Palms West Monthly • December 2013 • Page 1
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Happy Holidays!
Palmss West Wes WELLINGTON PARADE
Fair tickets on sale at Publix
MLB player named Grand Marshall
Save up to 30 percent on the price of admission to the 2014 South Florida Fair and midway rides at area Publix Super Markets.
Major League catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia will serve as Grand Marshall at this year’s Wellington Parade.
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Volume 3, Number 12
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West Palm Edition
Monthly Mo n Chamber names new CEO Wayne Burns has been tapped by the board of directors of the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce as its new CEO.
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THE ACREAGE • LOXAHATCHEE GROVES • ROYAL PALM BEACH • WELLINGTON • WEST PALM BEACH
December 2013
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Home for the Holidays Students in Seminole Ridge High’s Construction Academy recently completed their second modular home for Habitat for Humanity, and they’re just getting started. Good Sam hosts ‘tailgate party’
Employees of Good Samaritan Medical Center recently kicked off the season with a hospital appreciation tailgate party, complete with fried chicken, burgers, hot dogs and games.
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West Palm to kick off holidays Dec. 5 A 600-ton holiday tree made of sand will light up the sky Thursday, Dec. 5, during the city’s Annual Tree Lighting ceremony on Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach.
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It’s a Gingerbread Man mystery …
Children ages 3 to 6 are sure to love the merry mystery tale of the missing Gingerbread Man set for Monday, Dec. 30 at the Royal Palm Beach library.
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INSIDE
Local Happenings ................4, 6 In Brief................................8 Nice and Easy ...................... 10 At the Movies .......................12 On Stage .............................12 Manely Speaking....................13 Community Round-Up ............ 14 Outside The Neighborhood .......16 Just For the Fun of It ..............17 Service Directory .............. 18-19 PalmsWestMonthly.com
By AMY WOODS Palms West Monthly
LOXAHATCHEE — When Habitat for Humanity of Palm Beach County ceremoniously places the keys to one of its newest homes in the hands of an elated owner, students from Seminole Ridge Community High School’s Construction Academy will be there to say congratulations. The 11th-graders in teacher Rick Terkovich’s shop class said they are looking forward to Widlene Cenom’s reaction when the single mother from Haiti, whose husband was lost in the 2010 earthquake, walks through the front door of the home they helped build. “I feel very proud of the work I did on the house,” 16-year-old Mark Boreffi said. “About three weeks into the build, we got to meet Ms. Cenom and hear her story, and it feels good to know I’m making a positive impact on the community but more importantly someone’s life.” Terkovich’s students performed all the construction work at their campus in Loxahatchee. The four-module home has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and kitchen. It measures 1,206 square feet. They also assembled the roof. “Knowing that every nail and beam you place puts someone one step closer to having a home is a very rewarding feeling,” 16-year-old Nick Blair said. The modules were rolled out of the classroom using cranes and placed onto seven tractor-trailers for their trip to the Lake Worth homesite. A collaboration of volunteers from Habitat for Humanity and Royal Palm Beach High School’s HVAC Academy, along with the Construction Academy students, are completing the roofing, ductwork, siding, painting, cabinetry, flooring and landscaping. “When they walk through the house, the will be speechless,” Terkovich said. “We’ve done some great things, but seeing the kids’ faces and the lady getting the house, this is by far the best thing I’ve been involved with.” The teacher who opened the Construction Academy in 2005 said he modeled it after a similar program at Marathon Middle High School in the Keys.
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Photo by Elizabeth Burks/Palms West Monthly
A roof section built by students in the Construction Academy at Seminole Ridge High School is loaded onto a truck for transportation to the Lake Worth destination of the Habitat for Humanity house.
“I stole the idea,” said Terkovich, who worked with Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Bernard Godek on getting project approval from the school district. “Most of them thought it was a great idea. The hard part was just getting the language so all the lawyers would agree.” The Lake Worth build marks the
Construction Academy’s second home. The first one in 2012 went up in West Palm Beach’s Westgate neighborhood. “The first house took 15 months,” Terkovich said. “This house, we did it in eight months. The kids really busted their butts.” Having a class full of motivated stu-
Knowing that every nail and beam you place puts someone one step closer to having a home is a very rewarding feeling. — Seminole Ridge student Nick Blair
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