100 - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T00:51:34Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/100Philanthrophy Notes: Sun Capital gives $1 million to Boca Regional Hospital campaignhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/philanthrophy-notes-sun-capital-gives-1-million-to-boca-regional-2020-09-01T18:37:07.000Z2020-09-01T18:37:07.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p>A $1 million donation has been made to the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation’s Keeping the Promise Campaign to support the current and future needs of the medical facility.</p>
<p>The monetary source: Sun Capital Partners Foundation founders Rodger Krouse and Marc Leder.</p>
<p>“This generous gift from the Sun Capital Partners Foundation, Rodger and Hillary Krouse, and Marc and Lisa Leder, will enable our hospital to better serve the evolving health care needs of our community for years to come,” Boca Raton Regional Hospital CEO</p>
<p>Lincoln Mendez said. “We are deeply appreciative of their past support and this new commitment to our efforts to modernize and renovate our campus, add key services and new technology capabilities and continuously improve the experience for patients and their families, physicians, staff and visitors.”</p>
<p>For more information, call 561-955-4142 or visit <a href="https://donate.brrh.com">https://donate.brrh.com</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>$85,000 in grants go to South County initiatives</strong></p>
<p>The Jewish Women’s Foundation of South Palm Beach County graced nine organizations with donations that will aid and empower women and children in the community.</p>
<p>The money — $85,000 total — comes from the pooled resources of trustees who contribute a minimum of $2,000 annually. Through an intensive, hands-on process, the philanthropists decide which organizations will most effectively achieve the agency’s goals.</p>
<p>“I am very proud to be part of JWF,” said Amy Rosenberg, grants chairwoman. “Reviewing grants, researching organizations and having in-depth discussions about key issues are an empowering experience for our trustees. We come from varied backgrounds and experiences, yet we all bring a strong desire to collaborate together to help improve the lives of Jewish women and children and strengthen Jewish families.”</p>
<p>For more information, call 561-852-6027 or visit <a href="https://jewishboca.org/jwf">https://jewishboca.org/jwf</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Community Foundation awards 88 scholarships</strong></p>
<p>The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties has granted 88 local students more than $1 million in scholarships, averaging $11,000 per recipient.</p>
<p>The recipients were evaluated by an advisory committee based on applications, essays, interviews and résumés.</p>
<p>“The process of choosing who will be awarded each of these scholarships is undertaken with dedication and discipline,” said January Reissman, the foundation’s vice president for community impact. “The process is never easy because our student applicants are outstanding.”</p>
<p>Since 1983, the organization has awarded $15 million-plus in scholarships and helped nearly 2,500 youths.</p>
<p>For more information, call 561-659-6800 or visit <a href="http://www.yourcommunityfoundation.org">www.yourcommunityfoundation.org</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>Amid pandemic, nonprofits share $250,000 allocation</strong></p>
<p>The Quantum Foundation has distributed $250,000 to select area charities to help their clients pay the bills and put food on the table.<br />A total of 20 nonprofits assisting the community’s most vulnerable residents were allocated funds in the wake of the coronavirus.</p>
<p>“The COVID-19 pandemic brought forward longstanding health inequities in disinvested communities, exposing the impacts of the social determinants of health such as economic and social conditions that influence a group’s health status,” Quantum Foundation President Eric Kelly said. “Health is not the absence of illness but rather a positive state of physical and mental well-being, and these grants are a step in the right direction.”</p>
<p>For more information, call 561-832-7497 or visit <a href="http://www.quantumfnd.org">www.quantumfnd.org</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>Delray Beach museum selected for $50K grant</strong></p>
<p>To maintain operations and staffing during the pandemic, the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum landed $50,000 in grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.</p>
<p>The nonprofit was one of three arts organizations in Palm Beach County — and one of 855 nationwide — to receive funding from the NEA through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.</p>
<p>The Delray Beach museum received additional funding stemming from the CARES Act: $7,500 from Florida Humanities Council and $1,929 from the Florida Department of State’s Division of Cultural Affairs.</p>
<p>“All of us at the National Endowment for the Arts are keenly aware that arts organizations across the country are hurting, struggling and trying to survive, and that our supply of funding does not come close to meeting the demand for assistance,” Chairwoman Mary Anne Carter said.</p>
<p>“That said, I am enormously proud of the over-and-above efforts of the arts endowment staff to swiftly and professionally manage such a large amount of additional work in a relatively short period of time on behalf of the American public.”</p>
<p>For more information, call 561-279-8883 or visit <a href="http://www.spadymuseum.com">www.spadymuseum.com</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>Underserved kids get much-needed computers</strong></p>
<p>With the shift to distance learning amid the pandemic, a longtime Achievement Centers for Children & Families supporter saw the need for access to laptops for underserved children.</p>
<p>The anonymous donor partnered with the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County to donate 55 Chromebooks to ACCF, which in turn were distributed to students enrolled in the Delray Beach-based organization’s programs. Families of the students will receive training on how to use the devices.</p>
<p>“We were thrilled to receive this generous donation of 55 Chromebooks to distribute to our students for the upcoming school year,” Achievement Centers CEO Stephanie Seibel said. “These devices are a basic component to a student’s ability to work virtually and be successful.”</p>
<p>For more information, call 561-266-0003 or visit <a href="http://www.achievementcentersfl.org">www.achievementcentersfl.org</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>South County residents join Impact 100 board</strong></p>
<p>Impact 100 Palm Beach County has named Emily McMullin and Nicole Mugavero of Boca Raton and Lisa Warren of Boynton Beach to the board for the 2020-21 season.</p>
<p>The women will help advance the nonprofit’s mission of elevating philanthropy by combining members’ donations to create high-impact grants.</p>
<p>“Impact 100 Palm Beach County welcomes Emily, Nicole and Lisa to the board of directors,” President Kathy Adkins said. “With all of their combined nonprofit leadership experience as well as their passion for giving back and many years of involvement with Impact 100 PBC, they will be exceptional assets to the board.”</p>
<p>For more information, call 561-336-4623 or visit <a href="http://www.impact100pbc.org">www.impact100pbc.org</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Diabetes foundation names execs, board members</strong></p>
<p>Dr. David Lubetkin, former chief of staff at West Boca Medical Center, has been named president of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Greater Palm Beach chapter.</p>
<p>In addition, Donna DeSanctis, a financial adviser who has served in several roles at the chapter, has been named vice president.</p>
<p>Joining Dr. Lubetkin and DeSanctis on the board are members RoseMarie Antonacci-Pollock, Summer Dennis, Neil Efron, Steven Fried, Scott Meece, Deborah Morawski, Nicole Oden, Dr. Miladys Palau, Dr. Michael Patipa, Mark Patten, Debbie Roosth, Ryan Rothstein, Dane Sheldon, Marc Tanner, Daniel Tumba and Bryan Weinstein.</p>
<p>For more information, call 561-686-7701 or visit <a href="http://www.jdrf.org/southernflorida">www.jdrf.org/southernflorida</a>.</p></div>100 Years of Boyntonhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/100-years-of-boynton2020-09-01T18:30:00.000Z2020-09-01T18:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959294,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959294,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960959294?profile=original" /></a></strong></span><em>A car drives along Ocean Avenue in downtown Boynton Beach in 1915. <strong>Photos from Boynton Beach City Library collection</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The city’s evolution from incorporation in 1920 to a dazzling new $118 million Town Square in 2020</strong></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong></p>
<p>On July 14, 1920, a Wednesday that year, 50 qualified voters gathered to decide whether their little Florida community should incorporate.</p>
<p>Forty-eight of them said yes, one said no, and one apparently said nothing.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">They adopted a town seal, elected a mayor, five aldermen, a marshal and a clerk, and a week later, on July 21, the town of Boynton (pop. 602) made it official.<br /> <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959471,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959471,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960959471?profile=original" /></a><em>Sun worshippers relax near the Boynton hotel, which opened in 1897 and was torn down in 1925.</em></p>
<p></p>
<p>History doesn’t record if the occasion was toasted with food and drink, but a century later, on July 21, 2020, in the towering lobby of a gleaming new City Hall, 100 vanilla bean cupcakes topped with buttercream frosting offered themselves to anyone in the city (pop. 79,000) who wanted to celebrate its centennial.</p>
<p>“Boynton Beach,” a sign behind the cupcakes boasted, “100 Years In The Making.”</p>
<p>Of course, some might argue that there should have been 125 cupcakes that morning.</p>
<p>Or at least 122?</p>
<p>Actually, the making of Boynton Beach began long before July 21, 1920.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>Sometime in 1895, a charter boat called the Victor carried a former Union Army officer named Nathan Smith Boynton of Port Huron, Michigan, down what would become the Intracoastal Waterway in search of real estate.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959494,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959494,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="159" height="245" alt="7960959494?profile=original" /></a>Major Boynton liked what he saw, bought some land on an ocean ridge, and started building a beachfront hotel.</p>
<p>“The Boynton” opened two years later — 45 rooms, six cottages, a showplace.</p>
<p>A year after that, on Sept. 26, 1898, Birdie and Fred Dewey recorded a plat to be known as “the Town of Boynton.”</p>
<p>By 1920, when the town finally incorporated, Nathan Boynton had already been dead nine years.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>The town of Boynton had incorporated just in time to enjoy the Florida land boom of the 1920s.</p>
<p>That first year, a Police Department was organized and a bridge built across the Intracoastal Waterway. The town got electric streetlights, a sewer system and a Chamber of Commerce.</p>
<p>By 1925, Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems Sr. had opened the town’s first doctor’s office. A Woman’s Club building designed by Addison Mizner was being built, Nathan Boynton’s hotel was being torn down, and an inlet was being cut between the waterway and the ocean to flush out the brackish water flowing in from the Lake Worth Inlet to the north.</p>
<p>Completed in 1927, the inlet was 130 feet wide, 8 feet deep, and cost $225,000.</p>
<p>That would be about $3,331,000 today.</p>
<p>The town of Boynton was thriving, unless you weren’t white.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>Of the 602 total residents counted in the 1920 census, 157 were Black.</p>
<p>The oldest church in town was the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded on Feb. 5, 1892. The original building, built in 1900, stood at the northeast corner of what is now U.S. 1 and Boynton Beach Boulevard, along a stretch of Black-owned homes and businesses. But it didn’t stay there.</p>
<p>On Feb. 19, 1924, the town passed Ordinance 37, which created a “Negro section” west of town.</p>
<p>The Black citizens living along U.S. 1 packed their belongings, put their small church building on a wagon and hauled it over to the new “Boynton Colored Town” along Wells Avenue, on land platted by Robert Wells.</p>
<p>“My great-grandfather helped build the church,” says Victor Norfus. “It was the family church on my mother’s side.”</p>
<p>Norfus, 57, is the great-grandson of Allen Meeks, who came to the area from Tallahassee in 1896 to work for the Florida East Coast Railway when it ended in West Palm Beach. He is the author, with Odessa Holt, of Foundations of Faith, a privately published history of Boynton’s Black community.</p>
<p>“The value of land went up in the early 1920s,” Norfus says, “so all the Blacks living on Boynton Beach Boulevard were forced to live in that area. It was like a reservation.”</p>
<p>But even then, some thought Black property rights mattered.</p>
<p>On July 18, 1924, the town sued James Butler, Nebraska B. Lee and Rhodia Lee for refusing to sell their property in the new “whites only” part of town. The property had been condemned so a new city hall could be built. The town won and was ordered to pay the Black landowners $2,500 for the two lots.</p>
<p>On Oct. 5, the town sued again to have the payment reduced to $2,000, which Butler and the Lees accepted.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>Boynton hadn’t been incorporated two years when Charles Stanley Weaver was born on Jan. 19, 1922, in a wood frame house on South Federal Highway, just north of Southeast Fifth Avenue.</p>
<p>The young Weaver, the son of Marcus A. Weaver, who owned a small dairy farm west of town, was only 6 when the great “Okeechobee hurricane” of 1928 struck.</p>
<p>“The wind was so strong that even with the windows closed, water was coming in,” Weaver recalled in an oral history recorded for the Boynton Beach City Library in 1992. “In our dining room, which was on the east side of the house, Dad finally got a carpenter’s drill and drilled a couple holes in the floor. We had about 2 inches of water in the dining room.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>On May 15, 1931, the small community on the ocean ridge that had dubbed itself Boynton Beach split from the town of Boynton. Each municipality agreed to take on half the debt.</p>
<p>Boynton and Boynton Beach remained separate municipalities until 1938, when Boynton Beach, on the ocean ridge, changed its name to Ocean Ridge.</p>
<p>Three years later, by a vote of 155 to 3, the town of Boynton became the city of Boynton Beach.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>Boynton’s Black citizens had been forcibly moved to a segregated district along Wells Avenue, but they didn’t stay in their place.</p>
<p>On Nov. 7, 1933, the town fathers passed Ordinance 136, a “sunset law” making it unlawful for any “person of the Negro race over the age of 18 years to loiter, wander, stroll or be about” in the “White District” after 9 p.m. in the winter months or 10 p.m. in the summer. To be fair, the law also prohibited “any person of the Caucasian race” from loitering in the Black District after dark.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>The first of Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems’ seven children arrived in 1927 and grew up to become Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems Jr.</p>
<p>When he was a teenager in the 1940s, his hometown still had only 1,357 residents.</p>
<p>“It was a lot slower pace,” he would recall for the library’s oral histories. “Boynton was sort of a small town between Delray and Lake Worth. There was a movie usually at both of those places and not one in Boynton. A municipal swimming pool over on the beach in both Delray and Lake Worth, but not in Boynton.</p>
<p>“I’m not sure when the first red light went in between here and Fort Lauderdale,” Dr. Weems said. “I think it was probably in the ’50s.</p>
<p>“There was a caution light in Boca.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>In 1956, C. Stanley Weaver’s younger brother, Curtis, married Nathaniel Weems Jr.’s younger sister, Alice.</p>
<p>A year later, they had Curtis Weaver Jr.</p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960960067,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960960067,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960960067?profile=original" /></a><em>The Weaver dairy farm stood west of town in an area now filled with shopping centers. Marcus A. Weaver (1887-1960) and his son Marcus (1924-1997) pose with a heifer. M.A. and his son C. Stanley Weaver each served as Boynton’s mayor. <strong>Photos from Boynton Beach City Library collection</strong></em></p>
<p></p>
<p>Between 1950 and 1960, the city burgeoned from 2,542 residents to 10,467, and the Weaver Dairies had grown to 3,000 acres and 1,500 cows.</p>
<p>Bethesda Memorial Hospital opened in 1959.</p>
<p>Boynton Beach may have called itself a city, but even in the 1960s it was still a small town to Curtis Jr.</p>
<p>“We used to take our horses into town once or twice a month in the summer and ride them on the beach,” he recalled recently. “Right down Boynton Beach Boulevard all the way into town, up and over the bridge where the Two Georges restaurant is and go right up to the beach. All that wasn’t developed in the 1960s.</p>
<p>“We sold the horses and got motorcycles when I was 13 or 14.”</p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959875,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959875,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960959875?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960960090,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960960090,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960960090?profile=original" /></a><em>As in many Southern communities, Boynton Beach schools were segregated in the early years.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>TOP: In 1924 teacher Ella Lakin posed with her class of sixth-graders at the Boynton Beach Elementary School.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>BOTTOM: Still segregated in 1950, teacher Blanche Girtman with her class at Poinciana Elementary.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p>The 1960s were a decade of change, and Boynton Beach changed a lot in the coming decades.</p>
<p>The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensured African-Americans’ right to stroll, eat and swim where they wished.</p>
<p>In the 1950s, the Negro Civic League served as an unofficial Black city commission because Black residents had no formal representation in government.</p>
<p>Today, the five-member City Commission has two Black members.</p>
<p>Interstate 95 was completed through the city in 1977, and in 1985 the Boynton Beach Mall opened.</p>
<p>C. Stanley Weaver, who served on the Boynton Beach Commission from 1951-1956 and was elected mayor in 1955, died Sept. 1, 2010.</p>
<p>Dr. Nathaniel Marion Weems Jr. practiced medicine in the city from 1957 until 1990. He died Aug. 14, 2015.</p>
<p>Victor Norfus continues to work for historic preservation and redevelopment in the city’s Black community.</p>
<p>Three years after being moved to Wells Avenue, the St. Paul AME Church was destroyed in the 1928 hurricane. A new church was built on the site a year later, and in 1954 the present church building rose directly across the street.</p>
<p>Wells Avenue is now called Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">•</p>
<p>Along with those 100 cupcakes, the centennial brought a proclamation from Mayor Steven B. Grant.</p>
<p>“As significantly important it is for the city of Boynton Beach to honor and celebrate its beginning,” the proclamation read in part, “it is equally important to look to our future and create future legacies.”</p>
<p>And then, 100 years to the day after the city was incorporated, he cut the ribbon on a beautiful new City Hall/Library complex called Town Square, which cost $118 million to build.</p>
<p>On July 21, 1920, it would have cost about $8.6 million.</p></div>Pay it Forward: Impact 100 plans ‘virtual’ votes to award much-needed grantshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/pay-it-forward-impact-100-plans-virtual-votes-to-award-much-neede2020-04-01T17:56:00.000Z2020-04-01T17:56:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Amy Woods</strong></p>
<p>While Impact 100 Palm Beach County will not have the Grand Awards on April 15, it plans to distribute every dollar donated by its members to five nonprofits serving South County.</p>
<p><br /> The meeting previously set to take place at Lynn University in Boca Raton has been canceled amid coronavirus concerns, and as of press time, contingencies had yet to be finalized.</p>
<p><br /> “We’re not going to hold the live event like we have in the past, but we are still going to announce our finalists and award the grants,” President Kathy Adkins said. “That’s the good news.”</p>
<p><br /> Last year, Impact 100 gave five organizations in five focus areas $100,000 grants. An additional $43,000 was divided evenly among five semifinalists. This year, the goal is to raise $600,000, enabling the organization to provide additional funds to the semifinalists.</p>
<p><br /> “There’s so much need in the community, and that’s why we’re continuously trying to grow our membership,” said Adkins, noting that more than 100 applications seeking the financial aid were submitted. “People think that our area wouldn’t typically have these needs, but they exist right in our backyard.”</p>
<p><br /> Members agree to donate $1,000 when they join as well as attend one meeting — the Grand Awards — at which they cast one vote. The vote follows presentations by each of the five finalists about the program or project they want funded.</p>
<p><br /> The five focus areas are arts, culture and historic preservation; education; environment and animal welfare; family; and health and wellness.</p>
<p><br /> “The needs include everything from feeding underserved people, getting them the resources that they need, to helping our environment and our coastal areas,” Adkins said. “There’s everything from trying to provide music and art and education for children to the health and wellness piece.”</p>
<p><br /> When, where and how the vote will take place is something the executive committee will have to decide.</p>
<p><br /> “Our team has been hard at work, creating a virtual version of our Grand Awards event for our 2019-2020 grant cycle,” Adkins wrote in an email blast announcing the cancellation. “This will allow us to safely still fulfill our promise to our community to award five $100,000 grants to our local nonprofits.</p>
<p><br />For information, call 561-336-4623 or visit <a href="http://www.impact100pbc.org">www.impact100pbc.org</a>.</p></div>Philanthrophy Notes: Grant to boost neuroscience institute at Boca Regional Hospitalhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/philanthrophy-notes-grant-to-boost-neuroscience-institute-at-boca2020-03-03T21:41:55.000Z2020-03-03T21:41:55.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p></p>
<p><strong>By Amy Woods</strong></p>
<p><strong>Boca Raton Regional Hospital</strong> has received another transformative donation toward its $250 million “Keeping the Promise” campaign to expand and improve the hospital.</p>
<p><br />Philanthropists Bernie and Billi Marcus have made an additional gift of $15 million. It will supplement a $25 million commitment from their foundation in 2012, which created the Marcus Neuroscience Institute.</p>
<p><br />“There are few who understand the value of ensuring the next generation of health care better than Bernie and Billi Marcus,” said Lincoln Mendez, the hospital’s president and CEO. “We are forever grateful to them for their foresight, relentless spirit, selfless generosity and commitment to their passion — the Marcus Neuroscience Institute.”</p>
<p><br />Keeping the Promise has raised $153 million toward its goal.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Nonprofit is looking for a few good women</strong></p>
<p>Impact 100 Palm Beach County has issued an open invitation to women who want to make difference in their community.</p>
<p><br />Through March 31, a membership drive is taking place for the organization, which is dedicated to giving high-impact grants to nonprofits that rely on donations to further their missions. The grants will be presented April 15 during the Grand Awards event.</p>
<p><br />“The goal of Impact 100 Palm Beach County is to turn a nonprofit’s visionary idea into reality in a high-impact way that helps the local community,” President Kathy Adkins said. “Since 2011, Impact 100 Palm Beach County has awarded more than $3.3 million in grants to over 30 nonprofits to make positive change in southern Palm Beach County.”</p>
<p><br />For more information, call 561-336-4623 or visit <a href="http://www.impact100pbc.org">www.impact100pbc.org</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Luncheon raises $45,000 for Crossroads Club</strong></p>
<p>More than 200 attended The Crossroads Club’s Gratitude Luncheon to benefit the nonprofit haven for people fighting addiction.<br />Longtime Delray Beach resident Tony Allerton, the club’s executive director and one of its original members, was honored for six decades of service to the community.</p>
<p><br />“For 37 years, The Crossroads Club has helped tens of thousands of people who suffer from addiction — from local residents to snowbirds to visitors to our community,” said Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who served as honorary chairwoman. “This nonprofit helps empower individuals to reemerge as positive contributors to our city.”</p>
<p><br />A total of $45,000 was raised.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong>Poverty-awareness initiative launched</strong></p>
<p>The Junior League of Boca Raton’s Little Black Dress Initiative will take place March 9-13, raising awareness for the needs of underserved women and children in Palm Beach and Broward counties.</p>
<p><br /> League members will wear the same dress every day for five days along with a button that reads, “Ask Me About My Dress.” The goal is to address the reality of limited resources and lack of choices among people who live in poverty.</p>
<p><br /> The event was to kick off March 5 at Rex Baron Boca Raton. It will coincide with the Association of Junior Leagues International’s Day of Impact on March 10. On March 25, members will donate their dresses to Dress for Success Palm Beaches. Chairwomen Cheryl Marcus and Tara Patton are aiming to raise $20,000 through the initiative to buy diapers for mothers in need.</p>
<p><br /><strong>The Arc receives national award for innovation</strong></p>
<p>It was an amazing year for The Arc of Palm Beach County.</p>
<p><br />The charity earned 11 awards in 2019 recognizing its programs, services and staff. The Arc received a national Program Innovation Award for designing a student mentor program.</p>
<p><br /> It also recognized two team members, with the Leadership in Education Award (to Bairbre Flood) and the Direct Service Staff Award (to Brooke Teta).</p>
<p><br />“I see the work my team does and the lives that they impact on a daily basis,” said Kimberly McCarten, president and CEO of The Arc of Palm Beach County. “To have our peers, partners and the community recognize our dedication is both satisfying and humbling.”</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Celebrations mark milestone for Toastmasters</strong></p>
<p>The Bill Gove Golden Gavel Toastmasters Club of Boynton Beach recently celebrated its 20th anniversary along with the birthday of its namesake.</p>
<p><br />Mr. Gove, who died in 2001 at age 89, was a charter member of the local club, which has earned Toastmasters International President’s Distinguished Club status for 17 of its 20 years. He also served as the first president of the National Speakers Association.</p>
<p><br />The mission of the Bill Gove Golden Gavel Toastmasters Club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment for members to develop communications skills. For more information, call 561-737-7388 or visit billgovetoastmastersclub.com.</p>
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<p><em>Send news and notes to Amy Woods at flamywoods@bellsouth.net.</em></p></div>Grand Awards — Lynn University, Boca Raton — April 15https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/grand-awards-lynn-university-boca-raton-april-152020-03-03T21:30:00.000Z2020-03-03T21:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960934255,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960934255,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960934255?profile=original" /></a><em>Winners surround Kirsten Stanley and Kathy Adkins after the 2019 Grand Awards. <strong>Photo provided by Sherry Ferrante Photography</strong></em></p>
<p>Impact 100 members will decide which projects earn $100,000 grants after hearing presentations at the Grand Awards event. Time is 5:30 p.m. in Lynn’s Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center. Free for members. RSVP at 561-336-4623 or <a href="http://www.impact100pbc.org">www.impact100pbc.org</a>.</p></div>Celebrations: Impact 100 Grand Awards semifinalists - The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Boca Raton — Jan. 9https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/celebrations-impact-100-grand-awards-semifinalists-the-residences2020-01-28T21:01:02.000Z2020-01-28T21:01:02.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960922254,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960922254,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960922254?profile=original" /></a><em>Kathy Adkins and Frank Weed. <strong>Photos provided by Warner-Prokos Photography</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960921857,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960921857,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960921857?profile=original" /></a><em>Ellen Elam and Karen Sweetapple. <strong>Photos provided by Warner-Prokos Photography</strong></em></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;">Impact 100 Palm Beach County members and prospective members applauded the 26 nonprofits named as semifinalists in the chance to receive one of multiple $100,000 grants. The finalists will be announced in March; they then will present their projects at the Grand Awards in April, when votes will be cast to award the funds.</p></div>Celebrating 100: Prime Catch, Boynton Beach — May 21https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/celebrating-100-prime-catch-boynton-beach-may-212018-05-29T22:03:57.000Z2018-05-29T22:03:57.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1" style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960791483,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960791483,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="640" class="align-center" alt="7960791483?profile=original" /></a><em>Pat Barnes, of Briny Breezes, was treated to lunch — and dessert — by a group of friends for her 100th birthday. The afternoon celebration continued with 15 hands of bridge. Barnes was the big winner. A larger birthday celebration took place May 26.</em></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align:center;"><em><b>LEFT:</b> Lu McInnes and Barnes. </em></p>
<p class="p2" style="text-align:center;"><em><span class="s1"><b>Photo provided</b></span></em></p></div>100th birthday party: Colonial Ridge Club Clubhouse, Ocean Ridge – March 17https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/100th-birthday-party-colonial-ridge-club-clubhouse-ocean-ridge-ma2015-04-01T15:11:00.000Z2015-04-01T15:11:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960577862,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960577862,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960577862?profile=original" /></a><em>John Sharp (seated, center left) celebrates his 100th birthday at the Colonial Ridge Club Clubhouse in Ocean Ridge on St. Patrick’s Day, Sharp’s favorite holiday. Pictured behind him are his two daughters, Pat Duignan (left) and Nora Furey (with polka dots at right). <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p></div>Century takes library from 40 books to the digital agehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/century-takes-library-from-40-books-to-the-digital-age2013-01-03T17:30:00.000Z2013-01-03T17:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960417274,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960417274,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="449" alt="7960417274?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>The library groundbreaking on Southeast Fourth Avenue in 1949.</em></p>
<p><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong><br /> <br /> On April 11, 1913, the Ladies Improvement Association of Delray gathered in their clubhouse at 419 E. Atlantic Ave.<br /> The 40 ladies brought 40 books.<br /> A library was born.<br /> And a century flew by.<br /> Today, those 40 books have grown into a collection of 174,784 items — books and magazines, CDs, DVDs — and Delray Beach is celebrating the first 100 years of a library that would make its founding mothers proud, if they could have imagined it.<br /> “We kicked off the celebration on April 11, 2012, because 99 is the new 100,” jokes Kimberley Trombly-Burmeister, the library’s development director. “We wanted to maximize the opportunity and truly embrace the whole year with a community-wide celebration.”<br /> This year, its $100-per-person Birthday Bash on April 11 will be followed two days later by a free Community Day celebration with balloons, a dog parade and a children’s storyteller.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960417858,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960417858,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="182" alt="7960417858?profile=original" /></a><em>The old Delray Beach Library in the late 1940s.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> But no story that storyteller tells could match the true story of the library’s service to the community.<br /> “We’re a womb-to-tomb institution,” says director of community relations Bonnie Stelzer. “Pregnant women come in and we serve them with books about childbirth, and then when their babies are born, we serve the babies.” <br /> Louise Weir Glover knows this well.<br /> Her grandmother, Athella Grace Weir, came to town from Bryn Mawr, Pa., in 1932.<br /> Grace Weir used the library, and so did her son, Mahlon Slane Weir.<br /> When Mahlon grew up, he married Joan Battin, and they used the library, too.<br /> “The library has always been a beacon of light for our Weir family,” Joan Battin Weir wrote in a recent memoir.<br /> Then Mahlon and Joan had Louise, John Mahlon and Melinda, who loved the library.<br /> “I remember getting my first library card,” says Glover, a financial adviser with Merrill-Lynch Wealth Management. “I felt so important and grown up. At that time, the library had special evening story times. My parents would have us get in our pajamas, grab our favorite stuffed animal and blanket, and we would all walk to the old library on Fourth Avenue and listen to Mrs. Hunter read to us.”<br /> Dr. Lynda Hunter, the children’s librarian, is still there, and Glover’s son, Slane, also heard her stories when he was a toddler. Now he’s a mature 9-year-old, checking out Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians series.<br /> Lots of books. Lots of memories. Lots of history.<br /> By the time Grace Weir arrived in 1932, the library had grown from a shelf in the Ladies Improvement Association to a room in Town Hall.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960417871,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960417871,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="538" alt="7960417871?profile=original" /></a><em>Supporters sold quilts and other handmade items to raise money for the library in 1930. <strong>Photos courtesy of the Delray Beach Public Library Archives</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> In 1939, the library incorporated as the nonprofit Delray Beach Public Library Association, a uniquely funded institution with its own board and budget.<br /> “Every year, we go to the City Commission and ask for money,” Trombly-Burmeister explains. “Winter Park is the only other library in the state with this arrangement.”<br /> Last year, about 71 percent of the library’s $2 million budget came from the city, 15 percent from the Community Redevelopment Agency and 3 percent from the state. The remaining 11 percent was raised through fundraisers, as is its entire capital endowment.<br /> In 1913, library users paid a 50-cent fee. Today, the library is free, and any resident of Florida can get a card.<br /> By 1950, when the library finally got its own building at 29 SE Fourth Ave., the collection had grown to 15,528 items.<br /> Computers arrived in 1986 and public Internet access 12 years later.<br /> And the ladies of the Ladies Improvement Association?<br /> Their descendants are still here.<br /> In 1924, they became the Woman’s Club of Delray Beach. Its members still volunteer at the library, and this year Joann Haros, the president, is a centennial co-chair, along with Linda Gunn.<br /> ‘It’s so friendly and relaxed,” Haros says. “You can concentrate. You can relax. I don’t know if people are aware of how many children use it for the computer labs. Not everyone can afford a computer.” <br /> In 2006, the library left its 56-year-old site on Southeast Fourth Avenue for a modern incarnation at 100 W. Atlantic Ave.<br /> The club room in the Ladies Improvement Association was 25 square feet. The new library is 46,826 square feet. <br /> “It’s clubs, art exhibits, cooking classes, a geography club,” says Trombly-Burmeister.<br /> Movie nights and job-search services, Lifelong Learning classes and free computer access.<br /> “We’re the living room of the community,” says Alan Kornblau, the library’s director. “Our long-range plan only goes to 2018, so it’s hard to forecast the future. But we do know kids are being born, and will continue to be born. The digital world is changing the way books on CD and DVDs are going to be delivered, but I guarantee we will be providing those services somehow.” </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960418064,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960418064,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="576" alt="7960418064?profile=original" /></a><em>Members of the Southern Dance Theatre perform the Nutcracker Suite in the lobby of the Delray Beach Public Library during a holiday fundraising reception. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><strong>Correction<br />A photo in the January edition misidentified dancers at the Delray Beach Public Library. The name of the group is The Dancer’s Edge Company of Southern Dance Theatre.</strong></em></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Coming events</strong><br /> Friday, Feb. 1 — “Laugh with the Library.” Comedian Tom Cottters entertains at the Delray Beach Marriott.Tickets $150.<br /> Thursday, Feb. 28 — Deadline for Centennial Young Adult Creative Writing Contest.<br /> Saturday, March 9 — “Literary Picnic in the Park.” Choose a book and have your team dress as characters from it. Tickets $250 per 12-member team.<br /> Thursday, April 11 — “Centennial Birthday Bash.” Tickets $100.<br /> Saturday, April 13 — Centennial Community Day Celebration. Free.<br /> For more information, call 266-0775 or visit <a href="http://www.delraylibrary.org">www.delraylibrary.org</a> </p>
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