Palms West Monthly • October 2013 • Page 1
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West Palm Edition
Palmss West Run for Fun!
Superhero 5K Fun Run set for Oct. 13
Kids charity to host ball
The world in her hands …
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Princesses and pirates will have a ball at the International Polo Club Palm Beach to benefit Kids Helping Kids on Sunday, Oct. 13.
Dress up in your costume of choice and come out to support The Foster & Adoptive Parents Association of Palm Beach County.
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Volume 3, Number 10
Monthly Ninth grader Julianne Schiliro recently won $150 for her photograph in the Rotary Club of Wellington’s Peace Ceremony Contest.
THE ACREAGE • LOXAHATCHEE GROVES • ROYAL PALM BEACH • WELLINGTON • WEST PALM BEACH
October 2013
40th Anniversary
Get ready for six days of festivities at Oktoberfest Rosarian Academy students aid homeless
By AMY WOODS Palms West Monthly
The National Junior Honor Society students recently made more than 300 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for St. Ann Place in West Palm Beach.
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Photo by Elizabeth Burks/Palms West Monthly
Frightful good times await at Moonfest
October is full of fun and frightful events in Downtown West Palm Beach, highlighted by annual favorites Clematis by Fright and Moonfest.
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Royal Palm to host weekly Green Market A weekly bazaar and green market is coming to Royal Palm Beach this season, beginning with the grand-opening and ribboncutting ceremony that takes place Sunday, Oct. 20.
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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, 16 Just For the Fun of It ..............17 Outside The Neighborhood ...... 18 Service Directory .............. 18-19 PalmsWestMonthly.com
The Ducks’ Aaron Lamartiniere (center) high fives Gators players Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the conclusion of a game of The Acreage Tackle Football League in which the Ducks defeated the Gators 35-0.
LOVE
of the
GAME
For the more than 200 kids playing in the Acreage Tackle Football League, winning is a thing, but it’s far from the only thing. By RON HAYES Palms West Monthly
THE ACREAGE — Stop by the community park on this blue and sunny Saturday morning and you can’t miss them – The Acreage Tackle Football League. “Win Without Bragging. Lose Without Excuses.” Five divisions. Thirteen teams. Two hundred thirty boys 5 to 14 years old. And one girl. “I just wanted to play,” Amy Chung says, as if no more reason were required. She’s decked out in her shoulder pads, hugging a helmet under one arm, just another member of the JV Army team eager to play as soon as the Freshmen clear the field. You just wanted to play? “I started playing flag when I was 5,” she adds. “I wanted to play tackle when I was 7, but my parents said wait until you’re 9. I was really little back then.” She’s 14 now, a 9th grader at Seminole Ridge High School. Five feet, four inches tall, 114 pounds. “This is probably going to be my last year because the guys
are going to be bigger now, and I’m not really big,” she says, resigned. “I don’t want to get hurt.” For nearly a decade Amy Chung was big enough, and that’s a point of pride with the league. “There’s no weight limit here,” says Ron Flores, commissioner for the past two years. “Big, small, if you want to play, you can play.” They do make some creative assignments, however. “We’ve got a 10-year-old who weighs 250 pounds,” Flores says. “He plays tackle or guard, but we don’t let him run the ball. The heavier kids we make play the line, but we don’t exclude anyone.” Too big, too small, kids the other leagues turn away find their way to the Acreage league, and some come back. Flores first got involved as an assistant coach when his son, Danny, was 7. Now Flores is the commissioner and Danny’s 19 and a coach himself. “I’ve coached kids who are seniors in high school now, and some have signed college contracts,” Flores says proudly. “When some kid I coached comes back and says, ‘I just got signed,’ that makes it all worthwhile.” Founded on Nov. 22, 1998, the league is self-supporting and unaffiliated with the city or county. Parents pay $220 a season, which covers the cost SEE FOOTBALL / PAGE 11
Oktoberfest turns 40 this year – all the more reason to support the American German Club of the Palm Beaches and indulge in bratwurst, sauerkraut, schnitzel and – of course – a little beer. The Bavarian bash will unfold on the club’s 10-acre campus in the party pavilion and under a giant tent Oct. 11 through 13 and Oct. 18 through 20. More than 25,000 will attend. “We’re having a very exciting coming out this year for our 40th,” said Kurt Freiter, club president. “Some things are the same, and some things are going to be new.” Freiter initiated a Miss Oktoberfest pageant for 2013 and crowned Jessica Wittenbrink, of Wellington, and runner-up Birte Keays, of Boynton Beach, as this year’s ambassadors. The two women not only will promote the biggest fund-raiser of the year for the club but also will raise awareness about its cultural contributions. “We’re about being a serious partner in the community,” Freiter said. “We like to give back.” Club members support other local heritage festivals, open their facility to nonprofit groups planning events and donate to 16 charities annually. Proceeds from tickets sales and monetary contributions at Oktoberfest will support those and other endeavors. “Oktoberfest is not all about drinking beer,” Freiter said. “We’re very much a family-based, familyoriented, cultural club.” Freiter also boasts that a Huffington Post travel survey recently named Palm Beach County’s Oktoberfest the second-largest in the nation, following Cincinnati’s. “We were kind of surprised, ourselves,” Freiter said. “Right in our backyard.” After the Christmas tree, Oktoberfest is the most popular German custom the country has SEE OKTOBERFEST / PAGE 16