project holiday - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T12:05:56Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/project+holidayBusiness Spotlight: Renovated Boca history museum to feature new permanent exhibitshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/business-spotlight-renovated-boca-history-museum-to-feature-new-p2020-12-30T15:25:34.000Z2020-12-30T15:25:34.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8365514857,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8365514857,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="8365514857?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Long before it housed the Historical Society and Museum, Boca’s old Town Hall included a fire station. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Christine Davis</strong></p>
<p>The Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum has undergone a total of $3.9 million in redesign and renovation, with an official reopening date to be announced in early 2021. </p>
<p>‘The historic Town Hall has been our home since the mid-1980s,” said the museum’s executive director, Mary Csar. “But, due to space limitations, our exhibitions have been temporary and largely two-dimensional. </p>
<p>“Not any longer. The dynamic redesign of the new Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum will allow for both permanent and changing exhibitions that will appeal to families, students and research buffs of all ages — all under the concept of ‘History Alive!’” </p>
<p>The new permanent galleries will include a historic timeline starting with the earliest pre-Columbian inhabitants up to the 21st century, and exhibits such as Pioneer Days, focused on the local heritage of a small farming community; Addison Mizner, featuring the museum’s collection of Mizner Industries’ and Mizner’s architectural drawings and images; World War II, when the Boca Raton Army Airfield served as the Air Corps’ top secret radar training facility; and IBM, featuring a collection of functioning vintage personal computers.</p>
<p>The Historical Society & Museum is still raising money for this renovation, and naming opportunities are available. For information, call Csar at 561-395-6766, email her at director@bocahistory.org or visit <a href="http://www.BocaHistory.org">www.BocaHistory.org</a>.</p>
<p>The museum is located in Historic Town Hall at 71 N. Federal Highway. <br /> </p>
<p>Boca Beach House Luxury Residences & Marina, at 725 S. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton, a waterfront development of Key International and Integra Investments, recently celebrated its groundbreaking. The property has secured $42.6 million in construction financing from Bank OZK. </p>
<p>Slated for completion in the third quarter of 2022, the 3.2-acre, four-story condominium development will offer 32 condominiums, concierge services, and a private 18-slip marina. Boca Beach House launched sales in May 2019 and is almost 80% sold, with nearly half of the condo buyers from out of state. Remaining residences range from two- to four-bedroom units with 3,855 to 5,041 square feet featuring flow-through floor plans, 10-foot ceilings and semi-private elevator access. </p>
<p>Design is by Sieger Suárez Architects, with contemporary interiors by Linda Ruderman Interiors. The grounds were designed by Raymond Jungles. Key International Sales is the brokerage of record. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.bbhresidences.com">www.bbhresidences.com</a> or call 561-453-1400.<br /> </p>
<p>Understanding the need to offer a health-focused environment, the condominium development 3550 South Ocean in South Palm Beach has expanded its partnership with the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa to offer private and group fitness classes. Eau Spa personal trainers’ exercise programs have been designed to help residents achieve their fitness goals.</p>
<p>The classes are available virtually and on-site at 3550 South Ocean with residents’ Eau Palm Beach developer gift certificates. In addition to fitness classes, residents have access to</p>
<p>Eau’s spa experiences at 3550 South Ocean, from massages to facial treatments and more. <br /> </p>
<p>The Seagate Resort’s managing company, Long Weekend Hospitality, announced that it will spearhead the Delray Beach resort’s renovation and rebranding, with New York-based Studio Robert McKinley leading the redesign projects.</p>
<p>Collaborators will include food and beverage developer McGuire Moorman Hospitality, consultant Liz Lambert, landscaper Raymond Jungles and architect Leo A. Daly. The hotel and beach club refurbishments are set to begin in June and be completed by the end of 2021. The club will be renovated, 154 hotel guest rooms will be remodeled and public spaces — including new restaurants and lounge concepts — will be redesigned. </p>
<p>Upon completion of this work, renovations of the country club at 3600 Hamlet Drive in Delray Beach will begin. <br /> </p>
<p>An ocean-to-Intracoastal 2-acre parcel at 980 S. Ocean, Manalapan, sold for $17,258,175 on Dec. 16. The seller was Monica Sound Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company with a Boynton Beach address, and the buyer was 980 S. Ocean LLC, a Florida limited liability company with a West Palm Beach address. According to Realtor.com, Sotheby’s agent</p>
<p>Andrew Thomka-Gazdik represented the seller, and Vince Spadea Jr., an agent with Douglas Elliman, represented the buyer. <br /> </p>
<p>Recorded on Nov. 19, two waterfront lots in Boca Raton were purchased for a combined $14.8 million. A 1.32-acre lot with a 3,369-square-foot home, at 690 NE Fifth Ave., sold for $10 million, and the neighboring vacant lot of 0.83 of an acre, at 720 NE Fifth Ave., sold for $4.795 million. </p>
<p>The seller was 690 5th Avenue Associates LLC, managed by Fort Lauderdale auto dealer Stuart Hayim, and the buyer was 690/720 NE 5th Avenue Boca LLC, managed by a Hillsboro Beach couple, Thomas and Michelle Murphy. Combined, the properties have 220 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway. </p>
<p>The D’Angelo Ligouri team, Premier Estate Properties, represented the buyer and seller for both parcels.<br /> </p>
<p>Billionaire Boris Jordan paid $14 million for an 8,303-square-foot Intracoastal Waterway home at 1175 Spanish River Road, Boca Raton, on Nov. 30. Seller Richard Tarlow was represented by Gerard Liguori, Joseph Liguori and Carmen D’Angelo Jr. of Premier Estate Properties. The five-bedroom mid-century modern-style home was constructed on the .78-acre lot in the Estates neighborhood in 2015 by J.H. Norman. </p>
<p>A resident of New York, Jordan has run businesses both in the United States and in Russia. As executive chairman, he helped build his company, Curaleaf, into the largest cannabis company in the United States. Forbes recently estimated his net worth at $1.9 billion. <br /> </p>
<p>In spite of COVID-19 challenges, Florida Atlantic University achieved a record-breaking milestone in sponsored research funding for the first quarter of fiscal year 2020-2021.</p>
<p>The first quarter, which began on July 1, saw a 92% increase in research funding compared to the first three months of fiscal 2019-2020. Federal, state and private agencies awarded FAU faculty $38.9 million for the first quarter, 2020. That number was $20.2 million during the same time frame in 2019. </p>
<p>“Securing research funding is no easy feat, especially during these exceptionally challenging times,” said Daniel C. Flynn, Ph.D., FAU’s vice president for research. “This monumental milestone for Florida Atlantic University is a testament to our talented, dedicated and passionate researchers who are making great contributions in science, technology, health and the humanities at a pivotal time in Florida’s and our nation’s history.”</p>
<p>Among the largest grants in that time frame: <br /> • An $11,179,001, four-year contract from the United States Office of Naval Research to develop a next-generation, high-intake, compact, defined excitation bathyphotometer sensor. Bathyphotometer measurements of bioluminescence are used to study light emissions from luminescent marine organisms, including phytoplankton and zooplankton. <br /> • A five-year, $5.3 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health for a project that will enable researchers to test and evaluate an in-vehicle sensing system that could provide early warnings of cognitive change for older U.S. drivers. <br /> • A five-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to train graduate students in data science technologies and applications. <br /> • A $2.2 million grant for the “Harmful Algal Bloom Assessment of Lake Okeechobee” project. <br /> </p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8365548871,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8365548871,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="147" height="220" alt="8365548871?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>Dr. Bernadette Russell, Palm Beach State College’s vice president of e-learning and instructional technology and Boca Raton campus provost, retired in December. She had led the campus for 13 years, and she assumed leadership for e-learning collegewide five years ago. </p>
<p>A national search is underway for her replacement. </p>
<p>The college recognized Russell for her service at a district board of trustees meeting. </p>
<p>“For over a decade Dr. Russell has been a tremendous asset to the college, our students, and the community. She has been a strong advocate for the college in the Boca Raton community, and she has created a caring family atmosphere on the Boca Raton campus. Her commitment to academic excellence has been a common thread throughout her service to the college,’’ said the college’s president, Ava L. Parker, J.D. “As we prepared to respond to the pandemic, her leadership on the e-learning and instructional technology front really helped us through an unprecedented transition from in-person to remote learning this summer. </p>
<p>“I wish her well in her retirement. She will be missed.”<br /> </p>
<p>Christel Silver, owner of Silver International Realty in Delray Beach, was appointed to the National Association of Realtors’ 2021 Certified International Property Specialist advisory board.</p>
<p>“Global home buying activity is happening all around us,” Silver said. “The ability to close a transaction with an international buyer may depend upon the Realtor’s ability to get along with a person culturally. There are cultural nuances that Realtors need to be aware of in working with individuals of a different culture. The CIPS curriculum reviews many cultural customs.”<br /> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8365538277,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8365538277,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="8365538277?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Elyse Duff and Billy Cunningham of Park View Realty with toys collected for the Boys & Girls Clubs. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p>Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County members received at least one gift and enjoyed an extra-special holiday party held at their club, thanks to the annual Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County gift drive. </p>
<p>“There was real concern that our club members were going to be disappointed this holiday season, with not enough toys and gifts to go around. Thanks to overwhelming community support, our area’s most disadvantaged children will have a happy holiday after all,” said Eric Roby, the organization’s marketing, PR and holiday gift drive director.</p>
<p>Traditional corporate sponsors included The Breakers Palm Beach and Office Depot, and newer partners included GL Homes. Another new partner, Park View Realty, helped get more than a dozen Delray Beach businesses involved with the gift drive. Boca West Children’s Foundation, Spirit of Giving and Rocking Horse Foundation also offered help.<br /> </p>
<p>The pandemic affected Project Holiday, which sends care packages to military members and is run by Delores Rangel, executive secretary to the Delray Beach City Commission. </p>
<p>For the 15th annual event, the call went out in mid-November for monetary donations, not the usual granola bars and personal care items, Rangel said. The money went to buy big boxes of peanut butter crackers and granola bars, large cans of coffee and “a lot of beef jerky,” she said. </p>
<p>Project volunteers, wearing face masks and standing about 6 feet apart, put together 65 boxes on Dec. 12. They worked in the City Hall lobby and up and down its halls, Rangel said. </p>
<p>She started the program after her daughter joined the Air Force right after 9/11 and began sending weekly care packages overseas through her daughter’s five tours in Iraq.</p>
<p>Her co-workers soon began leaving candy bars, toiletries and paperbacks on Rangel’s desk. For Christmas 2006, Rangel joined two established programs, You Are Not Alone and One Soldier at a Time, creating Project Holiday.<br /> </p>
<p>With Florida food banks reporting as much as a 300% to 400% increase in demand and more than 2.7 million people struggling with hunger, Publix began a six-week program in mid-December to support six Feeding America food banks — including Feeding South Florida, which serves the Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe areas. The donations include pasta, canned vegetables, canned beans, cereal and boxed potatoes.</p>
<p>“When we heard from food banks that they were facing a critical food shortage, we knew that, as a food retailer, we had another opportunity to help,” said Publix CEO Todd Jones. </p>
<p>“As federally funded food deliveries decrease, food banks need help to serve our communities,” said Paco Vélez, president and CEO of Feeding South Florida. “For decades, Publix has consistently looked for creative ways to support those in need. Their leadership in 2020 has played a vital role in sustaining our clients throughout this most challenging and unusual year.”</p>
<p>This new initiative is in addition to the program Publix launched in April to purchase surplus produce and milk from farmers affected by the pandemic and deliver it directly to food banks. Through that program, Publix expected to purchase and deliver more than 7 million pounds of produce and more than 250,000 gallons of milk to the six Florida food banks that received additional support for the 2020 holiday season.<br /> </p>
<p>The Gold Coast PR Council Inc., a South Florida independent group of public relations, marketing and communications professionals, has announced its 2021 board of directors.</p>
<p>The newly elected president is Melissa Perlman, president and founder of BlueIvy Communications, a Delray Beach-based public relations and communications agency. </p>
<p>Founded in 2011, BlueIvy Communications has been recognized twice by PRNews as one of the Top 15 PR professionals to watch. Perlman was also named in 2017 by South Florida Business & Wealth magazine as an Up & Comer in the public relations category; by Boca Life magazine as one of the publication’s 2014 “40 Under 40”; and by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel as part of the publication’s inaugural 2012 Top Workplaces awards.</p>
<p>The Gold Coast PR Council’s other 2021 directors are: Vice President Amy Murphy, constitutional tax collector, Palm Beach County; Secretary Gary Schweikhart, PR-BS; Treasurer Michael Turnbell, Food for the Poor; Immediate Past President Debbie Abrams, the Buzz Agency.<br /> </p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8365548057,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8365548057,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="168" height="170" alt="8365548057?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>Scott Benarde has joined Oxbridge Academy, a West Palm Beach college preparatory school, as its assistant director of communications. Previously, Benarde was director of communications for the Norton Museum of Art, and he served as the communications manager for the Jewish Community Center of the Greater Palm Beaches. </p>
<p>Benarde’s career in the communications field included jobs as a journalist for <em>The Palm Beach Post</em> and <em>Sun-Sentinel</em>, and as a freelance writer. His articles have been published in <em>The New York Times, Washington Post</em> and <em>Rolling Stone</em>.</p>
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<p><em>Jane Smith contributed to this column.</em></p>
<p><em>Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com</em></p></div>Along the Coast: Captain who brought holidays to comrades studies for life after Armyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-captain-who-brought-holidays-to-comrades-studies-2018-11-28T17:38:13.000Z2018-11-28T17:38:13.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960831688,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960831688,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960831688?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>After being featured in The Coastal Star last year, Capt. Christopher Colletta finished his Army service, and while studying in France took part in a D-Day remembrance (above). <strong>Photo Provided</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong></p>
<p>At this time last year, Christopher Colletta, born and reared in Delray Beach, was the executive officer of a tank company deployed to Camp Casey in South Korea.</p>
<p>Delores Rangel, executive secretary to the Delray Beach City Commission, was the force behind Project Holiday, which sends boxes of candy, toiletries and paperback books to service members all over the world.</p>
<p>Over in South Korea, U.S. Army Capt. Colletta was hoping some of those boxes would reach his 75 comrades in Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment. He had emailed Rangel after learning about the project.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960831499,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960831499,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-right" alt="7960831499?profile=original" /></a>By Christmas, 241 Project Holiday boxes had found Colletta and his men.</p>
<p>This year, Delores Rangel is still the city’s executive secretary, busily gearing up for her 13th annual Project Holiday.</p>
<p>Last year, Colletta was nearing the end of his military service.</p>
<p>“I’ll be in the Army for about six more months, until May, which is when I plan on transitioning to civilian life,” he wrote in an email then. “I intend to earn a master’s degree in international affairs at a school in Europe, but those applications are still in progress.</p>
<p>“Wish me luck!”</p>
<p>A year later, we wondered whatever happened to him.</p>
<p>Turns out Colletta has been around.</p>
<p>After leaving the Army on May 15, he returned briefly to Fort Hood, Texas, then took off on the sort of road trip many dream about and few take.</p>
<p>“I went west from Austin through El Paso, up New Mexico to the Four Corners, then all the way up to Yellowstone,” he reports by email. “I ended up visiting my brother in Colorado after that, and then driving all the way from there back home to Delray.</p>
<p>“I lived on my own out of my car, setting up shop at campsites along the way.”</p>
<p>And his plan to earn a master’s degree “at a school in Europe”?</p>
<p>He’s living in Paris these days, a long way from South Korea, and pursuing that degree at the prestigious Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po.</p>
<p>“I am studying International Affairs, focusing on security issues, diplomacy and East Asia. I figured that would provide the most continuity from my professional experiences serving in Korea to a future career. I am loving every minute of it.”</p>
<p>He’s in good company. Sciences Po was founded in 1872, and its alumni include 32 heads of state or government, seven of the past eight French presidents and three past heads of the International Monetary Fund.</p>
<p>But he hasn’t lost touch with the military. Through a former Army colonel teaching a class on American military power at the institute, Colletta was put in touch with the Paris chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which brought him to the Suresnes American Cemetery outside Paris for the Nov. 11 ceremony marking the end of World War I.</p>
<p>The VFW, along with the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the Army’s 173rd Airborne, helped out by displaying all the flags containing the insignia of American military units that served in WWI.</p>
<p>“I just felt privileged to be in attendance,” Colletta wrote. “The president, secretary of state, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, chief of staff of the Army, NATO supreme allied commander, congressmen … they were all there.”</p>
<p>Colletta will have Paris until May 2020, when he expects to complete his master’s degree in international security.</p>
<p>“After my degree, I still have to decide where I will work,” he concluded. “I could continue serving in the federal government in the Department of State, for instance, or look to the private sector for work in a think tank, perhaps.</p>
<p>“The opportunities are many with my experience and in this city, and I hope to let you know where I end up in 2020!”<br /> Meanwhile, back in Delray Beach, Delores Rangel is preparing to send another year’s mailing of packages to a few of the 1.3 million men and women on active duty, including about 450,000 who will spend the holidays in “hot spots” such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.<br /> “I have six names on the list to receive packages so far,” she reported just before Thanksgiving. “Of course one name is all I need, as I can send the boxes to that one person, who can then share.”<br /> Project Holiday is accepting donated items through Dec. 7 and welcomes volunteers to help pack them on Dec. 9, at the Delray Beach Community Center, 50 NW First Ave.<br /> “We are aiming for 11 a.m. for packing,” Rangel said. “We start at 8:30 to organize, but all are welcome to come and go as their schedule permits.” <br /> Colletta’s parents, Kathy Schilling and Joseph Colletta, hope to be there.</p>
<p><br /> <em>For a list of requested items and drop-off locations, visit mydelraybeach.com.</em></p></div>To Korea, with love: South County residents send care packages to one of their own near DMZhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/to-korea-with-love-south-county-residents-send-care-packages-to-o2018-01-03T19:00:00.000Z2018-01-03T19:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><span><b><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960765087,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960765087,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="600" class="align-center" alt="7960765087?profile=original" /></a></b></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Capt. Christopher Colletta of Delray Beach takes a selfie as members of his Army tank unit open some of the Project Holiday boxes sent from Delray Beach to Camp Casey in South Korea. <b>Photo provided</b></em></p>
<p></p>
<p><span><b>By Ron Hayes</b></span></p>
<p>On the morning of Nov. 7, Delores Rangel arrived at work and found an email from Dongducheon, South Korea.</p>
<p>This was unusual.</p>
<p>The executive secretary to the Delray Beach City Commission did not often deal with people 7,662 miles away and 14 hours ahead of her.</p>
<p><i>Ms. Rangel,</i></p>
<p><i>My name is Captain Christopher Colletta and I was born and raised in Delray Beach until I turned 18 and went off to college.</i></p>
<p><i>Since then, I commissioned into the Army and now am the Executive Officer of a tank company deployed to Camp Casey in South Korea, a few miles from the DMZ separating North and South Korea …</i></p>
<p><i>I recently saw on Facebook that you are in charge of collecting supplies to send to soldiers deployed overseas …</i></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>Actually, Delores Rangel is a lot more than the person in charge. She is the reason Project Holiday exists.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960765283,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960765283,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="106" class="align-left" alt="7960765283?profile=original" /></a>“My daughter, Melissa, joined the Air Force right after 9/11, and my husband and I were devastated,” she remembers. “We knew we were going to war and she was sent overseas. She was barely 5 feet tall and she was in war zones.”</p>
<p>Rangel started sending her daughter boxes of goodies every week — through five tours in Iraq.</p>
<p>Before long, her City Hall coworkers were leaving donations on her desk — candy bars, toiletries, paperback books — and soon she was mailing several boxes each week, which E3 MP Melissa Rangel would share with her colleagues.</p>
<p>At Christmas 2006, Rangel joined with two established programs, You Are Not Alone and One Soldier at a Time, and Project Holiday was born.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>... Let me know what I can do to get a few goodies for my soldiers. I know it would mean a lot to them.</i></p>
<p><i>Very Respectfully,</i></p>
<p><i>Christopher Colletta</i></p>
<p><i>P.S. I love Delray so much that I even named my tank “Delray” at one point. Check out the picture of it during a training exercise in California — you’ll see it written on the gun!</i></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>For Christmas 2017, the 12th annual Project Holiday sent hundreds of packages to service members in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and Korea.</p>
<p>Everything, from the candy bars, toiletries and paperbacks to the postal costs and hours spent packing the boxes, was donated.</p>
<p>The Delray Beach Property Owners Association contributed. Crane’s Beach House hosted a fundraiser.</p>
<p>“The community just opens their hearts and wallets,” Rangel said. “It’s a great event. So many are still in harm’s way, and so many families can’t afford to send a package.”</p>
<p>In 2006, the military postal rate for a single box was about $10. In 2017 it was $15.95. One year, Rangel remembered, the total postage cost hit $7,000.</p>
<p>“All I need is one name,” she explained. “The boxes are rejected if they’re just sent to an unnamed soldier.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>I went to Gulf Stream School. I loved it. My best friends were almost all made there — about half of us went to the same high school, and then we always meet back up for holidays and for weekend trips in between.</i> — Colletta in one of a series of email exchanges with <i>The Coastal Star</i>.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960765654,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960765654,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="600" class="align-center" alt="7960765654?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p><em>Project Holiday volunteers listen to a presentation as they gather at the Delray Beach Community Center to stuff holiday boxes for troops. World War II veteran Edward Storck (right) was acknowledged at the event. His granddaughter is deployed in Afghanistan.</em> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>At 11 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3, more than a hundred men, women and children wait in the bleachers at the Norman C. Rolle Gym of the Delray Beach Community Center.</p>
<p>Edward Storck, a World War II veteran, is there from Lake Worth. His granddaughter Trisha is deployed in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Johnny Castro with American Legion Post 367 has brought seven fellow legionnaires.</p>
<p>Out on the floor, three long tables hold large cardboard boxes brimming with stocking stuffers —edible, readable, spreadable and playable. The paper signs taped to the tables below each box identify its contents. This box has “socks.” That box is “sunscreen.”</p>
<p>We’ve got books, CDs and DVDs. Scarves and underpants. Lip balm and chewing gum, tuna fish and Slim Jims.</p>
<p>We’ve got granola bars, cookies, crackers and popcorn. Baby wipes, deodorant and playing cards. Even some yarmulkes.</p>
<p>And, of course, “miscellaneous.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the room next door, a giant pile of 300 priority mail boxes waits.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>At 18 I left Delray to attend Vanderbilt, spending 4 years in Nashville. I also applied for and earned an Army Reserve Officer’s Training Corps scholarship, which paid for my schooling and began my service.</i></p>
<p><i>The same day I graduated, I also received my commission and my parents pinned on my rank insignia as a brand new Second Lieutenant.</i></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960766067,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960766067,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="600" class="align-center" alt="7960766067?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Christopher Colletta’s parents, Kathy Schilling and Joseph Colletta. <b>Photos by</b> <b>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</b></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>“He’s a real character,” Capt. Colletta’s father will tell you. “He’s very inquisitive, into multiple things. He went to a summer music school at the University of Miami and plays guitar and got an undergraduate degree in history and Chinese culture at Vanderbilt. He speaks Mandarin.”</p>
<p>Christopher’s father, Dr. Joseph Colletta, is a breast surgeon at Boca Raton Regional Medical Center. His mother, Dr. Kathy Schilling, is a radiologist and the medical director of the women’s health and wellness center at the hospital. His older brother, Matthew, has just begun an MBA program at Northwestern University. The family has lived in Delray’s Seagate community since 1982.</p>
<p>“We’ve never considered moving anywhere else,” his father says.</p>
<p>As part of the ROTC program at Vanderbilt, Christopher spent a summer teaching English at an elementary school in China, then two more summers in Taiwan and Vietnam.</p>
<p>“The Gulf Stream School taught him very good principles and civility,” his father says. “He’s never given us any trouble. He’s the life of the party, an organizer. Oh, and he does charcoal drawings.</p>
<p>“Hopefully, he’ll be coming back [on furlough] in March.” </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment consists of around 75 soldiers and officers, the 14 M1A2 Abrams tanks we operate, and a small fleet of other tracked and wheeled vehicles used to haul supplies and provide critical maintenance and medic support.</i></p>
<p><i>The soldiers come from all walks of life, and from every corner of the country from New York, to Alabama, to America’s Pacific Islands. We are all stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, where we spent over a year training for this deployment.</i></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>In the gym, Dave Smith, a retired Air Force colonel who has been Project Holiday’s volunteer facilitator since the beginning, welcomes the volunteers.</p>
<p>Rangel and the other organizers are introduced with expressions of gratitude. They all say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. The crowd stands to have its picture taken behind a banner that promises, “You Are Not Alone: Delray Beach Supporting Military Families.”</p>
<p>“Every box is a special box,” Smith reminds them, “so don’t try to make yours more special.”</p>
<p>And so they begin.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>Earlier in my career as a second lieutenant, I was a platoon leader in Dueler Company, Apache’s sister company. It is an unwritten rule that you name your tank something that starts with the same letter as your company, which was D at the time, so I named it Delray.</i></p>
<p><i>That tank stayed at Fort Hood when I went to Korea. It’s still there, though it likely has a new name.</i></p>
<p><i>I have yet to name my tank here … I think Atlantic Ave. wouldn’t be a bad idea!</i></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960765853,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960765853,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="600" class="align-center" alt="7960765853?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Project Holiday volunteers Alicia Martinez, 16, and Isabella Balestriere, 15, pack one of the 241 boxes sent overseas. <b>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</b></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span><b>• </b></span></p>
<p>Isabella Balestriere of Boca Raton is a Project Holiday veteran who has attended the annual packing sessions since they began. And she’s only 15.</p>
<p>“I brought her here when she was 3 or 4 years old,” says her mother, Cathy, the general manager at Crane’s Beach House. “It was all because of Delores Rangel and her story. It’s not just about packing boxes. It’s about bringing my daughter, bringing the families together.”</p>
<p>Isabella grabs an empty postal box and joins the line of volunteers moving along each table of donated items. She tosses in some scarves and ear plugs, some body powder, a toothbrush, AAA batteries and Doublemint gum, Clif bars and peanut butter crackers until the box is full.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>The executive officer is the second in command of the company and working behind the scenes to ensure all the logistical infrastructure is in place.</i></p>
<p><i>My lane is beans, bullets and turning wrenches. I oversee all the maintenance that we conduct. To put it in Florida terms, tanks are like boats — if you let them sit, they seem to fall apart.</i></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>When the box is full, Isabella carries it to the final table, where Esther Rose waits, a roll of heavy-duty packaging tape in hand. She and her husband, Adrian, have been coming up from Boca Raton to volunteer since 2007.</p>
<p>“We have no family,” she explains, “but my father was in World War II. It was in England, but that’s OK. We were on the same side.”</p>
<p>After volunteering for 10 years, Rose has mastered the tape dispenser. A box appears before her and in three quick swipes — zap, zap, zap — it’s taped and moved along.</p>
<p>“I just like to help,” she says, zapping as she speaks. “What do the soldiers do for us?”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>Being just miles from the DMZ at Camp Casey, our duties daily involve carrying out training that we have developed to ensure that we are ready to “fight tonight” as the saying goes here.</i></p>
<p><i>If my commander identifies a skill set that he believes our soldiers need to practice, rifle marksmanship being a simple example, we put it on our calendar and do it.</i></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>Capt. Colletta, 26, and his company are deployed near the border with North Korea, where the winters are very cold and the political climate increasingly hot.</p>
<p>North Korea is testing intercontinental ballistic missiles it claims can reach the United States.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump has threatened to respond with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”</p>
<p>The North Korean foreign secretary says Trump is “begging for nuclear war.”</p>
<p>During a September speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Trump said he would “totally destroy North Korea.” </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>It’s not our job to provide our opinions, only to provide the best prepared soldiers possible so that when our political leaders say they have an Army at their disposal that is lethal and should not be provoked, they can say that with confidence.</i></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>Isabella carries her taped box over to the stage, where Scott Petrolia, 15, of Delray Beach and Felipe Mora, 15, of Boca Raton, are waiting with scales and a black marking pen.</p>
<p>Scott weighs the box.</p>
<p>“Ten and a half,” he tells Felipe, who scribbles “10.5” on the side.</p>
<p>And then an address label goes on:</p>
<p>CPT. Christopher Colletta</p>
<p>A CO 1-9 CAV, Unit #15919</p>
<p>APO, AP 96224</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>Our food service specialists are the real heroes on Christmas. They’ll be up extremely early to get to work — I’m talking 3 or 4 in the morning. I think this year we can expect some more turkey (we had some at Thanksgiving), and some ham.</i></p>
<p><i>Then, at lunch and dinnertime, we officers and senior noncommissioned officers will arrive in our blue dress uniforms and serve all the soldiers.</i></p>
<p><i>It’s been a tradition longer than anyone I work with can remember. I think all senior leaders value the opportunity to show the soldiers how much we appreciate their hard work.</i></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>By 12:30, the packing is done and the volunteers wander out, or linger to chat and enjoy the complimentary coffee and pastry.</p>
<p>On the stage, 241 red, white and blue priority mail boxes form a neat stack about 5 feet tall.</p>
<p>One year not long after Project Holiday began, a small child was discovered drawing on one of the boxes. Now that’s a tradition. The kids too short to reach a table decorate the completed packages with holiday greetings.</p>
<p>“Merry Christmas” some wish in crayon, or “Happy Holidays.”</p>
<p>On one box, an especially ambitious artist has drawn a colorful rainbow, arching over the message “Your Awesome.” </p>
<p></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Children personalize Project Holiday boxes sent to troops. One is marked with a rainbow and ‘Your Awesome!’</em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>This is my second rotation to Korea. I was here from June 2015 to February 2016. I missed the holidays that year, but was glad to be back home for Christmas 2016.</i></p>
<p><i>Hopefully this will be the last one I spend away for the foreseeable future.</i></p>
<p><i>The cold and snow over here isn’t kind to native Floridians.</i></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>On Dec. 6, Delores Rangel mailed 49 of the Project Holiday boxes to Camp Casey, South Korea.</p>
<p>“I have not heard from Captain Colletta as it is still too soon for him to receive the boxes,” she reported Dec. 13. “If I were to guess, they should receive them by Monday, Dec. 18.” </p>
<p>She guessed about right.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>For the past two days, I had been getting all kinds of phone calls to pick up my mail since it was clogging up the mail room. The clerks ended up having to do something about it themselves and delivered it to our door since there was no way I could transport it all myself …</i></p>
<p><i>We all had a formation outside our company headquarters after dinner chow, and that’s where I explained the rules of how we were going to get all the gifts evenly distributed. The snow was really coming down.</i></p>
<p><i>I had everyone go into the conference room by reverse rank order, with the lowest-ranking soldiers going first. They’re the ones who are most likely to have never spent a holiday away from family before, let alone across the Pacific Ocean. Besides that, they can afford the least when it comes to having gifts shipped overseas.</i></p>
<p><i>They picked a box, any box, and couldn’t peek. Eventually, every box had an owner. I told the guys that if there was something that they’d be willing to give up or trade, they could put it in the middle of the table and it would be a free for all after that.</i></p>
<p><i>And chaos ensued. Everything was over in probably 15 minutes, a loud 15 minutes of boxes opening, soldiers bartering, and all kinds of things flying across the room to their new owners.</i></p>
<p><i>You never know what you’re going to get in a box from someone you don’t know, but I think Project Holiday nailed it on the head in terms of providing some useful stuff. There wasn’t much left over when it was all said and done.</i></p>
<p><i>We have one Jewish soldier in our ranks, Private Cutler, and he’s built up quite a yarmulke collection — he specifically wanted to say thanks for that.</i></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p>The 12th annual Project Holiday sent 241 boxes of goodies to U.S. service members in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and, of course, South Korea.</p>
<p>“I’m so happy the community has put smiles on their faces and let them know they are not forgotten,” Delores Rangel said.</p>
<p>“It’s a lot of work putting Project Holiday together, and it’s a team effort, and they’ve done an amazing job of helping us thank our troops.</p>
<p>“Freedom is not free, and I thank God for them.”</p>
<p></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Christopher Colletta wears an Army Stetson indicating his promotion to captain in a ceremony in November in South Korea. <b>Photos provided</b></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;">• </p>
<p><i>I’ll be in the Army for about six more months, until May, which is when I plan on transitioning to civilian life.</i></p>
<p><i>I intend to earn a master’s degree in international affairs at a school in Europe, but those applications are still in progress.</i></p>
<p><i>Wish me luck! </i></p>
<p></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Capt. Christopher Colletta’s original tank at Fort Hood, Texas, bore the name ‘Delray’ in honor of his hometown.</em></p></div>