Palms West Monthly • January 2012 • Page 1
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West Palm Edition
Palms ms West Wes Holiday Tradition
Palm Beach County
911 gets Facelift
Family, fun & fishing The 21st annual Children’s Holiday Fishing Classic proved fun for all ages. PAGE 11 Volume 2, Number 1
Monthly Little League Champs
Palm Beach is the first county in Florida – and one of the first in the nation – to implement the new Next Generation Capable 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) telephone system system.
The Cubs proved victorious in the Wellington Little League fall championship in the coach-pitch division that just ended.
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THE ACREAGE • LOXAHATCHEE GROVES • ROYAL PALM BEACH • WELLINGTON • WEST PALM BEACH
January 2012
Celebrating 100 years
The South Florida Fair comes to town Jan. 13-29 Happy 103th birthday, and many more As Wellington resident Dorothy Godfrey celebrates her 103rd birthday, she takes time to reflect on her long life.
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6th Annual Yoga Day takes place Jan. 21 The Meyer Amphitheatre in downtown West Palm Beach will be the setting for the free outdoor event.
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World Dressage Masters coming Top champions will be featured as The International Polo Club’s world-class dressage competition takes place at the Jim Brandon Equestrian Center Jan. 26-28.
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INSIDE Local Happenings ................4, 5 In Brief................................6 Nice and Easy ........................8 Arts & Entertainment ............ 10 Community Round-Up ........ 13, 17 Manely Speaking....................15 Outside The Neighborhood .......19 Just For the Fun of It ............. 22 Classifieds .......................... 23 PalmsWestMonthly.com
Photo by Robert Harris/Palms West Monthly
Wellington resident Ana Cusell, who was laid off last April from her position as a vice president at a private wealth management firm, shows off her creation – the UnFrame – currently available at all Palm Beach County Walgreens stores.
FRAMED for SUCCESS What Steve Jobs did with the iPhone, Ana Cusell is doing with the UnFrame – giving the world a product it didn’t know it needed. By ANGIE FRANCALANCIA Neighborhood News Group
WELLINGTON — The dozens of Christmas cards and holiday photos neatly arranged on a foyer table in Ana Cusell’s home stand as a testament to her perseverance in making her dream of owning her own company a reality. Every card and photo from friends and family stands nicely on its own, aided by a little piece of cardboard that adheres to the back and provides a third leg to prop them up. What Steve Jobs did with the iPhone and iPad, Cusell and her husband Robert are doing with the UnFrame – giving the world a product it might not have known it needed. Ana Cusell is the picture of a modern entrepreneur. After losing her job in the spring of 2011, she took the idea she’d been toying with and put all her efforts into launching her company. The idea blossomed about two years ago when she went hunting for something to use to prop up her own Christmas
cards and photos. She had seen the same devices used at financial institutions where she worked to prop up signs at the teller windows. After some research, she found the product, but it wasn’t being marketed to consumers. It was being sold only in large quantities to sign companies and the photography trade. Undeterred, she ordered the smallest box: 500. “Robert and I always talked about starting a business,” Cusell said. “And the idea of the UnFrame originated when I needed something to display the photo cards I received that holiday season.” But it wasn’t until Cusell got laid off last April from her position as a vice president at a private wealth management firm in Palm Beach that things really started moving. “When I was laid off, I said this was meant to be,” said Cusell, who, along with Robert, a captain with the Palm Beach County Fire Department, have two daughters, 26-year-old
Ashley and 14-year-old Alex. “I decided to roll up my sleeves and take this to the next level.” So with the aid of Cusell’s entrepreneurial spirit, lots of research, assistance from experts and – perhaps most important – an infusion of cash from the family’s savings, Cusell dove right in. “In the beginning, I was working 20-hour days,” Cusell recalls. And that’s also when she started negotiating with retailers. The fact that she had no experience in starting a business didn’t deter her in the slightest. And looking back now, that could have been a blessing. “As we began to pursue this, we realized how much we didn’t know,” she says. “I decided that I wouldn’t let that deter me, but that meant that I would have to surround myself with professionals who were experts in their field and whom I could trust to guide me through each step of this process.” And there were times during the past year when Cusell worSEE UNFRAME / PAGE 12
WEST PALM BEACH — Little did a group of local businessmen in 1912 know that when they decided it would be smart to promote the area’s agriculture industry, they planted the seed of what is now the Palm Beach County Fair and Exposition. Today, the South Florida Fair is not only the oldest local event in the community, but also the largest – drawing more than one-half million visitors every January. This January, the Fair celebrates 100 years with a blend of show favorites and events along with first-time promotions, such as the South Florida Fair Marching Band. Look for the band, which will be featured in the parades held during the Fair. The 2012 South Florida Fair Centennial runs Jan. 13-29 on the South Florida Fairgrounds off Southern Boulevard. The entire 17 day spectacle, including the exposition theme, will be a celebration of 100 years of the Fair and the community. National recording acts include John Anderson, John Michael Montgomery, Colt Ford and Grand Funk Railroad. New family entertainment acts include Dale Scott, the Future of Magic and The Mitchell Showboat Marionettes. Hypnotist Mark Yuzuik returns along with the Racing Pigs and The Extreme Canines Stunt Dog Show. Advance discount ride and admission tickets are currently on sale. For complete information about the South Florida Fair, including admission prices, go online to southfloridafair.com.