hurricane helping hands - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T12:08:35Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/hurricane+helping+handsTots & Teens: Atlantic High senior crafting a career as writer, filmmakerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/tots-teens-atlantic-high-senior-crafting-a-career-as-writer-filmm2018-04-04T14:16:41.000Z2018-04-04T14:16:41.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960781658,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960781658,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960781658?profile=original" /></a><em>Carlos Rivera with his sister, Adriana, at her high school graduation. Carlos likely will follow her to the University of Florida, unless Southern Cal calls. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Janis Fontaine</strong></p>
<p>Senior Carlos Rivera, a native of Lake Worth, chose Atlantic High School in Delray Beach for his high school because of its “very rigorous” International Baccalaureate diploma program. He knew it would give him the best chance of achieving his dreams for college. <br />Rivera is a filmmaker and writer whose biggest project is an 84-minute feature film called <em>The Usuals: Or the Helpfulness of Others and How to Use It</em>, which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in. <br />“Not to sound too corny, but the main theme is friendship. It’s a story about how we’re all interdependent,” Rivera says. <br /> “I’ve always loved writing,” he says. His dad, Carlos A. Rivera, an engineer, and his mom, Odemaris, a freelancer with Estee Lauder, encouraged him. They self-published his first book, <em>The Lost and the Holocaust</em>, in 2013 when he was 12. The story follows teenage survivors living through a second holocaust. Rivera admits it’s not historically accurate — hey, he was 12 — but it does show his affinity for history and his appreciation of its lessons. <br />Rivera is also fascinated by cultural anthropology and linguistics and plans to focus his studies on those subjects as well as film production in college.<br />He’s been accepted into both Florida State and the University of Florida, but he’s anxiously awaiting a decision from his first choice, the University of Southern California, as long as there’s a satisfactory scholarship package attached. He’s also considering New York University. If he chooses UF, he’ll already have a supporter in place: His sister goes to school there. <br />Film study will put Rivera in a competitive career path, but he has already proved he’s a critical watcher and a watchful critic. His analysis of the Coen brothers masterpiece <em>No Country for Old Men</em>, which won an Academy Award in 2008, is thorough, thoughtful and astute. <br />“My dad is definitely big on good movies,” Rivera said. “He’d have my sister and me sitting on the couch watching movies over and over.” It’s where he learned what makes a movie compelling to watch. <br />Although he’d like to make his own films using his own stories, there are a couple of books he’d like to try to turn into films. One is Joseph Conrad’s 1904 seaboard tale, <em>Nostromo</em>. <br />“I’m really into history and I’d love to adapt a piece from history. The other is the ‘unfilmable novel,’ ” Rivera said, referring to Cormac McCarthy’s <em>Blood Meridian</em>.<br /> In fact, Rivera tweeted in January: “I will be the guy who adapts Cormac McCarthy’s <em>Blood Meridian</em> into a film by the time I am thirty-five.” <br />Rivera said much of the difficulty of converting literature to film is the condensation of the plot. “Two or two and a half hours, that’s the sweet spot. How do you tell the story in that time?” he said. “What works best is thinking of both art forms independently. You need to use the book as inspiration to make the film. Following the plot too closely may lose the message. Following the themes may lose the story. How do you keep both?” <br />Directors Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott have both been connected at some point with the <em>Blood Meridian</em> project, as have Tommy Lee Jones and John Hillcoat. But as yet no film version exists of one of the greatest American novels ever written. <br />In his own writing and filmmaking, Rivera said, “I like to get a bunch of characters together in a grand mosaic of people interacting. I see life as this interconnecting thing.”<br />Rivera was Atlantic’s nominee in the communications category for <em>The Palm Beach Post’s</em> Pathfinder scholarship. <br />Rivera will graduate in the top 5 percent in his class at a school known for its academics. He credited his teachers at Atlantic for challenging him and pushing him to be the best student he could be, but he laughed when he remembered “the best advice” he got from a teacher in his first AP class, World History. <br />“We had to write an essay, and mine was extraneous and it was just too long. I got a note from the teacher that said, ‘Cut the bullshit and get to work.’ <br />“It was good advice,” he said, laughing again.</p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960781478,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960781478,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960781478?profile=original" /></a><em>Hurricane Helping Hands project members (l-r) Naven Parthasathy, Brianna Detamore, Zoe Deitelbaum and Kiah Kimpton won a $12,000 grant to provide emergency supplies to seniors. Jim Karp (center) made the presentation. <strong>Photo by Capehart</strong></em></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Philanthropy Tank awards announced</strong></span> <br />In March, we wrote about the community-minded students participating in the third annual Palm Beach Philanthropy Tank program, in which they pitched solutions for issues such as cleaning up the environment and bringing music lessons to underserved kids. <br />Each group of eight finalists made a presentation to a four-judge panel March 12 at Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach and received grants totaling $100,000 from local philanthropists who are part of Advisors for Philanthropic Impact, which developed the Philanthropy Tank. <br />The project we profiled, Hurricane Helping Hands, received a $12,000 grant to provide emergency hurricane supplies to low-income older adults. The group consists of Zoe Deitelbaum, Brianna Detamore, Kiah Kimpton and Naven Parthasathy, all students at American Heritage School in Delray Beach.<br />Other awards were: <br /><strong>Surface 71</strong> — $12,000. Reduce plastic use, improve marine habitats, educate and promote awareness about our environment.<br /><strong>Shoes2You</strong> — $14,000. Collect and distribute gently used and new shoes for adults and children in need in Palm Beach County and abroad.<br /><strong>Read With Me</strong> — $10,000. Provide people with dyslexia an opportunity to practice reading in stress-free environments.<br /><strong>Uniformity</strong> — $7,000. Assist western Palm Beach County students in need to obtain uniforms mid-year so they can focus on academics and not their appearances.<br /><strong>Aquaponics Educational Enrichment</strong> — $15,000. Construct two more outdoor aquaponics systems at a middle and elementary school to promote sustainable farming and donate produce to organizations in need. <br /><strong>Find the Keys Music Program</strong> — $15,000. Offer free music camps, lessons and instruments to underprivileged and musically ambitious students throughout the year. <br /><strong>Cancode</strong> — $15,000. Provide computer programming classes and teenage mentors for young minds across Palm Beach County. <br />The judges, who also serve as donors and mentors to the winners, were Palm Beach residents Jim Karp, John Scarpa, Christine Stiller and Rick Stone.</p></div>Philanthropy 101: Local teens put their ideas for helping others into action with guidance from team of mentorshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/philanthropy-101-local-teens-put-their-ideas-for-helping-others-i2018-02-28T17:00:00.000Z2018-02-28T17:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960777661,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960777661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960777661?profile=original" /></a><em>Zoe Deitelbaum (left), Naven Parthasathy (standing) and Brianna Detamore started Hurricane Helping Hands, one of eight finalists for Palm Beach Philanthropy Tank funding. It aims to equip low-income older adults with survival kits. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Related story:</strong> Boca teen <a href="http://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/tots-teens-boca-teen-honored-for-fighting-hunger">honored</a> for fighting hunger</p>
<p><strong>By Janis Fontaine</strong></p>
<p>Songwriter Linda Creed is hardly alone in believing “the children are our future.” <br /> In 2016, a group of local philanthropists led by Bill Meyer, chairman of Meyer Jabara Hotels, a hotel and restaurant management company with an office in West Palm Beach, started the Palm Beach Philanthropy Tank, a project of Advisors for Philanthropic Impact. <br /> API, formed in 2011, brought together local real estate and trust attorneys, financial advisers, CPAs, insurance professionals and nonprofit executives in a “network of good.” One of its tenets is to “inspire a new generation of philanthropic leaders,” and the Philanthropy Tank takes that idea from intent to action.<br /> Meyer started the Philanthropy Tank with an idea stolen from television and $25,000 he was willing to risk. “No one is giving young people the opportunity to take on community projects,” Meyer said, and he believed kids’ outside-the-box thinking might have an advantage over adult thinking. It did. <br /> In 2016 and 2017, the PBPT funded projects that fought hunger in Delray Beach, taught life-saving CPR to high school students, screened the eyesight of Head Start kids, and built boundary-less play areas and gardens for kids in wheelchairs. Gifts ranged from $7,500 to $18,000 per project. <br /> Every finalist gets something. <br /> In 2016, the first year, nine groups split a total of $109,000 in gifts. The awards ranged from $7,500 to $18,000. In 2017, nine winning groups split a total of $100,000, with awards from $8,500 to $15,000.<br /> This year, PBPT chose seven finalists among 47 submissions and got the community involved in picking another by asking people to vote for their favorite from a list of 10. The community voted for Hurricane Helping Hands, developed by Zoe Deitelbaum of South Palm Beach, Brianna Detamore of Boca Raton, Kiah Kimpton of Delray Beach and Naven Parthasathy of Boynton Beach, all students at American Heritage School in Delray Beach. Their project plans to provide hurricane emergency kits to low-income older adults to keep them safe during a hurricane.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Everyone pitches in</strong></span><br /> The group is an eclectic democracy, with each person holding a role. Brianna is the project manager. She sees the big picture. Zoe calls her “the delegator.” Kiah is the artistic one: “She did our logo, and she prepared our slide show.” Naven is the math guy, so “he handles the budget, and he’s also our presenter.”<br /> Zoe, whose mother, Lisa Deitelbaum, lives in coastal Boca Raton, is the detail person. “I do a lot of different things, whatever is necessary. I do the research. I have some artistic skills,” Zoe said. She keeps things from falling through the cracks. Whenever teammates need help, it’s Zoe they call. <br /> Being part of the community contest “was thrilling,” Zoe said. “We were up against kids from bigger schools and we worked really hard to get people to vote.” <br /> The impetus for the survival kit idea came from experience, Zoe said. She and her teammates all suffered, to varying degrees, after Hurricane Irma last September. <br /> “Everybody in the group saw it firsthand,” Zoe said. Friends were without power for days, the school was shut for more than a week, and it took more than a month for Zoe’s internet to be fixed. But what really stuck with Zoe and her friends? How older adults suffered. <br /> “Seniors are forgotten people,” Zoe said. During the hurricane, Zoe’s beloved grandfather, Lee Goldstein, already fighting cancer, got sick and couldn’t get immediate access to treatment or the medication he needed. Well known in Palm Beach, Goldstein died in October, but not without teaching Zoe a few things about life. <br /> “I was really close to him,” Zoe said.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960777456,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="400" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960777456,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960777456?profile=original" /></a><em>Zoe drew inspiration from her grandfather Lee Goldstein, who died after Hurricane Irma. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>An inspiring role model</strong></span><br /> Goldstein, 80, actually taught many people a few things. As the founder and president of Virginia Design Packaging Corp. and a member of the Society of the Plastic Industry, Goldstein helped create and implement the recycling symbols used on the bottoms of plastic containers around the world.<br /> He was a conservationist who served as a commissioner on the town’s Shore Protection Board, and he was former chairman of the Citizens’ Association of Palm Beach, which united co-op and condo owners to work together for the good of the community. He supported science through the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium and fought crime with Palm Beach Crime Watch.<br /> Goldstein’s death, combined with the news of the deaths of elderly residents at nursing homes after Irma hit, illustrated the special vulnerability of older adults during a crisis. <br /> Zoe and her team knew they could help.<br /> Hurricane Helping Hands plans to deliver safety kits at the beginning of each hurricane season to low-income seniors in Palm Beach County. Each kit will include a flashlight, a crank radio, a three-day supply of nonperishable food, a can opener, water, a first aid/hygiene kit and a survival guide with emergency information on shelter locations, packaged in a waterproof container.<br /> Zoe said the group researched what people buy for supplies, what experts recommend and the cost of putting together a kit, which reinforced the need for it. The students knew that lots of older adults just don’t have the extra money, no matter how badly they need the supplies. <br /> Working with the United Way, the group identified a pocket of about 800 people living within walking distance of the school as the target recipients. Zoe’s team wants to recruit student volunteers to do the heavy lifting and deliver the kits in time for the 2018 hurricane season, which begins June 1. The group members plan to ask for about $14,000 when they make their final pitch on March 11.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Presentation prep</strong></span><br /> For about a month before the final presentation, groups chosen for the Tank attend weekend workshops in preparation for their presentations. Public speaking, Bill Meyer says, isn’t easy, but it’s an important skill, so much of the coaching focuses on it. <br /> The group chose Naven as its spokesperson, so he’ll do the presentation. The free ceremony at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach is open to the public. <br /> Zoe said working with her teammates, who are all active in the Future Business Leaders of America, was fun. All have strong leadership skills but they’re also willing to defer to each other as needed. Not only do they understand the concept of emotional intelligence, they possess emotional intelligence. <br /> Zoe had already distinguished herself in a variety of forums before competing in the PBPT. In 2013, she earned a fourth-place medal for her project in the biochemistry category at the Palm Beach Regional Science and Engineering Fair. <br /> For another project, Zoe created a website for The Imagination Emporium, coding the site herself using HTML5, CSS and Javascript, and although she enjoyed the challenge, coding is a hobby, not a career goal. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the knowledge and skills, and that’s what Zoe is doing: acquiring skills and gaining experiences. <br /> The finalists’ ideas were evaluated for community impact, feasibility, solution creativity, sustainability and team strengths. <br /> The PBPT wanted forward- thinking, novel solutions, so indirect or passive solutions like fundraisers for charitable gifts, or money for operating funds and capital campaigns were given less weight.<br /> “The kids have done a terrific job taking this from idea to execution,” Meyer said. “We coach these kids in how to make their presentations, and that mentoring is invaluable to them. If they’re selected, they get 12 months of mentoring to help them solve difficulties along the route, and there are always difficulties.” <br /> The students learn leadership skills, negotiating and sometimes just cold hard facts. In fact, the hardest part might be keeping the kids grounded, but the mentors have to do it without discouraging them.<br /> “You want them to be successful, but sometimes what they’ve suggested seems impossible. But you don’t want to discourage them. Kids don’t see the world the way adults do,” Meyer said. “They don’t come in with negative perceptions.” <br /> Meyer and the mentors call the students Positively Disruptive Change-makers. <br /> Meyer has a rule he uses when he’s talking to them: “If it’s hard to choose what to say, you go with the truth.”<br /> Another good lesson for tomorrow’s leaders.</p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Palm Beach Philanthropy Tank final presentations</strong></span> <br /> <strong>When:</strong> 4-6 p.m. March 11<br /> <strong>Where:</strong> A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, 501 S. Sapodilla Ave., West Palm Beach<br /> <strong>Reservations:</strong> <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com">www.eventbrite.com</a> <br /> <strong>Info:</strong> <a href="http://www.philanthropytank.org">www.philanthropytank.org</a></p>
<p>The other seven finalists: <br /> • Aquaponics Educational Enrichment for PBC Schools, Tess Flemma and John Schuttler of Boca Raton High School. <br /> • Surface 71 — Ocean, Plastics & Marine Health, Emily Briceno, Jemma Currie and Angeli Romero from Suncoast High School. <br /> • Find the Keys Music Program, Sophia Zheng and Hayley Huber, Dreyfoos School of the Arts. <br /> • canCode, Noah Rubin of Rosenblatt High School.<br /> • Read With Me, Nestor Flores and Shane Herman, The Weiss School. <br /> • Helping Hands, Guadalupe Alcala-Garcia, Mya Rodriguez and Yalissa Baltazar, Glades Central High School.<br /> • Shoes2You, Joseph Rubsamen of Oxbridge Academy.</p></div>