like skinny french fries), stuffed portobello mushrooms and mock crabcakes.
    The tables are all occupied, so Hilary Draper and her daughter Vivian, who live in Boynton Beach, are perched on stools at the counter. Vivian, 5, is spooning up lentil soup and anticipating her entree, vegan mac and cheese. Draper, a graduate student at Florida Atlantic University, is polishing off Dorsey’s tofu scramble and chickpea curry.
    Though Thursday is vegan day at the Secret Garden Café, a deli counter inside the café sells meat-based as well as vegan foods Tuesday through Friday.
    “We’re not here to make anyone feel wrong for what they eat,” said Kauder. “We get organic and grass-fed meats from the best vendors. We meet people where they’re at.”
    Dorsey also cooks CCC’s meals for about 100 seniors, as well as being a caterer and a personal chef.
    “It can get a little intense,” said Dorsey, who has a teenage daughter and son. “But I enjoy helping the community and taking care of the older people.”
    Originally from Louisiana, Dorsey has a lifelong love of cooking for others.
    “I love to see the smiles on people’s faces,” she says. “Food makes people happy.”
    Back out in the funky parking lot, Jeff Overstreet of Delray Beach has just purchased a container of carrot cake bites made of raw ingredients by chef Cindy Adams. Seeing how fast Adams’ stock is being bought up, he decides to buy a second container, this time chocolate almond bites.
    Goodies in hand, he surveys the scene.
    “It’s a great concept and phenomenal people,” he says.
    The next Bean Scene takes place from 4 to 8 p.m. April 7 at Secret Garden Café, 410 E. Boynton Beach Blvd., Boynton Beach. It will continue on April 21 and May 5. During the summer, Bean Scene is scheduled to relocate to the Boynton Beach Art District, 410 W. Industrial Ave., joining the district’s art walks on the fourth Thursday of each month.
    The Secret Garden Café is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday-Friday.
    For more information, contact 877-1411 or email info@beansceneflorida.com

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

Match Day is celebrated around the nation promptly at noon as new doctors

open sealed envelopes to learn where they will be spending their medical residencies.

Here, several of the 61 medical students in the class of 2016 celebrate at FAU.

Dr. Stuart L. Markowitz, senior associate dean for student affairs, announces placement results

to the soon-to-be graduates of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. Pictured is Cara Reitz,

a graduate of Atlantic High School in Delray Beach who is heading to William Beaumont Army Medical Center

in El Paso, Texas.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Basketball legend Alonzo Mourning played most of his NBA career for the Miami Heat.

He will be the keynote speaker at the April 6 Inspiration Breakfast.

Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

    The 14th annual Inspiration Breakfast, an annual fundraiser benefiting the YMCA of South Palm Beach County, welcomes former NBA star Alonzo Mourning as its keynote speaker, from 7:30 to 10 a.m. April 6. The Miami Heat legend will talk about courage, perseverance, leadership, motivation and philanthropy.
    The event is sponsored by BB&T and hosted by Office Depot at its global headquarters at 6600 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton. Info: Ken Okel at 893-2152 or kokel@ymcaspbc.org or www.ymcaspbc.org/inspirationbreakfast

New rabbi at Temple Sinai
    Delray Beach’s Temple Sinai announced the appointment of Rabbi Aviva Bass as its permanent rabbi.
    Temple Sinai Co-President Judy Stern, in making this announcement, said, “At our first interview Rabbi Bass exhibited the traits we were looking for in a spiritual leader.”
    Bass grew up in Coral Springs. A classically trained soprano, she studied vocal performance at the University of Miami, graduating magna cum laude (1992), with a bachelor’s degree in music and Judaic studies. From 1993 to 2000, Bass studied at the Gratz College in Elkins Park, Pa., earning a master’s in Jewish education in 1999.
    She was studying at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa., at the same time, and receiving rabbinic ordination and a master’s in Hebrew Letters in 2000. 
    She has served congregations as rabbi, cantorial soloist and educator at various locations around the United States as well as in Australia and New Zealand.  She is the mother of twin sons.
    Info: 276-6161; templesinaipbc.com

Good deed day
    Congregation B’nai Israel Boca Raton held its 23rd annual Lori Sklar Mitzvah Day on Feb. 28. The day was full of activities and good deeds, from the EMBrace race for people with disabilities, gleaning in Boynton Beach and hosting a “feed the hungry” barbecue at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.
    More than 200 people came out for a free meal, which was sponsored by B’nai Israel’s Kantor Family Center for Justice and Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.

Summer interns needed
    Young adults ages 19 to 25 (by Aug. 31) are needed to serve in Christian community day camps and outreach ministries within the Florida United Methodist Church, including CROS Ministries and Grace Place for Children and Families.
    The internship is nine to 11 weeks and interns receive a stipend of $225 per week, based upon completion of entire summer of service.
    To apply for the Florida Conference 2016 Summer Mission Intern Program, go to www.flumc.org/summer missioninternprogram. Contact Heidi at haspinwall@flumc.org.

Everyone counts
    They call it Super Sunday and Good Deeds Day.
    The Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County will host its annual day of kindness on April 3. On Super Sunday, the theme is “Everyone Counts,” and volunteers of all ages will make hundreds of calls to check on people in the community while others assemble 30,000 kosher meals for donation to the Jacobson Family Food Pantry at Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services.
    Beginning in Zinman Hall on the federation campus at 9901 Donna Klein Blvd., Boca Raton, volunteers will work in two-hour shifts from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
    Raffle prizes, breakfast, lunch, snacks and great camaraderie will make the day fun for the volunteers. Info: 852-3169 or email marcf@bocafed.org.

Food news
    Nearly one-third of households who receive SNAP benefits (formerly known as food stamps) don’t receive enough to feed their families. They still depend on food pantries to fill a part of their nutritional needs, according to data for 2014, released in September 2015 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
    So don’t stop donations to your church or synagogue’s food pantry.

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

Stargazer lilies may add color to a room but will poison your cat.

Photo courtesy of proflowers.com

A sago palm is toxic to dogs.

Photo courtesy of lake.ifas.ufl.edu

Ibuprofen can lead to gastritis or even a bleeding ulcer in a pet.

Photo courtesy of preventingpetpoisoning.org

INSET BELOW: LoSasso wants to put cat and dog images on products that are dangerous to pets.

By Arden Moore

    Stargazer lilies, sago palms and other blooming beauties grow in healthy abundance throughout Palm Beach County. They rank among the most popular plants found in floral shops and garden stores.
    While stargazer lilies rank as my favorite botanical, I will never plant any in my garden or place a bouquet of them inside a vase on my dining room table. The reason is simple: This colorful botanical can quickly kill my far-too-inquisitive cat, Casey. And stunning and majestic as sago palms are, they can be downright lethal to my dogs, Chipper and Cleo.
    While many of us with pets are aware that there are safe plants and poisonous plants to pets, making that distinction isn’t always easy. Plants at floral shops and for the most part, at garden stores, do not come with dangerous-to-pets warning labels. We tend to shop by looks, preference and ease of maintenance.
    Let’s hope that is about to change thanks to a frustrated-yet-determined emergency medicine veterinarian named Mike LoSasso. This Dallas-based veterinarian has launched the Preventing Pet Poisoning initiative, a national grassroots public awareness campaign taking a new approach to reducing the number of pets who needlessly die of accidental poisoning from nibbling on lethal plants.
    “I’ve been a veterinarian for 22 years, spending the past 12 as an ER veterinarian. During this time, I’ve seen a steady increase in the number of pet poisoning cases coming into our ER clinic and I’m not alone,” says LoSasso, on staff at the Emergency Animal Hospital of Collin County in Plano, Texas. “There is an estimated 2 to 3 million cases of pet poisonings due to exposure to toxic plants, household chemicals and human medication in this country every single year. That is an epidemic and we’ve got to do something about this.”
    He shares the tragic tale of a sweet healthy Siamese named Peacock. One day, Peacock suddenly stopped eating and the next day, she began to vomit violently. A blood chemistry analysis performed at the veterinary clinic revealed severe acute kidney failure. Peacock died that day.
    The culprit? A bouquet of lilies her owner had brought into the house a few days earlier. It turned out that Peacock had collected some of that orange-brown pollen on her fur and had eaten this toxin while grooming herself.
    “Veterinarians do their part to help educate pet owners, but we have to stop warning owners after the fact and educate them before they have to take their sick pets to the ER,” he says.
    Tired of trying to beat the odds by treating near-dead pets inside the ER, he decided to be proactive and came up with a social media-based education effort aimed at prevention. His idea is simple but effective: Place dog and cat image labels on products dangerous to pets. This includes plants, human medicine (including ibuprofen), sugar-free chewing gum containing xylitol, and more.
    His goal is to get retailers to begin placing these warning labels on these types of products. Think about it. For years, products dangerous to children carry warning labels. So why not post warning labels on all products that are toxic to cats and dogs?
    “If florists marked every single bouquet of lilies as toxic to cats, would you still buy flowers?” asks LoSasso. “Of course you would. You would just not buy lilies for people who have cats. This is not an effort to prevent sales, but to make pet owners aware of the danger so that they can make safe choices. It is also a chance to acknowledge companies that label their products in a responsible manner.”
    He needs our help. To learn more details on his campaign, please visit his site at www.preventingpetpoisoning.org.
    And while you’re at it, please post the contact info for one or both of the main pet poison phone numbers in a visible place in your home (like on your refrigerator door) and in your cellphone.
    The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center’s number is 888-426-4435 and the Pet Poison Helpline’s number is 855-764-7661. Both places require credit card charges and are staffed 24 hours daily by veterinary toxicologists.
    As for me, I play it extra safe when it comes to household plants: I stick with silk ones. It’s just another way to play it safe for Casey, Chipper and Cleo.

    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.Pet Life Radio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

The dune in Delray Beach has a mixture of native species that help trap blowing sand

and control erosion. It is more than shoulder high in many places.

Horizontal coco plum has adapted to the dune and lines the sidewalk in many places.

Dune sunflower is know for its yellow and black bloom.

The necklace pod is another yellow bloomer.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    Walking north along A1A (South Ocean Boulevard) from East Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, you’ll find your view of the ocean blocked by towering sea grapes. Now keep strolling north a few blocks to about Sea Spray Avenue and then look seaward.
    The only things that may obscure your view of the water from here are the dunes covered with sea oats waving in the breeze. Sure, you’ll see some sea grapes. But here, instead of blocking your view, they grow only thigh-high.
    “There are several things happening here, but you are going to have to look for them,” said dune biologist Rob Barron, who is consulting with the city to bring the beach back to the way it appeared in historic photos from about 100 years ago.
    “Those pictures are our models,” said Barron, who hopes to heal many of the indignities the beach has suffered over the years — including being virtually washed away and, after a renourishment project, being planted with invasives.
    Since 2000, Barron has overseen the work of city-hired contractors who have removed the coin vines and Hawaiian sea grapes that were crowding out the natives. And he’s worked to keep the native sea grapes under control, too.
    Although many people assume sea grapes on the beach should grow tall and thick to hold the sand in place, Barron has done research that shows that before man had his way, sea grapes along the coast of Florida were kept pruned by periodic freezes that killed the trees and hurricanes that quickly overturned them with their shallow root systems.
    But as man brought development, beach temperatures rose and freezes rarely decimated the trees.
    Thinking he was doing nature a favor, man protected the sea grapes, letting them block the sun and preventing other important plants from growing beneath them.
    By keeping the sea grapes trimmed, Barron has opened the beach to a whole new population of native plants, including 50 native species he’s planted and 50 others that have volunteered since the dunes have started healing.
    For his work he’s searched rare and endangered species of plants that would have been prevalent on our beaches in the early part of the last century.
    “Because we know this beach will not be developed, one of the things we do is to put back populations of plants that we know are at risk in other areas,” Barron said. It not only shows off the plants in their prime but acts as a seed incubator for other projects.
    Continue your walk along the street and you may find some beach cluster vine with its tiny white flowers. It’s on the federal endangered species list and this is one of about only 10 places you’ll find it growing in the U.S.
    You’ll also see that it’s the saw palmettos, not the sea grapes, that are being allowed to grow tall here because they can remain standing in a storm and they don’t cast wide shadows.
    Turn down one of the sandy access paths to the beach and you may also discover beach ragweed covering the dunes or dune sunflowers waving their blooms that look like black-eyed Susans.
    You are probably familiar with the red- or green-tipped varieties of coco plum growing in so many Florida landscapes. But the variety you’ll find here is called horizontal coco plum.
    It evolved in coastal areas where for thousands of years it was wind-pruned and any stem that stuck up got burned off, so the plant learned to grow in a decumbent position, Barron said.
    Keep an eye out for cardinals, blue jays, seagulls and other shore birds. Oh, and don’t forget the lizards and snakes. Barron has seen nonpoisonous ring necks and black racers. He welcomes them as a sign that this habitat is healthy for both native flora and fauna.
    “We are writing the book on dune science right here in Delray Beach. What we are doing is recognized nationally as ground-breaking,” he said.

If You Go
    The Delray Municipal Beach runs for 6,840 feet along South Ocean Boulevard (A1A) from Casuarina Avenue and the Seagate Beach Club north to the first beachfront home. The most mature section of renovated beach can be seen north of Sea Spray Avenue, with street parking available. The section around East Atlantic Avenue is slated to be restored within the next year. (An aerial view of the beach is inset into the story above.)

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