Carol Besler is president of the StarBright Civic Collective, a nonprofit that has funded emergency medical training for Ocean Ridge police and classes for residents. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Kathleen Kernicky
Carol Besler was always mindful of her health. After retiring from teaching, she moved to Florida, studied acupuncture and earned a degree in Chinese medicine. She stayed fit, walked daily and ran in races. There was no warning when she collapsed at a friend’s home in 2022, changing her life in unexpected ways.
Ocean Ridge police officers gave Besler emergency treatment until neighboring Boynton Beach fire rescue arrived. At the hospital, Besler was told she’d had a stroke.
She later learned that only three Ocean Ridge officers were trained in emergency medical services.
“If none of those three officers were working that day, the outcome could have been very different,” said Besler, 70, a resident of Ocean Ridge since 2005. “I just collapsed. There was no warning at all.”
Besler and a small group of neighbors created the StarBright Civic Collective, a nonprofit corporation that would support community programs in need and organize social events.
One of its first projects was to donate about $45,000 to the Ocean Ridge Police Department to train all officers as certified emergency medical technicians. The funding covered updated equipment for police vehicles, including new defibrillators, fire suppression equipment and Narcan, used to treat overdoses. The department’s existing defibrillators were donated to condo associations.
“It was a win-win for the whole town,” said Besler, who believes the training will save lives.
“Our concern was that the town and surrounding communities are getting bigger, and the traffic was getting worse,” she said. “If the bridge is up or a train is going by, it could be several minutes before Boynton Beach arrives. Our Police Department arrives first, provides whatever services they can, and stays with the patient until fire rescue arrives.”
Ocean Ridge contracts with Boynton Beach to provide fire rescue services to the barrier island community of about 1,800 people. Ocean Ridge police officers are dispatched to emergency medical calls and arrive more quickly, usually in two or three minutes.
Boynton Beach borders Ocean Ridge to the west, across the Intracoastal Waterway’s Woolbright Road and Ocean Avenue bridges.
While residents had talked about forming a social group, Besler’s medical emergency helped push an idea into action.
“Historically, the only organization around had been the garden club,” Besler said. “Over the years, the makeup of the community changed. We had more younger people, people with children. There had been talk about, ‘Let’s have a group that has more social activities as well as more services.’ Before it was just talk, there were no formal plans.”
Now president and former chairwoman, Besler works with eight board members who manage the collective. Events take place from fall through spring when the seasonal residents are in town.
“A big part of the mission is to promote socialization,” she said. “We want people to feel connected and involved in the community. We take our cues from what residents want.”
They’ve organized ice cream socials, a popular Bingo Night and seminars on requested topics. They installed a water station for dogs and people outside Town Hall. Their first big fundraising gala was in February at the Eau Palm Beach Resort, organized in just six weeks and selling 120 tickets.
In January, the group donated $48,000 to the Police Department to buy a thermal-equipped drone and three surveillance cameras. The drone will be used for missing persons searches, storm-related mapping during hurricane season, and responding more quickly to swimmers in distress. The live cameras will help monitor foot and bike traffic at the town’s Intracoastal bridges.
Besler moved to Florida from Princeton Junction, New Jersey, where she spent 25 years as a teacher who later owned and operated state-contracted child-care centers.
“My real love is teaching,” she said. “I started out teaching middle school and did that for two years. But I loved teaching kindergarten. I opened my first nursery school teaching 3- to 5-year-olds. By the time I retired, I had six child-care centers with very young children from 6 months through kindergarten.”
After retiring and moving with her husband, Philip, to Ocean Ridge, the mother of three and grandmother of five found a way to give back to the community. “Being in education, part of my personality has always been to be a giver,” she said. “I feel blessed to have good people around me. And this has been a good way to give back to the community. I’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this, and every minute has been worth it.”
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