david schmidt - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T18:29:07Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/david+schmidtCoastal Star: Delray lawyer the face of sister cities programhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/coastal-star-delray-lawyer-the-face-of-sister-cities-program2019-07-31T16:47:35.000Z2019-07-31T16:47:35.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960878455,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960878455,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960878455?profile=original" /></a><em>David Schmidt plays an especially important role in the relationship with Miyazu, Japan, the sister city connected with the Morikami in Delray Beach. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong></p>
<p>David Schmidt has worn many hats. <br /> He served on the Delray Beach City Commission in the late 1990s and began a three-year stint as mayor in 2000. <br /> He has been on community boards, including the board of trustees at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, the Achievement Centers for Children & Families Foundation board and the board of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce.<br /> For the past couple of years, the 63-year-old lawyer with Simon and Schmidt has served as chair of the Always Delray steering committee, a group of residents who are working with city leaders as they rewrite the comprehensive plan. <br /> For the most part, Schmidt is one of those active community members who is low-key and modest, quietly taking on the task at hand. He usually flies under the radar — with one exception. <br /> For more than a decade, Schmidt has been the face of Delray Beach’s sister cities program, serving until early this year as the president of Sister Cities of Delray Beach Inc., a nonprofit organization that now is linked with four cities in four continents — Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. He remains on the board.<br /> “David was the glue that held the organization together for more than a decade or so,” said Nancy King, who has served on the board for 15 years. “He’s always very hands-on with every project.”<br /> Although the Delray Beach program now has relationships with Moshi, Tanzania; Aquin, Haiti; and Pesaro, Italy, it is his connection with Miyazu, Japan, that has its deepest roots. <br /> Since he joined the Sister Cities board in 1993 — at the request of city leaders who were trying to revitalize the relationship — Schmidt has been to Miyazu eight times and has shepherded dozens of visitors as they come to Delray from the coastal community on the island of Kyoto. <br /> All the while, he was speaking only a few words of Japanese. <br /> “I can order a beer and ask where the bathrooms are,” he says with a smile.<br /> For his work with the Sister Cities program and the Morikami Museum — where he served on the board twice, including once as chair — Schmidt last year received the “The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays” recognition from the government of Japan. <br /> Similar to knighthood, the award is one of the highest honors presented to civilians by Japan.<br /> Delray Beach’s partnership with Miyazu was started in 1977 to honor George Morikami, the Japanese pineapple farmer who settled west of Delray and donated the land that now has the museum. Morikami was originally from Miyazu. <br /> The relationship faltered a bit in the 1980s but was revitalized in the early 1990s by then-Mayor Tom Lynch. <br /> Schmidt, who served as president of the Sister Cities board from 1995 to 2000, and again from 2005 until January, is proud of the student exchange program with Miyazu that was developed under his leadership.<br /> So far, 10 groups of students from Delray Beach have gone to Japan as part of the exchange program and several groups of students from Miyazu have come to Delray Beach. The students, he says, get to see that while there are many cultural differences, there are also many similarities. <br /> “It’s important for students to interact with one another,” Schmidt said. “Where they’re involved, the world is so much smaller.”<br /> Miyazu and Delray Beach have also had delegations of government, community and business leaders interact. There have also been delegations from Delray visiting the other sister cities and delegations from those cities coming here. <br /> “I really believe in the premise of citizen diplomacy,” Schmidt said.<br /> Schmidt, who moved to Delray when he was 15 from the Chicago suburbs, has also been a strong believer of getting input from others and then building consensus.<br /> It is a leadership style that serves him well, regardless of the hat he is wearing. <br />“I have the ability to get people to compromise,” he said.</p></div>Finding Faith: Color Fun Run raises money for church and charitieshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/finding-faith-color-fun-run-raises-money-for-church-and-charities2016-06-29T15:00:00.000Z2016-06-29T15:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960655655,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960655655,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960655655?profile=original" /></a><em>Runners hit the pavement along A1A on June 25 for Cason United Methodist Church’s</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Cason Color 5K Fun Run in Delray Beach.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Janis Fontaine</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> Cason United Methodist Church held its first Cason Color 5K Fun Run, a fundraiser for the church and three other charities, on June 25 at Anchor Park, 340 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach.<br /> David Schmidt, the youth minister at Cason, spearheaded the planning of this event with the support of the 30 kids in his youth group. <br /> “We wanted to do something fun but a little bit athletic, but also spiritual,” Schmidt said. <br /> Schmidt got the idea from The Color Run organizations’ sanctioned events, which feature people throwing colored powder on the racers as they run by. In 2011, they held their first race. In 2015, The Color Run hosted more than 225 events in more than 35 countries. The original race was called “the Happiest 5K on the Planet,” because it “celebrates healthiness, happiness and individuality.” <br /> Schmidt combined the spirit of that race and a brainstorming session with the church’s congregation to come up with the Cason Color Fun Run.<br /> Runners and their families met at Anchor Park at 7 a.m. The children from Schmidt’s group ran the color stations. Some people, they found, didn’t want to get messy. Others couldn’t wait. <br /> But no one wanted to breathe (or have their little ones breathe) in the colored powder used at the official races, so organizers came up with a plan to have face painting and temporary hair dye or hair spray, and the older kids in the youth group manned super-soakers filled with washable paint. They were happy to take aim at any anyone who wanted to be colorful. <br /> The registration fee of $35 at this timed 5K event benefited Cason United Methodist Church and Habitat for Humanity, as well as two children’s service agencies, the Achievement Center and the Delray Beach Campaign for Grade Level Reading.<br /> For more information, call 276-5302 or visit <a href="http://www.casonumc.org">www.casonumc.org</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960655672,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960655672,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="378" alt="7960655672?profile=original" /></a><em>Attendees at the Create a Jewish Legacy event May 23</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>included (l-r) Mark Schaum and Dale and Ed Filhaber.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photo provided</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;">Create a Jewish legacy</span><br /> $33 million. That’s the amount of money pledged by South Palm Beach County’s synagogues, Jewish agencies, schools and the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County in the first year of their “Create a Jewish Legacy” planned giving campaign. <br /> The $33.2 million in declarations of intent was the highest amount pledged of any of the 28 “Life & Legacy” participant communities around the country. <br /> Create a Jewish Legacy is a public awareness campaign designed to help individuals and families support Jewish causes and to build a strong, vibrant community with these future bequests for permanent endowments, according to the federation’s website. <br /> The 11 CJL organizations in South Palm Beach County secured 293 legacy commitments from 235 individuals. <br /> On May 23, representatives from the 11 CJL partner agencies celebrated the success of the program with a reception at Zinman Hall on the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County campus. The evening featured live music, gourmet bites and a photo booth.<br /> The 11 local Life & Legacy participants are the Adolph and Rose Levis JCC, B’nai Torah congregation, Boca Raton Synagogue, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh, Donna Klein Jewish Academy, Katz Hillel Day School of Boca Raton, Jewish Association for Residential Care, Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services, Temple Beth El of Boca Raton and Yeshiva High School.<br /> Four additional Create a Jewish Legacy partners assisted: Congregation B’nai Israel, Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach, Jewish Education Center of South Florida and Torah Academy of Boca Raton. <br /> For more information about CJL or the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, visit jewishboca.org.<strong><br /> <br /></strong> <em>Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.</em></p></div>