Women relax under the buttonwood tree in this 1928 photo. The tree still stands at the center of the park in Boca Raton’s Por La Mar. Photo provided by Boca Raton Historical Society BELOW: Sherry, Joshua and Ken Lerner (l-r) with the tree during the annual neighborhood picnic in March. They live in the adjoining Riviera section Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
The old tree and the community by the sea
Neighborhood is ‘last vestige of Boca’s beach town ambience’
By Ron Hayes
Por La Mar’s royalty was already present and waiting in dignified silence when members of the Riviera Civic Association began arriving
March 8 for their annual picnic in the neighborhood park.
Truly, if this little enclave — “By the Sea” in Spanish — can claim any royalty at all, it’s that tall green buttonwood tree at the center of the park.
The venerable Conocarpus erectus was there before the neighborhood was born a century ago, and it shows no sign of abdicating anytime
See TREE on page 22
By Jane Musgrave
Those looking for evidence that the luxury real estate market is hot in coastal Palm Beach County should start their search in Manalapan.
A year after car accessories magnate David MacNeil paid $38.5 million for an oceanfront house south of Town Hall only to tear it down, he’s poised to do the same thing on the lot next door.
This stunned builder Robert Farrell, who has spent a year rebuilding the 14,000-square-foot house with plans to expand it and put it on the market for $95 million. But MacNeil made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
If all goes as planned, MacNeil
Along the Coast Crafters lament end of Joann’s, a longtime staple
Stores had a feel for the fabric of a community
By Tao Woolfe
Fran Prescott pushed her cart past bolts of fabric on a recent Thursday afternoon, noting the yellow paper signs taped to shelves announcing deep discounts on Joann’s fabrics, buttons and trim.
Prescott, of Boynton Beach, is a microbiologist who has been sewing
for 70 years — “since I was 4”— and who has shopped regularly at Joann for decades to create costumes, pillows and blankets for her grandchildren.
“I’ve made everything for them, from snowsuits to wedding dresses,” Prescott said. “I like coming to Joann’s to look at the fabric and get a feel for it. Sometimes I don’t have a project in mind, but I’ll come in here and look around and get ideas. I don’t like ordering online.”
Prescott has a highly developed sense of whimsy. She made a surgical
mask and surgical gown for herself peppered with images of COVID molecules, for example, and once spent five years making a hockeythemed quilt for her grandson.
“I work the night shift for a commercial microbiology lab, and when I get home, I like to work on my projects,” she said.
But on this day, she was navigating the aisles with a heavy heart. The Boynton Beach store — and the 800 or so other Joann
See JOANN on page 27
of
are
Portraits tell the story of artist’s fight to survive severe case of COVID-19 in Parma, Italy
Fran Prescott buys fabric at Joann’s in Riverwalk Plaza in Boynton Beach. ‘It’s a disaster,’ she says
the impending closings. ‘There
no other stores like this.’ Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
As snowbirds depart, turtles take their place on the beach
Spring is the season of comings and goings.
Winter visitors will soon be leaving South County as they do every year. Even the moon left us, hiding in Earth’s shadow for about an hour on March 14 in the only lunar eclipse we could see here in 2025.
And many manatees have returned to North Florida and South Georgia in search of less tropical water. Congratulations if you’re among the lucky ones who glimpsed the sea cows either in the wild or in the warm waters of FPL’s Manatee Lagoon at its Riviera Beach power plant, where the gentle marine mammals congregated during our comparatively few cold days this winter.
But while boaters may see fewer manatees, they now have to look out for our treasured spring arrivals — sea turtles coming here to lay eggs on the same beaches where they themselves were born.
While sea turtle season is usually March 1 to Oct. 31, the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton happily reported finding its first turtle visitor on Feb. 22.
“Exciting news!” its biologists posted on Facebook. “Today our team marked the first leatherback nest of the 2025 season in Boca Raton. … How many do you think we’ll get this year?”
Highland Beach wasn’t far behind.
“This morning we marked our first Leatherback nest,” the Highland Beach Sea Turtle Team said on Facebook on March 6.
Joanne Ryan, who leads the team, said false crawls by mama turtles, when they climb up on the sand but return to the ocean without laying eggs, have been consistently higher in South County the past couple of years.
“This is how everyone can help the sea turtles have a successful nesting
season,” she said. “Lights out, leave nothing on the beach, maintain your distance.”
Another threat to sea turtles is plastic pollution in the ocean. Those party cups we drink from won’t disintegrate in our lifetimes; they just break down into smaller and smaller pieces. Scientists first called these bits “microplastics” and now realize there are even smaller pieces: “nanoplastics.”
Something to think about: While plastic bits are increasing everywhere and can fatally clog a sea turtle’s digestive system, nanoplastics are now showing up in larger concentrations in people’s organs.
In a recent article in Nature Medicine, “researchers examined micro- and nanoplastic (MNP) contamination in brain, liver, and kidney tissue samples collected between 2016 and 2024. In short: People with dementia had up to ten times the amount of microplastics in their brain tissue than those without dementia. Both liver and brain tissues collected in 2024 had significantly higher concentrations of MNPs than those collected in 2016, with the concentration of plastics in brains increasing by about 50% over the past 8 years.”
So please, pick up any plastics when you leave the beach. Reuse or recycle them.
And one last “going,” for those of you who get The Coastal Star thrown in your driveway: This issue is the last to be delivered that way. Coming next month, if you live in a single-family home, you’ll get your copy in your mailbox, delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. It will be a welcome change if you’ve ever had your newspaper drenched by a summer rainstorm.
Ocean Ridge woman turns health scare into community service organization
By Kathleen Kernicky
Carol Besler was always mindful of her health. After retiring from teaching, she moved to Florida, studied acupuncture and earned a degree in Chinese medicine. She stayed fit, walked daily and ran in races. There was no warning when she collapsed at a friend’s home in 2022, changing her life in unexpected ways.
Ocean Ridge police officers gave Besler emergency treatment until neighboring Boynton Beach fire rescue arrived. At the hospital, Besler was told she’d had a stroke.
She later learned that only three Ocean Ridge officers were trained in emergency medical services.
“If none of those three officers were working that day, the outcome could have been very different,” said Besler, 70, a resident of Ocean Ridge since 2005. “I just collapsed. There was no warning at all.”
Besler and a small group of neighbors created the StarBright Civic Collective, a nonprofit corporation that would support community programs in need and organize social events.
One of its first projects was to donate about $45,000 to the Ocean Ridge Police Department to train all officers as certified emergency medical technicians. The funding covered updated equipment for police vehicles, including new defibrillators, fire suppression equipment and Narcan, used to treat overdoses. The department’s existing defibrillators were donated to condo associations.
— Steve Plunkett, Managing Editor
“It was a win-win for the whole town,” said Besler, who believes the training will save lives.
“Our concern was that the town and surrounding communities are getting bigger, and the traffic was getting
NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE A COASTAL STAR
Send a note to news@ thecoastalstar.com or call 561-337-1553.
worse,” she said. “If the bridge is up or a train is going by, it could be several minutes before Boynton Beach arrives. Our Police Department arrives first, provides whatever services they can, and stays with the patient until fire rescue arrives.”
Ocean Ridge contracts with Boynton Beach to provide fire rescue services to the barrier island community of about 1,800 people. Ocean Ridge police officers are dispatched to emergency medical calls and arrive more quickly, usually in two or three minutes.
Boynton Beach borders Ocean Ridge to the west, across the Intracoastal Waterway’s Woolbright Road and Ocean Avenue bridges.
While residents had talked about forming a social group, Besler’s medical emergency helped push an idea into action.
“Historically, the only organization around had been the garden club,” Besler said. “Over the years, the makeup of the community changed. We had more younger people, people with children. There had been talk about, ‘Let’s have a group that has more social activities as well as more services.’ Before it was just talk, there were no formal plans.”
Now president and former chairwoman, Besler works with eight board members who manage the collective. Events take place from fall through spring when the seasonal residents are in town.
“A big part of the mission is to promote socialization,” she said. “We want people to feel connected and involved in the community. We take our cues
from what residents want.” They’ve organized ice cream socials, a popular Bingo Night and seminars on requested topics. They installed a water station for dogs and people outside Town Hall. Their first big fundraising gala was in February at the Eau Palm Beach Resort, organized in just six weeks and selling 120 tickets. In January, the group donated $48,000 to the Police Department to buy a thermalequipped drone and three surveillance cameras. The drone will be used for missing persons searches, storm-related mapping during hurricane season, and responding more quickly to swimmers in distress. The live cameras will help monitor foot and bike traffic at the town’s Intracoastal bridges.
Besler moved to Florida from Princeton Junction, New Jersey, where she spent 25 years as a teacher who later owned and operated state-contracted childcare centers.
“My real love is teaching,” she said. “I started out teaching middle school and did that for two years. But I loved teaching kindergarten. I opened my first nursery school teaching 3- to 5-year-olds. By the time I retired, I had six child-care centers with very young children from 6 months through kindergarten.”
After retiring and moving with her husband, Philip, to Ocean Ridge, the mother of three and grandmother of five found a way to give back to the community.
“Being in education, part of my personality has always been to be a giver,” she said. “I feel blessed to have good people around me. And this has been a good way to give back to the community. I’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this, and every minute has been worth it.” P
Coastal Star
Carol Besler is president of the StarBright Civic Collective, a nonprofit that has funded emergency medical training for Ocean Ridge police and classes for residents. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Letter to the Editor
Ticket drivers who don’t stop for pedestrians trying to cross A1A
I’ve lived in Highland Beach for 26 years. In spite of all the new and improved infrastructure put in place to deter it — the latest of which is pedestrian-activated warning
lights installed at no small expense — vehicles continue to fly through crosswalks with pedestrians present.
Part of the problem, I believe, is that the authorities don’t
• Ponds • Waterfalls • Water Gardens
• Pondless Waterfalls
• Maintenance Programs
• Rebuilds
• Leak Detection 561-876-6277
jason@parkersponds.com
enforce the law, or not often enough. I’ve witnessed police cars ignore such scofflaws on numerous occasions. It almost seems like policy to do so and that’s a scary thought.
I’m no expert on human behavior, but I think it’s intuitive to conclude that if tickets were given, diligently and consistently, even if with only small fines attached, negligent driving habits would change spontaneously.
James Sherman Highland Beach
Publisher’s Note
Same great newspaper, different delivery
The Coastal Star is converting all of its delivery to singlefamily homes, going from newspapers in plastic bags thrown in driveways to having U.S. Postal Service delivery in mailboxes. We are doing this to improve service to our readers and advertisers. Between sprinkler systems and summer rains, we know we have delivered a few wet papers over the years; hopefully this will bring that to an end.
Beginning with our May 2025 edition, readers in singlefamily homes should look for their papers in the mail.
Delivery to condos, businesses and other public locations will continue to be handled in bundles as usual.
Those who receive the paper by mail should not expect to see the next edition before Saturday, May 3.
— Jerry Lower Publisher
Lantana
21-year veteran unseated by political newcomer
By Mary Thurwachter
Newcomer Jesse Rivero, a 50-year-old firefighter, defeated veteran Town Council member Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse for Lantana’s Group 1 Council seat.
Moorhouse, 81, a retired dentist, has been on the council for 21 years and was endorsed by the Professional Firefighters/ Paramedics of Palm Beach County — a surprise and disappointment to Rivero, who has served 20 years with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
But Rivero said at a candidates’ forum sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce eight days before the vote, “He may have the endorsement of the union, but I have the endorsement of the community.”
Rivero collected more than 58% of the vote compared to Moorhouse’s 41%. Only 733 of Lantana’s 6,131 registered voters cast ballots in the March 11 election.
Reached by phone election night, Rivero, celebrating with family and a few friends at El Bohio Cuban Restaurant, said Moorhouse had already called to concede and extend congratulations. Mayor Karen Lythgoe and Police Chief Sean Scheller also called with best wishes.
“Like I said at the debate, I didn’t get the endorsements Doc got, but the people were behind me and whatever the people decide will happen,” Rivero said.
Rivero said he thought the election would be close because Moorhouse had history in the town and knew a lot of people.
“But I know a lot of people, too.” Moorhouse did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Asked to comment about the election and what Moorhouse’s departure would mean, Lythgoe said: “Doc possessed a deep understanding of the council’s history and provided institutional knowledge to the council. I look forward to what Jesse may bring.”
With Moorhouse gone, the longest serving council members are Lythgoe and Mark Zeitler, both of whom were first elected in March 2020.
Kem Mason, who holds the Group 2 spot, was elected automatically when no one else filed to run for the position during the election qualifying period that ended Nov. 15. Mason, 66, is a retired firefighter and is completing his first term. Rivero and Mason were sworn in during the March 24 Town Council meeting. Council terms are for three years. P
Firefighter Jesse Rivero was sworn in March 24 by Town Attorney Max Lohman. Rivero’s wife, Kerri, held the Bible. Mary Thurwachter/The Coastal Star
Homeowner tunnel construction under A1A creates traffic nightmare
By Larry Barszewski
Manalapan town commissioners say there should be a time for homeowners of lots stretching from the Intracoastal Waterway to the ocean to build tunnel passageways under State Road A1A — just not during tourist season when traffic on the road is at its peak.
A traffic nightmare surfaced in late February and March with the simultaneous construction of two tunnels next door to each other, causing heavy traffic backups on A1A on weekends and during weekday rush hours. The work isn’t expected to be completed until the middle of May, Town Manager Eric Marmer said on March 27.
It’s not as if officials couldn’t see the problem coming. Town residents Mary and Ralph Gesualdo asked commissioners in January to force a delay in their neighbors’ efforts to build the tunnels for properties at 1890 and 1900 S. Ocean Blvd. because of the crush of traffic on the road this time of year.
However, at that meeting, Town Attorney Keith Davis said the property owners, Jagbir and Sarla Singh, had permits approved in July for the work and that the town had no authority to stop a valid permit.
The tunnels originally were
It took this southbound driver more than six minutes to clear State Road A1A tunnel construction about 5 p.m. March 26, even with signal timing adjustments made for the heavier southbound traffic flow. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
to be completed in November, but the owners ran into delays with Florida Department of Transportation permitting for the project and then the town requested work be postponed so it wouldn’t cause traffic problems around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
Marmer told commissioners at their March 11 meeting that at least three or four more tunnels are being planned for under A1A, which allows property owners to connect the houses where they live on the west side of A1A with the
beach and their beach houses to the east — without the owners’ having to cross the roadway.
Marmer asked commissioners what they want to see done.
“We do have somebody over there part time that monitors the traffic and has dealt with some road rage incidents over there,” Marmer said.
Commissioners are interested in creating an ordinance that only allows the tunnel work from April 15 through October, possibly limiting construction to one tunnel at a time.
Typically, in the past, the
affected two-lane section of road was closed for a week while crews worked near nonstop to put in a tunnel. It was also possible to close down one lane of traffic at a time to build a tunnel, adding another week to the timeline.
In the recent situation, the state required the homeowners to build a “bypass road” on their property to allow a lane of traffic to continue during construction. The new requirements can create a bigger nightmare, affecting traffic for six weeks or more, town officials said.
“If they close the road down it takes five days. If they do half the road (at a time) it takes two weeks. So now it’s taking six weeks (or longer). I don’t understand,” Commissioner Cindy McMackin said.
Marmer said the town is checking with FDOT to see if it would allow homeowners to go back to the previous ways of building the tunnels.
The recent traffic problems have been exacerbated by portable street signals that have been giving equal time for northbound and southbound traffic to access the singlelane bypass — no matter the difference in the length of the car lines.
“My experience is almost always a one-way problem. Like,
we’re coming up and there are 10 cars going north and 125 going south, things like that,” Commissioner Dwight Kulwin said. “They’re during predictable times and I think if you had somebody there to readjust things and move things along, I think that would go a great way.”
Marmer said it should not be police handling the timing of the signals, but construction crews. “We’re not looking for the police to be flagmen, though. We’re looking for them to be present at the site,” Marmer said. The cost of providing police should be picked up by the applicant, officials said.
Police Chief Jeff Rasor, who had implied a traffic-oriented role for the police earlier in the meeting, backed what Marmer said.
“Obviously, anytime you have a traffic congestion problem, people’s patience becomes very thin, for lack of better words,” Rasor said. “A police presence there obviously has a calming effect on everybody.”
And Vice Mayor Simone Bonutti said there were safety concerns as well. “I even had a runner coming at me this morning, going through that bypass. It’s like a death wish,” she said. “I just want to prevent an accident from happening.” P
Manalapan News
Town commissioners begin new terms — While voters in some towns were going to the polls March 11 to elect town officials, Manalapan Town Clerk Erika Petersen started the day swearing in Mayor John Deese and Commissioners Simone Bonutti, Cindy McMackin and David Knobel to new two-year terms.
Town voters didn’t need to have a say as the four were automatically elected during November’s qualifying period when no one else filed to run for their seats. The swearing-in took place at the regular Town Commission meeting. Commissioners then voted to keep Bonutti as vice mayor and Commissioner Elliot Bonner as mayor pro tem.
Electric lines going underground — Town Manager Eric Marmer announced that FPL plans to underground electric lines on Point Manalapan in about two years. Marmer said he plans to talk with AT&T to see if it could place fiber-optic cables at the same time for better internet access — and Bonutti said she’d like to see natural gas lines installed there as well.
Point Manalapan residents soundly rejected having natural gas lines in 2015, but Bonutti said she thinks current residents may be more amenable to the idea.
Police ATV gaining beach access through South Palm Beach — The absence of public access to the beach in Manalapan makes it challenging for police to use their beach ATV on the north end of town. They have to truck it about 2.5 miles south to near the Boynton Inlet and then head back north up the beach.
Police Chief Jeff Rasor told commissioners a better situation is starting. He said the town of South Palm Beach has agreed to let Manalapan police use a condominium association beach entry point in that town, a short way north of Manalapan.
“It gives us a little bit of extra time maybe to quickly deploy onto the beach. Certainly, it makes it a little bit faster and easier for us,” Rasor said.
Flooding problems to be investigated — The Florida Department of Transportation plans to start a feasibility study regarding perennial flooding problems on State Road A1A, Marmer said. He expects the town should hear something by September, with the state coming up with short-term, mid-term and long-term priorities. The flooding in town is most acute near the intersection of A1A and Ocean Avenue.
“They will present to us at some point their projects that they’re going to do to address all these issues over here, which might come down to fixing the sea wall along here where it floods, the back-flow preventers, raising the roads,” Marmer said.
No more town emails for emergencies — Residents will have to get on board Manalapan’s Code Red service if they want to be notified of emergencies, as the town will no longer be sending out that information through town emails, Marmer said.
Code Red started in the town last year, he said. Gas leaks, road closures and tornado warnings are among the items sent out via Code Red.
“It’s kind of a liability to have those emails go out,” Marmer said of the town’s notices, which will continue for non-emergency items. Residents who haven’t done so can register for Code Red alerts on the town website, www.manalapan.org
July 8 chosen for crucial budget meeting — Commissioners have to approve a tentative budget and a maximum property tax rate in July, but getting a quorum that month can be difficult as board members flee the summer heat. Last year, McMackin resigned so that the three commissioners at the meeting would be enough for a quorum (instead of the four typically needed). She was then reappointed in August.
“We need a quorum in the room, otherwise Cindy has to resign again,” Town Attorney Keith Davis joked.
The commissioners settled on holding the budget/tax rate meeting on July 8 along with their regular meeting. Marmer had hoped to hold the meeting later in the month, giving him more time to make any needed adjustments based on the final property tax assessment totals. Those are not expected from the county property appraiser until July 1, but he assured commissioners he could meet the earlier deadline. The commission also scheduled a budget workshop for June 5.
— Larry Barszewski
Ocean Ridge
Dogs on beach have residents howling; mayor wants more patrols
By John Pacenti
Man’s best friend is public enemy No. 1 in Ocean Ridge. The dogs illegally romping in the sand, playing in the surf — and yes, pooping — had town commissioners, residents and police snapping at each other like chihuahuas.
Maybe everybody was a bit tired and a bit hungry after an interminable — and draining — presentation on the town’s comprehensive plan at the commission’s March 3 meeting, but there was a lot of bark when it came to dogs on the beach.
“We hear this every single year at this time, from February 1, around May 1. We go through this every single one of these meetings,” Mayor Geoff Pugh said.
Resident Stella Kolb was rabid mad about the issue.
“This past week, I can’t tell you, there has to be at least four or five times that I have seen dogs poop on the beach, and only one of the owners would pick it up,” Kolb said.
Resident Lucy Brown added, “The worst thing about no dogs on the beach is that there are big signs on every beach access saying dogs are not allowed on
the beach. So every single time that a resident or nonresident goes happily skipping past the sign with their dogs, we are saying to them, our rules mean nothing.”
Pugh got consensus on the commission to increase fines for first offenders from $25 to $100 and went one step further, addressing Police Chief Scott
McClure.
“What about the next budget cycle, add whatever one of you thinks would be necessary to increase, whatever you have to increase to have somebody patrolling the beach, especially during the weekends, and taking care of it,” he said.
McClure pushed back first on Vice Mayor Steve Coz’s claim
that his department wasn’t using its all-terrain vehicle on the beach. “They never left the beach,” he said. “We do one patrol every shift.”
He tried to explain that officers were giving people warnings as they walked their dogs across State Road A1A to Beachway Drive to access the beach. And they were issuing citations. However, there is a mighty big loophole for dog owners.
“Officers can only ask two questions: Is that a service dog and what service does it provide,” he said. “If they give us an answer of one of the designated services, then they can have a dog on the beach.”
McClure noted that the town has not seen a single stolen car or burglary in two years thanks to street patrols.
He stressed to residents not to confront dog owners on the beach. “Please contact us first because these people are even confrontational with us,” he said.
Lt. Aaron Choban then gave a hard dose of reality, noting that three officers work at a time and sometimes one of those officers is on personal time off.
Dedicating one of those
officers to doggy patrol “leaves one officer in town to respond to any number of situations. We saw what happened with the wood chipper incident,” referring to a January incident when a tree trimmer was killed at Town Hall while putting branches into a wood chipper. “We have people in town who have heart attacks.”
Always the pragmatist, Pugh said, “I’m not saying be on the beach all the time. You guys are making it sound like I want some guy sitting there getting baked by the sun the whole time.”
Kolb then returned to the podium, saying it wasn’t just about dogs, but about safety. She and another woman were followed from the beach, she said. “I don’t pay taxes here to live like this. I am very upset. My husband is very upset. This is not about dogs.”
McClure then told Kolb, “In that circumstance you said something to somebody with a dog.”
At the end of a nearly 31/2hour meeting, Pugh finally found consensus among everyone present: “I am about dog tired right now.” P
Ocean Ridge residents are upset that some dog owners are bringing their pets to the beach against town rules. They insist town officials enforce the rules and increase patrols to keep dogs off the beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Gulf Stream
Roadwork project now expected to continue into next year
By Steve Plunkett
Work on Phase 2 of the town’s $13 million water main, drainage and road project — affecting homes on the east side of Gulf Stream’s Core area — did not start as expected in March, a delay that will push construction into 2026.
How far into next year? “I think that would be dangerous to give you any kind of date,” Town Manager Greg Dunham said.
The contractor, Roadway Associates LLC, had hoped to reach “substantial completion” of the first phase by March 27 and get permission to start the second, which it then expected would have been finished in mid-December. But the company and the town had widely different definitions of “substantial.”
“I just believe based on historical performances and meeting deadlines that they in fact set for themselves to meet,
Ocean
I don’t feel comfortable moving on and starting a new phase with so much that’s left to do in Phase 1,” Dunham told the Town Commission on March 15.
“We were presented with the idea that we were going to be able to start Phase 2 when Phase 1 was not 100% completed,” Roadway project manager George Perez countered.
The main hang-up was the fact that the Palm Beach County Health Department had not approved the new PVC piping on the west side of the Core as “fit for public use,” nor had it been asked to as of April 1.
Delray Beach, which supplies the town with drinking water, also has to accept the new pipes, Dunham said.
Obtaining Health Department approval could take two to four weeks once the application is submitted, officials said at the March 15 commission meeting. Then 78 homes will need to be
connected, at the rate of five homes per day, Perez said, or about 16 workdays.
“You’re not realistically getting this thing wrapped up … till like the middle of June,” Vice Mayor Tom Stanley said.
Dunham said the contractor has continued to restore the landscaping, sprinklers and driveways of homes affected by the first phase.
Gulf Stream has put Roadway on notice “that the date of substantial completion has passed and that we are starting to calculate liquidated damages,” Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro said. Those damages are set at $500 for each additional day the project isn’t finished.
And Perez said the contractor will be requesting additional days beyond the date specified in its contract to make up for unforeseen problems it encountered. “It’s about 60 days if you make me try to guess,” he said. P
Ridge Mayor worried about flooding as FDOT repaves East Ocean Avenue
By John Pacenti
With the Florida Department of Transportation starting to repave East Ocean Avenue in March, Ocean Ridge Mayor Geoff Pugh wanted to make sure FDOT officials were aware of flooding on the road — especially during king tides.
The $1.3 million project will repave Ocean Avenue from Federal Highway to State Road A1A and will stretch late into this year. It will include milling and repaving, upgrading signage, adding LED lighting, and improving pavement markings for motorists and bicyclists, said FDOT spokeswoman Silvana Ojeda.
Pugh said at the March 3 Town Commission meeting that his concern is that FDOT already doesn’t maintain a 36inch pipe that feeds storm water to the Intracoastal Waterway. “When that happens, during these king tides, and that thing is not cleaned out, it floods the whole road,” he said.
When FDOT mills the road for asphalt, it’s going to be even lower by 4 to 6 inches, “So we will have even more water on the road,” Pugh said.
Tuck Lee, the design project
manager, said the 190-day contract builds into it weather delays. Furthermore, the milling will be followed by the repaving before that section is reopened to traffic. Only one lane will be closed at any one time.
Pugh’s additional concern was noise, especially after 5 p.m. “You can’t be milling at night next to these homeowners that are right there,” he said.
The plan currently is to mill during the day and pave at night, Lee told the commission.P
Highland Beach
Voters give town go-ahead to spend money on dock, old fire station
By Rich Pollack
In an election with a light turnout, Highland Beach voters on March 11 agreed to let town leaders spend up to $3.5 million on a public safety boat dock and renovation to the town’s old fire station.
Just 391 voters — a little more than 10% of those registered to vote — cast ballots, with 234 voting in favor of giving commissioners permission to spend money on the projects and 157 voting no.
“I’m very thankful for the
Boca Raton
people who voted in favor,” said Mayor Natasha Moore. “People are recognizing the importance of public safety.”
Police Chief Craig Hartmann and Town Manager Marshall Labadie have said the dock, planned for an area on the Intracoastal Waterway behind the town’s library, will increase visibility of the department’s marine unit.
It will also make it easier for Highland Beach’s marine officers and fire rescue personnel to respond to emergencies on the water.
The town is also hoping to use the money approved by voters to demolish a part of the old fire station, just north of Town Hall, and upgrade the bay area where the town now keeps a backup rescue unit and a backup fire truck.
The price of the dock project is estimated to be $1.5 million to $2 million, and town leaders hope that the Florida Inland Navigation District will cover half the cost. Should that not happen, the town’s expense could be over $900,000, the current spending limit before
voter approval is required.
Voter approval was also needed for the old fire station project, which could cost up to $1.5 million, or about $600,000 over the spending cap.
By putting the issue on the ballot, the town in essence hedged its bets so it can move forward without delays regardless of the outcome of the grant request for the dock or cost estimated for the old fire station.
“We hope we don’t have to spend over $900,000,” Labadie said.
Last year, Highland Beach built a new fire station to replace the longtime station that Labadie said was too old, too small and below the flood plain.
While there were discussions about possibly keeping the entire building, Labadie said that the living quarters section would need too much work. Instead, the town is getting cost estimates for work to fix the bay area and electrical storage areas and replace the roof.
“We’re using the building for storage of $2 million worth of equipment,” he said. P
City, developer agree to interim pact amid objections from residents
By Mary Hladky
Moving on an accelerated timeline, the Boca Raton City Council has approved an interim agreement with Terra and Frisbie Group that allows the joint venture to refine its conceptual plans for redeveloping the 30-acre downtown government campus.
At the same time, Terra/ Frisbie and the city will assess whether the project is financially viable and if the proposed public-private partnership between them is in the best interests of the city.
Another component is developing plans to ensure little disruption to city services if the project moves forward, such as finding temporary offices for city workers displaced when theirs are demolished, making sure there is a functioning police headquarters off-site during construction, and that any recreational facilities that are displaced have a new home.
The time Terra/Frisbie has to make changes to its initial proposal has been reduced by one month, with the deadline now Aug. 25. If all goes well, the two sides could have a final deal by the end of October, or two months earlier than originally projected.
Even with that, the campus will take nine years to complete, according to initial projections.
The council members’ action on March 18 comes just
five weeks after they selected Terra/Frisbie as their top choice to handle the massive redevelopment.
In addition to building a new City Hall and Community Center, Terra/Frisbie has proposed 1,129 residential units, 84,790 square feet of retail, 71,800 square feet of food and beverage, 265,758 square feet of garage and surface parking, a 150-room hotel, a 250,000-square-foot office building, a 10,000-square-foot police substation and six acres of green space.
Residents filled the council chambers to capacity to give their opinions, with a few supporting the development but the majority voicing objections raised every time a major project is proposed in the downtown.
Chief among them is that the council is allowing overdevelopment that will diminish their quality of life and clog roads, causing more accidents.
“We elect you guys. You are going against our desire. Please, I beg you, do not build any more,” said one woman as the audience applauded.
Some said they learned only recently about the development plans, complaining the city had left them uninformed.
And several demanded that the council step back and instead let residents vote on the proposal.
“A project this immense, it needs a vote,” said a man who said he was speaking for 20 people in his neighborhood as the audience applauded loudly. “There are so many people who do not know about this.”
In a rejoinder, Mayor Scott Singer said, “It might surprise you to know a lot of people have various opinions. … A lot of people are excited about the proposal before us.”
“Where are they today?” several residents shouted.
Two residents asked why the city was moving so quickly into a public-private partnership with developers, rather than financing the project with a bond issue which the city’s strong financial position easily allows it to do.
As the comments became heated, two residents suggested council members had accepted bribes to vote in favor of the project.
That drew pushback from Deputy Mayor Yvette Drucker. “Your comment about taking bribes is in very poor taste,” she said. “No one is bribing us to do anything.”
Yet most of the criticism came from downtown residents who do not want to lose the recreational facilities — including tennis courts, softball fields and a skate park — located near City Hall.
City Manager George Brown previously has said that the city is working with the Greater
Boca Raton Beach and Park District to find new homes for recreational facilities that will be moved off-site to make way for development. But all will be replaced or enhanced, he said. The softball fields will go to Sugar Sand Park and the skate park might move to North Park.
Judy Morrow, an avid tennis player, brought 250 signed petitions from people who want to preserve the existing 10 clay courts at the Boca Raton Tennis Center.
While Terra/Frisbie has conceptually proposed four hard courts within the downtown government campus, that is insufficient to accommodate the 21,000 players who used the existing courts last year, she said in an interview. And hard courts are not a good option for older players with knee and joint issues.
Further, other tennis facilities close to the downtown are always full and have hard courts, she said.
Speaking at the meeting, she begged Brown, “Please, please, please keep the Boca Raton Tennis Center downtown.”
“It is the city’s clear intention to replace the 10 courts with 10 courts,” he told the audience. Although no location has been selected yet, “we will have a plan to replace the courts.”
Thomson’s ‘no’ vote
As the council neared a vote on the interim agreement, the meeting veered in a very different direction.
Council member Andy Thomson renewed objections that he had made a month earlier. “In my view, all the proposals were too large, too dense, too intense, too many units, too many issues related to recreational facilities,” he said.
The timeline to reach a final agreement with Terra/Frisbie seemed “too rushed” and needed to be slowed down.
He then said a contract clause, stating that the developer shall not be involved in any political campaign for city office or make financial contributions to such campaigns, had originally been in the contract
but was removed.
That clause, he said, had been included in city contracts for decades.
“This represents a pretty significant departure from policy of the city. It is being done without any notice or discussion,” he said. “That is just not good. … Everyone we do business with should be controlled by this.”
He made a motion to add back the clause. It failed when no other council member seconded it, drawing a loud “wow” from several audience members.
City Attorney Joshua Koehler said the language applied to vendors. But if the council wanted to include that or modified language, it could.
Terra/Frisbie, he said, did not object to the clause.
Thomson said that since the city had used the clause for years, it should do so for a “far more consequential relationship” with Terra/Frisbie. “This is a really strange time to take it out,” he said.
Singer suggested amending the wording, but Drucker and Council member Fran Nachlas were not comfortable drafting contract language on the fly and suggested delaying the vote until another meeting could be held to do so.
That didn’t happen. The council quickly voted 4-1 to approve the interim agreement with Terra/Frisbie, with Thomson dissenting.
Before the vote, Drucker pointedly noted that Thomson had been the only council member who voted on Feb. 11 against Terra/Frisbie as their choice to redevelop the downtown campus, instead favoring Related Ross in what he said at the time was “a very close call” between “two exceptional companies.”
In an interview after the meeting, Thomson said he thought it was necessary to raise the issue since the city had used the contract language routinely for decades, and yet it was missing in the one with Terra/
Continued on the next page
Boca Raton
City’s DNA ‘is about innovation,’ mayor says
By Mary Hladky
Addressing hundreds of city residents, Mayor Scott Singer cast Boca Raton as a shining city with a remarkable past that is poised to achieve even greater success as it celebrates its 100th birthday this year and heads into a new centennial.
“At its core, Boca Raton’s DNA is about innovation. It is about making opportunity a reality. It was and must continue to be about getting things done,” he said in his March 14 annual “State of the City” remarks delivered at the Mizner Park Amphitheater.
As his chief example, Singer cited the city’s plans to redevelop the 30-acre downtown government campus to include a new City Hall and Community Center along with residential, office, hotel, restaurants and shops and green gathering places.
“Why take this on?” he asked. “The answer is simple. Our city is known for forward-thinking decisions. For our next 100 years, we need to lean into that legacy. We cannot accept the status quo. We must dare to be bold and tackle what may be difficult.”
Always Boca’s chief booster, Singer cited the city’s low crime and property tax rates, highest property valuation of any city in the county, triple-A bond rating, 13,000 businesses, 40 headquarters for publicly traded corporations and its beaches and 49 parks.
As Singer wrapped up, a montage of celebrities wished the city a happy birthday, including Tua Tagovailoa, Dan Marino and Chris Evert, along with politicians such as U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.
The speech was part of a free community celebration that included music by REMiX, yard games and food and beverage stalls.
The amphitheater was ringed by booths for each of the city’s departments where employees were on hand to answer residents’ questions and inform
Continued from page 14
Frisbie.
“When the city decides to do business with whoever, those relationships should be based on the quality of work and business reasons and not on what could be perceived as political influence,” he said.
Someone must have asked it be removed, but Terra/Frisbie did not do so and city staff did not demand it, he said.
Queried about Drucker’s implication that he was acting in favor of Related Ross, Thomson said he had “no animus to Terra/ Frisbie,” considers the company “very talented” and credited it for not having any objection to the contract language. P
them about ongoing projects.
A booth that attracted a steady stream of residents was staffed by representatives of Terra and Frisbie Group, the team with which the City Council has an interim agreement to redevelop the government campus.
For visuals, Terra/Frisbie showed its conceptual site plan and images of some of the plan’s key features.
A representative said some residents praised the project, while others offered “constructive criticism” that will be taken into account as work continues on final plans.
For those who wanted to show their support for the city during its centennial year, citybranded centennial T-shirts, polo shirts, bags, bottles and more were available for purchase. P
Delray Beach
Police union banned from parades for a year after St. Patrick’s Day stunt
By John Pacenti
Delray Beach banned the Police Benevolent Association from participating in parades for a year after the union changed a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” sign on a mobile billboard during the March 15 parade to one that attacked elected officials over the state of contract negotiations.
It was just the latest stunt by the PBA, which has been telling residents that crime is spiking in the city and that their electeds want to defund the police.
At the City Commission meeting on Feb. 18, the union filled the gallery with dozens of members. Officers in the front row puffed up their biceps and flashed their extensive tattoos.
Officer Friendly this was not. Some residents critical of the PBA have written emails to city officials, calling the union’s tactics “thuggery.”
John Kazanjian, president of the PBA in Palm Beach County, said during the public comments at the Feb. 18 meeting that officers were fleeing Delray Beach.
“I’m not saying that we’re in a crisis yet, but I’m going to tell you, the city of Delray is that close to being in a crisis. You’ve lost eight officers since we’ve been negotiating the contract,” he said.
Then came the mobile
The Police Benevolent Association was banned from participating in Delray Beach parades for a year after its mobile billboard, shown above, changed its messaging in the St. Patrick’s Day parade from holiday-oriented to one critical of the city’s elected officials. Photo provided
billboard. First showing up the weekend of Feb. 22, the signage was adorned with images of Mayor Tom Carney and Vice Mayor Juli Casale. “Violent crime is rising in Delray Beach,” one slide read. It urged residents to contact elected leaders “to start funding our police force.”
The city said the PBA promised, in its application to participate in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, to use its mobile billboard to wish residents a happy holiday. Somewhere along the March 15 route, the billboard changed the display to images of Carney, Casale and Commissioner Tom Markert. “Our police are among the lowest paid in Palm Beach,” the
billboard read.
The stunt did not go over well with City Manager Terrence Moore, who wrote to the PBA on March 19 that the union submitted false information and would be suspended for a year from participating in city parades.
“Well, there’s a time and a place for everything, and this wasn’t the time or the place,” Carney said.
Kazanjian fired back in a letter on March 21, saying Moore was lying about the permit, calling it “more of the same from the city: silence critics and hide the truth from the city’s residents when it comes to low officer pay, poor
of services at Delray Medical Center. “We have this Wellness Center, which has doctors and everything. They don’t pay a dime. They’re in the system. They can take their kids there. They get free drugs,” he said.
Some of the highest-paid employees in the city are police officers, with 14 making well north of $190,000 a year, according to data provided to The Coastal Star. The city does concede nine officers have left since contract negotiations started last June, but says it has recruited replacements.
officer retention and rising violent crime statistics.”
Kazanjian ended the letter by saying the union would not abide by the ban. “We look forward to participating in next year’s parade whether we’re ‘allowed’ to do so or not.”
Delray Beach, in the meantime, released information that violent crime had gone down by 70% and property crimes decreased by 65% since 1996. The city said it has offered police a 14% increase over three years and a comprehensive benefits package.
“The city of Delray Beach remains committed to ensuring public safety through proactive law enforcement and community partnerships, resulting in a steady decline in crime since 1996,” Moore told The Coastal Star. “While we negotiated in good faith with the PBA, we continue to stand by our offered competitive compensation package that supports our dedicated officers without compromising the city’s financial responsibility to residents,” Moore said.
Carney added that officers and their families have free rein
Carney said the real issue for the union is retirement benefits for the top-ranking officers in the department. He said the union wants an expansion from five to eight years of the Deferred Retirement Option Program known as DROP.
“If approved, this extension would allow senior officers to collect their full salaries while simultaneously receiving at least 70% of that salary in retirement benefits, for three additional years,” Carney told residents in his news release.
Senior officers have advanced to supervisory roles, holding the rank of sergeant, lieutenant, or captain or chief.
So tax dollars, the mayor said, would go not to providing more officers but to paying retirement benefits. The city says 17 Delray Beach officers are currently in the DROP program. Hypothetically, an officer earning $100,000 per year would continue collecting his or her full salary while also banking at least $70,000 per year in retirement benefits, Carney said.
“It’s the senior officers, and there’s a bunch of them that are in the five-year drop, that are coming off the five-year drop, which means they want to stay an additional three years to collect their salary. I mean, I’m sorry,” Carney said. P
Highland Beach
Departing commissioner reflects on six years on dais
By Rich Pollack
Evalyn David hadn’t planned on becoming a Highland Beach town commissioner.
A lawyer who practiced trust, estate and tax law and was now retired, David had never even been to a Town Commission meeting when she was drafted to run for the position by a couple of her neighbors in the Boca Highland Beach Club and Marina community.
“It was completely out of my wheelhouse,” she said. “I had never done anything like this before.”
By the time all the ballots were cast, David had beaten an incumbent by fewer than 45 votes, receiving 990 votes in one of the most contentious elections the town has ever seen.
Now, six years after her first meeting as a commissioner, David has left the dais due to term limits, but she’s not leaving town government altogether. She was recently named to the town’s Planning Board where she will be able to keep her hand in Highland Beach’s business.
“Now that I’ve invested six years of my life, I don’t want to leave,” she said.
Her fellow commissioners agreed by appointing her to the board and say that David’s skills will certainly be a plus in her
new role.
“She is definitely a voice of reason,” said Mayor Natasha Moore. “She is incredibly insightful and always on point.”
David’s six years started at a tumultuous time for the town, but have ended at a time when the commissioners work well together, with unanimous votes the rule rather than the exception.
“I agreed to run because there was chaos at the Town Commission level,” she said.
Also, on the ballot in 2019 when she ran was a controversial proposal to spend $45 million on improvements on an Ocean Walk corridor. That issue failed with less than 10% of voters in favor.
David said that once she won the race, she wondered if she would be successful.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, can I actually do this?’” she said. “It turned out that I could and I’ve done a pretty good job.”
As a commissioner, David attended 173 meetings and took on the unofficial role of motion maker.
She made more than 800 motions, including 119 seconds, to help ensure resolutions and ordinances are presented in a simple form.
“I started making motions because some of the other ones
were so convoluted,” she said.
People who have worked with David say a large part of her success as commissioner was her dedication to arriving at meetings prepared. She read backup materials and listened to residents and other commissioners.
“I believe in working together,” she said. “You have to understand that compromise is necessary.”
David, 76, believes that her legal background was helpful on the commission.
“You have to be able to think logically,” she said. “You need to keep things in perspective.”
During David’s time on the commission, the town completed several major projects, including starting its own fire department and implementing a building recertification process.
David is proud of those projects and of working closely with the late Mayor Doug Hillman, who led the charge on both.
David said she enjoyed her time on the commission and is glad that she agreed to run back when she really didn’t know what she was getting into.
“I feel that I did a lot of good for the town and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction,” she said. P
Evalyn David, first elected to the Town Commission in 2019, has left the job because of term limits but has been appointed to the town’s Planning Board. Rich Pollack/The Coastal Star
Boca Raton News
City’s CFO promoted to deputy manager — James Zervis, Boca Raton’s chief financial officer, has been promoted to deputy city manager.
Zervis was hired one year ago to replace Linda Davidson, who retired after 41 years with the city.
Zervis will remain chief financial officer, but his responsibilities have been expanded to include overseeing the Public Works and Engineering, and Information Technology departments. He also is involved in efforts to redevelop the city’s downtown government campus.
Before joining the city, Zervis served as chief administrative officer for Kern County, California, which at the time had a $3.5 billion budget.
The city long has been recognized for its financial acumen. It recently received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association, a distinction it has held for more than four decades.
That association also awarded the city’s Office of Management and Budget the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the 42nd consecutive year, and the Florida Association of Public Procurement Officials recognized the city with the Award of Excellence in Procurement.
Police Department honored — The city’s Police Department has been honored with reaccreditation by the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation as an Excelsior agency.
The department is the only one in Florida to earn Excelsior status for the sixth time. To earn Excelsior status, the department must complete five successful reaccreditations. The department was first accredited in 1997 and earned Excelsior status in 2012.
Downtown shopping plaza celebrates 60th — Joining the roster of important birthdays in Boca Raton, Royal Palm Place is marking its 60th anniversary.
Also in party mode is the city, now 100 years old, and the Boca Raton Museum of Art, which is 75.
Royal Palm Place celebrated on March 29 with a free festival that included live music, an antique and supercar car show, roaming performers, an outdoor vendors market and special deals at restaurants and retailers.
Royal Palm Place, located south of the younger Mizner Park, opened in 1964 to the enthusiasm of local residents who yearned for upscale shopping. They called it the Pink Plaza for many years — a name still used by some today — and it echoed the architectural style and color of what is now The Boca Raton resort.
“The citizens were very happy,” said Susan Gillis, Boca Raton Historical Society curator. “They did not have to schlep to Fort Lauderdale or Delray (to shop). It was a welcome addition to the downtown.”
Prominent landowners James and Marta Batmasian purchased the 14-acre property, then known as Royal Palm Plaza, in 1987 for $14.5 million, according to the Boca Raton News. At the time, it had fallen into disrepair and was largely vacant.
Since then, Royal Palm Place has evolved, and shed the pink paint. It now includes apartments, fashion and jewelry boutiques, dining and entertainment, salons, fitness centers and art galleries.
Nachlas chosen to be deputy mayor — Boca Raton City Council members unanimously chose Fran Nachlas to succeed Yvette Drucker as deputy mayor during a brief March 31 council organization meeting.
Council member Marc Wigder nominated Nachlas, and Drucker seconded the nomination.
Drucker, who is term-limited from seeking another three-year council term, announced last year that she was joining the 2026 contest to succeed term-limited state Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton. Berman has endorsed Drucker.
Drucker was first elected to the council in 2021 and won reelection last year with 77% of the vote. She is a first-generation Cuban American and is the first Hispanic to serve on the council.
Nachlas, a retired surgical nurse, won election to the council in November 2022 when no other candidate filed to run for the seat. She would have had to wait until the following March to assume office, but the seat was already vacant and her fellow council members, seeing no reason for that wait, appointed her to the position.
Wigder was chosen as chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency, a position he had held until Nachlas took it last year. Council member Andy Thomson was named CRA vice chair. Council members do double duty to also head up the CRA, which oversees the downtown.
“I just say congratulations to my colleagues in your new roles,” said Mayor Scott Singer. “Thank you for your prior service in your past roles.”
— Mary Hladky
Zervis
Nachlas
Town manager ready to propose sizable tax increase
By Steve Plunkett
Briny
Breezes Town Manager Bill
Thrasher is preparing a budget for fiscal year 2026 that will raise town property taxes to $6.75 per $1,000 of taxable value, up 80% from the current $3.75 rate.
“Its purpose is for covering debt service with a possible loan,” he told town aldermen at their March 27 meeting.
Thrasher said he was developing different budget packages to respond to possible changes in local funding by state lawmakers in Tallahassee, including their potentially doing away with property
taxes entirely.
“As far as I know, that hasn’t been picked up,” he said. “I don’t think that’s really going to happen.”
But proposals to increase the homestead exemption by $25,000 or even $50,000 might, he said, so he was preparing budgets to take each scenario into account. The next fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
Briny Breezes has 156 properties that claim a homestead exemption, he said.
Alderman Bill Birch said a $6.75 tax rate would have a small effect on residents’ total property tax bills, which
include levies from Palm Beach County, the county School District and other taxing authorities.
He held out his own property tax bill as proof.
“If it went from $3.75 to $6.75 my tax bill would change by $133 a year total coming back to Briny. I would only wind up paying an increase of $11 a month. So it’s not doubling your tax bill by any means,” Birch said.
Fiscal year 2024 was the first time since 2009 that Briny Breezes did not levy $10 per $1,000 of taxable value, the maximum allowed by state law,
and levied only $3.75 per $1,000. The maneuver was said to give the town room to raise taxes, perhaps back to the $10 rate, to repay loans it might take out to finance sea walls, drainage improvements and new streets to fight sea-level rise.
Meanwhile, Briny Breezes Inc. paid 70% of the cost of police and fire rescue services in town, which it offset by charging residents of the mobile home park higher annual assessments. In prior years, the town used the maximum $10 tax rate to enable residents to take a higher deduction on their federal tax returns. P
Shareholders say yes to project, but feds put $1.4 million grant on hold
By Steve Plunkett
Town residents, acting as shareholders of Briny Breezes Inc., strongly endorsed allowing the town government to proceed with its plan to make “material alteration” of Briny Breezes, meaning its drainage and sea wall project.
The Feb. 26 vote was 65% in favor and 12% against, with 23% of shares not voting. The measure needed 51% to pass.
“I’m so thrilled that we were allowed to go forward with this project,” Council President Liz Loper said at the council’s regular meeting the next day.
But a month later, at their March 27 meeting, the aldermen were dismayed by news of the status of the town’s $1.4 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Our federal grant is paused,” Town Manager Bill Thrasher said. “I’ve received a letter from the Treasury Department that our grant is in pause. Our grant has not been denied or pulled back as of this moment.”
Thrasher did not consider the federal action to be a
setback.
“We’re not quite ready to move forward anyway,” he said. “The Resilient Florida grant, we’re trying to modify it to achieve some of our purposes. … But there is a pause on the federal side. I’ve not been given any notices whatsoever from the state side.”
Briny Breezes qualified for a $7.2 million grant from the Resilient Florida program. The town hopes to build a comprehensive, townwide drainage system and raise its sea walls to fight perennial flooding and expected sealevel rise. The total project cost is $14.4 million.
In February, Palm Beach County rejected the town’s request for a $5 million grant to help pay for the project.
But County Commissioner Marci Woodward “was very impressed with your dedication and efforts, and asked our resilience team to continue exploring other potential options for the town moving forward,” Caitlin Joyce, Woodward’s chief of staff, wrote in an email to Thrasher. P
Continued from page 1
soon.
“The City Council passed an ordinance declaring it a historic tree on Jan. 14, 1992,” said Keith Nelson, a member of the association’s board of directors and the city’s parks and recreation advisory board.
A Por La Mar resident since 2003, he pointed up Park Drive toward Spanish Trail.
“Capt. Tom Rickards built the first house in Boca Raton right about there in 1897. He wasn’t a real captain, but he was a civil engineer who’d come down to do surveying for Flagler’s railroad extension,” Nelson said. “Everybody talks about Addison Mizner, but Capt. Rickards was Boca’s true founding father.
“I love history,” he added.
Nelson had positioned a couple of easels by the picnic check-in table. One bore a 1928 photograph of ladies relaxing under that same buttonwood tree. The other offered the original platting map for Por La Mar, filed on April 7, 1925, a hundred years ago this month.
The street layout is unchanged today. Park Drive is still Park Drive, Spanish Trail still Spanish Trail, and the little piece of land in the center designated “Park” was still there to welcome the picnickers.
“We’re a small town with a beach flavor,” said Katie MacDougall, the Riviera Civic Association president, “yet just across the bridge you’ve got the downtown. This is the last vestige of Boca’s beach town ambience.”
The RCA represents about 400 homes in three adjacent neighborhoods. Sun and Surf, arriving in the 1950s, stretches south from Red Reef Park to Northeast Sixth Street, where the Riviera neighborhood was established in 1945, turning into little Por La Mar south of Palmetto Park Road.
On this afternoon, about 100 residents of all three neighborhoods converged in the park to meet and mingle, dine on chicken, seafood, or veggie paella, and tell a curious visitor how much they love where they live.
“I’ve lived in Sun and Surf since 1971, when I was 9 years old,” boasted Dan Schauer. Dan and Mary Schauer love the neighborhood so much that two years ago they had their house on Coquina Way torn down to have another built on the same lot.
“We just moved back in after two years in Boynton Beach while the house was being built,” he said. “We wouldn’t have been here so long if not for all the nice people. There’s
been a lot of building and reconstruction, but there’s still a lot of old community members, and I’m so happy to be back. It’s nice to get up and walk down the street and put your toes in the sand.”
William Sun was vacationing from Santa Cruz, California, in 2015, when housing was still affordable at the tail end of the recession. He looked up some Realtors on a whim, and wound up buying in Riviera.
“California is very left
ABOVE: Residents enjoy food and friendship at the Riviera Civic Association’s annual picnic for the Por La Mar, Riviera and Sun and Surf neighborhoods at Por La Mar’s park. Por La Mar turns 100 years old on April 7. LEFT: A Boston fern grows from the bark of the buttonwood tree that is the central point of the park. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
leaning,” he said, “but here we have a common goal of keeping our neighborhoods development free, so we get in on the ground floor with the City Council.”
As the afternoon slipped toward evening and more picnickers arrived, you couldn’t help noticing a shortage of younger picnickers, which is why the Lerner family stood out.
Ken and Sherry Lerner had planned to move from west Boca to someplace nearer the ocean once they’d become empty nesters. Their youngest, Joshua, was still in school and living at home.
But then they happened on a fixer-upper in Riviera, one of the modest homes built in 1945, when Boca Raton Army Air Field brought 15,000 service members to a town of 700, along with a huge housing shortage.
Two years ago, they bought the house and had a new nest, not yet empty.
Joshua Lerner is 17 now, and a junior at FAU High School.
“I like it,” he said of his new
neighborhood. “It’s definitely different.” He paused. “It’s definitely quiet.” He paused again. “I’ve seen a couple young people around.”
But his father had enough enthusiasm for both.
“The people here are wonderful,” Ken Lerner enthused, “and the vibe is very different. Very chill. This is where we’re going to be.”
By the end of the day, the tables would be gone, the paella eaten, and all the easels and historic photos removed. But the old green buttonwood tree would remain, a hundred years on, still reigning in dignified silence over the little neighborhood park.
“Plans are still not complete, but we’re going to rededicate the tree sometime this year as part of the city’s centennial celebrations,” Keith Nelson promised.
“We’ll sing Happy Birthday to it and maybe have some cupcakes.” P
Reef madness: City diving deep to restore struggling coral
By John Pacenti
In a cramped office space in West Palm Beach’s Northwood neighborhood, in a room bathed in blue light, the ocean not only lives, it thrives.
“So everything that you see here mimics the healthiest version of the ocean that we can have,” said Leneita Fix, executive director of The Reef Institute, whose topaz eyes are literally the color of the Caribbean ocean.
“These lights follow sunrise and sunset every day and the seasons. So this coral thinks it is 12:35 on March 4th in Palm Beach County.”
The baby coral will end up offshore of Delray Beach under plans hatched by a little-known committee on reef restoration. Delray Beach Sustainability Officer Kent Edwards asked the City Commission at its March 11 meeting for $117,000 annually to fund the effort.
But this is Delray Beach, right? Nothing is so simple and the request ran straight into the teeth of Mayor Tom Carney — who insisted the amount initially requested was $40,000, not $117,000.
Carney claimed at one point that he felt it was a “bait and switch,” and that he didn’t expect a request for $117,000.
“I love reefs. Seriously. I fish the reefs all the time. So to the extent that we can improve marine life, I’m 100% for,” he told The Coastal Star.
“I clearly understand the importance. It was just something different than I expected.”
Still, the $40,000 eventually approved is enough to get started. “The hope is that this only will be the start of the funding,” Fix said. “Their fiscal year starts in [October] and so we will seek to put in the budget for that year and there will be additional fundraising, as well.”
Fix and her team planned to assess sites on April 2. “The focus is going to be on getting coral in the water,” she said.
Living creatures
A quick background on coral.
Coral is an animal and it’s not doing great due to pollution, ocean acidification, ocean temperature increases (last summer was devastating off South Florida’s coastline) and disease.
Marine biologist Sylvia Earle “has a statement. She says, ‘We don’t even know what will
happen when all the coral is gone,’” Fix said.
Florida’s coral reef is 350 miles long, extending from the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County.
Some corals have nearly gone extinct in the wild, like pillar coral; however, they live in Fix’s lab. Fix explained that certain corals in her lab are not outplanted, referring to them as a “living biobank” that will act as a baby factory to continuously produce new offspring.
The restoration effort
Enter Delray Beach’s little committee that could.
Organized by Jim Chard, a former commissioner and chairman of the city’s Historic Preservation Board, the committee also includes Vice Mayor Juli Casale, Edwards, Fix and stakeholders such as the Sandoway Discovery Center.
“I am excited to be moving the reef restoration initiative forward,” Casale said. “This is truly a cutting-edge conservation effort with longterm benefits.”
Another member of the
committee — Chard likes to call it a consortium — is Jason Bregman of Delray Beach’s Singer Studio, which has invented a substrate that looks to revolutionize artificial reefs.
“The artificial reef, once it’s placed and populated with life and corals, will start to help replenish the beach naturally,” Chard said. “The main thing it would do is prevent the beach from being washed away.”
Bregman wanted to place a test off Delray Beach and see if Fix’s corals would spawn and land on his substrate, but Palm Beach County ended up being too much of an impediment.
“As of right now, we’re more likely to deploy in the Caribbean than in Delray,” he said. “The county right now has the permitted sites.”
The benefits of coral
Corals provide vital ecosystem services like food security through fisheries, coastal protection from storms and erosion, and a significant source of income through tourism related to diving and snorkeling activities.
Singer Studio’s substrate
hopes to save beaches — and thus millions of dollars spent to replenish them. It is full of nooks and crannies to attract coral, but the individual pieces fit together to create a spine that not only fosters coral growth but stops beach erosion, Bregman said.
Delray Beach is looking at spending $29 million to keep its world-renowned beach and dunes pristine through a renourishment project. Renourishment projects dump sand — either dredged up or trucked in — on beaches.
Some municipalities have embraced artificial reefs, such as Hollywood, which has sunken concrete mermaids and Greek gods.
“It’s going to be a tourist attraction,” Bregman said of that city’s efforts. “The thing that’s interesting about it is, they don’t even see it as coastal protection at all. They barely see it as an environmental thing. They see it as a tourism project.”
Delray Beach isn’t going to be a diver’s destination. The current is too swift. Fix is looking to save corals and hopes — prays — the city is a willing partner.
A growing process
Back at The Reef Institute, the staffers know when certain types of corals spawn. They scoop up the eggs and the sperm and place them in what Fix calls the “cradle.” At this point, they are no more than mere specks, but those specks grow on little pieces of tile and eventually get to the point of being ready to be placed in the ocean.
“Up until now, it has been two years. But now we are playing around with the idea, ‘Could we put them in at a smaller size?’” she explained.
The Reef Institute is preparing to move into a ginormous new facility in West Palm Beach — at 23,000 square feet, the size of almost half a football field. The mammoth project of moving corals will soon be underway. By the way, staghorn and elkhorn are the divas of the coral world, Fix informs, and need to be moved last. Another fun fact is that brain coral gets its coloring from the symbiotic relationship it has with algae.
Fix says the importance of a partnership with Delray Beach and The Reef Institute cannot be understated.
“Delray backing us opens the eyes of the rest of the county. They’re pioneering. They’re paving the way,” she said. “And I’ve thought that for a long time. Local cities can go, ‘OK, we get it. We’re going back to do it as a city.’ It just opens the gates.” P
Leneita Fix, executive director at The Reef Institute in West Palm Beach, with a miniature version of the Atlantic Ocean. The institute is advising Delray Beach on which coral to use to restore its reef. BELOW: Staghorn coral growing in a tank at the institute. Staghorn and elkhorn are often called the divas of the coral world because of their fast growth, importance in reef building, and role as a vital habitat for marine life.
Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Lantana
Three more police vehicles will get dash cameras
By Mary Thurwachter
Lantana police officers will add three in-car cameras to their fleet, thanks to the Town Council, which authorized the purchase on March 10.
Cost of the cameras, from Axon Enterprise, Inc., is $36,842 and funds have already been budgeted.
The cameras will be installed in three SUVs. Twenty of the department’s vehicles already have cameras.
Police Chief Sean Scheller said the cameras are “a great tool for police for retrieving
Lantana News
stolen vehicles and help with transparency and community confidence.”
Police, he said, can share footage to show professional conduct and maintain public communication.
Dash cameras, he said, provide an unbiased account of what really happened.
Many other departments in the county, including in Delray Beach and Boca Raton, use incar cameras and body cameras.
Lantana police have been using body cameras for police for five years and dash cameras for two years. P
New vice mayor — As the Lantana Town Council reorganized for the upcoming year, Kem Mason was selected by fellow council members to serve as vice mayor.
Chris Castle was chosen March 24 as vice mayor pro tem. Mason is beginning his second three-year term. Castle is serving his first term.
The council also selected Annemarie Joyce to be an alternate on the Planning Commission. Joyce had served previously as an alternate and said she looked forward to returning.
Planning for budget — Lantana will hold its annual visioning retreat from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 11 at Finland House, 301 W. Central Blvd. Department heads will tell the Town Council what their needs and priorities are going into the next fiscal year. This discussion will begin the budgetary process, according to Town Manager Brian Raducci.
Remembering Lantana Lou — Mayor Karen Lythgoe announced that the town will be honoring Louis M. Canter, aka Lantana Lou, with a plaque to be hung on a tree at the public beach. Lythgoe displayed the plaque at the March 24 town meeting. For many years on Groundhog Day, Lantana Lou, wearing a jeweled crown and snazzy cape and carrying a trident and a large fish, would emerge from the beach to predict “six weeks of sunny weather.”
He was Lantana’s answer to Punxsutawney Phil. Canter, 94, a former vice mayor in town, died at his home last December. He retired from his Lantana Lou appearances about 10 years ago.
Egg-citing adventure at Maddock Park — Lantana’s Eggstravaganza Egg Hunt is set for 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. April 19 at Maddock Park, 1200 W. Drew St. The free egg hunt includes photos with the Easter Bunny, prizes, family games, a hayride, face painting, balloon twisting, arts and crafts, and vendors.
Free parking will be available at Lantana Middle School. For more information or to volunteer, contact Nadine Shawah at 561540-5754 or via email at nshawah@lantana.org. Mary Thurwachter
Delray Beach News
New vice mayor and deputy vice mayor — The Delray Beach City Commission on March 27 unanimously chose Commissioners Rob Long and Angela Burns to serve as vice mayor and deputy vice mayor for the next year.
The positions are largely ceremonial. Long will preside over the body if Mayor Tom Carney is unavailable and Burns will preside if both are out of pocket.
As usual with this commission, picking the positions was hardly a simple affair. The outgoing Vice Mayor Juli Casale nominated Commissioner Tom Markert as vice mayor, saying he is diligent about attending almost every city event.
Long objected, saying that the position was supposed to be rotating and as deputy vice mayor, it was his turn. Carney agreed not only for Long to be vice mayor but Long’s nomination to make Burns deputy vice mayor.
Casale and Markert, showing collegiality, voted in favor as well. John Pacenti
10 Questions
Must-see stops on a visit to New York are the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and the impressive array of buildings that now constitute the rebuilt World Trade Center area.
Among thousands of others, one of the workers responsible for both the cleanup after the September 2001 terrorist attacks and the massive project erected in their wake is Robert D’Amelio of South Palm Beach.
D’Amelio, 80, not only participated in the years-long cleanup of Ground Zero, but later served as a superintendent in construction of the Oculus, a transportation hub that according to Trip Advisor “serves as a representation of New York City’s strength and resilience after 9/11.”
“Four-and-a-half months I was there” during the recovery, D’Amelio said. “For years after that ... I couldn’t bring myself to look at that hole. Ten years later, when my company got the contract to build the Oculus, I didn’t know if I could do it. I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to go through this (expletive) again.’
“But by the time we got ready to build it, you didn’t even recognize it.”
D’Amelio worked for a construction company that did recovery at the site of the twin towers. All work would stop when word went out that there was a “hit,” he recalled.
“They called the bodies ‘hits,’ and you would call either the Fire Department or the Police Department and they would come in and exhume the bodies. Whenever that happened, whenever they found a bone — any bone, it could even be a chicken bone — all work would stop, they would call the families, and they would come down to see if maybe that was a friend or relative.”
Asked how many times he saw this happen, D’Amelio said only, “Lots.”
Since that experience, D’Amelio and his fellow workers are required to undergo an annual physical and meet with a psychiatrist to assess how much it still affects them. D’Amelio, who also spent two years in the Navy, said he has been diagnosed with PTSD.
He has been married to his wife, Joanne, for 54 years, and their primary residence is in Hopatcong, New Jersey. They have three children: Melissa
MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR: Robert D’Amelio
and Joe are teachers living in New Jersey, and Jason, a rehab trainer, lives in Harlem in New York City. The couple have five grandchildren.
In South Palm Beach, D’Amelio spends his free time in the gym, playing golf and enjoying the beach outside his Imperial House condo. — Brian Biggane
Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, and moved to Totowa, not far from Newark, when I was 12 or 13. My father died when I was 15, so I was raised by my mother. I attended Passaic Valley Regional High School. After the Navy I used my VA benefits to attend William Paterson College for two years, but had a family so I had to go to work.
I really believe my street experience helped me more than my school experience. You learn so much from the streets — how to defend yourself, how to manipulate people, how to read people, who to stay away from and who tries to lure you in and screw up your mind. To me the streets are very
important.
Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I started out as a truck driver for 10-11 years. When I got married, I got into the carpenters union and spent 26 years as a carpenter. Then I became a construction superintendent, working highrises and things like that. One of my biggest accomplishments was being a part of the rebuild at World Trade; I was there fiveand-a-half years.
Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: Learn the streets. Learn all you want academically, but it’s not going to work for you unless you know the streets. If you want to be a drunk you hang with drunks. If you want to be successful you hang with successful people. Your surroundings, whether you know it or not, have a lot to do with who you become. So, education and the streets are compatible. You have to have both.
Robert D’Amelio, a seasonal South Palm Beach resident and Vietnamera veteran, visits with his 2-year-old granddaughter, Siena.
D’Amelio was one of thousands of workers who cleaned up the World Trade Center site after the September 2001 terrorist attacks and was part of the massive project erected afterward in New York City. Tim Stepien/ The Coastal Star
Q: How did you choose to make your home in South Palm Beach?
A: My uncle died in 1984 and willed a condo to my brother and me. We held off on selling it and more recently we started to fix it up and I started to give it a chance. I still only spend a few months a year down here, but it could be more as time goes by.
Q: What’s your favorite part about living in South Palm Beach?
A: Weather, accessibility to things. People? Send the Northerners back North (laughs). No, I’ve met a lot of nice people. People who needed time to get to know who I am. I may have an aggressive look, an aggressive approach, an aggressive-sounding voice. I’m not that way all the time, but it takes time for people to know that.
Q: What book are you reading now?
A: I’m not a big reader, but I’ve just started reading Swing and a Hit, by Paul O’Neill, the baseball player. It’s about his experience starting to play at 5 years old, being signed by the Cincinnati Reds and playing
alongside Pete Rose, who was one of his idols, then being shipped over to the Yankees. Military books interest me also.
Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: If I want to think back to my young years I’ll listen to the ’50s: Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin. If I want to think about my growing-up years I like doo-wop time — Four Seasons, the rhythm and blues, the girl groups like the Ronettes. When I get to the ’70s and ’80s I think about where I’m at, going into the future. But I don’t want to make the mistake of getting caught up in the past.
Q: Have you had mentors in your life? People who have inspired your life decisions?
A: My father for a time, but then street guys who taught me how to deal with things. Roger Giardello was a smart guy, arrogant but smart. He was older than me. I was concerned about going into the military and not being able to take orders, and if it turned out that way I might be released or get a dishonorable discharge. So, he taught me how to roll with it.
In the military I met a guy named Pat Currie who worked as a contractor with the military. He was so Irish, and I was Italian, so he called me “Irish” (he says with a laugh). We would sit and talk for hours, and he knew the streets, but could also talk to any politician one-on-one.
Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: Al Pacino. Andy Garcia. Robert De Niro. They’re the ones that I can relate to. I know their style, or they would know my style is a better way to put it.
Q: Is there something people don’t know about you but should?
A: We adopted a nun. Nuns who are cloistered are sworn to silence and poverty. One nun, who was older, was the liaison for the monastery. I would sit outside with her and we would kibitz, and she had a hearing aid that wouldn’t work, and it became like a vaudeville act. But her health began to fail and she went back to her vows, so there was one day a year we could go see her. So, we donated in her name and we got papers saying we adopted her.
Continued from page 1
fabric and craft stores across the country, including ones in Pompano Beach, Wellington and West Palm Beach — will close their doors forever in the coming weeks.
“It’s a disaster,” Prescott said. “There are no other stores like this.”
Other shoppers share Prescott’s dismay.
Rosemary Mouring, of Lantana, is a community volunteer and a Joann’s regular.
Mouring said that although people can buy fabric at big box stores like Hobby Lobby and Walmart, the fabric is sold in pre-cut packages and the staff, for the most part, does not have the level of expertise that Joann’s staff offers.
“I’m going to have to rethink the Christmas bags we make for the children at St. Mary’s Hospital,” said Mouring.
She explained that she and other volunteers discovered about 10 years ago that the patients at Palm Beach Children’s Hospital at St. Mary’s Medical Center — the only dedicated children’s hospital between Fort Lauderdale and Orlando — had been keeping their belongings in trash bags.
The volunteers replaced the plastic bags with big, fluffy fleece pillowcases sporting red, holiday trim to hold the kids’ toys and clothes.
The project was so popular with the children that volunteers serving in the West Palm Beach hospital now make those gift bags every year — but with Joann’s going under, the fleece will be hard to find, Mouring said.
“Most crafters are a little upset with Joann’s corporate office for shooting themselves in the foot,” Mouring said. “And the company that bought it and paid off all the debt, cares only about the bottom line.”
Joann, which is based in Hudson, Ohio, filed for bankruptcy in January after operating for more than 80 years. The Boynton Beach store, at 1632 S. Federal Highway in the Riverwalk Plaza, was previously located on the west side of Federal in the Publix plaza. It has had a presence in Boynton Beach for decades, including since 2007 at its current location.
“The last several years have presented significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment, which, coupled with our current financial position and constrained inventory levels, forced us to take this step,” Michael Prendergast, interim chief executive of Joann’s, said when announcing the second bankruptcy filing in a year.
Prendergast said he was hoping the struggling company could find a path that would enable Joann’s to “continue operating as a going concern.”
But in February, the company was put on the auction block, and GA Group, a financial services firm, was the winning
bidder.
Amanda Hayes, spokeswoman for Joann’s corporate office, said the company does not yet have a closing date for the Boynton Beach store. She did not respond to a question about whether the company could emerge from bankruptcy.
A website dedicated to the company’s restructuring says closeout “sales will be held for 12 weeks, until the end of May, until supplies last.”
The website also says: “We have been proud to serve as a destination for creativity for more than 80 years and thank our dedicated Team Members, customers and communities across the nation for their decades of support.”
Christine Burtch, of Lantana, has been a manager at the Boynton Beach store for nine years. She’s also the executive vice president of the Lake Worth Beach-based Hibiscus Quilt Guild of South Florida, which
Linda Faber takes advantage of the prices at the goingout-of-business sale at Joann in Boynton Beach. Joann filed for bankruptcy in January after operating for more than 80 years.
Photos by Tim Stepien and Tao Woolfe/The Coastal Star
has some 50 quilting enthusiasts around Palm Beach County.
Before the coronavirus sent everyone home in 2020, Burtch taught sewing and quilting classes to Joann customers. The classes never resumed at the Boynton Beach store, she said, so she got involved with community outreach. She is among the volunteers who make fleece bags for the children at St. Mary’s and, along with her colleagues, has been stocking up on fleece from several South Florida Joann stores.
Like a toy store for crafters
Customers say they love the stores’ selection of fabrics, art supplies, home decor, yarn, sewing supplies, buttons, beads, baskets, paper goods, and artificial leaves and flowers
for making wreaths and centerpieces.
“It was like being in a toy store for me,” Burtch said.
Lisa Ritota, a longtime Ocean Ridge resident, agreed that perusing the store’s notions was as much fun as choosing fabrics.
“They had a little bit of everything. It was a great, great store for last-minute thread, needles, buttons, zippers, holiday decor and seasonal stuff,” Ritota said. “I’m incredibly sad. There’s nothing else out there like it in this country.”
Ritota is a member of the American Sewing Guild who has owned an upholstery business for 30 years. She said she is switching now to the less physically demanding practice of creating handbags.
“I hope Michael’s will pick up the slack,” Ritota said, speaking of other stores and online sources for fabrics and fasteners. “I try not to use Amazon. Etsy is better.”
Debbie Sprague, president of the Hibiscus Quilt Guild and Lake Worth Beach resident, said quilters have options that other crafters and seamstresses will forfeit when Joann’s closes.
Smaller quilt shows, quilting stores, and big area quilting expos offer fabrics for sale, she said, and quilting clubs like Hibsicus can also offer community, expertise and inspiration.
“If you’re a quilter, we’re here for you,” Sprague said. “If you’re a dressmaker or a home decorator, we can’t help you.”
Faith Thelwell, of Delray Beach, unaware that Joann’s days are numbered, cruised a well-searched row of fabrics hunting for light green tulle and satin to make a skirt.
Beneath her cap of silver sequins, Thelwell’s face crumpled when she heard the news.
“I’m going to miss this store,” she said quietly. “I have been shopping here for 40 years. I am very sad.” P
By Rich Pollack
Joseph ‘Mr. Z’ Zaluski
GULF STREAM — Joe Zaluski was a teacher’s teacher — an educator who stood out for his passion for his craft and a teacher who enjoyed passing on that passion to those who crossed his path during the 14 years he led the Gulf Stream School.
Mr. Zaluski, who retired as head of school in 2019 and moved back to Ohio to be near family, died on Feb. 16, leaving behind a legacy of caring about the people who walked through the Gulf Stream School’s doors, whether they were preschool students or veteran classroom teachers. He was 72.
Warm and kind like a favorite uncle, Mr. Zaluski is remembered by his staff and former students for his compassion and dedication to their success.
It is no surprise that one of the people he admired most was educational television host Fred Rogers, and that was reflected in how he spent every day.
“Joe was a Mister Rogers to many people,” said Sally, his wife of 45 years.
In addition to the responsibilities he had for running the prestigious school — a full-time job — Mr. Z, as he was known, still took time to teach two sixth-grade reading classes every week.
“Reading is the most valuable skill for success,” he said during a 2019 conversation with The Coastal Star. “I want the students to be lifelong learners.”
During that interview, Mr.
Zaluski said that during all his years at the school there wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t learn something new.
Much of what he learned he shared with teachers, staff and often students.
“He fostered a love of teaching but also a love of learning,” said Danielle Cooper, a longtime teacher at the school who was hired by Mr. Zaluski.
Teachers and staff will tell you that one of his greatest strengths was building an environment where teachers — and students — focused on doing their best.
“We all felt like we wanted to make Joe proud,” Cooper said.
A trademark of Mr. Zaluski’s was his welcoming students at the front of the school every morning, shaking hands on occasion and saying hello to parents as well.
That gesture blended in well with his goal of making sure students knew the school was a safe place for them.
“A child needs to know ‘I can come to school and know that I’m going to be greeted by people who love me, care about me and want to help me succeed academically and emotionally and accept me for who I am,’” he said during the 2019 interview.
As an administrator
Mr. Zaluski helped keep the school financially strong while raising its profile.
He oversaw renovations to every classroom and the construction of a new pavilion with three classrooms above it. All were funded through a major capital campaign.
Mr. Zaluski also loved adventure and shared passion with students and faculty.
At least once he jumped
out of an airplane, took flying lessons, went scuba diving off the Keys, hot air ballooned and attempted to climb Mount Rainier.
During his tenure at the school, he made sure eighth graders took trips to places like the Grand Canyon or Canada or to Homosassa Springs, where they swam with manatees.
In 2016 he took the entire faculty to Crystal River, where they went scalloping as part of his effort to bring the teachers together, another thing that was a priority.
A graduate of the University of Dayton in Ohio, with a master’s in education, Mr. Zaluski started his career as a sixth-grade teacher and coach and advanced to administrative positions in the elementary grades for most of his 43 years in education
Cooper, who is the director of the Gulf Stream School’s Julien Arts & Innovation Center and who teaches innovation, literature, technology and math, says that Mr. Zaluski was an inspiration to those who have followed in his footsteps.
“Joe was why you wanted to teach,” she said.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Zaluski is survived by a son, Zachary, a daughter, Katelin, and two young granddaughters, and he is remembered by many members of the Gulf Stream School family.
A private celebration of life will be held in New Jersey, where he was born and raised.
Donations in the memory of Mr. Zaluski can be made to the Outdoor Education Center at Glen Helen (Glenhelen.org) in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Rita Carol Lowe Walker Ellis
DELRAY BEACH — Rita Ellis, former mayor of Delray Beach, died on March 15 due to complications from diabetes. She was 74.
Born in Spencer, West Virginia, Mrs. Ellis later moved to Florida, where she graduated from Eau Gallie High School in Melbourne. In August 1970, she married Dean Ellis, the love of her life, and together they built a beautiful marriage of nearly 55 years. They raised their daughters, built a business, and dedicated themselves to their community, always as a team. Their love was a steadfast foundation, filled with humor, devotion and a shared passion for Delray Beach, where they lived for over five decades.
Beyond her professional and civic accomplishments, Rita and Dean shared a love of travel, exploring the world together and making lifelong memories. They visited destinations across the globe, experiencing different cultures and embracing adventure side by side.
Mrs. Ellis was an accomplished businesswoman and a natural leader. She began her career at Southern Bell, where her exceptional talent, work ethic and dedication led her to rise through the ranks at a time when few women were advancing in corporate leadership.
In 1973, she and Dean founded their mechanical services company, Climate Control Services, in Palm Beach County. Bringing her experience from management roles in customer service and operations, she played an integral role in the company’s success. She eventually succeeded Dean as president and CEO. The business remained in the family until its sale in 2022.
Mrs. Ellis is best known for her deep civic engagement in Delray Beach, where she dedicated herself to the city’s growth and well-being. Her early leadership roles included graduating from Leadership Delray; serving on the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce board of directors, including as chairwoman; serving seven years on the Downtown Development Authority, including four years as chairwoman; serving as the city’s Vision 2010 facilitator; chairing the Local Government Affairs Committee; chairing DelPAC’s board of directors; and serving on the Delray Medical Center board of trustees.
She was also honored with the Ambassador Rising Star Award, the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year, the Ken Ellingsworth Community Service Award, and recognition as a Spady Museum Community Hero.
In 2005, Mrs. Ellis was elected unopposed to the Delray Beach City Commission and was appointed vice mayor by her fellow commissioners. During her tenure, she championed stricter historic preservation guidelines and was a strong advocate for the city’s progressive affordable housing initiatives. In 2007, Mrs. Ellis became the first woman elected mayor of Delray Beach. (In 1954, Catherine Strong had been appointed mayor for one year.)
As mayor, Mrs. Ellis continued her commitment to public service, representing Delray Beach on the inaugural Palm Beach County Homeless Advisory Board.
Complications from an injury, coupled with her longtime treatment for insulin-dependent diabetes, led her to forgo a reelection bid in 2009. However, her impact on the city was undeniable, and in recognition of her service, she was awarded a Key to the City. Even after retiring from public office, Mrs. Ellis remained deeply engaged in her community, volunteering and serving on the Delray Beach Property Owners Association until her death.
Mrs. Ellis requested no memorial service, believing she had received ample recognition and love from friends, Delray Beach residents and colleagues during her lifetime. In keeping with her generosity and dedication to advancing medical knowledge, she donated her body to science in the hopes of helping improve the care and well-being of diabetes patients.
The family requests that donations be made to Old School Square in Delray Beach in lieu of flowers. Those wishing to honor Mrs. Ellis’ legacy may also do so by supporting local resources and initiatives that uplift their communities, particularly for underrepresented residents.
Mrs. Ellis was predeceased by her grandparents, Jake and Thelma Lowe; her parents, Mary Ellen Sheriff, Charles Walker, and Jim Sheriff; and her brother, Gene Lowe.
She is survived by her devoted husband of 54 years, Dean Ellis; daughters Brandy Ellis of Boynton Beach and Amy Ellis (Chris Caswell) of Little Rock, Arkansas; brother Charles “Chuck” Walker (Dr. Maureen Whelihan) of Boynton Beach; nephews Charles “Charley” Walker of Palm Beach Gardens and Marshall Lowe of Largo; niece Nicole Bjornvick of Seminole; and many cherished in-laws, stepsisters and extended family members.
— Obituary submitted by the family
Obituaries
By Mary Hladky
Elaine Johnson Wold
BOCA RATON — Philanthropist Elaine J. Wold, whose generosity helped transform two leading Boca Raton institutions, died in midMarch at the age of 97.
Originally from New Brunswick, New Jersey, Mrs. Wold moved to South Florida in 1955 following her marriage to Dr. Keith C. Wold, who predeceased her. She lived in Boca Raton for more than 45 years.
Although the Johnson & Johnson heiress donated to many organizations, her most notable gifts were to Lynn University and Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
Her lead donation of $9.3 million allowed Lynn University to build the Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center, which was dedicated in 2010. She also founded Elaine’s Musical Treat, an annual program that brings together actors and students from the Lynn Drama and Lynn University Conservatory of Music to collaborate on performances.
“In 2014, we had the honor of awarding Elaine an honorary doctor of humane letters degree at our commencement ceremony in recognition of her profound impact on the performing arts and student life,” said Cesar Palacios, Lynn’s associate director of public relations, marketing and communication.
“As a woman of grace and vision, Elaine was one of the most polite and charming individuals we have ever had the pleasure of meeting,” he said. “Her kindness and generosity will always be remembered.”
A $25 million gift from Mrs. Wold and the Bay Branch Foundation, formed by herself and her husband, paved the way for construction of the Gloria Drummond Patient Tower at Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Wold asked that the seven-story tower be named for her lifelong friend, who had raised money to build the hospital after her two children died when they were poisoned by a neighbor in 1962. The nearest hospital at the time was in Boynton Beach.
“We are deeply grateful for Mrs. Wold’s generosity and unwavering support of Boca Raton Regional Hospital,” said Ryan Lieber, communications manager for Baptist Health South Florida, of which the Boca Raton hospital is a part.
“As a close friend of our founder, Gloria Drummond, Mrs. Wold shared a vision of providing exceptional health
care to our community. While we mourn her passing, we also celebrate her remarkable legacy. Her contributions have left a lasting impact on our patients, caregivers and the future of our hospital.”
She made additional gifts to the hospital, including $5 million to start the Wold Family Center for Emergency Medicine.
“I believe we all have a responsibility to improve the level of health care in our area, to forge new directions and bring new medicine to our families here,” Mrs. Wold said at the 2022 groundbreaking for the patient tower.
As of March 31, funeral plans had not been announced.
Boynton Beach
By Tao Woolfe
Photos of rescued chihuahuas are sprinkled among the election announcements posted on Rebecca Shelton’s Facebook page.
Last month, voters overwhelmingly elected her as Boynton Beach’s mayor, hoping she can foster more civilized City Commission meetings and rescue projects that will beautify and soothe the downtown landscape.
The 49-year-old real estate broker says she can. Government transparency, cleaner neighborhoods, more trees, shorter buildings, and actively listening to what residents want were among her campaign promises.
“I am deeply committed to fostering an open, transparent, and inclusive government where every voice is not only heard but valued,” Shelton said shortly before the March 11 election.
Her message was effective enough to allow her to garner 56% of the vote, as well as endorsements from the Palm Beach County Fraternal Order of Police and Police Benevolent Association, the Boynton Beach Association of Firefighters, and a number of Palm Beach County judges and attorneys.
Shelton defeated three other contenders: Court McQuire, a marketing executive who gathered 28% of the vote; Golene Gordon, a longtime city activist who has served on advisory panels including the Community Redevelopment Agency advisory board, and who received 12% of the vote; and insurance agent David Merker, a former city commissioner who captured 4% of the vote.
Shelton, who wore a bright red jacket to her first City Commission meeting on March 18, replaced former Mayor
New mayor brings promise of a kinder city
Ty Penserga, who was termlimited after three years as a commissioner and three years as mayor.
Also sworn in that night were reelected Commissioner Thomas Turkin, who defeated challenger Dom Vargas, 58% to 42%, and Commissioner Angela Cruz, who was automatically reelected when no one filed to run against her during the election qualifying period in November.
Residents have high hopes
for the new mayor, as evidenced by the lengthy standing ovation Shelton received at her first meeting.
“She’s the most wonderful person in the world,” longtime Boynton Beach resident and fellow Realtor Susan Oyer said after the meeting. “She’s the nicest, kindest, most genuine person.”
Oyer, who helped with Shelton’s campaign, said the new mayor is a campaign strategist who has helped many
local politicians and jurists get elected to office over the years.
Shelton always has time to listen to constituents, Oyer said, and she will work to overcome the perception that the City Commission is not open to what residents have to say.
Mayor Penserga strictly enforced the three-minute limit on speakers at commission meetings — and that the topics be on city-specific matters — which led to verbal altercations and evictions of audience
members at more than one commission meeting in the past year.
“Transparency is one of her big things,” Oyer said. “Code enforcement is another. She wants to beautify and clean up the city.”
Originally from East Palestine, Ohio, Shelton has lived in the downtown Boynton Beach area for 20 years. She is a licensed real estate broker and holds certifications in probate and divorce real estate. She has served on the city’s senior advisory board, the board of the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, and the events committee of AVDA Palm Beach, which aids domestic abuse victims.
Shelton has been a campaign manager and consultant for 14 years.
Another of Shelton’s goals is to work closely with the police, fire and code enforcement departments to help residents feel safe and welcome.
“I will work closely with local law enforcement and code enforcement to enhance community policing initiatives that build trust and collaboration between officers and residents,” Shelton said on her campaign website. “By focusing on proactive crime prevention measures, such as increased patrols and addressing problem areas before issues escalate, we can create a safer environment for everyone.
“Additionally, I will support the development of intervention strategies that tackle underlying issues contributing to crime, ensuring our neighborhoods remain clean, secure, and places where families and businesses can thrive,” she said.
Oyer said she hopes Shelton makes good on her goals to protect the city’s threatened mangrove trees and ensure that new buildings approved for the city’s downtown are not skyscrapers filled with rental units.
“Residents have been asking the city to limit building height to 45 feet for years,” Oyer said. “At what point do we start listening?”
Shelton said she wants to start right away.
“By prioritizing clear communication, active community engagement, and accessible decision-making processes, I aim to build a stronger connection between residents and their local government,” Shelton said. “Together, we can create a more collaborative and accountable future that truly reflects the needs and aspirations of our community.”
On a personal note, Shelton — who is not married — said she has rescued six chihuahuas over the last 25 years. For fun, she said, she gardens, roller skates, and does Pilates. P
Rebecca Shelton, who won the Boynton Beach mayoral race with 56% of the vote, was sworn in at the March 18 City Commission meeting. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Ocean Ridge
Second annual Secret Gardens by the Sea — March 16
The Ocean Ridge Garden Club tour featured six private gardens, which included a town dune actively maintained by volunteers. More than 125 guests attended the signature fundraising event, which supports the civic, charitable and educational programs of the club. These include camp scholarships to Florida Federation of Garden Clubs’ Camp Wekiva for youths. The tour included a buffet lunch at The Ocean Club where guests were entertained by music from Brian Dean, as well as a free pop-up boutique open to the public at Ocean Ridge Town Hall. Vendors included: the Beach House; CMM Designs – Status Faux; C.R. Orchids; ePALACIO; Haute Energy; Koi Design Group; Love, Liz … Custom Jewelry; Palm Beach Native; Peaceful Body Spa; Sarah Bray Bermuda; The Stylish Sloane; and Walker & Wade. The club plans to continue to offer the tour annually in March. For more information, visit OceanRidgeGardenClub. org.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A monarch butterfly feeds on the nectar of a milkweed plant. A welcome sign is displayed on the dune with fresh plantings nurtured by the Ocean Ridge Garden Club. Vikki Bellias and Barbara Campbell walk through a home designed by Ocean Ridge resident Chad Renfro, an interior decorator and member of the Osage Nation. Carol Larson and Mickey Austin share a light moment. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
New owners want shopping center to find rightful place in town
By Larry Barszewski
When it comes to downtowns, Boca Raton has Mizner Park and Delray Beach has Atlantic Avenue.
But downtown Manalapan? Where’s that?
Could it be Plaza del Mar?
The owners of the plaza, the town’s only shopping center, think so. They’ve adopted the downtown title and have high expectations for the plaza they purchased in December.
“This is essentially your downtown,” Scott Loventhal, the managing member for the new owners, told town commissioners at their March 11 meeting. Loventhal was in town to introduce himself to commissioners and brief them on plans for the center at the southwest corner of State Road A1A and Ocean Avenue. His company, Manalapan Plaza del Mar LLC, is a subsidiary
of New Jersey-based Garden Commercial Properties, which has 70 years of experience in retail plazas.
“We are all about our local connection,” said Loventhal,
whose New Jersey roots showed through as he pledged to work with the “township commission” and “township professionals” on any future improvements to the center.
While the company’s shortterm goals are to lease vacant storefronts and bring the center more into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Loventhal said he would also like to see the plaza become a place for community activities.
“What we also found looking at Plaza del Mar is that there isn’t that interaction with the community as it relates to what is your Main and Main, your downtown,” Loventhal said.
“What is a downtown all about?
A downtown is all about where residents can also gather and see one another.”
One downtown idea is already being considered.
“I think that our goal would be to try to put something on the calendar to create a fall festival this year,” he said.
Commissioner David Knobel gave him a suggestion for another event: “We have some interesting cars in garages in
this town, too.”
Loventhal replied that having a car show “is really a wonderful thing.”
“I can only imagine,” he added, mulling over the possible entries from town residents. “I’d like to come visit on the car show day because there have been some interesting cars shopping at Publix, as I’ve noticed in my visits. Some cars I’d never seen before.”
The company’s first priority, though, is to fill the vacant storefronts. A woman’s clothing boutique now based in New Jersey, Addicted Chic, will be opening in June. It was signed by the previous owners.
The plaza will be patient, Loventhal said, making sure the additions contribute to the overall mix and “what we hope will be some experiential retail, what we hope will be personal services.”
At the same time, the company will be creating an accessibility plan.
“The center is not fully ADA compliant,” Loventhal said. “We always feel it’s important in our shopping centers [to be accessible], especially in Southeast Florida where there are certainly residents that need to take advantage of those ADA improvements.”
But there are no plans for major changes at the plaza and Loventhal said the company will respect the existing leases.
“For what it is, and that is a Publix-anchored community strip center, it’s incredible to see the number of tenants that are there 20 to 30 years,” he said. “What does that say to you? They’ve done well, despite what pre-COVID was essentially a seasonal location.”
Publix will have a say in how the center is used for special events, since its lease gives it control over a large part of the parking lot, Loventhal said. While there is probably enough space to hold events outside of the Publix spaces, he said he would meet with store officials to see what else might be possible.
In case he forgot he was in Manalapan, Loventhal was quickly reminded of that point when he talked about eventual plans to improve the signage at the plaza. He said the current signs “don’t really give the tenants the visibility that’s needed to improve their sales.”
When he added “there are no restrictions” about signage, Vice Mayor Simone Bonutti jumped in to say yes there are. Any changes that did not meet the town’s current standards would have to be approved by the commission, he was told.
Loventhal summed up his company’s desires this way:
“We want to make Plaza del Mar better than it is today and improve upon what we think can be a much more vibrant downtown.” P
The Plaza del Mar owners hope to turn the area into Manalapan’s ‘downtown,’ with regular community events. Photo provided by Katz and Associates
Continued from page 1
in late May will pay Farrell’s company $55.5 million for the house that is basically a shell and the adjacent guest quarters and level them.
The combined $94 million land buy will give MacNeil, founder of Chicago-based WeatherTech, roughly 340 feet of beachfront on a nearly fouracre parcel that extends from the ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway.
To builders and real estate agents who have watched the stratospheric rise in coastal home prices, MacNeil’s buyand-bulldoze approach was greeted with yawns.
“I wasn’t surprised,” said Christian Prakas, who specializes in high-end real estate as founding agent of Serhant in Delray Beach.
“It’s where everybody wants to be,” agreed Dorian Hayes, a luxury home specialist with Coldwell Banker Realty in Delray Beach. “Palm Beach County is on fire.”
Hayes said some of her wealthy clients have paid top dollar for adjacent lots just to have bigger yards or to protect their privacy.
Prakas said one of his clients recently scored a record for the most ever paid for a vacant lot in Florida.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s $173 million purchase of the 16-acre former Ziff estate at the south end of Manalapan in 2022 still holds the record for most ever paid for residential real estate in Florida. But, Prakas said, his client’s purchase was noteworthy as well.
While he declined to divulge the exact amount that was paid, Prakas said a company plunked down somewhat less than Ellison’s eye-popping price for roughly two acres in Palm Beach that was once home to a 36,000-square-foot mansion owned by Estée Lauder heir William Lauder.
When the French Normandystyle house that Lauder paid $110 million for in 2021 was reduced to rubble in 2022, it was the most expensive teardown in town history.
Since then, teardowns of multimillion-dollar mansions have become ubiquitous.
Gulf Stream demolition
In Gulf Stream for instance, billionaire Robert Sands and his wife, Pamela, recently got the go-ahead to demolish a 30-yearold, 17,000-square-foot house to build a new home.
When the couple, through RSPS 3223 North Ocean LLC (presumably their initials), spent $39 million last year for the home, it was the most expensive residential sale in Gulf Stream history.
Sands is executive chair and former CEO of Constellation Brands, a beer, wine and spirits company founded by his father in upstate New York.
Like MacNeil, Sands also owns the house next door. In 2016, he paid $16.34 million for
the 11,000-square-foot, fourbedroom house on roughly an acre.
But, unlike MacNeil, he doesn’t plan to tear down both houses to build an even bigger one. Only the house the couple purchased last year will be demolished. And, according to plans approved by the Gulf Stream Town Commission in February, at 14,642 square feet the new house will be about 2,400 square feet smaller and have one fewer story than the existing one.
How high will prices go?
Former Manalapan Mayor Stewart Satter, who surprised the real estate world in January by announcing he was asking $285 million for a 55,000-square-foot home that could be built on the four acres he owns next to Ellison’s estate, acknowledged that the recent price tags shock many.
But, having spent 20 years developing real estate in Manalapan, a pursuit he laughingly describes as a hobby, he said he has learned a few lessons.
While the thought of buying a $40 million house to tear it down sounds crazy, many home buyers make similar decisions.
He likened it to people who buy an average priced house and immediately renovate the kitchen. People have specific expectations of what they want when they buy a home. If a house doesn’t meet them, they act.
Like homes in other coastal areas and beyond, many of the homes in Manalapan are old.
“They’re OK houses but they aren’t up to the standards most people expect today,” Satter said.
Take the house MacNeil tore down. Built in 1955, it was dated. At 10,000 square feet with six bedrooms, it was relatively small. It had low ceilings. It didn’t have a palatial entryway, a master bedroom suite or other features that have become musthaves in estate homes.
“It was not a house you would have on a $30 million piece of dirt,” Satter said.
MacNeil’s plans to buy the lot next door, tear down the half-built house and combine it with his existing holdings is wise from both a personal and business standpoint, Satter said.
MacNeil can build the house he wants. And the two lots, once combined, will be worth far more than what he paid for them individually, Satter said.
“It’s hard to find a lot with more than 150 feet of oceanfront,” he said. “It’s a rarity.”
And as with all things rare, that means the value skyrockets.
Satter noted that New Jersey lawyer and real estate investor Nathan Silverstein is asking $200 million for two acres of vacant land he has owned for decades along Sloan’s Curve in Palm Beach. The ocean-toIntracoastal lot includes 155 feet of beachfront, but it’s across South Ocean Boulevard from the main property.
MacNeil’s soon-to-be new homesite, which also extends from the ocean to the Intracoastal, is directly on the ocean and will have more than double the amount of oceanfront footage.
“I thought it was a great acquisition,” Satter said. “I thought it was very smart.”
Limited supply of lots
Satter and Prakas said there are various reasons the luxury home market has exploded in recent years.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are well known. Tired of lockdowns and mask-wearing mandates, wealthy people from New York to California flocked to the state where Gov. Ron DeSantis eschewed such health restrictions.
With no income tax and relatively low property and sales taxes, it became a magnet. The state’s weather didn’t hurt.
“There was a huge migration of wealth,” Prakas said, noting
that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was one of them when he moved in 2023 from Seattle to his hometown of Miami. At the time, he said the move would save him $600 million in taxes.
Scarcity is also a factor, Prakas said. There’s a limited number of oceanfront lots, so when one becomes available it commands a very high price.
“There are no comps for these houses,” Prakas said. “It becomes a matter of how much do you want it and how much are you willing to pay.”
Satter agreed. “It’s simple,” he said. “Demand is high, supply is low, so prices go up.”
The Ellison effect
Satter said another force contributed to rising prices in Manalapan: the Ellison effect.
When the man who is the fourth-richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, bought the Ziff estate in 2022, people took notice. Ellison doubled down last year by paying $277 million
for the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa at the north end of Manalapan.
Long in the shadow of Palm Beach, Manalapan was suddenly on the map, Satter said. People who had never heard of the tiny town began looking into it and liked what they found, he said.
How long the boom will last is unknown.
Both Satter and Prakas said they suspect luxury housing prices are at or very near their peak and will begin leveling off.
But Satter, who hopes they stay strong enough long enough for him to sell his proposed $285 million spec house — with its 350 feet along both the ocean and Intracoastal — for close to his asking price, said crystal balls are hard to come by in the real estate business.
When he began buying lots in Manalapan in 2005, he said people thought he was crazy.
“If I had known what the marketplace was going to do, I would have bought the whole town,” he said. P
David MacNeil paid $38.5 million for an oceanfront house in Manalapan only to raze it, leaving the empty lot to the left. Now, he plans to buy the partially completed house on the right and raze it, too, to make way for a single home on a combined lot. Both lots are ocean to Intracoastal. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Historical society gives out gladioli to honor Delray Affair’s roots
Coinciding with the 63rd Delray Affair, the Delray Beach Historical Society, at 3 NE First St., is giving out gladiolus flowers and has an exhibition centered on gladioli to celebrate the event’s beginnings as the town’s “Gladioli Festival.”
“We’re excited to bring back these nostalgic and beautiful flowers for the community again,” said the historical society’s president, Mike Cruz, as the Delray Affair is underway April 4-6.
Here’s the backstory: Florida’s gladioli business began in 1939, and by 1950, Delray producers were shipping out 2 million gladiolus bundles, paying $500,000 in annual wages.
According to a 1948 Delray News article, the South Florida Gladioli Festival and Fair Association’s original purpose for the festival was to promote agricultural and horticultural resources.
The fair highlighted gladioli on Atlantic Avenue and featured special exhibits, celebrity guests, farm animals, and miniature homes to highlight new developments. A parade featured gladiolicovered floats and crowned a gladiolus queen.
The event ran from 1948 to 1953. As the area shifted into vegetable farming, the fair morphed into a small agriculture expo.
In 1962, it was expanded to include arts and crafts and was scheduled to run later in the year, aiming to extend the tourist season past Easter.
Delray Beach tennis star Coco Gauff is backing a stylish New Balance tennis shoe. Unveiled recently, the shoe showcases connection, community and the love of the game.
Coco Delray is designed for the everyday player for all levels of competition.
Coco Delray’s campaign video, which features Gauff and her grandmother Yvonne Lee Odom, tells the story of Gauff growing up in Delray Beach, playing on the public courts at Pompey Park, and of the support she received from family and friends.
“I’m incredibly proud to launch the new Coco Delray because it’s more than just a tennis shoe — it represents an opportunity to broaden access to those interested in playing the game and will have a positive cultural impact for generations to come,” Gauff says.
“Delray Beach helped spark my tennis journey, so it’s special to me to tell the story of this community that influenced exactly why I love this sport.”
The Coco Delray is available at newbalance.com/
tennis and at select retailers with a suggested retail price of $110.
Record home prices in the Delray Beach area are typically found along its coast, not to the west.
The highest recorded sales prices for homes in the city were for two properties on the ocean that each sold for $34 million: the 33,571-squarefoot estate at 921 S. Ocean Blvd. in February 2016 and the 23,369-square-foot home at 855 S. Ocean Blvd. in October 2021.
But recently, a home west of Delray Beach topped those oceanfront estates.
The 21,725-square-foot “Casa Maranello,” on a 2.5-acre lakefront lot at 16171 Quiet Vista Circle in the Stone Creek Ranch community, sold for $41.5 million, according to public records dated Feb. 3. The home is west of Florida’s Turnpike.
The actual price appears to be even higher than that listed in public records. The Multiple Listing Service published a closing price as $50.5 million, with Senada Adzem, the Douglas Elliman agent who brokered both sides of the deal, saying that with furnishings, the sales price came to $55 million.
The property features a putting green, basketball court, tennis court, soccer field, and a resort-style, 95foot pool with a bar. The six-bedroom residence has a 12-car garage, a 20-person Brazilian onyx dining table, a bar, office, theater room, spa with an indoor pool, steam room, sauna, and a gym.
WMCF Realty LLC, an Ohio limited liability company and trustee for the trust that bought the home, is affiliated with the Cafaro family. William A. and Anthony M. Cafaro Jr.’s business has developed more than 30 million square feet of real estate and has built many Kroger grocery stores.
The seller was Stone Creek Ranch Homes, an LLC led by Fort Lauderdale developer Aldo Stark, who owns Prestige Design Homes.
Emme Development LLC, a Delaware company, sold the 12,099-square-foot home at 1199 Spanish River Road, Boca Raton, to developer Mitchell Robbins and his wife, Alison, for $16.2 million in February.
In the Estates Section, with 100 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway, the residence was designed in 2006 by architect Thomas Kirchhoff and Mark Timothy Luxury Homes, and then in 2024, it was renovated by Quinn Miklos Architects and Albanese Home Builders Inc. It previously traded in January 2023 for $9 million. Both sides of the deal were represented by Premier
the hospital since 2005.
Shirley Erazo, president and CEO of the Delray Beach Housing Authority, has graduated from the 2025 Class of the Executive Director Education Program, a course offered by the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Estate Properties’ D’Angelo Liguori Team
Aventura-based Turnberry, the real estate development firm behind The Seagate resort in Delray Beach, has appointed Mary Rogers as executive vice president of hospitality operations overseeing projects in Florida and Tennessee. Before joining Turnberry, Rogers was managing director and area general manager for Montage Laguna Beach, Montage Healdsburg, Pendry West Hollywood and Pendry San Diego. She has also served as vice president and general manager of Fontainebleau Miami Beach.
The Boca Raton Chamber’s Spring Business Expo networking and business showcase event is scheduled for 5:30-7:30 p.m. April 22 at the Wyndham Hotel, 1950 Glades Road, Boca Raton.
“This event is a fantastic opportunity for businesses of all sizes to gain exposure, connect with potential clients and partners, and strengthen their presence in our vibrant business community,” said Kaley Jones, the chamber’s event coordinator. Admission is free for chamber members and $60 for non-members. For more information, visit bocachamber.com or call Jones at 561-395-4433, ext. 226.
Delray Beach resident Hilary Sullivan is Baptist Health Foundation’s new council member, representing Bethesda Hospital Sullivan, an educational consultant and founder of Affirm Educational Planning LLC, has been a supporter of
“This program represents a major professional development opportunity for housing authority executive directors throughout the country,” Erazo said. “It takes a comprehensive look at those critical functions which serve to define the executive director’s position and provides a structured environment in which midcareer professionals can hone their management skills and enhance their knowledge.”
In other news from the Delray Beach Housing Authority: It recently completed the Section 8 Management Assessment Program certification from the Department of Housing and Urban Development with a final score of 103%.
“To earn the rank of High Performer from HUD, our agency demonstrated compliance with HUD regulations and proved efficient use of funding and resources while serving the greatest number of needy residents,” Erazo said.
Florida Atlantic University now holds the designation of “R1: Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production” by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, sharing this status with less than 5% of the approximately 4,000 universities in the U.S.
To qualify, institutions must meet criteria that include the number of research doctorates awarded and total research expenditures.
In the last fiscal period, FAU spent about $109 million in research and received 408 awards, including a $10 million grant awarded to the university’s College of Education and College of Engineering and Computer Science from the U.S. Department of Education to train people with disabilities for high-tech jobs.
The League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County was one of three local chapters honored by the League of Women Voters of Florida. The award for “creating an innovative way for candidates and government officials to meet
Visitors to a previous Delray Affair look at a Delray Beach Historical Society exhibit celebrating the Delray Affair’s start as the Gladioli Festival. Photo provided
Coco Gauff’s grandmother
Yvonne Lee Odom wears a pair of New Balance shoes made in tribute to the young tennis star. Photo provided
Sullivan
Erazo
citizens” was announced March 11 at the group’s annual Lobby Days Gala in Tallahassee.
Palm Beach County’s league was recognized for its networking event Election Expo 2024, which took place in Lake Worth Beach in September.
The expo was co-hosted by the local League, Leadership Palm Beach County and Palm Beach State College. Sponsors of last year’s expo included Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, PA, the Palm Beach Post, and Smith Ball Baez & Prather Florida Injury Lawyers.
Kolter Hospitality, based in Delray Beach, working with the Boca Raton-based Steckroth Hospitality Group Inc. as the project designer, has redesigned Hyatt Place Delray Beach, 104 NE Second Ave. Upgrades were applied to the 134 rooms and suites, a boardroom was added, and fitness room equipment was upgraded.
Nails & Co., 510 E. Ocean Ave., Unit 104, Boynton Beach, just celebrated its grand opening. To make an appointment, visit https:// nails-company.co or call 954397-6850.
As part of Old School Square’s “A Legacy Through Local Art” initiative, the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority and the City of Delray Beach are inviting artists to create watercolor illustrations that represent Old School Square and will be used to design a new logo for the Old School Square campus.
Submissions will be accepted through noon on April 9. Finalists will be
announced April 16, followed by a public voting period. The winner will be announced May 12, with the new logo unveiled in the summer.
“As some of these buildings turn 100 this year, I can’t think of a better way to create a new look for our historic cultural arts campus than to engage local artists and have the public choose the new logo for our Old School Square,” said Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney.
The winning artist will
receive $5,000; a feature at Cornell Art Museum’s Spotlight Gallery; branding exposure; and recognition at the summer 2025 unveiling event.
For submission guidelines, visit www.eventeny.com/ events/call-to-artists-oldschool-square-logo-18720/.
To mark its 40th anniversary in February, Yafa opened the vault at its flagship boutique at 234 Worth Ave. in Palm Beach for Significant
Signed Jewels, a special exhibition showcasing iconic workmanship by special designers. On display were Van Cleef & Arpels pieces, Bvlgari, Cartier and Harry Winston masterpieces.
Send business news to Christine Davis, cdavis9797@ gmail.com.
CHALFONTE | $4,750,000
This 21st-floor oceanfront residence boasts 3,000 sq ft with direct ocean views from every room. Featuring 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 700 sq ft of terraces, it ensures privacy and comfort in a spacious layout.
Ana Londono 561.843.1171 | a.londono@langrealty.com
OSCEOLA PARK | $3,049,000
Stunning coastal contemporary residence by SPACEdfi features 4 beds, 4.5 baths, loft, car enthusiast garage, and is steps from vibrant Atlantic Avenue. Noreen Payne 703.999.4214 | team@amyandnoreen.com
Amy Snook 954.445.4545 | team@amyandnoreen.com
TOWER 155 | $1,700,000
Unit 1014 at Tower 155, a luxury 2-bed, 2.5-bath home with 10-foot ceilings, porcelain tile, 2 private balconies, stunning sunrise/sunset views, featuring premium upgrades throughout. Iris Cohen 561.702.3755 | iriscohen1010@gmail.com Amy Cohen 561.703.0999 | amymarlacohen18@gmail.com
SEA RANCH CLUB | $1,179,500
One-of-a-kind residence with spectacular ocean panoramas, complimented by the most strikingly beautiful, “best of everything,’’ ‘’down-to-the-slabs’’ renovations. Spectacular, unobstructed ocean vistas thru floor-to-ceiling walls of impact glass. Aristi Constantin 561.706.0706 | aristiconstantin@comcast.net
ALINA BOCA RATON CONDO | $3,795,000
Immaculate and stylish home with 2 BR + DEN, 3.5 BA, and an extended terrace featuring a wooden pergola with stone columns. Views overlooking resort / golf course. Jeannine Morris 561.706.8287 | jeannine@morrisreg.com Blake Morris 561.901.6960 | blake@morrisreg.com
CHALFONTE | $2,300,000
This renovated 8th-floor corner residence features panoramic Boca Raton coastline views, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, porcelain floors, a sleek kitchen with quartz countertops, and a spacious oceanfront terrace for relaxing or entertaining. Ana Londono 561.843.1171 | a.londono@langrealty.com
BOCA HIGHLAND | $1,200,000
Experience luxury in this renovated Braemar Isle penthouse with breathtaking ocean views, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and an oversized balcony overlooking the Atlantic and marina.
Brian Bahn 561.213.4227 | bocabeachside@gmail.com
Kim Spielvogel 561.251.0989 | kms33@bellsouth.net
LA FONTANA CONDO | $1,175,000
Gorgeous corner residence w/outstanding views of both the Intracoastal Waterway & Atlantic Ocean! Enjoy morning coffee & stunning sunrise from east balcony, breathtaking sunsets from private west balcony. Entertaining flow of yacht & boat activity awaits you. Jeannie Adams 561.414.5030 | jeannieadams7@gmail.com
Cost of eggs having impact on breakfast. Page AT10
On the Water Lantana Derby celebrates 30th anniversary. Page AT18
At-home euthanasia offers comfort. Page AT26
Philanthropy - Page AT2
- Page AT6
& Teens - Page AT23 Health & Harmony - Page AT25
- Page AT28 House of the Month - Page AT 31
Ready and able
Joey Rafe, owner of Rafe & Co Swim and Surf Club in Lantana, instructs David Prater of Sunrise about the basics of surfing. It was Prater’s first time on a surfboard. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Fara Hoffman, 35, of Boca Raton is pushed down the boat ramp by her mother, Randy, and father, Jeff
as they prepare to embark on a free boat ride on the
the
Annual Boating & Beach Bash puts focus on fun, not on disabilities
By Ron Hayes
There were lots of wheelchairs and canes in the park that Saturday. Prosthetic limbs, leg braces, even a onearmed pianist.
But you would have had a hard time finding any self-pity.
For five hours on March 15, Spanish River Park was packed with guests, family, friends and caregivers attending the annual “Boating & Beach Bash For People With Disabilities,” which prides itself on being the nation’s largest free
event for people with disabilities, seen and unseen.
“We’ve had about a thousand guests sign up,” said Lori Weber, the event’s managing director.
There is no parking fee, no tickets needed. All are welcome, and by mid-morning, the pathways from the Intracoastal Waterway boat dock to the ocean beach were filled with participants, and still more kept arriving.
“Only about a third who show up actually register,” added
communications director Amanda Larson.
The Pledge of Allegiance would be recited, of course, and a soulful national anthem sung by Ry Rivers, but first Carter Viss entertained at the electric keyboard, with his left hand.
“My mom was a piano teacher, so I started playing as a hobby,” the Jupiter resident said. “And then I lost my right arm in a boating accident on Thanksgiving Day 2019.
See BASH on page AT9
Hoffman,
Intracoastal Waterway during
Boating & Beach Bash last month in Boca Raton.
Finding Faith
Vatican honors St. Edward Catholic Church. Page AT19
Philanthropy Calendar
Pay It Forward
Note: Events are current as of 3/29. Please check with organizers for any changes.
APRIL
Saturday - 4/5 - Grey Team’s “They Are Not Bulletproof” Gala at The Boca Raton, 501 E. Camino Real. Rally the troops for an event that blends the glitz and glamor of The Great Gatsby and the elegance of the postwar era to raise funds for U.S. servicemen and servicewomen. 5:30-10 pm. Tickets start at $395. 561-2033815 or greyteam.org.
Saturday - 4/5 - Boca Raton Historical Society’s / The Schmidt Boca Raton History Museum’s Boca Bacchanal Cocktail Soirée at a private residence. Enjoy premium spirits and an appearance by “Foodgod” Jonathan Cheban during the themed “Toast to 1925 / Celebrating 100 Years of Mizner” event. 6 pm. $275. 561-395-6766, Ext. 101 or bocahistory.org/ boca-bacchanal.
Saturday - 4/5 - Best Foot Forward Foundation’s BFF Bash at Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca West Dr., Boca Raton. Learn how foster-care and at-risk youths are finding success in life through education and ring in the organization’s 15th anniversary. 6:30-10:30 pm. $250. 561470-8300 or bestfoot.org.
Saturday - 4/5 - Boca Raton Historical Society’s/The Schmidt Boca Raton History Museum’s Boca Bacchanal Vintner Dinner at a private residence. Enjoy wine tastings from a Napa Valley, Calif., vineyard and delectable Italian cuisine prepared by a renowned chef. 7 pm. $350. 561-395-6766, Ext. 101 or bocahistory.org/boca-bacchanal.
History Museum’s Boca Bacchanal Grand Tasting at The Addison, Two E. Camino Real, Boca Raton. Relish signature dishes by local restaurants plus a silent auction during the Grand Tasting. 1-4 pm. $200. 561-395-6766, Ext. 101 or bocahistory.org/boca-bacchanal.
Sunday - 4/6 - Big Dog Ranch Rescue’s Chefs for Canines: Hounds, High Rollers & Haute Cuisine at Opal Grand Oceanfront Resort & Spa, 10 N. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach. Join the four-legged-friendly charity for a night to remember featuring fine wines, exquisite auctions, dogs, dancing and lots of fun between courses. 5:30-10 pm. $650. 561-791-6465 or bdrr. org.
Sunday - 4/6 - National Society of Arts and Letters’ Florida Chapter’s Star Maker Awards at Waterstone Resort & Marina Boca Raton, 999 E. Camino Real. Honor Lifetime Achievement Award winners Jeff and Joanna Kaye at an event that benefits the nonprofit’s scholarships, competitions and mentoring programs for local performing and visual artists. 6 pm. $395. 561-945-0999 or nsalflorida.org.
Friday - 4/7 - Boca Ballet Theatre’s Ballet in Bloom at the Lotus Boca Raton clubhouse, 8190 Paradise Bay Ave. Support the troupe’s upcoming productions of Coppélia and Summer Breezes and the incredible guest artists who star in them. 6-8 pm. $75. 561-995-0709 or bocaballet. org.
Tuesday - 4/8 - Eat Better Live
Better’s Feeding the Hands of Hunger Luncheon at Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca West Dr., Boca Raton. Enjoy a meal while supporting a cause that nourishes the community. 10-11:30 am VIP reception, 11:30 am-1 pm. Luncheon. $150.
561-344-1022 or eblb.org.
Thursday - 4/10 - Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County’s Love of Literacy Luncheon at Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Hear from featured speaker Victoria Christopher Murray, a New York Times best-selling author. 11:30 am. $200. 561-767-3370 or literacypbc.org.
Tuesday - 4/23 - Impact 100 Palm Beach County’s Grand Awards Celebration at Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca West Dr., Boca Raton. Watch as members vote to determine which local organizations receive $100,000 grants that will help transform their nonprofit missions. 10 am-2 pm. Free. 561-336-4623 or impact100pbc.org.
Thursday - 4/24 - Achievement Centers for Children & Families’ Jacks & Stacks Poker Tournament at Hagerty Garage + Social, 777 S. Congress Ave., Delray Beach. Play cards for a chance to win a $5,000 cash prize all while surrounded by an exclusive display of luxury cars. 7 pm. $1,500. 561266-0003 or achievementcentersfl.org.
Saturday - 4/26 - Boca Helping Hands’ Monopoly & Casino Night at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, 2425 W. Maya Palm Drive, Boca Raton. Roll the dice at the annual evening of music, entertainment, auctions, gaming, cocktails and dinner – all 1920s-style – and, of course, Monopoly. 6-10 pm. $250. 561-417-0913 or bocahelpinghands.org/monopoly.
Saturday - 4/26 - Delray Beach Historical Society and Heritage Gardens’ Twilight in the Garden at Three N.E. First St. Meander peaceful pathways to enchanting food and cocktail vignettes, bid on one-of-a-kind auction items and enjoy live soothing
Monopoly & Casino Night
Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club
April 26: The annual fundraiser for Boca Helping Hands gives guests chances to roll the dice at gaming tables and Monopoly and to enjoy music, cocktails, dinner and more. Time is 6 to 10 p.m. Cost is $250. Visit bocahelpinghands.org/monopoly or call 561-417-0913. ABOVE: (l-r) Event co-chairs Alex and Jessica Price and Yvette and Chris Palermo. Photo provided
sounds during the organization’s annual fundraiser. 6-10 pm. $150. 561-274-9578 or delraybeachhistory.org.
Sunday - 4/27 - Tri-County Animal Rescue’s Bark & Brunch: Moms, Pups & Dads at The Addison, Two E. Camino Real, Boca Raton. Support animals in need during a midday meal with a cocktail reception, activities including boutiques and pet photos, live and silent auctions and a special doggie swag bag. 11 am-2 pm. $300. 561-482-8110 or tricountyanimalrescue.com.
Tuesday - 4/29 - Honor Your Doctor at Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca West Drive, Boca Raton. Join Rotary Club Downtown Boca Raton to recognize local doctors while raising funds for the Helen M. Babione Medical Scholarship. 11:30 am-1:15 pm. $175. 561-232-6555 or rotarydowntownbocaraton.org.
MAY
Saturday - 5/3 - Milagro Center’s Milagro Vibe Feel Good Gala at Indian Spring Country Club, 11501 El Clair Ranch Road, Boynton Beach. Stroll down memory lane with The Memory Lane Band during an evening celebrating another year of making miracles in the community. 7-11 pm. $150. 561-279-2970 or milagrocenter. org.
Saturday - 5/16 - Arts Garage’s Funraiser in Paradise at 94 N.E. Second Ave., Delray Beach. Lively up to the sounds of Peter Troup and the Coral Rummer Band, a Jimmy Buffett tribute, during a tropical evening supporting arts-education programs and summer theater camp. 7-10 pm. $70-$75. 561-450-6357 or artsgarage. org/event/fun-raiser-in-paradise.
Victoria Christopher Murray to speak at Love of Literacy Luncheon
By Amy Woods
The author of The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies is one of the country’s top AfricanAmerican writers — the two titles have hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists — and her appearance at the 34th annual Love of Literacy luncheon will be a treat for bookworms.
Victoria Christopher Murray has more than 3 million books in print, a monumental accomplishment 25 years in the making.
“It was the perfect time for her to come this year,” said Telsula Morgan, co-chairwoman of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County’s April 10 event.
Morgan belongs to the same Delta Sigma Theta sorority as Murray and was instrumental in having her “sister” speak at a 2023 book discussion at West Palm Beach’s CityPlace.
“Our goal, or at least my goal, is to promote literacy,” Morgan said. “And what better way to do that than sell out the Kravis Center with Victoria
If You Go
What: Love of Literacy Luncheon
When: 11:30 a.m. April 10
Where: Kravis Center, West Palm Beach Cost: $200
Info: Call 561-767-3370 or visit literacypbc.org
Christopher Murray?”
Murray spent more than a decade in corporate America prior to pursuing her pen-topaper dream. Her debut novel, Temptation, was mass published in 2000.
“Since she was announced, I read The Personal Librarian,” Co-Chairwoman Lindsay
Reinhart said. “I took a literacy class in college about the Harlem Renaissance and am a lifelong lover of books.”
Funds raised at the Love of Literacy luncheon will support reading programs throughout Palm Beach County that help children and adults who lack basic literacy skills.
“We’re pleased to have Victoria Christopher Murray join us as our guest speaker for this year’s celebration of literacy,” said Kristin Calder, CEO of the coalition.
“We know our community will be intrigued by Victoria’s own story as well as the strong women featured in her novels.”P
Event co-chairs Telsula Morgan and Lindsay Reinhart hold books written by Love of Literacy Luncheon guest speaker Victoria Christopher Murray. Photo provided
Philanthropy Notes
Feeding South Florida’s student art competition underway
The leading hunger-relief organization in the area is sponsoring its sixth annual “Feed Your Creativity” artwork initiative involving students in elementary, middle and high schools throughout Palm Beach, Broward, MiamiDade and Monroe counties.
Students are encouraged to show off their talent for a chance to have their work featured on one of Feeding South Florida’s truck wraps — a 36-foot traveling billboard promoting its “Summer Hunger Ends Here” campaign.
Summer break can leave many kids without access to free or reduced-price school meals, creating a challenge for families, said Paco Vélez, president and CEO of Feeding South Florida.
“This competition is always a favorite among students
as it allows them to express their creativity while raising awareness about the critical issue of hunger in South Florida,” he said.
Artwork will be accepted through April 30, with judging taking place May 4 through 9 and winners selected May 15.
For more information, call 954-518-1818 or visit feedingsouthflorida.org/fyc25.
Annual Hope Week offers help to local nonprofits
Hundreds of residents from Boca West Country Club participated in the third annual Hope Week, organized by Boca West Cares, and donated more than 10,000 hours of service.
Nearly one dozen local charities benefited from Hope Week, including Fuller Center, Place of Hope at The Leighan
and David Rinker Campus, and Tri-County Animal Rescue.
“Hope Week gave our club members the opportunity to learn about a number of nonprofits while making a difference,” said Matthew Linderman, general manager of Boca West Country Club.
Added Danny Schulman, Hope Week chairman, “Hope Week 2025 was a big success. Boca West residents enjoyed the opportunity to learn about different nonprofits while giving of their time.”
For more information, call 561-488-6934 or visit bocawestcc. org.
Fuller Center celebrates charity challenge award
Boca Raton-based Fuller Center, which empowers hardworking, underresourced families to reach their full potential, received $69,000 during the Great Charity Challenge equestrian competition in Wellington.
The amount comprises a $65,000 grant from the main event and an additional $4,000 from the Dennis M. and Lois A. Doyle Family Foundation volunteer initiative.
“We are profoundly grateful to the Great Charity Challenge, Spy Coast Farm and Preston, the Sweetnam family, Collin and Virginia McNeil, and our dedicated volunteers Kyle and Jordyn Kelman,” Fuller Center CEO Eric Roby said, referring to some of the sponsors and participants. “This generous support empowers us to continue providing essential services to children and families in our community.”
The Great Charity Challenge is a show-jumping expo that pairs teams with local charities and distributes millions of dollars to fund their causes.
For more information, call 727-678-8677 or visit greatcharitychallenge.com. For information about Fuller Center, call 561-391-7274 or visit fullercenterfl.org.
Five fresh faces added to county Cultural Council
The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County has made five additions to its board of directors: Barbara Cheives, Willem Erwich, Todd Kolich, Hector Rubio and Greg Silpe.
“We look forward to their guidance as the Cultural Council continues to support and promote arts and culture in the Palm Beaches,” said Dave Lawrence, president and CEO.
For more information, call 561-471-2901 or visit palmbeachculture.com.
Send news and notes to Amy Woods at flamywoods@ bellsouth.net.
Celebrations
Cowboy Ball
Boca West Country Club, Boca Raton — March 1
The George Snow Scholarship Fund roped in its 31st annual rhinestone-studded gala and celebrated it with people who continue to make a lasting impact on higher education. Nancy Dockerty was recognized as honorary chairwoman, and Margaret Blume received the Community Service Award. Additionally, NCCI was awarded the Corporate Community Service Award. A previous scholar shared her story of being able to pursue her love of marine biology, and longtime donor Joe Veccia made a surprise pledge of $150,000. ABOVE: (l-r) Sponsors Jodi and Al Goldberg, Zoe Lanham, sponsor Mike Drews and Fran Nachlas. Photo provided by Gina Fontana
Giving for Good Reception
Private home, Boca Raton — Jan. 29
Peter and Susan Brockway served as hosts of a casual evening affair attended by 40 guests who included South County philanthropists as well as board members and volunteers for the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties. Among them were Bill and Mary Donnell, George Elmore, Marti LaTour, Joanne Julien and Jeffrey Stoops. ABOVE: The Brockways. Photo provided by Tracey Benson Photography
Winter Fête
Private home, Boca Raton — Jan. 11
More than $90,000 was generated for the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council during a gathering that attracted 200plus supporters. President Rand Hoch said the party, which featured acrobats, aerialists, ballerinas and a flame thrower, ‘was our most successful fundraising event since our organization was founded in 1988.’ The money will be used to further the mission of ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. ABOVE: Stephen Miller and Daniel Gibson. Photo provided
Muscle on the Beach
Old School Square, Delray Beach — March 1
A car show benefiting Sandoway Discovery Center raised more than $58,000 for the nonprofit’s handson learning experiences that focus on Florida’s ecosystems. Nearly 200 American hot rods, 50-plus community volunteers and two dozen vendors made a success of an event that brought out 6,100 spectators. ABOVE: Mike Brewer (center, black shirt), host of the hit television show ‘Wheeler Dealers,’ and Danica Sanborn (center, blue shirt), executive director of the center, join board members to celebrate the presentation of the big check. Photo provided
Heart to Heart Dinner
The second year of the fundraiser was a record-breaker as it raised $418,000 to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Delray Beach. Proceeds will help remodel the club’s teen room. The event honored John and Jorgette Smith and was cochaired by Susan Ambrecht, Jennifer Coulter, Sacha McGraw and Susan Mullin. ABOVE: (l-r) Stuart Foster with the club’s Youth of the Year, Jaiyden Williams, and Tom Stanley.
LEFT: Philip and Isabella Timon.
Photos provided by Tracey
Photography
At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County’s 11th annual benefit, seven finalists competed for the title that provides a four-year university scholarship plus room and board fees. The winner was Phildensy Jean, a member of the Wellington club. Each of the finalists was selected during a preliminary competition that included a comprehensive application, three essays, three letters of recommendation and an interview in front of a panel of judges. The dinner brought in $548,000. LEFT: Michelle Hagerty with Jaene Miranda, president & CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County. Photo provided by Tracey Benson Photography
The Little Club, Gulf Stream — Feb. 12
Benson
Michelle Hagerty Youth of the Year Dinner Kravis Center, West Palm Beach — Feb. 27
Celebrations
Laugh with the Library
Opal Grand Resort & Spa, Delray Beach — Jan. 31
The 18th chapter of the Delray Beach Public Library’s fun fundraiser featured actor/ comedian T.J. Miller, whose high-energy performance had the audience roaring and wanting more. A crowd of 350 enjoying food and drinks helped raise $200,000 that will go toward keeping the library’s materials and programs thriving. ABOVE: (l-r) Kamil Webster, Suzy Lanigan, sponsors Mike and Becky Walsh and Joe O’Loughlin. LEFT: (l-r) Jacqueline and Scott Owen with Tracy Backer. Photos provided
Centennial celebration
The Little Club, Gulf Stream Feb. 21
The town will celebrate its 100th year as an incorporated town April 30. In honor of the milestone, the Gulf Stream Civic Association organized an outdoor meal attended by more than 240 residents. ‘Gulf Stream remains unique, having never materially wavered from its founder’s idea of a town of quiet, unassuming elegance located close to a premier country club, a private elementary school and most notably without any commercial presence,’ Mayor Scott Morgan said, referring to Henry Phipps Jr. of U.S. Steel. TOP LEFT: (l-r) Suzy Lanigan, Lisa Morgan, Jennifer Coulter and Kirsten Stanley. TOP RIGHT: (l-r) Lisa
Dinner
Private home, Manalapan — Feb. 6
Supporters of The Nature Conservancy gathered for a dinner organized by Ron and Cindy McMackin that drew members of the organization’s state board of trustees. Guests enjoyed cocktails beside the Intracoastal Waterway, followed by a meal and a fireside chat about protection for lands, oceans and wildlife. ABOVE: The McMackins. RIGHT: Susan and Stewart Satter. Photos provided by Capehart
Jankowski, Rob Mayer and Marilyn Mayer. BOTTOM LEFT: Brendan Boyle and Katie Orthwein. BOTTOM RIGHT: Fritz Souder and Susie Souder. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Jan Engoren
A full, festive day of activities took place March 22 at the Boynton Woman’s Club as the club marked the 100th anniversary of its recently refurbished 1925 Addison Mizner building at 1010 S. Federal Highway.
The 12,000-square-foot, two-story Mediterranean Revival style building showcases Mizner’s signature architectural elements, including its barrel tile roof, arched windows, grand hall, stucco exterior, tropical landscaping and open-air spaces.
It is one of the few Addison Mizner-designed structures open to the public in Palm Beach County.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
“We’re so happy for the success of this event and thankful to everyone who came out to support us,” said club member Barbara Erlichman. “The event was free to the public as a way to encourage people to come and see who we are and what we do and celebrate this beautiful building with us.”
The building was commissioned in 1925 by the club, thanks in part to funds contributed by city-namesake Major Nathan Boynton’s family, and finished in 1932.
It hosted World War II-era Red Cross dances, served as the city library until 1961, housed residents during hurricanes and was the heart of the community for decades. It hosted teas, lectures, concerts, art events, dances and galas — raising money for charities — most recently for college scholarships for local high school students.
The day’s participants included Tom Warnke of the Surfing Florida Museum, representatives from the Boynton Beach Historical Society, the Highwaymen Museum in Fort Pierce, the Girl Scouts, the Arthur R. Marshall Nature Preserve and the Boynton Beach Garden
Club, which presented its signature Art in Bloom event.
Garden Club members made original floral arrangements inspired by artwork created by clients of The Arc of Palm Beach County, an organization advocating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Upstairs, local historians Janet DeVries Naughton and Ed Lamont, a docent at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, spoke about the history of Boynton Beach and about the life and work of Addison Mizner.
The Boynton Woman’s Club building has endured its share of ups and downs over the years and in recent times was in need of extensive repairs.
In 2017 it was taken over by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which then sold it to the city four years later. The city painted and made repairs to the windows, railings and floors, and to the roof that had been damaged in 2017 during Hurricane Irma.
While repairs were being done, the Woman’s Club met elsewhere and its members are now thrilled to be back in their original home. They started up meetings there again in October 2023.
“We’re so grateful to the city of Boynton Beach, which has done a wonderful job in refurbishing our beloved Woman’s Club building,” said Donna Artes, a past president of the club and a trustee of the Boynton Beach Historical Society. “We’re finally back in our home and proud and excited that we get to enjoy it and show it off.”
Artes encourages residents to visit, appreciate the building and get involved with the Woman’s Club.
The evening ended in Jazzage glamour, with a 1920s theme party, the ballroom transformed into “Mizner’s Hideaway,” a speakeasy complete with cocktails and a 17-piece jazz band. P Visit boyntonwomansclub. com and boyntonhistory.org
L-R: Lynne Freeman, Michele Walter, Janet DeVries Naughton and Donna Artes look through photos of past gatherings at the Boynton Woman’s Club. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Continued from page AT1
“I was snorkeling and a boat ran over me off The Breakers. I was 25.”
He’s 30 now, a graduate student in marine biology at Florida Atlantic University. He and his wife, Emily, are the parents of Harper, a 7-monthold daughter.
“After the accident, I thought I’d never play again,” Viss recalled. “I wanted to give up. It took a few months, and then years to feel comfortable playing again.”
Now he’s comfortable with Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Chopin’s Ocean Etude
“I’ve learned I can make a bigger difference because of my accident,” he said. “I can drive, bike, run, swim. I won 90% just by being alive.”
People with stories to tell
And still the crowd around Viss was growing.
So many people, and so much for them to do.
On the beach, lifeguards were waiting to help guests into wheelchairs with tires large enough to maneuver through sand. Then down plastic mats to enjoy the choppy waves that so many beachgoers visit without a second thought.
“This is my first time here,” said Peggy Domitz, 65, of Palm Beach Gardens, smiling in her wheelchair. “Now I wonder, is this hard because I’m old, or because of my disability?”
Paralyzed during surgery 14 years ago, she is both friendly and defiant.
“They’re just legs,” she said. “I’d rather be paralyzed than have cancer, and I’m a firm believer that this chair doesn’t confine me. I’m an adaptive scuba diver, meaning I dive with people trained to be buddies. I’ve scuba dived in Mexico, Grenada, Honduras.”
She has a favorite saying. “The only time people should look down on another person is when they’re giving a hand to get up.”
David Prater of Sunrise lost his left leg 10 years ago in a car accident.
“I still skateboard,” he said. “I still ride motorcycles.”
At the Bash he decided to ride a surfboard for the first time. With help from a lifeguard volunteer, he and his prosthetic leg made it onto the board, slipped off, remounted, and stayed on long enough to ride in to shore on his belly.
“It was awesome,” he said back on land. “I love Mother Ocean. I was always a wild and crazy guy, so I’m just going to live my life.”
Prater owns a small pool cleaning service back in Sunrise.
“It’s called One Leg Up Pool Service,” he grinned. “And the logo is a prosthetic leg.”
Donors, sponsors, helpers
Organizers estimate the annual Bash costs between $35,000 and $40,000 to put on, raised entirely from private donations and sponsorships.
LEFT: Boca Raton Fire Rescue deploys a water cannon to keep things cool at the Boating & Beach Bash.
BELOW: Emily Edsken, 29, of Boca
embraces a volunteer dressed in a gown donated by the Wick Theatre for the event.
The work is done by about 250 volunteers.
The Rotary Club of Downtown Boca Raton provides free hotdogs and hamburgers. The city’s Junior League is there to help.
The 20 boats offering free rides were donated by the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. Members of the nonprofit Community Service League moved among the guests in Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Batgirl costumes provided by the Wick Theatre. Mark Hansen of Coldwell Banker Realty scurried throughout the park, greeting guests and visitors.
’So many memories’ You had to wonder what Jay Van Vechten would think of this elaborate event, born of a slippery bathroom floor 24 years ago.
Van Vechten, a public relations executive, was in a San Diego hotel on business one night in 2001 when he slipped on the wet floor in the dark. Falling backward over the tub, he shattered five vertebrae. Then he fell forward and broke both knees. His splayed legs required two hip replacements.
The Boating & Beach Bash debuted in 2009, he and his wife, Lowell, founded the American Disabilities Foundation, which
oversees it, in 2012, and except when COVID prohibited a fullscale event, it’s filled Spanish River Park each spring.
Since Jay’s death at 75 in 2020, Lowell Van Vechten has committed herself to perpetuating their annual day of joy.
At this year’s Bash, she patrolled the event from ocean to waterway in a golf cart, chatting, greeting, making sure all was running smoothly.
“After 16 years, I have so many memories,” she said. “So many magical moments. Every year when I’m onstage for the opening, I cry. Always when they start ‘The StarSpangled Banner.’ The hardest thing for me to get through is remembering all the people on our founding committee who have passed, starting with my husband.”
Van Vechten served on Boca Raton’s board for people with disabilities until it disbanded, and when his vision for the city’s annual picnic for those with disabilities grew bigger than the city could handle, he and Lowell took over.
Boat rides are a hit Bailey Negron, 27, of Miami was making her second visit after several years away.
“It’s bigger now,” she observed.
Negron was in the backseat of a car that hit a wall on the
Palmetto Parkway when she was 19. She can walk, but the lingering effects of the accident are visible.
“My legs hyperextend backward, as if my knees bend backward,” she explained. “I walk very well, but it took a lot of falls and practicing.”
She paused.
“I didn’t get on a boat my first time here,” she said. “Hopefully I’ll make my way to the boat.”
If she did, there was a wait. Of all the things to do that day, the free boat rides were clearly the most popular.
Down at the dock, guests and caregivers in bright orange life jackets waited in two lines, one for the ambulatory, a second for those in wheelchairs.
Jeff and Randy Hoffman of Boca Raton waited to accompany their daughter, Fara, who is 35 and has cerebral palsy.
“We’ve been here 10 fantastic times,” Jeff Hoffman said as the line inched toward the dock. “We wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Eventually, the Hoffmans were led to the Minnow, a 20foot pontoon boat owned by Al Zucaro. They disappeared up the Intracoastal and returned about a half-hour later.
“It was amazing,” Jeff reported. “We can tell she loved the wind out there because she communicates through her body language.
“She smiles.” P
Raton
Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
RIGHT: David Prater of Sunrise makes it back to shore after his first time on a surfboard, with the coaching of Joey Rafe, owner of Rafe & Co Swim and Surf Club in Lantana.
Cost of eggs leaves breakfast restaurants scrambling on menu prices
Yolk about it all you want, but the price of eggs is a serious thing — especially for small restaurants and diners that depend on the morning rush orders.
“We were just shop-talking, with the rest of the owners — the ones exclusively doing breakfast and lunch,” said Mike, owner of The Diner on Gateway Boulevard in Boynton Beach, who preferred that his last name not be used. “If things don’t change, some will have to close. They won’t be able to make it. You can only raise prices so much.”
He’s already bumped up the prices slightly on his menu, anywhere from 25 cents to $1.50 per dish. “I hope it’s just temporary,” he said. A sign on the door indicates an upcharge for eggs.
Known for his housemade products and large portions — two blueberry pancakes could feed as many people — he uses fresh eggs in his dishes.
“Some have gone to liquid eggs,” Mike said. “They’re cheaper because they’re watered down. We won’t do that.”
Wholesale prices dropped to $4.83 per dozen eggs in mid-March, a 44% decline from their peak of $8.58 per dozen on Feb. 28, according to Expana, a commodity price tracker.
When or if that translates into cheaper menu prices is unclear. The cost of eggs fluctuates, and the relief in March seemed tenuous given unpredictable influences such as avian flu in bird flocks, and distribution and demand during the Easter season.
The average U.S. consumer price of a dozen Grade A large eggs was $1.46 a dozen as recently as 2020. Prepandemic you could get two eggs, coffee, toast and potatoes
Soaring egg prices mean breakfast aficionados have been forced to pay more for their longtime staple of two eggs, two pieces of bacon and toast. Jan Norris /The Coastal Star
or grits for $4.99 as an early bird breakfast at a diner. That basic meal now starts at $7.99 and goes up.
To get around changing a menu’s prices — reprints are expensive — many small restaurants have chosen to post notices about a surcharge for egg dishes, usually with an apology.
As of last month:
The Green Owl in downtown Delray Beach has a $1 up-charge for each egg order. A sign on the front door alerts customers to the charge.
At the Hen and Hog in Boca Raton, where breakfast is served all day, two eggs, bacon or sausage, toast or a biscuit will set you back $15.95.
Owners at Sande’s Restaurant, a diner in Delray Beach, have raised prices across the board, ranging from 25 cents to $1, according to server Bailey Stormer. A two-
egg breakfast with bacon or sausage and pancakes or toast is $10.25.
“Our customers haven’t said anything,” she said. “We already have competitive prices.”
At the Tin Muffin in Boca Raton, a breakfast and lunch spot, owner Philip Thomas said he’s adjusted the menu to avoid raising prices much.
“I took egg salad off the menu. It was served as a special,” he said.
“But prices are up — 35% to 40% on some items, and not just eggs, but chicken breasts. We’re known for our chicken salad.”
He was planning on raising prices, “but I hate to do it. We’ve been here 30 years and I’m struggling.”
Thomas said he may charge one dollar more on the now$17 chicken salad sandwich, but is worried it won’t help
enough.
“Beyond that, we may have to close,” he said.
The big picture
The whole experience of dining out is now a luxury, said Boca Raton’s Tracy Augustin, who writes about it on her blog, 2 Forks and a Cork. “All menus have gone up.”
Augustin said she and her spouse, Wayne, have changed their rough spending formula for their meals out.
“We used to say $25 for breakfast, $50 for lunch, and $100 for dinner. Now, it’s $50 for breakfast, $100 for lunch and $200 for dinner,” Augustin said.
But it’s location, too. For South Florida, and Boca Raton in particular, “it’s expensive to live here,” Augustin said.
“Let’s face it: This is Disneyland. It’s not real
here. Everything’s fake. Go somewhere where the people are living on minimum wage salaries. Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“So a few dollars more for a meal, it’s just the way it is. But we don’t eat out as often as we used to.”
Easter and Passover meals
A smattering of restaurants are offering Easter and Passover meals.
At the Opal Grand Resort and Spa, 10 N. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, diners have a choice of a special brunch or dinner on Easter Sunday, April 20. Phone 561-274-3200, or go to opalcollection.com/opalgrand/ to make a reservation. Brunch, from 11-3, is in the Seacrest Ballroom. Cost is $89.95 adults, or $35 kids under 12. Does not include tax or tip.
Dinner is a prix fixe at Opal Grand’s restaurant Drift. Cost ranges from $60 to $85, depending on entree chosen. Does not include tax or tip.
At Latitudes at the Delray Sands Resort, 2809 Ocean Blvd., Highland Beach, a three-course prix fixe menu is served. Cost is $92 to $98, depending on entree. Does not include tax or tip. Visit opalcollection.com/delraysands/restaurants/latitudes.
TooJay’s Deli offers a fourcourse Passover seder dinner at all its restaurants for $44.99 per person, dine in or takeout. The dinner is available Saturday, April 12 or Sunday, April 13, with two seatings, 5 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. Reservations are required by phone. Call the TooJay’s nearest you.
For larger groups, special catered dinners are available for up to 10 people. A la carte seder foods also can be ordered for pickup. To order takeout or catered meals, go to order.toojays.com; curbside pickup is available.
In brief
Torres
Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches will host as speaker Jacques Torres, noted chocolatier, at its annual More Than a Meal Luncheon at 11 a.m. April 9 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. Tickets are $295 to benefit the nonprofit that delivers homebound seniors a daily hot meal. For tickets and more information, go to mowpb.org.
Jan Norris is a food writer who can be reached at nativefla@ gmail.com.
Physician, Infectious
and
Patient (roommate), below, by Donald Farnsworth, are part of The Parma Portraits exhibit at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Photo provided
Celebrating the caregivers
Artist pays homage to doctors who saved his life from COVID-19
By Sandra Schulman ArtsPaper Art Writer
An unexpected near-death experience during the early days of the pandemic has yielded a remarkable series of portraits, drawn by the patient.
Donald Farnsworth, an artist who owns a fine art studio that makes vintage paper from Italian Renaissance-era techniques, was traveling in Italy in 2022, when he came down with a lifethreatening case of COVID-19. He was admitted to the Maggiore Hospital in Parma, Italy, and was confined for five weeks.
During that uncertain time, he took cellphone pictures of the doctors, nurses, fellow patients and caregivers at the
hospital. When he returned to good health and was released, he made a series of portraits of them on his handmade paper.
The exquisite portraits that resulted, Donald Farnsworth: The Parma Portraits, are on view through Oct. 26 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. They pay homage to the doctors and health-care professionals who risked their lives to save his during the height of the pandemic. These are contemporary drawings, but Farnsworth’s mixed media drawings were
made using traditional techniques.
“He is quite a technical genius,” said senior curator Kathleen Goncharov. “He runs Magnolia Editions, which he and his wife founded. He is an inventor. The paper that he made, he actually tracked down a Tuscan sheep in their DNA in order to come up with exactly the papers that Leonardo da Vinci would have used centuries ago.”
Sheep play a crucial role in papermaking because their wool is one of the primary sources of natural fibers used to create pulp, which is the base material for paper production. He sourced the sheep from the region in Italy where Da Vinci lived.
“He is a master paper maker,” Goncharov said. “I’ve watched him do it, but I can’t explain the technical side of it. He tried to completely reproduce 16thcentury paper. As the owner of Magnolia Editions, they produce all kinds of things.
Area stages announce 2025-26 season
By Hap Erstein ArtsPaper Theater Writer
If you are a subscriber to an area theater, you may have already received word of what is ahead for next season. But whether you sign up for a package or pick and choose single tickets, here is what we know about the 2025-26 season at resident companies in South Florida, listed geographically from north to south:
Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Jupiter
Following its current seasonending production of Guys and
Dolls, the north Palm Beach County troupe’s first repeat selection, the Maltz will drop its second encore pick next year with Man of La Mancha (March 17-April 5, 2026), the “Impossible Dream” musical merger of the classic Don Quixote with a biography of its author, Miguel de Cervantes.
The season opener is again a thriller, a stage version of Stephen King’s Misery (Oct. 26–Nov. 9) about a world-famous author who lands in the clutches of his most obsessively devoted fan. Adapted by the late William Goldman from his
screenplay. Next is Million Dollar Quartet (Dec. 2–14), a fictional account of an actual jam session at Sun Records studio among four soonto-be music superstars — Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. Also based on true events is Come From Away (Jan. 6–25, 2026), a musical saga of the airline passengers grounded in tiny Gander, Newfoundland, following the tragic events of 9/11. The fourth slot goes to Good
By Bill Meredith ArtsPaper Music Writer
A funny thing happened on the way to SunFest 2025 — and by now, practically everyone knows what it is.
After years of not turning a profit, and on the heels of its 40th anniversary in 2024, the festival announced last November that fans should expect a “significant shift” in dates and location and that the event “will no longer take place on the traditional first weekend of May” starting this year.
All of which proved to be music to the ears of Ben Childs and Hector Diaz, singing multiinstrumentalists for area roots music trio the Killbillies and cohosts of the popular 561 Music (561music.com) audio and video podcast. Their first three celebratory 561 Music Festivals had taken place at Mathews Brewing Company in Lake Worth Beach before an opportunity arose out of the SunFest vacancy.
Their fourth annual 561 Music Festival will take place all day on May 3, the same date that SunFest started last year, and at the location of SunFest’s only recurring permanent stage, the Meyer Amphitheatre in downtown West Palm Beach.
Attendees can see 20 of South Florida’s top bands and artists on two stages between 11:30 a.m. and 10 p.m., and in a variety of musical genres: Beeline, Billy Doom Is Dead, Blabscam, Closer To the Ocean, Fuakata, Ryan Hopkins Band, Jutt Huffman Band, The
A scene from The Choir of Man, coming to
Photo by Steve Schuff
Federica,
disease specialist,
Giorgio, Physician, above, and Giancarlo,
THEATERS
Continued from page 11
Night, Oscar (Feb. 16-March 1, 2026), a one-man biography/ concert of piano virtuoso/ raconteur/hypochondriac Oscar Levant, which climaxes with a performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
Much of the second season of the Maltz’s intimate second space, The Island Theatre, will be devoted to tribute concerts and other limited engagements, but it will also feature Fully Committed (April 16–19, 2026), Becky Mode’s fast-paced comedy of the travails of an out-of-work actor reduced to manning the reservation phone at one of Manhattan’s most sought-after restaurants.
Palm Beach Dramaworks, West Palm Beach
For its 26th season, this West Palm Beach mainstay opens with The Mountaintop (Oct. 24–Nov. 9), Katori Hall’s Olivier Award-winning fictional account of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final night and a mysterious visitor to his room at the Lorraine Motel. It will be followed by Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer (Dec. 12–28), a dark suspenseful tale of homecoming and redemption.
Continuing its mounting of Pulitzer Prize winners, PBD brings back Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy (Feb. 6–22, 2026), his tribute to his aged grandmother, forced to accept an African-American chauffeur
and their evolving relationship over time.
Mob mentality is at the core of Arthur Miller’s allegorical look at the 1692 Salem witch trials and perhaps today in his compelling The Crucible (March 27–April 12, 2026). Fresh from its new play festival is Vineland Place (May 15–31, 2026) by Steven Dietz, a twisty mystery involving a young writer hired to complete the novel of his deceased idol.
Kravis Center, West Palm Beach
The county’s performing arts center features eight shows in its Kravis on Broadway series, starting with The Wiz (Oct. 2126), the Tony Award-winning ethnic take on Dorothy Gale’s tornado-fueled travels to the Emerald City.
Next up is 2020’s Tony winner Kimberly Akimbo (Nov. 11-16), about a teenager with an accelerated aging disorder, with songs by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire.
The first of two holiday shows at the center is ’Twas the Night Before… by Cirque du Soleil (Nov. 20–30), an acrobatic salute to the classic Clement Moore poem. It is followed by The Choir of Man (Dec. 22-28), the internationally acclaimed concert of pop, rock, folk and Broadway tunes, all in a publike setting.
The final four shows all come from Broadway, two biographical jukebox musicals and two based on movies. The bio shows are MJ (Feb. 10-15,
2026), based on the life of the mega-talented Michael Jackson, and A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical (April 7-12, 2026). The screen-to-stage shows are Some Like It Hot (Jan. 6-11, 2026), about a pair of musicians hiding out from the mob in women’s clothes, and The Notebook (April 29–May 3, 2026), a tale of enduring love, adapted from a Nicholas Sparks tearjerker.
The Wick Theatre, Boca Raton
The Boca company describes its 12th season as “fantastic,” because it will be opening with Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s off-Broadway longrunning record-holder, The Fantasticks (Oct. 9–Nov. 2), a fable of young love.
Next up, in time for the holidays, will be Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Nov. 28–Dec. 28), the perennial yarn of the redemption of miser Ebenezer Scrooge.
The heart of the Wick’s season is devoted to two popular musicals by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe: the captivating Cinderella-like My Fair Lady (Jan. 22–Feb. 22, 2026) and the Arthurian romantic triangle Camelot (March 19–April 12, 2026).
The season finale will be the biographical The Cher Show (April 30–June 7), with Ms. Sarkisian in triplicate and lots of outrageous Bob Mackie costumes.
Theater Review
Charming throwback ‘No, No, Nanette’ easy to say ‘yes, yes’ to
By Hap Erstein ArtsPaper Theater Writer
Exactly a century ago this year, a trifle of a musical called No, No, Nanette arrived on Broadway and was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike — neither of whom apparently wanted anything more than an excuse for some upbeat, hummable songs and captivating dance numbers.
Fast forward to 1971, when the show had its cobwebs wiped away and its stillflimsy script somewhat bolstered, as an improbable revival of No, No, Nanette was greeted with near unanimous choruses of “yes, yes.”
Still another 54 years later comes the Wick Theatre to mount the show in what now seems an act of pure nostalgia and unabashed chutzpah. But as long as you are able to accept it as an artifact from a simpler time — theatrically speaking — there is plenty of entertainment value to be had in this daffy romp.
Just don’t go looking for a story in which to become too involved or emotionally invested. Instead, book writers Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel (with an adaptation assist from Burt Shevelove) serve up a silly comic tale about a wealthy Bible publisher named Jimmy Smith, who bankrolls a trio of alluring dames — platonically, we are assured — and transports them to Atlantic City, where his wife, her best friend, his fixer lawyer and his eager-tosow-wild-oats niece, Nanette, all show up as well. Of course, comic chaos, circa
1920s, ensues.
The show has plenty of plot, but the story’s main purpose is to lead into the songs by composer Vincent Youmans and co-lyricists Irving Caesar and Harbach.
Chief among them is the now Great American Songbook classic “Tea for Two” and the infectious, bouncy “I Want to Be Happy.” The latter is reprised so often — including an audience participation sing-along during the curtain calls — that the tune becomes an earworm that will rattle around in your brain for the rest of the evening.
As was the custom back when labor
was cheap, many of the musical numbers begin as solos or duets among the principal performers and then they are joined by the generic ensemble chorus that also functions as fashion plates for the snazzy period costumes credited to designer Ann M. Bruskiewitz.
No, No, Nanette is a dance-heavy show, with lots of explosive tap choreography by Broadway’s Randy Skinner, recreated and adapted at the Wick by the tireless Jeremy Benton, who also plays Jimmy’s attorney, Billy Early. He heads one of the most talented casts that the Boca Raton company has amassed in its 11 seasons of existence.
If You Go
No, No, Nanette plays at the Wick Theatre, 7901 N. Federal Highway, in Boca Raton through April 6.
Tickets: $99-$119
Info: 561-995-2333 or thewick.org
Staging them is the ever-reliable Norb Joerder, directing his 20th production at the Wick, wringing every laugh from the punchline-shameless script.
Elizabeth McGuire is a cast standout as spunky ingenue Nanette, well paired with Kevin Hincapie as Tom Trainor, Billy’s lawyer assistant and all-around go-fer. Kaitlyn Davidson and Kathryn Kendall lend solid support as the two shopaholic wives and Ellie Pattison is drolly deadpan as Pauline, the put-upon maid.
Originally written in three acts, the show is performed at the Wick with only one intermission. Among the evening’s most curious touches is a pause in the action after the second act, when we are treated to a slide show of photos from this cast’s rehearsals that covers the required set change.
The three-act format is one of many ways that No, No, Nanette is showing its age, but audiences with an appreciation for theater history and a willing funny bone will likely be charmed by this exercise in exhumation.
The company performs a scene from No, No Nanette, now playing at the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton. Photo provided
FARNSWORTH
Continued from page 11
They produce tapestries, and he will work with artists to get each little pixel of the right color for that tapestry, something he invented.
“And they do ceramics. The Second Avenue subway station in New York, they did the Chuck Close ceramic mural there. They do all kinds of work,” she said.
“I knew that he was an artist, but I didn’t really know he was practicing,” she added. “I mean, he doesn’t know himself as an artist usually. But I happened to talk to his wife who said, ‘Oh, he almost died in Italy.’ He made these wonderful portraits that she sent me.
“I said, ‘Oh, you have to show this here. They’re gorgeous and interesting. And our audience has a lot of doctors here.’”
As a celebration of the doctors and professionals who saved his life, the portraits are
Sal, Patient (roommate), left, and Letizia, Nursing orderly and aide, right, were drawn on paper, using ancient techniques, from cell phone images captured while Donald Farnsworth was a patient.
Photos provided by Boca Raton Museum of Art
dignified and sensitive and classical on the textured paper.
One in particular of “Letizia” stands out for its use of color in her red sweater and the green edging on her shirt.
“The pandemic was a really world-changing event,” Goncharov said.
“So here is something that really is dealing with that pandemic in a very beautiful and creative way. It’s also making heroes of these health professionals, which were not just as far away as these were, but all around the world. This is the whole series, and there’s a book with it, a full color catalog.
“In the book he tells the stories of all these people, the whole story of his sickness, and the people who were around, the people who saved his life, but also the people who visited, and helped him. Also, the things that his wife went through because she was there with him, but not able to visit because it
If You Go
Donald Farnsworth: The Parma Portraits is on view at the Boca Raton Museum of Art through Oct. 26.
Where: 501 Plaza Real Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday (to 8 p.m. Thursday) Admission: $16; $12 seniors
Info: 561-392-2500 or www.bocamuseum.org
was COVID, so her experience was living in Parma for that length of time,” Goncharov said.
“It was a strange version of COVID. It really affected his blood; he was there a long time. But he recovered, obviously, and it’s been a long struggle, even after he recovered.
“This series was his thank you, and something he felt he needed to get out of this awful experience,” Goncharov said.
561 FESTIVAL
Continued from page 11
Little Things, Medicine Room, Modern Odyssey, Off Orbit, Mason Pace, Reverse Oreo, The Shakers, Slo Funk Pump, Stony Fools, Stryder, Jakob Takos & The Connection, Tiger Sunset, and Wrasse.
“We heard the news about SunFest not happening in May this year,” Diaz says, “and figured there wasn’t a better place to move our festival to — exactly where SunFest would’ve been, and on the same weekend, where people were expecting music. We reached out to the city of West Palm Beach and they told us the site was available, so we sent in the application and they approved us.”
As it’s been with previous 561 Music Fests, artists will appear rapid-fire on stages facing each other, with two separate PA systems allowing for such immediacy.
“There will never be someone not playing,” says Childs. “And each act will have appeared on the podcast by the time of the festival.”
Presented by the law firm Steinger, Greene & Feiner, the fest will also feature SunFeststyle food and beverage trucks, art vendors, and additional tents from other sponsors, all included with the non-price of admission. There will also
be a $100 VIP area on the amphitheater’s west end.
“It’ll be fenced in,” says Diaz, “with tents and chairs so the VIP people can get out of the sun and relax. Those folks will also have access to snacks and waters, and get a commemorative beverage cup. One of the beer vendors will be in that area, and will fill up those cups for free.”
561 Music debuted in 2021, and has grown in popularity while featuring mostly South Florida vocalists and musicians. Childs and Diaz have co-hosted nearly every podcast, but even the Killbillies’ third member,
singing multi-instrumentalist
James Galiano, has co-hosted a handful among the 200-plus.
Such success has resulted in the podcast recently moving from a small studio in Palm Beach Gardens to an expansive new location as the 561 Music School & Recording Studio, at 524 Northlake Blvd. in Lake Park.
“The new location is bigger and better,” Childs says, “with three different live rooms in the recording studio. It’s a paradigm shift for us.”
The podcast has also featured non-players like area venue owners, Palm Beach Gardens-
based producer, sound engineer and music publishing expert Guy Gualtieri, British deejay Marlon Foster, and Lake Worthbased uber-music fan Ken Prather. Members of Californiaspawned rock/ska/funk titans Fishbone, Angelo Moore and Chris Dowd, even appeared in late 2024.
If You Go 561 Music Festival 4 will be at Meyer Amphitheatre, 104 Datura St., West Palm Beach.
Ironically, the Killbillies made the first SunFest appearance of the trio’s 16-year history last year by playing on the main Ford Stage on May 4. Nearly a year later, Childs and Diaz will be in the same vicinity in entirely different roles.
“The Killbillies have this auspicious ability to close places down,” Childs says with a laugh. “We’ve played at the Bamboo Room in Lake Worth Beach twice just before they closed down, then reorganized and reopened. And now SunFest. I don’t know what it is. Maybe we’re so good that no one knows how to follow us.”
“That’s our story,” Diaz adds, “and we’re sticking to it.”
Ben Childs and Hector Diaz of the Killbillies are thrilled to bring their fourth annual 561 Music Festival to the Meyer Amphitheatre in place of SunFest. Photo provided by Ben Childs
Editor’s note: Events listed through May 3 were current as of March 29. Check with the presenting agency for any changes. Ticket prices are single sales unless otherwise specified.
ART
Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens: Through June: Alex Katz: Portraits and Landscapes Through the Seasons, works by the minimalist American painter, working in nature scenes. $15; $10 seniors. 253 Barcelona Road, West Palm Beach. 10 am-4 pm W-Sun. 561-832-5328. Info@ansg.org
Armory Art Center: Through May 9: Life or Something Like It, works by the Colombian artist Hermes Berrío. Free. 811 Park Place, West Palm Beach. 9 am-5 pm M-F, 9 am-noon Sat. 561832-1776 or armoryart.org
Boca Raton Museum of Art: Through Oct. 26: Donald Farnsworth: The Parma Portraits (The Kindness of Strangers). Opens April 24: Glasstress Boca Raton 2025, 20 works in glass by artists collaborating with the Berengo studio in Murano, Italy. Through Oct. 27.$16; $12 seniors 501 Plaza Real (Mizner Park), Boca Raton. 11 am-6 pm W, F, Sat, Sun; 11 am-8 pm Th. 561392-2500, bocamuseum.org
Cornell Art Museum: Through June 15: Icons of Art: Italian Mosaic Portraits, 30 mosaic images of celebrities including Kobe Bryant, Gene Wilder, Amy Winehouse and others. Free. 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. Noon-5 pm W, Sun, noon-7 pm Th, F; 10 am-5 pm Sat. 561-2437922 or oldschoolsquare.org
Cultural Council for Palm Beach County: Opens April 11: Biennial 2025, Works by local
artists, in a show curated by Los Angeles-based
gallerist Tim Hawkinson. Free. 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach. Noon-5 pm T-F. 561-4712901, palmbeachculture.com/exhibitions
Flagler Museum: Through May 25: The Ethereal Worlds of Maxfield Parrish. This exhibition was supposed to closed April 20, but its popularity led museum officials to extend it another month. $28; $14 ages 6-12. 1 Whitehall Way, Palm Beach. 10 am-5 pm M-Sat, noon-5 pm Sun. 561-655-2833, www.flaglermuseum.us
Lighthouse ArtCenter: Through April 11: 47th
Annual Members’ Show and Sale; more than 400 artists and students exhibit work in this celebratory end-of-season blowout. $5 nonmembers. 9 am-5 pm M-Th; 9 am-4 pm F; 10 am-4 pm Sat. 561-746-3101, lighthousearts.org
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens: Through April 6: Akira: Architecture of NeoTokyo; a showcase of the world-building designs used in Japan’s most celebrated work of anime, Akira (1989). Opens April 29: The Art of Peace: Jizai Okimono From a Private Collection, articulated sculptures ( jizai okimono) of animals and mythical beasts, made by former warriors who turned to a new art form after giving up armory. Through Sept. 28. $15; $13 seniors; $9 children; free for members, ages 5 and under. 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach. 10 am-5 pm T-Sun. 561-495-0233, morikami.org
Norton Museum of Art: Through April 13: Sorolla and the Sea. Opening April 12: Artists’ Jewelry: From Cubism to Pop, the Diane Venet Collection, more than 150 pieces of jewelry designed by 140 major artists. $18 adults; $15 seniors; $5 students; free for ages 12 and under, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. 10 am-5 pm, M, T, Th, Sat; 10 am-10 pm F; 11
am-5 pm Sun. 561-832-5196, www.norton.org
Society of the Four Arts: 100 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach. 10 am-3 pm M-F. 561-655-7226, fourarts.org
CLASSICAL
Sunday, April 6
Quartetto di Cremona: The Italian foursome offers the lone String Quartet by Claude Debussy, Osvaldo Golijov’s Tenebrae, and the demanding and epic String Quartet No. 15 (in A minor, Op. 132) of Beethoven. 3 pm, Society of the Four Arts, 102 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach. $40. 561-655-7226 or fourarts.org.
Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches: Ken Taylor leads the community chorus and an orchestra in Brahms’s German Requiem (1868), a beautiful and sensitive work that marked the composer’s big break. 4 pm, First Presbyterian Church, North Palm Beach. $35, $10 for students. masterworkspb.org
Tuesday, April 8
Palm Beach Symphony: Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott joins Gerard Schwarz and the orchestra for Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. Also on the program are two major French works, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2 and Debussy’s La Mer, and the program opens with Threnody: In Memory of Jean Sibelius by the American composer William Grant Still. 7 p.m., Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach. $65-$95. 561-832-7469 or kravis.org
Thursday, April 24
Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach: The society closes its season with Schubert’s beloved Trout Quintet, and opens with a rarity: the Piano Quintet of the mid-19 th -century
French pianist and composer Louise Farrenc. 7 pm, Norton Museum of Art, 141 S. County Road, Palm Beach. $75. 561-379-6773 or cmspb.org
Tuesday, April 29
The Symphonia: The Boca Raton-based orchestra closes its season with a string orchestra program including Holst’s St. Paul Suite, Jesse Montgomery’s Strum, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, and Ascending Bird, a collaboration between the American composer Colin Jacobsen and the Iranian composer Siamak Aghaei. 7 pm, The Studio at Mizner Park, Boca Raton. $55-$90 thesymphonia.org
DANCE
Saturday, April 5-Sunday, April 6
Boca Ballet Theatre: Dan Guin and Jane Tyree’s company present Coppélia, the 1870 story of a life-size dancing doll and the boy who loves her, with a lovely score by the French composer Léo Delibes. New York City Ballet dancers Megan Fairchild and Joseph Gordon are the featured artists. 7:30 pm Saturday and 2 pm Sunday at Spanish River High School, 5100 Jog Road, Boca Raton. $55, $45 for seniors and children. bocaballet.org or 561-995-0709.
Saturday, April 12-Sunday, April 13
Miami City Ballet: The Miami Beach-based company, which has cut back its West Palm Beach appearances, returns with Spring Mix, featuring four ballets: Alexei Ratmansky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, José Limón’s Chaconne, and Jerome Robbins’s Glass Pieces. 2 pm and 7:30 pm Saturday, 1 pm Sunday. At the Kravis Center, West Palm Beach. $40 and up. 561-8327469 or kravis.org
Thursday, April 17-Saturday, April 19
Ballet Palm Beach: Colleen Smith’s Palm Beach Gardens-based troupe and school perform The Sleeping Beauty, the classic Tchaikovsky-scored tale of the doomed princess who can only be saved by a prince’s kiss. At the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse, 7 pm Thursday, 2 pm and 7 pm Friday, 1 pm and 5 pm Saturday. $49. 561-832-7469 or kravis.org
JAZZ
Wednesday, April 16
Tony DeSare Trio: The jazz singer and composer makes a return to the Gold Coast Jazz Society, where he is a popular favorite. 7:45 pm, Amaturo Theatre, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. $65 and up. browardcenter.org or goldcoastjazz.org
Friday, April 18-Saturday, April 19
Néstor Torres: The jazz flutist, accompanied by a quartet, presents a program called “All That Jazz,” celebrating the music of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, and the traditions of the jazz flute. 8 pm both nights, Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave., Delray Beach. $50$55. 561-450-6357 or artsgarage.org
Saturday, April 26
Dr. Gianni Bianchini: The pianist pays tribute to the music of the Nat King Cole Trio, joined by seven-string guitarist Ron Jackson. 8 pm, Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave., Delray Beach. $45-$48. 561-450-6357 or artsgarage.org
OPERA
Friday, April 4-Sunday, April 6
Le Nozze di Figaro: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s classic 1787 tale of a philandering count who wants to ravish the maid Susanna, who’s promised to Figaro. She has some tricks up her sleeve, which she concocts with the countess. The Russian soprano Inna Demenkova is Susanna, with Czech baritone Adam Plechetka as Figaro; the American baritone John Chest is Count Almaviva opposite American soprano Hailey Clark as the countess; mezzo Angela Brower takes the pants role as Cherubino. Stephen Lawless directs, while conductor Gary Wedow of the Juilliard School leads the orchestra and singers. 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, 2 pm Sunday at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach. $35$275. 561-832-7469 or kravis.org
POPULAR MUSIC
Saturday, April 12
Chicago: One of the most durable pop acts in history, its legacy reaches back to its founding in 1967 as a rock band “with horns.” Some of its original members are touring with its current 11-member lineup. 8 pm both shows, Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood. $56-$178. ticketmaster.com
Tuesday, April 24; Saturday, April 26
Pearl Jam: This iconic band of the grunge era is on the road for its Dark Matter Tour. 7:30 pm both shows, Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood. Ticket prices not yet announced. ticketmaster.com
Sunday, April 27
Tom Jones: The Welsh singer simply refuses to fade into the past, and is still making new records and filling concert halls at age 84. It’s fitting that his tour is called “Defy Explanation.” 8 pm, Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood. $65 to $335. ticketmaster.com
THEATER
Through Sunday, April 6
No, No, Nanette: $119. Wick Theatre, 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. thewick.org Guys and Dolls: Frank Loesser’s classic 1950 tale of gamblers and the women who love them, with a score that includes “Fugue for Tinhorns,” “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” “Luck Be a Lady,” and many others. At the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. $74 and up. jupitertheatre.org or 561575-2223.
Opens Friday, April 11
Camping With Henry and Tom: Mark St. Germain’s 1995 comedy about an actual 1921 camping trip taken by Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and President Warren Harding. Through April 27 at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. $72-107. 561514-4042 or palmbeachdramaworks.org
The Producers: Mel Brooks’s musical remake of his 1967 film about a get-rich-quick scheme to sell interests in a sure-fire flop, a musical celebrating Adolf Hitler. Through April 27. At Lake Worth Playhouse, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach. lakeworthplayhouse.org or 561568-6410
Through Sunday, April 13
Murder on the Orient Express: One of Agatha Christie’s most beloved whodunits, set on a snowbound train, and adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig. At the Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9 th St., Delray Beach. $45 and up. 561-2721281 or delraybeachplayhouse.com.
On the Water
When Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse promoted the idea to have a fishing tournament to support the Lantana Chamber of Commerce, few people imagined that the Lantana Fishing Derby would still be going strong three decades later.
The derby celebrates its 30th anniversary
May 3. The captain’s party is May 1. Anglers weigh their catches on May 3 at the Old Key Lime House and there’s also a fishing derby for children at Bicentennial Park that day. The awards ceremony is May 4 at the Lantana Recreation Center.
“Lynn was on the board, and he brought the idea up,” said former chamber President Mark Easton. “It was his baby to do it. Did we expect it to go 30 years? Probably not. Did we expect it to be nearly as successful as it was? No, not at all.
“I forget how many boats we had the first year. Not a lot, 15 or 16 maybe. But by the third or fourth year or so, we topped 100 boats. And I don’t know how many it’s done the last couple of watches, but for years we were cracking.”
Easton said the money raised by the derby, which some years topped $30,000 after expenses, enabled the chamber to not only weather some tough times, but also thrive.
“The chamber was just about ready to close from having no money when I got elected to be president,” he said. “And with the aid of the Fishing Derby and Mack Stephenson’s annual golf tournament and annual
chicken barbecue, where we cooked and sold over 300 chicken halves, we managed to (raise money) and gain some members and keep the chamber going. And the Fishing Derby has kept the coffers full for about every year for 30 years.
“You know, we were just hoping to go for a little while, just kind of tide the chamber over, and here it is, still producing. And it is still a great event for the town.”
Unlike many saltwater tournaments, where the competition is cutthroat and anglers go out every night for weeks before the event to catch and stockpile live bait, the emphasis is on fun at the derby. According to Capt. Chris Lemieux, when he fished the derby it was more about camaraderie and bragging rights between him and his friends.
“The reason why I liked it was it was all local guys that I knew growing up,” said Lemieux, who runs fishing charters out of Boynton Beach Inlet. “I actually won a trophy when I was 8 years old. I caught the second-biggest kingfish, 12 pounds.”
A highly successful tournament fisherman who has skippered a variety of teams to victories, Lemieux got one of his biggest thrills competing in the derby when he was 18. He had recently purchased his first boat and caught a 32-pound kingfish fishing on that bay boat to win biggest kingfish honors. It was his first tournament victory on his own boat. Another time he ran someone else’s boat and won the biggest kingfish title with a 40-plus-pounder.
After its initial success, the derby added a kids fishing day, which Easton said Moorhouse funded out of his own pocket in
Outdoors Calendar
Note: Events are current as of 3/26. Please check with organizers for any changes.
APRIL 5
Saturday - 4/5 - Coast Guard Auxiliary Boat America: A Boating Safety Course at Spanish River Park HQ Building, USCG Auxiliary Classroom, 3939 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Boating terminology, boat handling, navigation rules, regulations, more. 9 am-5 pm. $35/adult; $5/teen. 561391-3600; peauxboca@gmail.com
4/5 - Outdoor Marine Aquarium
Feedings at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. All ages; child must be accompanied by adult. Daily 12:30 pm. Free. 561-544-8605; myboca.us/
calendar.aspx?CID=47
4/5 - Resident Sea Turtle Talk at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. All ages; child must be accompanied by adult. Daily 1 pm. Free. 561-544-8605; myboca.us/calendar. aspx?CID=47
APRIL 6-12
Tuesday - 4/8 - Golden Hour Guided Tours at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Tour ends w/ sunset views of the Intracoastal Waterway. Ages 7-adult; child under 18 must be accompanied by adult. Held again 4/22. 6-7:30 pm. $10/resident & member; $13/ non-resident. Registration: 561-544-8605;
the beginning.
“We used to put them on a drift boat,” Easton said. “They went offshore for half a day and we ended up with a bunch of sick kids and kids that had never been on a boat. And they had the day of their life getting seasick.”
After the first drift boat was decommissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard, the kids fished on the B-Love drift boat in Lantana. When that boat moved to New Jersey, the kids fished on the Lake Worth pier, where the city waived the admission fee for the youngsters.
Because the tournament no longer had to pay for a drift boat, it used the money to buy fishing rods and reels and small tackle boxes for each of the kids to use and keep.
When a hurricane damaged the fishing pier, the youth event
myboca.us/calendar.aspx?CID=47
Thursday - 4/10 - Beach Treasures at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Learn about seashells, the animals that make them. Caravan to Red Reef Park, 1400 N State Rd A1A, to search for ocean treasures. All ages; child must be accompanied by adult. 2-3:30 pm. Free. Reservations: 561-544-8605; myboca. us/calendar.aspx?CID=47
Saturday - 4/12 - Intracoastal Adventures: Intro to Kayaking at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Ages 7-adult; each child under 13 must be accompanied by one adult. 9-10:30 am. $20/resident & member; $25/non-member. Registration: 561-5448605; myboca.us/calendar.aspx?CID=47
APRIL 13-19
Sunday - 4/13 - Intracoastal Adventures: Advanced Kayaking at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Ages 7-adult; each child under 13 must be accompanied by one adult. 9-10:30 am. $20/resident & member; $25/non-member. Registration: 561-5448605; myboca.us/calendar.aspx?CID=47
Tuesday - 4/15 - Island Treks at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Guided trek along the shaded boardwalk through the tropical hardwood hammock forest. All ages; child must be accompanied by adult. Held again 4/29.
was moved to Bicentennial Park. At first the kids fished from the sea wall. When the bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway was built, the kids fished from the bridge’s catwalks.
“So, it’s been a good ride for the kids,” Easton said. “Every year there’s about 50 kids. Some of them get some pretty nice prizes. And it’s a day of fishing and learning about fishing. It’s really a neat event.”
Although Easton, who owned The Lake Worth Herald, which recently closed after more than 112 years of service to the community, had a boat, he never fished in the derby. Instead, he would help make sure the kids had a good time, then head over to the Old Key Lime House to work the docks and weigh in fish.
The derby awards prize money for the three biggest fish
Thursday - 4/24 - Early Birding w/Al at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Learn about native & migratory birds from an experienced birder. Binoculars recommended. Meet on nature center front porch. Age 10+; child must be accompanied by adult. 8:30-10 am. Free. 561-544-8605; myboca.us/ calendar.aspx?CID=47
Saturday - 4/26 - Great American Cleanup Annual beach cleanup, a national effort to beautify the nation. Throughout Palm Beach County including Spanish River Park, 3001 N State Rd A1A, Boca Raton. All ages. Start times 8-9 am depending on location. Free. Pre-registration required, space limited: 561-686-6646; keepPBCbeautiful.org
4/26 - Coast Guard Auxiliary Boat
America: A Boating Safety Course at Harvey E. Oyer, Jr. Park, 2010 N Federal Hwy, Boynton Beach. Boating terminology, boat handling, navigation rules, regulations, more. 8 am-4 pm. $20. 561312-6439; birdlover5@bellsouth.net
4/26 - Fishing Tournament and Chili Cookoff presented by the Boynton Beach Firefighter Benevolent Association at Harvey Oyer Park, 2010 N Federal Hwy, Boynton Beach. Featuring BBQ, raffle
in three divisions — kingfish, dolphin and wahoo — with $1,250 for the heaviest of each species. Prizes go to the top lady angler and junior angler (under 13). The awards ceremony is open to the public and, in addition to honoring the winners, features a huge raffle for an array of prizes donated by local businesses. The tournament entry fee is $300 per boat for up to four anglers and $50 for each additional angler until April 18. The registration deadline is 3 p.m. May 2. Visit lantanachamber .com/fishing-derby.
steve33324@aol. com.
prizes, music, chili competition, children’s activities. Men, women and junior anglers will be competing for over $10,000 in cash and prizes. Noon-7 pm. More info: boyntonbeachfirefighters.com
APRIL 27-MAY 3
Wednesday - 4/30 - EcoWatch Lecture Series: Diving into Florida Dolphin Research and Protection w/Dr. Harrison Albert at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Ages 13 & up; each child under 18 must be accompanied by adult. 6:30-8 pm. Free. 561-544-8605; myboca.us/calendar. aspx?CID=47
Thursday - 5/1 - 30th Annual Lantana Fishing Derby Captain’s Party at Lantana Recreation Center, 418 S Dixie Hwy. 5:30-8 pm. 561-585-8664; lantanafishingderby.com
Saturday - 5/3-5 - 30th Annual Lantana Fishing Derby & Kid’s Fishing Derby at Old Key Lime House 300 E Ocean Ave, Bicentennial Park 321 E Ocean Ave & Lantana Recreation Center 418 S Dixie Hwy. Derby Sat 7 am-3:30 pm; Kids Derby Sat 8:30 am-11:30 am at Bicentennial Park; Awards BBQ at Lantana Rec Center Sun Noon-3 pm. Check website for schedules/ times/locations/fees: 561-585-8664; lantanafishingderby.com
Outdoors writer Steve Waters can be reached at
Capt. Chris Lemieux and a few young anglers hold an 87-pound wahoo caught during the Lantana Fishing Derby. Lynn ’Doc’ Moorhouse came up with the idea of the derby 30 years ago to support the Lantana Chamber of Commerce. Officials later added a kids fishing event. Photo provided
Moorhouse
Finding Faith
Basilica designation recognizes St. Edward’s place in history
In January, Gerald M. Barbarito, Bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach, learned that St. Edward Catholic Church in Palm Beach had become the Basilica of St. Edward effective Dec. 13, 2024, making it the 94th minor basilica in the United States.
It was news the Rev. Glen Pothier, St. Edward’s rector, had been awaiting for months and working toward for years. Father Glen had assumed pastoral duties from the Rev. Monsignor Thomas J. Klinzing in April 2022 and dedicated himself to bringing attention and favor to the only Catholic church on Palm Beach.
“In December 2022, I realized that 2026 would be the 100th anniversary of the church and I thought maybe I can request a designation that would elevate the church to a basilica,” Father Glen said by phone. The next month he wrote to the Conference of Catholic Bishops to learn about the process and got to work.
“I did it all myself,” he said. “I don’t do well in committees.”
The work was a 119-item questionnaire about every aspect of the church from its history to its traditions to its daily operations. “They wanted every detail, how we do everything, visuals, pictures, the historical significance. They wanted real detail. It took me a year to complete, and we sent it all with the appropriate cover letters off to the Vatican and waited for a response.”
Father Glen heard back from the Vatican in November. The response had one issue: The priest’s chair near the altar wasn’t formal enough. “The church is in an old style, and everything is in marble, but the priest’s chair is made of wood and has cushions and didn’t fit in,” Father Glen said. “It was kind of lost among all the Carrara marble of the altar.”
Father Glen made arrangements to have a new marble chair made and sent off the plans to see if they met with the approval of the church. They did.
“The new chair is being made in Tuscany,” Father Glen said. “Haifa Limestone is coordinating it, and we hope to have it by June or July. It’s the same Carrara marble with cherubs all through it, consistent thematically with the altar.”
In February, Father Glen was able to announce the news to the congregation and on March
1, Bishop Barbarito marked the designation with a Votive Mass, saying, “We are very grateful and honored that the Vatican has designated the church of St. Edward in Palm Beach as a minor Basilica. It is not only a recognition of the historic significance of this church, but also of the life of all the churches within the Diocese of Palm Beach. We now share a special bond with our Holy Father, Pope Francis, through the Basilica Churches in Rome.”
Basilica “literally means ‘a royal house,’ and being a basilica is symbolic of being close to the pope affectionately, in prayer.
On feast days, we celebrate with extra remembrance,” Bishop Barbarito said. The special affiliation with the Vatican grants the church special precedence, he said.
Bishop Barbarito noted that the recognition is especially significant in 2025, which the pope declared the Jubilee Year of Hope. Every 25 years is a Jubilee Year, which is a special year with unique blessings. The faithful are called to make a pilgrimage to a basilica to attain special dispensations, like plenary indulgences.
Tradition says passing
through the doors of the Basilica of St. Peter, even to recite the Lord’s Prayer, symbolizes entering a new life in Christ, a journey of conversion, and a commitment to spiritual renewal.
With St. Edward as a minor basilica, its designated Holy Doors are symbolically like those in Rome and provide the same gifts. “Making a pilgrimage to a basilica or cathedral with the Holy Doors during the Jubilee year is an opportunity to express hope in Christ and renew one’s path to eternal life,” Father Glen said.
Several symbols will be added to St. Edward, at 144 North County Road, to complete the transition. “A new crest was commissioned that is now complete but there are things that we need: A beautiful papal umbrella called an umbraculum that would be carried when the pope visited, and a special bell called a tintinnabulum that would be rung,” Father Glen said.
The bell is under construction by Dixon Studio, a company in Staunton, Virginia, specializing in church interiors, stained glass, metalware and statuary. The studio crafted
ABOVE: The Rev. Glen Pothier, St. Edward Catholic Church’s rector, was excited to learn that the church is now the Basilica of St. Edward, making it the 94th minor basilica in the United States. He worked with the Vatican for several years in seeking the designation.
LEFT: St. Edward, the only Catholic church on Palm Beach, will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2026. It got the basilica designation in part due to its ornate architecture and historical significance. Photos provided
the tintinnabulum for the 93rd Basilica of St. Andrew in Roanoke in 2023. “They were so kind, and it was so easy to work with them,” Father Glen said. St. Edward is one of seven basilicas in Florida and the only basilica in Palm Beach County.
Father Kevin McQuone, assistant professor of pastoral theology at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, said in an email that becoming a basilica is “an honorary title that churches receive for significant historical, cultural or other ecclesial significance. For example, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC is a minor basilica because of its significance as a gathering space for Catholics from around the nation.”
Presidents and prime ministers, families of the wealthy and well-connected, capitalists and heads of industry have worshipped at St. Edward over the past 100 years. It was the Kennedy family’s home church when they were in Palm Beach and Rose Kennedy, the matriarch of the family, rarely missed daily Mass when she was wintering at 1095 N. Ocean Blvd. According to the Palm
Beach Post, John F. Kennedy last attended church at St. Edward on Easter Sunday 1963. St. Edward “is different from the other churches in the Diocese,” Father Glen said, because Palm Beach is different. “It’s important for its historic contributions, and as a place of worship for people visiting from around the world. The clientele are of a different caliber. Not better, just different. The man in the pew may be a billionaire hedge fund manager, but all men need the word of God preached to them.”
Church milestones
• The land for the church was purchased in 1926 for $80,000, according to the historical information gathered by Pothier. A visionary Jesuit priest, Father Felix Clarkson, was given permission by the Bishop of St. Augustine to purchase three lots at the corner of North County Road and Sunrise Avenue to establish a “mission” church. With Father Clarkson as general contractor, crews broke ground on the church on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1926. Father Clarkson raised around $300,000 of the $500,000 total cost.
• The first service held was Midnight Mass on Dec. 25, 1926. More than 1,500 people attended.
• On Feb. 13, 1927, the Most Reverend Patrick Barry, D.O., Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Augustine, dedicated the Church of St. Edward.
• In January 1941, the Rev. James Cloonan became the first resident pastor and in 1942 a residence was built to house the priests serving the parish, including a guest suite for the bishop and space for parish offices.
• In 1958, through the generosity of Lorraine Freimann and Frank Freimann, the church acquired property on the east side of North County Road and built the parish center.
• In 1992, Father Francis J. Lechiara joined St. Edward and devoted himself to the total restoration of the church. With the enthusiastic support of the parishioners (and a final cost of $1.2 million), Father Frank oversaw the repair and restoration of both structural and irreplaceable decorative elements of the church. The restoration he began continued after his death in 2011 under the Rev. Monsignore Klinzing.
See ST. EDWARD on page AT20
ST. EDWARD
Continued from page AT19
The renovations earned the church two prestigious awards for historical preservation: the Ballinger Award from the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, and the Knott Award from the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
• An ecumenical service (meaning a gathering of Christian denominations) was held at St. Edward Catholic Church in Palm Beach for President Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of his assassination, Nov. 22, 2013.
St. Edward’s architecture
The exterior of St. Edward was built in the Spanish Renaissance style using cast stone with combed Brazilian stone ashlar (masonry made of large square-cut stones, typically used as a facing on walls of brick or stone). It has two towers and a Spanish tile roof. Three sets of bronze doors open into the vestibule, which is flanked by
chapels dedicated to St. Anthony and St. Theresa. The 28-foot Altar of the Sacred Heart which stands in a niche more than 40 feet high is Carrara marble. The large picture window over the main entrance — which faces North County Road — depicts St. Edward, the church’s patron saint.
The intricate hand-painted ceiling and frescoes include a mural of the 12 apostles surmounted by a depiction of the crucifixion in the niche above the altar. The “Marian Windows,” a magnificent stained glass depicting the life of the Blessed Mother, are another defining feature.
Who was St. Edward?
Edward the Confessor was the son of King Ethelred III and his Norman wife, Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy. After Ethelred’s death in 1016, Emma married Canute (Cnut the Great), who became king and brought peace and prosperity to England.
In 1042, Edward’s half-
brother, Hardicanute, son of Canute and Emma, died and Edward became king. In 1044, he married Edith and continued his reign, considered a peaceful one characterized by his good rule.
Edward’s interest in religious affairs led to the building of the original St. Peter’s Abbey at Westminster, the site of the present Abbey, where Edward is buried. Because of his piety, he was given the name “the Confessor” and he was canonized in 1161 by Pope Alexander III, the only king to be canonized by the pope.
St. Edward is the patron saint of difficult marriages and separated spouses.
Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at fontaine423@ outlook.com
Easter Sunrise Beach Services
Welcome Easter Sunday, April 20, on the beach with the rising sun. Here are places to do that from Boca Raton to Lake Worth Beach:
Spanish River Church: Beach Sunrise Family Service takes place at 6:45 a.m. at South Beach Park, 400 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. spanishriver.com/easter or 561-994-5000.
St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church: Easter Sunday Beach Eucharist takes place at 6:30 a.m. at the South Beach Pavilion, State Road A1A at Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton. stgregorysepiscopal.org or 561-395-8285.
Cason United Methodist Church: Easter Sunrise Service at the Delray Beach Pavilion takes place at 6:30 a.m. at Atlantic Avenue and A1A. Bring chair or blanket. www. casonumc.org
First Baptist Church of Lantana: Easter Sunrise Service at Dune Deck Cafe at the beach, 100 N. Ocean Blvd., Lantana, begins at 6 a.m. Free parking. 561-588-3341; fbclantana.com
Our Savior Lutheran Church: Beachside Easter Sunrise Service starts at 6:30 a.m. at R.G. Kreusler Park, 2882 S. Ocean Blvd., Lake Worth Beach. osl@osl-lw.org or 561-582-4430.
— Janis Fontaine
New leader at Unity of Delray can draw on acting career, long spiritual journey
Unity of Delray Beach has filled its senior minister position, a job vacant since Greg Barrette left in 2019. South Florida native Jeanmarie Eck returned from Houston in November to fill that role.
“We had a feeling the right person would come along. We were steadfast and we refused to water down our standards,” board President Harvey Brown said. In Eck, “we found so much substance, and she more than met our standards. She’s a thinker.”
Unity of Delray Beach is “one of the flagship churches in the Unity movement,” Brown said. It serves an important role for people in search of spiritual enrichment in an environment that is less structured and “dedicated to inspiring individual spiritual empowerment through the practical teachings of Jesus Christ.”
Since Frances Jarrell held the first Unity class in Delray Beach in 1948 (with one student in attendance, the legend says), Unity of Delray and Unity School, founded in 1964, have grown into a center for spiritual teaching and enlightenment.
Eck had served as lead associate minister at one of Unity’s mega-churches, Unity of Houston, for the last 10 years before she was called back to Florida. She goes from working with a staff of 20 ministers to a more intimate role.
“I welcome the chance to work more closely with the community,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be the leading voice.”
Eck graduated from Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale. She was raised a Catholic but slowly transitioned from that faith and was ordained as a minister in 2014.
“I’d never thought about being a minister before,” she said. “All the Catholic clergy were male.”
After high school, Eck studied the performing arts in college, earning a BA from Rollins College and an MFA from the University of Mississippi. She had a successful and blossoming career in film and theater, but everything seemed to lead back to the Lord. Eck heard a voice that said, “There’s something more.”
She visited different churches, drawn in by the music and to expand her knowledge beyond Catholicism. She went on “a prayer quest,” asking “what is my purpose?” In the early 2000s, she discovered Unity and in 2009, she joined the choir, using her talents to bring her closer to God. “I was ministering through singing, and it became about service,” she said.
Eck went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Unity Institute & Seminary in 2014
Senior Minister Jeanmarie Eck goes from a mega-church in Houston to a more intimate role in Delray. Photo provided
and earned certifications from Southern Methodist University in 2019 and Unity Worldwide Spiritual Institute in 2024. She continues to pursue her own spiritual growth to better serve her community. Eck offers classes for new members and encourages anyone with an interest in what Unity does to come to a service.
Eck sees a lot of similarities between performing and preaching. “You have to have the skill to get up and deliver your message,” she said. It’s a challenge for which Eck is prepared. Her approach to service melds with Unity’s mission: “It’s a positive, affirming, uplifting environment.”
Eck lives in Delray Beach with her husband, David, their 9-year-old daughter, Felicity, and their rescue Pomeranian mixes, Duchess and Bentley. Unity of Delray Beach is at 101 NW 22nd St. 561-276-5796 or www.unityofdelraybeach.org
Spanish River volunteers step up to serve the city
The Spanish River Church family made a mammoth contribution to the community during its Serve the City 2025. At least 226 SRC volunteers gleaned 1,788 pounds of peppers with CROS Ministries, collected 98.3 pounds of trash at the beach, collected 3,085 diapers, 1,012 wipes and 227 books for the Junior League, and donated 35 bags/boxes of clothing to Changing Lives of Boca Raton. The church is at 2400 Yamato Road, Boca Raton. www. spanishriver.com
HOPE Fest Florida offers music, fun HOPE Fest Florida, a free festival of Christian music and guest speakers, takes place from 4 to 10 p.m. April 5 at Boca Raton Community High School, 1501 NW 15th Court. Sean Smith from Sean & Christa
Smith Ministries and Kevin VanDermyden from Jesus Encounter are on the ticket. Donations are appreciated. For more information, visit www. hopefestflorida.com.
Ascension Catholic Church to host food packing event
Ascension Catholic Church will team up with Cross Catholic Outreach to pack 60,000 meals on April 12. Volunteers are still needed to work from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the church, 7250 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Register at https://ascensionboca.org/ latest-news-upcoming-events or call 561-997-5486.
Grace Vacation Bible School seeking student volunteers
Middle and high school students are encouraged to apply to become Grace Vacation Bible School youth volunteer team members and make a difference this summer.
Applications are open until May 14. Volunteers must be available noon-4 p.m. June 8, 8:15 a.m.-1 p.m. June 9-13 and 10 a.m.-noon June 15. This is Grace Community Church’s active Amped Student Ministries.
The church is at 600 W. Camino Real, Boca Raton. Register at www.graceboca.org/ amped or call 561-395-2811.
Ride 4 Orphans returning for 13th annual event
The 13th annual Ride 4 Orphans bicycle ride takes place at 7:30 a.m. April 26, beginning at Spanish River Church, 2400 Yamato Road, Boca Raton.
Partners include Spanish River Church, The Avenue Church in Delray Beach and Gospel Fellowship in Boynton Beach. The charity ride benefits children in need in Chad, Malawi, Haiti and India, and local children in foster care via 4KIDs and Place of Hope.
The ride is 15, 34 or 62 miles. Registration is $40 via www. ride4orphans.com. There’s also a family ride escorted by Boca Raton police officers with lunch and activities.
All adults and children must register to ride and are encouraged to attend a safety briefing prior to the ride. Registration price includes a T-shirt, goody bag, snacks, lunch, raffles, a silent auction and family activities.
Call 561-994-5000 for more information.
Send religion news to Janis Fontaine at fontaine423@outlook. com.
Religion Calendar
Note: Events are current as of 3/26. Please check with organizers for any changes.
APRIL 6-12
Sunday - 4/6 - Zoom Bible Study at Ascension Catholic Church, 7250 N Federal Hwy, Boca Raton. Every Sun 7 pm. Zoom link: communications#accboca.net; 561-9975486; ascensionboca.org
Monday - 4/7 - Women’s Bible Study via Zoom at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, 33 Gleason St. Every M 10 am. 561-276-6338; firstdelray.com 4/7- Rosary for Peace at St. Vincent Ferrer Family Life Center, 840 George Bush Blvd, Delray Beach. Every M 5:456:15 pm. 561-276-6892; stvincentferrer. com
Tuesday - 4/8- Tuesday Morning Prayer Service at Unity of Delray Beach Church, 101 NW 22nd St. 10 am. 561276-5796; unityofdelraybeach.org
Wednesday - 4/9 - Men’s Spirituality Hour via Zoom at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, 100 NE Mizner Blvd, Boca Raton. Every W 8 am. For link: 561395-8285; stgregorysepiscopal.org
4/9 - Wednesday Evening Meditation Service at Unity of Delray Beach Church, 101 NW 22nd St. 6:30 pm. Love offering accepted. 561-276-5796; unityofdelraybeach.org
Thursday - 4/10 - Thursday Morning Telephone Prosperity Coffee presented by Unity of Delray Beach Church, 101 NW 22nd St. Phone meeting (605-475-6006, passcode 3031030). Love offering accepted. 561-276-5796; unityofdelraybeach.org
4/10 - Men’s Fellowship at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach Courtyard, 33 Gleason St. Every Th 8:30 am. 561-276-6338; firstdelray.com
4/10 - Women’s Bible Study at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church Youth Room, 100 NE Mizner Blvd, Boca Raton. Every Th 1 pm. 561-395-8285; stgregorysepiscopal.org
Friday - 4/11 - Legion of Mary at St. Vincent Ferrer Family Life Center, 840 George Bush Blvd, Delray Beach. Every F 9:30-11 am. 561-276-6892; stvincentferrer.com 4/11 - Bible Study w/Dave Kirk at Advent Boca Raton Fellowship Hall, 300
E Yamato Rd. Every F 10-11:30 am. 561395-3632; adventboca.org
4/11 - Virtual Shabbat Service at Temple Sinai of Palm Beach County, 2475 W Atlantic Ave, Delray Beach. Every F 7:30 pm. 561-276-6161; templesinaipbc. org
Saturday - 4/12 - Passover begins 4/12 - Community Seder at Boca Beach Chabad, 490 E Palmetto Park Rd, Boca Raton. 8:30 pm. $99/adults; $54/ children ages 5-12. Reservations: 561394-9770; bocabeachchabad.com/seder
APRIL 20-26
NOTE: For Easter sunrise services on the beach, see page 20.
Sunday - 4/20 - Easter 4/20 - Easter Sunrise Service at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, 3300A S Seacrest Blvd, Boynton Beach. 6:30-8 am. 561-732-3060; stjoesweb.org 4/20 - Easter Sunday Services at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, 940 George Bush Blvd, Delray Beach. 7, 9, & 11 am. 561-276-6892; stvincentferrer. com
4/20 - Easter Sunday Services at St. Mark Catholic Church, 643 NE 4th Ave, Boynton Beach. 7:30, 9 & 10:30 am, 12:15 pm (spanish). 561-734-9330; stmarkboynton.com
4/20 - Easter Sunday Services at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, 100 NE Mizner Blvd, Boca Raton. 7:30, 9 & 11:15 am, 6 pm. 561-395-8285; stgregorysepiscopal.org
4/20 - Easter Services at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, 33 Gleason St. 9 am & 11 am. 561-276-6338; firstdelray.com
4/20 - Family Easter Service at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 188 S Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. 9 & 11 am. 561-2764541; stpaulsdelray.org
4/20 - Easter Service at Unity of Delray Beach, 101 NW 22nd Ave. 10 am. 561276-5796; unityofdelraybeach.org
4/20 - Resurrection on the Lawn Easter Sunday Service at Amphitheater at Old School Square, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. Limited chairs will be provided; can bring your own lawn chairs. 7 am-1 pm. Free. Registration: 561-243-1077; downtowndelraybeach.com/events
Notes: Events are current as of 3/26. Please check with organizers for any changes. Admission is free unless otherwise noted.
APRIL 5
Saturday - 4/5 - Pop-Up Pages at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Literacy enrichment: stories, music, movement. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Ages 0-5. Every Sat 10-10:30 am. Registration: 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
4/5 - Saturday Morning ART (smART) at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real. Ages 5+. Held again 5/3. 11:15 am-12:15 pm. $15/member; $25/non-member. 561392-2500; bocamuseum.org
4/5 - Tail Waggin Tutors at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Ages 6-8. Participants select time slots. Held again 4/19. Noon-1:30 pm. Registration: 561-3937968; bocalibrary.org
Sunday - 4/6 - Art For Everyone at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Age 3-12. 11 am-noon. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
Monday - 4/7 - Fun w/Fernanda:
Bilingual Spanish-English Story Time at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 0-5. 3:30-4 pm. Registration: 561266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/7 - Homework Help at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Grades K-5. Every M & W through 4/30. 3:30-4:15 & 4:15-5 pm. Registration: 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/7 - Teen Career Workshop: Marketing at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Ages 13-17. 5-6 pm. 561-7426393; boyntonlibrary.org
4/7 - K-Pop Club at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 13-17. 5-6 pm. 561-266-0197; delraylibrary.org
4/7 - Gaming for Tweens at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Ages 9-12. Every M through 4/21 6-7 pm. Registration: 561393-7968; bocalibrary.org
Tuesday - 4/8 - Toddler Tales at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Stories, music, movement. Ages walking to 23 mos. Held again 4/15 10-10:30 am. Registration: 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
4/8 - Teen Tech Sandbox at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 13-17. 3:30-4:30 pm. Registration: 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/8 - Teen Tuesday at Boynton Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Ages 13-17. Every T 5-7 pm. 561-742-6393; boyntonlibrary.org
4/8 - Journey to Olympus at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Free copy of book
upon registration. Ages 9-12. Held again 4/22 6-7 pm. 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.
org Wednesday - 4/9 - Toddler Tales at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 2-3 yrs. Held again 4/23 10-10:30 am. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/9 - Reading & Rhythm for 2-3s at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Child must be accompanied by an adult. Held again 4/16 10-10:30 am. 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
4/9 - Farmer Jay’s Junior Sprouts Class 2: Scouting for Insects at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Ages 6-8. 3:304:30 pm. Registration: 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
4/9 - Game Day at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Ages 13-17. Every W 4:306:30 pm. 561-742-6393; boyntonlibrary.org
4/9 - Knight Moves Beginner Chess Class at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Ages 8-12. Every W through 5/7 6-7:30 pm. 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
Thursday - 4/10 - Pop-Up Pages at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Ages 0-5. Every Th 10-10:30 am. Registration: 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
4/10 - Adventures in Reading at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Ages 4-6. Held again 4/17. 4-4:30 pm. 561-544-8584; bocalibrary.org
4/10 - Make & Take at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Ages 5-12. 4:305:30 pm. 561-742-6390; boyntonlibrary.org
Friday - 4/11 - Special Guest Storytime:
Salty Sue, The Pirate at Boynton Beach Library under the banyan tree, 100 E Ocean Ave. Stories, rhymes, more. 10-10:30 am. Free. 561-742-6390; boyntonlibrary.org
4/11 - Baby Bookworm at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Storytime for infants accompanied by an adult. Ages 0 months to non-walking. Held again 4/18 11-11:30 am. Registration: 561-393-7852; bocalibrary.org
Saturday - 4/12 - BreakoutEDU at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 5-12. 10 am-3 pm. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/12 - Once Upon a Story at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 0-5. 1111:30 am. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/12 - ColorSpace: Teen Art Studio at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 13-17. Held again 4/26. 11 am-noon. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/12 - ART Tales at Boca Raton Museum of Art Wolgin Education Center, 501 Plaza Real. Literacy/visual arts program. Ages 4-9 w/guardian. 11:15 am-12:15 pm. $15/ member family; $25/non-member family. 561-392-2500; bocamuseum.org
APRIL 13-19
Monday - 4/14 - Special Guest Earth Day Storytime w/Sustainability Coordinator at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Up to age 5. 10-10:30 am. 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
4/14 - M&S Performing Arts: Acting
& Drama Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every M through 5/19. Ages 6-10 4:30-5:30 pm; ages 11-17 5:30-6:30 pm. $75/resident; $94/non-resident. 561-742-6221; boyntonbeach.org
4/14 - M&S Performing Arts: Ballet & Lyrical Dance Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every M through 5/19. Ages 6-10 4:30-5:30 pm; ages 11-17 5:30-6:30 pm. $75/resident; $94/non-resident. 561-742-6221; boyntonbeach.org
Tuesday - 4/15 - Ultimate Book Club at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 9-12. 4-5 pm. Registration: 561-2660194; delraylibrary.org
4/15 - Teen Book Club: Sands of Arawiya by Hafsah Faizal at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 13-17. 5-6 pm. Registration: 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/15 - M&S Performing Arts: Musical Theatre Combo Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every T through 5/20. Ages 6-10 4:30-5:30 pm; ages 11-17 5:30-6:30 pm. $75/resident; $94/non-resident. 561-742-6221; boyntonbeach.org
4/15 - M&S Performing Arts: Jazz & Hip Hop Dance Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every T through 5/20. Ages 6-10 4:30-5:30 pm; ages 11-17 5:30-6:30 pm. $75/resident; $94/non-resident. 561-742-6221; boyntonbeach.org
4/15 - Sustainability Skills for Tweens: Punch Embroidery at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Ages 9-12. 6-7 pm. Registration: 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org Wednesday - 4/16 - Bilingual Outdoor Storytime at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Stories, rhymes, more. Ages 5 & under. Held again 4/30 10-10:30 am. 561742-6390; boyntonlibrary.org
4/16 - Little Lap Adventures at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 3 mos-1 ½ yrs. 10-10:30 am. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/16 -Young @ Art: Square Off the Square at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Create fun arts/crafts, learn principles of art. Ages 6-8. 3:30-4:30 pm. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/16 - Junior Sprouts Class 3: Plant Anatomy at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Ages 6-8. 3:30-4:30 pm. Registration: 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org 4/16 - M&S Performing Arts: Visual Arts Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every W through 5/21. Ages 6-10 4:30-5:30 pm; ages 11-17 5:30-6:30 pm. $75/resident; $94/non-resident. 561-742-6221; boyntonbeach.org
4/16 - M&S Performing Arts: Acrobatics & Gymnastics Dance Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every W through 5/21. Ages 6-10 4:30-5:30 pm; ages 11-17 5:30-6:30 pm. $75/resident; $94/non-resident. 561742-6221; boynton-beach.org
Thursday - 4/17 -Friendship Builders at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 6-8. 3:30-4:30 pm. Registration: 561266-0194; delraylibrary.org 4/17 - Picture Book Club at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Ages 5-12. 4:30-5:30 pm. Registration: 561-742-6393; boyntonlibrary.org
4/17 - M&S Performing Arts: Vocal Harmony Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every Th through 5/22. Ages 6-10 4:30-5:30 pm; ages 11-17 5:30-6:30 pm. $75/resident; $94/non-resident. 561-742-6221; boyntonbeach.org
4/17 - M&S Performing Arts: Tap Dance Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every Th through 5/22. Ages 6-10 4:30-5:30 pm; ages 11-17 5:30-6:30 pm. $75/resident; $94/nonresident. 561-742-6221; boynton-beach.org Friday - 4/18 - M&S Performing Arts: Violin Virtuosos Class at Boynton Beach
Continued on the next page
Tots & Teens
Mentorship program helps students prepare for college
By Faran Fagen
A senior leader for the Scholar Career Coaching club at Atlantic High School has received 10 college acceptance letters. Two twin scholars, standout stars in the program, have each been accepted into eight different colleges.
These are just some of the achievements for Scholar Career Coaching, an educational nonprofit organization dedicated to providing mentorship, college readiness and career development programs to high school students.
To date, the organization has served more than 1,000 students and awarded $80,000 in scholarships.
It serves students at Atlantic, Boynton Beach and Santaluces high schools. Students at these schools participate in the College and Career Readiness Club, an after-school mentorship program designed to provide academic guidance, career coaching, financial literacy and scholarship support.
Scholar CC, started in 2012, primarily serves first-generation college students and Englishlanguage learners, ensuring they have tools and resources needed to succeed beyond high school.
“Being in Scholar CC has connected me to a vast network and opportunities that have
Continued from page 22
Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Every F through 5/23. Ages 6-10 4-5 pm; ages 11-17 5-6 pm. $75/resident; $94/nonresident. 561-742-6221; boynton-beach.org
Saturday - 4/19 - Wild Wonders (formerly Little Wonders & Nature Detectives) at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Hike, crafts, stories. Ages 3-6 w/an adult. 9:30-10:15 am. $8/resident & member; $10/ non-member. Reservations: 561-544-8605; myboca.us/calendar.aspx?CID=47
4/19 - STEM Camp: Chemistry at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 9-12. 10:30-11:45 am. Registration: 561266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/19 - Bones to Books at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. All ages. 1-2 pm. 561-742-6390; boyntonlibrary.org
APRIL 20-26
Monday - 4/21 - Spring Movie Night: The Hunger Games at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 13-17. 5-7 pm. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
Tuesday - 4/22 - LOTG: Conscious Kids: Hooray for Earth Day! at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Parade to the Children’s Garden. Ages 3-10. 3-5 pm. 561266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/22 - Booktastic Book Talk: The Girl Who Drank the Moon at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Free copy of book upon registration. Ages 8-10. 3:30-4:15 pm. 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
4/22 - Bedtime Story Time at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 3-5. 6-7 pm. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary. org Wednesday - 4/23 - Drone Discovery Camp at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 6-8. 4:30-5:30 pm. 561266-0194; delraylibrary.org
Thursday - 4/24 - Earth Day Fun at
shaped my academic and personal growth,” Lorendie Exavier said.
Exavier is a senior from eastern Delray Beach who’s been in the Atlantic CCR club since her junior year. She plans to attend Florida Atlantic University.
“As a minority and firstgeneration college student, Scholar Career Coaching has provided me with important resources to be successful in high school,” Exavier said. “I’ve learned about colleges and scholarships and attended
Tuesday - 4/29 - Spit Your Truth: A Rap & Spoken Word Showcase at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Ages 13-17. 5-7 pm. 561-742-6393; boyntonlibrary.org
Wednesday - 4/30 - Junior Sprouts
Class 4: Composting at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Ages 6-8. 3:304:30 pm. 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org 4/30 - International Children’s Book Fiesta at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Ages 0-12. 6-7 pm. 561-2660194; delraylibrary.org
Résumé building, interview prep, scholarship and leadership development, budgeting, credit management, student loan awareness, and self-advocacy training round out the education.
“Watching our scholars grow and thrive fills me with immense pride,” said Lynne Gassant, founder and executive director. “We believe in unlocking potential through mentorship, and nothing is more rewarding than witnessing student success.”
Through mentorship, test prep and hands-on workshops, the program equips students with real-world skills essential for college and the workforce.
summer programs.”
Like all students involved in the program, she had a mentor who guided her and helped her develop professional skills. Also, through Scholar CC’s standardized test tutoring, she was able to significantly improve her test scores.
Some of the organization’s services include college and career exploration such as guidance on applications, financial aid, and career pathways.
Industry professionals share career insights and advice.
Scholar CC awards nonrenewable scholarships to high-achieving seniors, ensuring financial barriers do not prevent them from pursuing higher education. Scholarships are based on academic achievement, leadership and financial need. Additionally, recipients receive new laptops to support their college transition.
The organization collaborates with school administrators, teachers and advisers to implement these programs. Schools provide meeting space, student recruitment support and program coordination, ensuring students receive consistent, yearround guidance.
“Our partnership with
the Palm Beach County School District reinforces our commitment to advancing educational and career development opportunities,” Gassant said.
Exavier plans to pursue a bachelor of science degree in nursing and a minor in hospitality and tourism and tourism management at FAU. She plans to continue her studies in the doctor of nursing practice program, ultimately becoming a nurse practitioner.
“Being in Scholar CC is an experience I will always be grateful for,” Exavier said. “This program has shaped me into a curious and resourceful student, ready to embrace every opportunity.”
Gassant is looking for community partners who want to make an impact by supporting scholarships. She also welcomes mentors and corporate partners.
“This is an opportunity to directly change lives by providing mentorship, financial assistance and career guidance,” Gassant said. “We encourage businesses, professionals, and individuals passionate about educational equity and workforce development to get involved and support our mission.” P
For more information and to get involved, visit https:// scholarcc.org/.
Atlantic High senior Lorendie Exavier, who plans to attend FAU, credits Carmen Spangaro, a mentor with the Scholar Career Coaching program available at Atlantic. Photo provided
Note: Events are current as of 3/26. Please check with organizers for any changes.
APRIL 5
Saturday - 4/5 - Morning Beach
Yoga at The Seagate Beach Club, 401 S Ocean Blvd, Delray Beach. Every Sat 8-9 am. $20/person. Tickets: 561-330-3775; eventbrite.com/e/sunrise-beach-yogatickets-336433921917
4/5 - Saturdays @ Sanborn: Yoga Class at Sanborn Square, 72 N Federal Hwy, Boca Raton. 8:45 am registration; 9 am class. Free. 561-393-7703; downtownboca.org
4/5 - Zumba Class at South Beach Park Pavilion, 400 N State Rd A1A, Boca Raton. Every Sat 10 am. Free. 561-393-7703; downtownboca.org
4/5 - Yoga Class at South Palm Beach Town Hall, 3577 S Ocean Blvd. Every Sat 9 am. Free. 561-588-8889; southpalmbeach. com
4/5 - Yoga at the Beach at Red Reef Park
West, 1221 S Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Held on grass overlooking the Intracoastal. No cash accepted on-site. Every W 6:30 and 1st & 3rd Sat 10-11 am. $10-$12.50/class; 60-day membership $65/resident, $81.25/ non-resident. 561-393-7807; myboca.us
4/5 - Judo Class at Boca Raton Community Center, 150 Crawford Blvd. Warm-up exercises, instruction, practice, tournament training. W 6:30-8:30 pm mixed ages/ranks; Sat 10 am-noon all groups. Per month $21.50/resident; $27/ non-resident. 561-393-7807; myboca.us
4/5 - AA Meeting at Unity of Delray Beach, 101 NW 22nd St. Every Sat 5:30 pm. Free. 561-276-5796; unityofdelraybeach. org
APRIL 6-12
Sunday - 4/6 - Yoga at the Museum at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real. 9:30-11 am. $15/member; $30/nonmember. 561-392-2500; bocamuseum.org
4/6 - Yoga at the Beach at Red Reef Park East, 1400 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Held on grass overlooking the Intracoastal. No cash accepted on-site. Every Sun 4:30 pm. $10-$12.50/class; 60-day membership $65/ resident, $81.25/non-resident. 561-3937807; myboca.us
4/6 - Codependents Anonymous Meeting at Unity of Delray Beach, 101 NW 22nd St. Every Sun 6 pm. Free. 561-2765796; unityofdelraybeach.org
Monday - 4/7 - Ageless Grace - Brain Body Fitness Class at Boca Raton Community Center, 150 Crawford Blvd. Age 18+. Every M through 4/28 11 am-noon Per class: $12.50/resident; $15.62/nonresident. 561-393-7807; myboca.us
4/7 - Balancing the Immune & Nervous System with Acupressure at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. 3 pm. Free. Registration: 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/7 - Zumba Cardio at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Adults. Every M/W 5:30-6:30 pm. $10. 561-
742-6221; boynton-beach.org
4/7 - LGBTQ ACOA Meeting at Unity of Delray Beach Prayer Room, 101 NW 22nd St. Every M 6:30 pm. Free. 561-276-5796; unityofdelraybeach.org
4/7 - Adult Zumba Class at Boca Raton Community Center, 150 Crawford Blvd. Every M through 4/28 7-8 pm. $40-$50/ month; $6-$7.50/1 class. 561-393-7807; myboca.us
Tuesday - 4/8 - Al-Anon Meeting at Unity of Delray Beach Fellowship Hall, 101 NW 22nd St. Every T 7 pm. Free. 561-2765796; unityofdelraybeach.org
Wednesday - 4/9 - Tai Chi Class at South Palm Beach Town Hall, 3577 S Ocean Blvd. Every W 9 am. Free. 561-588-8889; southpalmbeach.com
4/9 - Stretch & Strengthening Mindfulness Class at South Palm Beach Town Hall, 3577 S Ocean Blvd. Every W/F 10:30 am. Free. 561-588-8889; southpalmbeach.com
4/9 - Yoga at the Library at J. Turner Moore Memorial Library, 1330 Lands End Rd, Manalapan. Every W/F at 10 & 11 am. $200/members; $300/non-members. 561383-2541; manalapan.org
4/9 - Wellness Wednesday: Yoga at Cornell Art Museum at Old School Square, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. Every W 11 am-noon. $8/class. Registration: 561654-2220; delrayoldschoolsquare.com/ events
4/9 - LGBTQ+ AA Meeting at Unity of Delray Beach Prayer Room, 101 NW 22nd St. Every W 7 pm. Free. 561-276-5796; unityofdelraybeach.org
Thursday - 4/10 - Tai Chi Class at Boca Raton Community Center, 150 Crawford Blvd. Age 18+. Every T through 4/24 6-7 pm. Per class: $8/resident; $10/nonresident. 561-393-7807; myboca.us 4/10 - Alateen Meeting at St. Mark Catholic Church, 643 NE 4th Ave, Boynton Beach. Every Th 7:30 pm. Free. 561-2783481; southpalmbeachafg.org
Friday - 4/11 - TRX Outdoor Workout at the Park at Old School Square Amphitheater, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. 4:45-5:45 pm. Free. Registration: 561-243-1077; delrayoldschoolsquare.com/ events
APRIL 13-19
Sunday - 4/13 - Coco Market at Old School Square Amphitheater, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. Monthly wellness market: 30 local vendors, health/wellness professionals w/various healing modalities; live music; 2 free yoga, meditation or fitness classes per event. 9 am-3 pm. Free. 561-870-4090; thecocoyogi.com/market Wednesday - 4/16 - Chair Yoga with Mike M at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Adults. Every 1st & 3rd W 10:30-11:30 am. Free. Registration: 561266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/16 - Scripps Research Front-Row Lecture Series: Regenerative Medicine for the Treatment of MS: Enhancing Repair to Prevent Progression w/Luke Lairson, Ph.D. 1-hour virtual lecture. 7 pm. Free. Register for link: frontrow. scripps.edu
Tuesday - 4/22 - TRX Outdoor Workout at the Park at Old School Square Amphitheater, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. Noon-1 pm. Free. Registration: 561-243-1077; delrayoldschoolsquare.com/ events
4/22 - Yoga with Sophia at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Adults. 6:307:30 pm. Free. Registration: 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
Regular flu and measles more worrisome than bird flu
While the bird flu is making headlines, South Florida experts say the average person doesn’t have to worry about catching it.
H5N1, a highly pathogenic avian influenza, mostly affects birds, but when a human is infected, the virus has the potential to cause severe illness or death.
However, Leslie Diaz, an infectious disease specialist and chair of Infection Control at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, says “this virus is specific to birds and is a low risk to humans.”
The transmission of the virus to humans is exceedingly rare. Most human cases have been linked to direct contact with infected poultry, rather than through casual community transmission.
Diaz emphasizes that everyday precautions, such as good hygiene and avoiding contact with sick birds, are generally sufficient for the public.
Those most at risk of contracting the virus, she says, are workers who handle chickens or other birds. Those workers should take precautionary measures such as wearing masks and goggles.
As of last month, there were 70 confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu (none in Florida) and one death in the
Health News
United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There was no known person-to-person spread.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as of late February more than 970 cases of H5N1 had been confirmed in U.S. cattle, and the virus had been detected in more than 80 commercial poultry flocks, affecting nearly 19 million birds.
The CDC recommends the following precautions:
• Avoid direct contact with wild birds and other animals infected with the avian influenza-A viruses.
• Avoid direct contact with sick or dead wild birds, poultry and other animals.
• Wear personal protective equipment if you come in direct contact with infected birds.
• Be aware that wild birds can be infected with avian influenza-A viruses even if they don’t look sick.
• Do not touch or consume raw milk or raw milk products, especially from animals with confirmed or suspected avian influenza-A virus infection.
Diaz says she is more worried about people contracting the regular flu or the measles virus (rubeola) and suggests they wash their hands regularly, avoid crowds and wear masks if they are at risk, such as by having a weak immune system.
Delray Medical reaches aquablation milestone
Delray Medical Center has completed its 200th aquablation procedure since acquiring the medical technology in 2022.
Aquablation therapy, a minimally invasive treatment that delivers water with robotic precision, treats lower urinary tract symptoms due to an enlarged prostate, a noncancerous condition. These urologists have performed aquablations: Drs. Christopher Tallman, Darren Bryk, Emanuel Gottenger, Jacob Parke, David Schwartzwald, Christopher Vendryes and Sanjeev Gupta. — Christine Davis
Measles, an extremely contagious disease, has been on the rise since 2024, with a total of 483 confirmed cases reported this year through March 27 in 20 states including Florida, according to the CDC. It says 97% of the cases are diagnosed in unvaccinated people or people whose vaccination status is unknown.
There has been one confirmed death in Texas of an unvaccinated child from measles and another under investigation in New Mexico.
Measles was once considered eliminated in the U.S., but the number of cases of this airborne virus is on the rise because of lax vaccination compliance.
Before this outbreak started, there were only 59 reported cases of measles in the U.S. in 2023.
Similar to the adage of “location, location, location” as the best way to sell real estate, Diaz says “vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate” is the best way to prevent infectious diseases such as measles and the flu.
“Vaccinations are the best weapon we have to prevent the flu and other infectious diseases,” she says. “These are highly contagious viruses, and you can contract one through exposure to only a few particles or droplets.”
She especially advises people 65 years or older, or those with
underlying conditions such as heart or lung issues, to stay on top of annual vaccine protocols and take additional precautions such as masking and avoiding crowds.
Diaz notes that even a healthy person may contract a virus and transmit it to an elderly relative.
If you have school-age children, Diaz says to make sure they receive their measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
And for the flu, she recommends an annual shot for most adults with or without underlying conditions.
“It’s never too late to
vaccinate for the flu,” she advises. “Even in April, the flu is still circulating.
“Even if you didn’t get vaccinated this past winter, it’s not too late,” Diaz says. “If you haven’t gotten your shot, you can still get it now, even into the summer.”
Visit cdc.gov for more data.
Jan Engoren writes about health and healthy living. Send column ideas to jengoren@ hotmail.com.
Paws Up for Pets
At-home euthanasia for dog comforts pet parent in County Pocket
For a dozen years, a yellow Labrador retriever named Buddy was the constant companion of Dr. Bill Benda. They took walks together. Buddy loved bounding into water at the beach, fetching tossed balls and joining Bill on boat rides.
“I adopted him from a rescue group when he was 1 and at his prime, he weighed 115 pounds,” says Bill, a semi-retired emergency room physician who lives in the County Pocket near Briny Breezes. “He was handsome, calm, very loyal and I believe he was the GOAT dog in our neighborhood,” meaning greatest of all time.
Buddy was diagnosed with mass cell cancer that required chemotherapy treatments from veterinary specialists in Miami last year.
In the morning of Nov. 6, Bill knew it was time to make the gut-wrenching decision to let Buddy die peacefully.
“Buddy couldn’t stand up anymore. He couldn’t pee, but he was still totally alert,” says Bill. “I knew it was time to say goodbye, so I called Lap of Love that morning. They came that afternoon to perform the athome euthanasia. I miss Buddy every single day.”
Throughout Palm Beach County, pet parents are saying goodbye to their beloved pets by choosing at-home euthanasia ceremonies. Lap of Love is a network of veterinarians all over the country that offers veterinary hospice care and performs at-home euthanasia.
Dr. Meagan Meador, of West Palm Beach, is one of these veterinarians at the Lap of Love center serving Pam Beach County. And, like Bill, she is a pet parent who understands the power of compassion, loyalty and love that pets can bring.
On her right ring finger, she wears a silver ring containing crushed blue quartz and ashes of
More on Lap of Love
Lap of Love offers at-home hospice care and performs athome euthanasia for pets. It was founded in 2009 by a pair of veterinarians, Drs. Dani McVety and Mary Gardner, and now has centers in 43 states and more than 300 veterinarians. On its website, Lap of Love offers a lot of resources, including pet loss support groups, counseling, ways to deal with grief, ideas to memorialize pets and much more. There is also an Angel Fund where 100% of donations are given to support families in financial need so that they can give a peaceful end-of-life, at-home experience to their pets. Learn more by visiting www.lapoflove.com, calling 561-800-0192 or emailing SoFlo@LapOfLove.com.
her late cat, Simon. “I adopted Simon when I was in veterinary school at Tufts University,” she says. “Simon was a one-eyed cat who I instantly fell in love with. We became a team. For 15 years, he was with me through difficult challenges — when I moved from Massachusetts to South
Florida, through multiple job changes, marriage and a divorce. I memorialize him every day by wearing this ring.”
Meagan spent 12 years as an emergency medicine veterinarian and loved the high-speed pace but began suffering from burnout during the coronavirus years. She was looking for some type of veterinary work she could do outside a hospital.
She found Lap of Love.
“I took this job part-time in 2021 and made it full-time in 2022,” she says. “I thought it would be something to do as a stepping-stone to my next
LEFT: Dr. Bill Benda enjoys a day on the water with his best bud, Buddy. Benda had Buddy euthanized at home using the Lap of Love program when the pooch was suffering from mass cell cancer. ABOVE: Benda built a floral memorial as a way to honor Buddy. Photos provided
veterinary venture, but I love it so much because it is so fulfilling. I am honored to help families be able to say goodbye to their pets in as peaceful and painless way as possible.”
She continues, “Sometimes I also cry during the visit and that is OK. It is important for families to see that we veterinarians are also human and vulnerable. I tell them that grief is the process of changing a relationship of presence to a relationship of memory.”
Lap of Love stays in touch with these pet parents by sending sympathy cards with personalized messages from veterinarians who met them, by offering them grief support resources, identifying cremation options and sending out compassionate emails one year after the euthanasia to simply say that they are thinking of the family.
Many of us lucky to share our lives with cats, dogs and other companion animals also must endure tear-filled goodbyes when age and disease rob the quality of life in them. We want to do something special to honor the passing of our pets.
Bill decided to honor Buddy
by creating a floral memorial garden in his front yard that features a statute of a dog sporting angel wings. He also alerted a few neighbors of the scheduled euthanasia that day.
Word spread quickly.
Throughout the day of Nov. 6, friends came to visit Bill and Buddy.
“Some came and sat down with Buddy in the front yard,” he says. “Some hugged him and me. One brought a cold burger that Buddy, of course, ate. The veterinarian from Lap of Love came in the afternoon and she let us have all the time we needed — my neighbors and me — to say goodbye to Buddy. He was such a great dog.”
He paused, sobbed and then added, “Dogs don’t live as long as we do because they earn heaven much faster.”
Arden Moore is an author, speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. Learn more by visiting www. ardenmoore. com.
Meador Memorial ring
Note: Events are current as of 3/26. Please check with organizers for any changes.
APRIL 5
Saturday - 4/5 - Ocean Ridge Annual Shredding Event at Town Hall, 6450 N Ocean Blvd. For Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes residents only - photo ID required. 9 am-noon. Free. 561-732-2635; oceanridgeflorida.com
4/5 - Adaptive Pickleball Clinic at Hester Center, 1901 N Seacrest Blvd, Boynton Beach. All ages. 9-11 am. Free. 561-7426652; boynton-beach.org
4/5 - Town of Highland Beach DriveThru Shred-A-Thon Event at Town Hall, 3614 S Ocean Blvd. For Highland Beach residents - photo ID required. 10 am-noon. Free. 561-278-4548; highlandbeach.us
4/5 - Pencil Power: Portraits that Pop! at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Adults. 10 am-12:30 pm. $65. 561330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/5 - Radiant Roses in Watercolor at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Adults. 10:30 am-12:30 pm. $40. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/5 - Virtual Saturday Morning Writers’ Group w/Caren Neile at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. Every 1st & 3rd Sat 11 am-12:30 pm. Free. Registration: 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
4/5 - Katie Knutson: Against the Odds: Rachel Carson and Silent Spring - A Story Central Performance at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 3-4:30 pm. Free. 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
4/5 - Commercial Music Ensembles at FAU University Theatre, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 7 pm. $10. 561-297-6124; fauevents.com
4/5 - Zaza Flamenca: Sergio Mendes and Brazil ‘66 Tribute at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 8 pm. $40-$45. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
4/5-6 - 63rd Annual Delray Affair in downtown Delray Beach. 500+ artists/ crafters, live music, food vendors, more. Check website for parking options. Sat 10 am-6 pm; Sun 10 am-5 pm. Free. delrayaffair.com
4/5-6 - The Impossible Task of Today - by Jeff Bower at Florida Atlantic University Theatre Lab, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. Runs through 4/20. Th-Sat: 7:30 pm; Sat/Sun: 3 pm. $60. 561-297-6124; fauevents.com
4/5-6 - This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan at Lake Worth Playhouse,
713 Lake Ave. Runs through 4/6. Sat: 8 pm; Sun: 2 pm. $28. 561-586-6410; lakeworthplayhouse.org
APRIL 6-12
4/6 - Boynton Beach Gold Coast Band Concert: Meet the Band at Boynton Beach Community High School Auditorium, 4975 Park Ridge Blvd, Boynton Beach. 3 pm. $10. goldcoastband.org
4/6 - An(other) Afternoon of Percussion at FAU University Theatre, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 3 pm. $10. 561-2976124; fauevents.com
4/6 - Sunday Matinee Music Series: Matthew Sabatella & the Rambling String Band at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 3-4 pm. 561-3937906; bocalibrary.org
4/6 - Music in the Museum - Lynn Virtuosi at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real. 3-4 pm. $8/member; $18/nonmember. 561-392-2500; bocamuseum.org
4/6 - One Hit Wonders at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 7 pm. $45-$50. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
Monday - 4/7 - Pickleball at Hester Center, 1901 N Seacrest Blvd, Boynton Beach. Combines badminton & tennis. Adults. M-F 9 am-noon. $5-$7; $60-$85/15-visit pass; $250-$375/annual pass. 561-742-6550; boynton-beach.org
4/7 - Lunch & Lecture Series: Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds: International Intrigue in Art Law w/Laura Reich at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real. 11 am-1 pm. $125/member; $150/nonmember. 561-392-2500; bocamuseum.org
4/7 - Advanced Squares at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. All ages. Every M 2-4 pm. $6. 561-7426221; boynton-beach.org
Tuesday - 4/8 - Seminar: Emotional Intelligence: The Hidden Gem Critical for Personal Success w/ Neil Katz at FAU Friedberg Auditorium, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 10-11:30 am. $60/annual membership; $40/member; $50/nonmember & guest pass. 561-297-3185; olli. fau.edu
4/8 - Featuring Florida: The Sunshine State in Fiction, Film and TV w/Caren Neile presented by FAU Lifelong Learning Institute at The Field House at Old School Square, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. 10:30 am-noon. $30/member; $35/ non-member & guest pass 561-297-3185; olliboca.fau.edu
4/8 - Seminar: Mobilizing Art History w/Karen J. Leader at FAU Friedberg
Green Markets
Lake Worth Beach Waterside Farmers Market every Saturday under the overpass at A1A and Lake Ave, Lake Worth Beach. 9 am-1 pm. Free. 561-547-3100; lakeworthfarmersmarket.com
Delray Beach GreenMarket every Saturday at Old School Square, 51 N Swinton Ave. Fresh local produce, baked goods, gourmet food items, plants, live music, children’s activities. 9am-2pm. 561-276-7511; delraycra.org/green-market
Spring Farmers Market every Sunday at Royal Palm Place, Via de Palmas (at the Clocktower, NE corner of S Fed. Hwy & SE Mizner Blvd), Boca Raton. Fresh fruits & vegetables, goods by local artisans, fresh curated & caught meats and seafood, locally-grown flowers, and handcrafted wares. 8 am-noon. Free. 561-362-8340; royalpalmplace.com/farmers-market/
Auditorium, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. Every T through 4/29. 12:30-2 pm. $60/ annual membership; $70/member; $90/ non-member; $30/guest pass. 561-2973185; olli.fau.edu
4/8 – Socrates Café at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Philosophical discussions. Every T 1:30-3 pm. Free. 561393-7852; bocalibrary.org
4/8 - Guided Walking Tours of The Boca Raton at 503 E. Camino Real. Held again 4/22. 2 pm. $29. Advance ticket required: 561-395-6766; bocahistory.org
4/8 - Tell Your Story: A Storytelling Workshop with Bonnie Levison at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. Ages 18+. Two day class held again 4/10. 4-6 pm. $200. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
4/8 - Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Part of Tuesday Book Group 6 pm. Free. Registration: 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/8 - All Arts Open Mic Night at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. Every 2nd T 8-10:30 pm. $10-$15. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org Wednesday - 4/9 - GFWC Woman’s Club of Delray Beach Meeting at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Bring your own refreshments. 10 am. Free. delraywomansclub.com
4/9 - Charcoal Mastery for Beginners: Bold, Expressive & Freehand! at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Adults. 10 am-1 pm. $65. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/9 - Pastels Made Easy Class at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Ages 18+. Every W through 5/28 1-4 pm. Per class $35/resident; $44/ non-resident. Registration: 561-742-6221; boynton-beach.org
4/9 - 3rd Annual Antique Appraisal Show presented by the Friends of the Boca Raton Public Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. 5-7 pm. $10/per item; Friends members: $8/ item. Spectators welcome to watch for free. 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
4/9 - Delray Beach Orchid Society Meeting at Veterans Park, 802 NE 1st St, Delray Beach. 2nd W 7 pm. Free. 561-5732422; delraybeachorchidsociety.org Thursday - 4/10 - Quilters meet at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Share quilting information, perpetuate quilting as a cultural & artistic form. Limit 10 quilters. Every Th 9 am-noon. $1/lifetime membership. 561-742-6886; boyntonlibrary.org
4/10 - Line Dancing at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Basic modern western dancing. All ages. Every Th 10:30-11:30 am. $6. 561-742-6221; boynton-beach.org
4/10 - Mystical Abstract Landscape in Mixed Media at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Adults. 2-4 pm. $60. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/10 - Intro to Creativity with Jackson Pollock at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Adults. 4:30-6:30 pm. $55. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/10 - The Palm Beach Historical Society presents Paradise in Peril: World War II in Palm Beach County at J. Turner Moore Memorial Library, 1330 Lands End Rd, Manalapan. 5 pm. 561-383-2541; manalapan.org
4/10 - Opening Reception: Biennial Exhibition 10th Anniversary at Cultural Council of Palm Beach County,
601 Lake Ave, Lake Worth. Runs T-Sat noon-5 pm through 6/20. 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. Registration: 561-472-3341; palmbeachculture.com
4/10 - Exhibition Opening Reception: Fragile Beauty: Steeped in Life at Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, 601 Lake Ave, Lake Worth Beach. Runs through 5/17. 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. 561-471-2901; palmbeachculture.com
4/10 - Musical Tales of Star-Crossed Lovers: The City of the Sun God at FAU University Theatre, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 7 pm. $10. 561-297-6124; fauevents. com
4/10 - Baroque: Angels Behind the Walls at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, 100 NE Mizner Blvd, Boca Raton. 7:30 pm. $45-$65. 305-285-9060; 561-376-3858; seraphicfire.org
Friday - 4/11 - Textural Temptations: Layer, Build, and Texture at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Adults. 10 am-12:30 pm. $65. 561-3309614; artswarehouse.org
4/11 - Mixed Media Portraits inspired by Street Art at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Adults. 10:30 am-2:30 pm. $120. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse. org
4/11 - Beginner Squares at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. All ages. Every F 6-7 pm. $6. 561-7426221; boynton-beach.org
4/11 - Castoffs Square Dance at Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center, 125 E Ocean Ave. Basic modern western square dancing. All ages. Every F 6-9 pm. $6. 561-742-6221; boynton-beach.org
4/11 - Spiritual Spaces at FAU University Theatre, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 7 pm. $10. 561-297-6124; fauevents.com
4/11 - Given To Fly - The Pearl Jam Experience at The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $35. 561-203-3742; thestudioatmiznerpark.com
4/11 - Will Johns at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 8 pm. $45-$50. 561450-6357; artsgarage.org
4/11-13 - The Frankenstein Project at FAU Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. Runs through 4/20. F/Sat: 7 pm; Sat: 2:30 pm; Sun: 2 pm. $18-$25. 561-297-6124; fauevents.com Saturday - 4/12 - Passover begins 4/12 - Lantana Shred Event at Greater Lantana Chamber of Commerce, 212 Iris Ave, Lantana. Proceeds benefit Arms Of Hope. 9-11 am. $5 per box/bag. 561-5858664; lantanachanber.com 4/12 - Open House and Registration
Spring/Easter Events
Note: For sunrise and Easter services please see pages AT20-21
APRIL 6-12
Saturday - 4/12 - Easter Egg Hunt & Festival at First United Methodist Church, 625 NE Mizner Blvd, Boca Raton. Ages 10 & under. 10 am. Free. 561-3951244; fumcbocaraton.org
4/12 - Easter VBS at Cason United Methodist Church, 342 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. Experience the sights/sounds of Holy Week. Easter egg hunt follows. Ages 5-11. 9 am-12:30 pm. Free. Registration required: 978-337-2690; casonumc.org
APRIL 13-19
Sunday - 4/13 - Easter Egg Hunt at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, 33 Gleason St. Bring your own basket. Noon. Free. Reservations: 561-276-6338; firstdelray. com
Friday - 4/18-19 - Springfest Celebration & Egg Hunt at Miller Park, 1905 SW 4th Ave, Delray Beach. 10,000+ eggs filled w/candy, surprises. Food, games, crafts, more. Bring a basket; hunt divided into age divisions. F: 6:30 pm ages 13+; Sat: 8:30 am ages 1-12. Free. 561-243-7250 x3; delraybeachfl.gov/parks
Saturday - 4/19 - Eggstravaganza Egg Hunt at Maddock Park, 1200 W Drew St, Lantana. Games, hayride, vendors. 8:30-10:30 am. 561-540-5754; lantana.org
4/19 - Egg-Stravaganza at Centennial Park & Amphitheater, 120 E. Ocean Ave, Boynton Beach. Games, activities, egg hunts. Family fare. 10 am-noon. Free. 561-7426550; boynton-beach.org
4/19 - Easter Egg Hunt at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 188 S Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. 4:45 pm. Free. 561-276-4541; stpaulsdelray.org
4/19-20 - Easter Egg Hunt at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 188 S Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. Sat: 4:45 pm; Sun: 10:30 am. Free. 561-276-4541; stpaulsdelray.org
APRIL 20
4/20 - Easter Brunch at The Addison, 2 E Camino Real, Boca Raton. 11 am-2 pm. $160/ adults; $85/ages 12 & under. Reservations: 561-372-0568; theaddisonofbocaraton.com
4/20 - Easter Brunch at Opal Grand Seacrest Ballroom, 10 N Ocean Blvd, Delray Beach. 11 am-3 pm. $89.95/adults; $35/children 12 & under - plus tax & gratuity. Reservations: 561-274-3200; opalgrand.com
Event at Creative Arts School at Old School Square, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. 10 am-noon. Free. 561-243-7209; http://ow.ly/ bye450Tzubs
4/12 - Mix It Up: Mastering Color for Stunning Portraits! at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Adults. 10 am-12:30 pm. $65. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/12 - Open Figure Studio w/Model at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Ages 18+. Held again 6-8 pm 4/24. 10:30 am-12:30 pm. $15. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/12 - Tree Giveaway at Sara Sims Park, 209 NW 9th Ct, Boynton Beach. City residents only. Limit 2 trees per household (1 fruit tree max). Noon. 561-927-8733; communitygreening.org
4/12 - Earth Month Celebration at Sara Sims Park, 209 NW 9th Ct, Boynton Beach. Noon-4 pm. Free. 561-742-6000; boyntonbeach.org
4/12 - Concert: Duo Mento at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. 2 pm. Registration: 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.
org
4/12 - Theatre: Garden State at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. Ages 3-12. 2 pm. $10. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.
org
4/12 - Exhibition Extension: Navigating the Art Market, a Discussion with Tim Hawkinson at Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, 601 Lake Ave, Lake Worth Beach. 2-3:30 pm. Free. 561-471-2901; palmbeachculture.com
4/12 - Donner: An American Musical Tragedy at FAU Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 2:30 pm. Free/donations encouraged. 561-2976124; fauevents.com
4/12 - Almighty Queen at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 8 pm. $45$50. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
Sunday - 4/13 - Tree Giveaway at Old School Square, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. City residents only. First come, first served, limit 2 trees per household (1 fruit tree max). 10 am. 561-927-8733; communitygreening.org
4/13 - Concert: Yoko Sata Kothari, Pianist at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. 2 pm. Registration: 561-266-
0194; delraylibrary.org
4/13 - Story Central Storytelling Slam at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 3-4:30 pm. Free. 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
4/13 - China Grove: The Ultimate Doobie Brothers Tribute at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 7 pm. $45$50. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
4/13 - Reading of New Plays at FAU Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. Noon. Held again 7 pm 4/16. Free/donations encouraged. 561297-6124; fauevents.com
4/13 - Ruben Studdard: The Masterpiece Tour at The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. 7:30 pm. Tickets start at $47.10. 561-203-3742; thestudioatmiznerpark.com
Monday - 4/14 - Seminar: Dramawise: Camping with Henry & Tom w/ Gary Cadwallader at FAU Friedberg Auditorium, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 12:30-2 pm. $60/annual membership; $40/ member; $50/non-member & guest pass. 561-297-3185; olli.fau.edu
4/14 - Seminar: Happiness Through Relationships: Huai Xuan Wisdom in Ancient China and Its Relevance Today w/Yaron Seidman at FAU Friedberg Auditorium, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 3-4:30 pm. $60/annual membership; $40/ member; $50/non-member & guest pass. 561-297-3185; olli.fau.edu
4/14 - Monday Movies - Documentary: 180 South directed by Chris Malloy at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 5:30-8 pm. Registration: 561-3937906; bocalibrary.org
Tuesday - 4/15 - Book Talks - NonFiction/Biographies: The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklof at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 2-3 pm. Registration: 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
4/15 - Movie Night at Highland Beach Library, 3618 Ocean Blvd. 5:30 pm. Free. 561-278-5455; highlandbeach.us
4/15 - Lecture: Theodore Pratt - A Florida Writer’s Life w/ Taylor Hagood presented by Delray Beach Historical Society at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Refreshments, presentation, Q&A and book signing. 6 pm. $10/person; free/DBHS members. Registration: 561274-9578; delraybeachhistory.org
4/15 - FAU Astronomical Observatory viewing at Florida Atlantic University Science & Engineering Building 4th floor, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. 1st F & 3rd T 8 pm. Free. Schedule subject to change.
4/15 - Spoken Word Open Mic: Poetry, Storytelling & Lyrics at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. Every 3rd T 8-10:30 pm. $10-$15. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
4/15-17 - Tony Danza: Standards & Stories at The Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th St. T-Th: 2 pm & 7:30 pm. $95. 561-272-1281; delraybeachplayhouse.com
Wednesday - 4/16 - Book Buzz Adult Book Club at Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. Adults. 10:30 amnoon. Free. Registration: 561-742-6390; boyntonlibrary.org
Thursday - 4/17 - Long Pose Open Figure Studio w/Model at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. Age 18+. 10:30 am-12:30 pm. $15. 561330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/17 - Twilight Tribute Concert Series: Homegrown - The Zac Brown Experience Tribute Band at Old School Square Amphitheater, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. 5-9 pm. $50/VIP; $10/ General admission; free/kids 12 & under. 561-243-1077; delrayoldschoolsquare.com/ events
4/17 - The Art of Bonsai - Bonsai Care Demo and Q&A for Beginners w/ Vladimir Foursa at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 6-7:30 pm. Free. Registration: 561-393-7906; bocalibrary. org
4/17 - Introduction to Alcohol Ink - Abstract & Floral Designs at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 6-8 pm. $45. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/17-18 - Color Theory Basics 2-Day Workshop at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 10:30 am-1:30 pm. $90/2days. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
Friday - 4/18 - Still Life, Full Throttle: Bring the Ordinary to Life in Acrylic at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 10 am-12:30 pm. $65. 561-330-
Municipal Meetings
4/7 – Ocean Ridge Town Hall, 6450 N Ocean Blvd. 6 pm. Agenda: oceanridgeflorida.com
4/8 – South Palm Beach Town Hall, 3577 S Ocean Blvd. 2 pm. Agenda: southpalmbeach.com
4/8 – Manalapan Town Hall, 600 S Ocean Blvd. 9 am. Agenda: manalapan.org
4/15 – Highland Beach Town Hall, 3614 S Ocean Blvd. 1:30 pm. Agenda: highlandbeach.us
4/15 – Boynton Beach City Hall, 100 E Ocean Ave. 6 pm. Agenda: boynton-beach.org
4/24 – Briny Breezes Town Hall, 4802 N Ocean Blvd. 4 pm. Agenda: townofbrinybreezes-fl.com
9614; artswarehouse.org
4/18 - Discover South Florida Natural Areas at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 11 am-12:30 pm. Registration: 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
4/18-19 - The McCartney Years at The Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th St. F/ Sat: 8 pm; Sat: 4 pm. $49. 561-272-1281; delraybeachplayhouse.com
4/18-19 - Joe Matarese at Sol Theatre, 3333 N Federal Hwy, Boca Raton. F: 7 pm; Sat: 6 & 8:30 pm. $30-$40. comiccure.com/ boca-raton
Saturday - 4/19 - Fierce & Fabulous: Contemporary Female Portraits in Acrylic at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 10 am-1 pm. $75. 561-3309614; artswarehouse.org
4/19 - Calling All Serious Writers!
Saturday Writers Studio presented by Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Via Zoom. 10 am. Free. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
4/19 - Virtual Saturday Morning Writers’ Group w/Caren Neile at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. Every 1st & 3rd Sat 11 am-12:30 pm. Free. Registration: 561-393-7906; bocalibrary. org
4/19 - The Last Queen of San Domino at FAU Marleen Forkas Studio One Theatre,
Heading north for the summer?
Library Classes
Local libraries offer hundreds of adult classes each month. To discover what you can learn at your library, please visit: Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
Boynton Beach Library, 100 E Ocean Ave. 561-742-6390; boyntonlibrary.org Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. 561-266-0194; delraylibrary.org
For children and teen classes, please see our Tots & Teens calendar. "Libraries are the free universities of the people." — Andrew Carnegie
each day. $60-$80 plus fees. 561-515-1091; barrett-jackson.com
4/19 - Mixed Media Nature’s Mandala at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 2-4 pm. $65. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
APRIL 20-26
Sunday - 4/20 - Easter Sunday
Tuesday - 4/22 - One Moment In Time:
An Art, Writing & Music Program w/ Authors Dr. Brenda Dressler & Elaine Bossik presented by National League of American Pen Women at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Adults. 4:30 pm. Free. Registration: 561-266-0196; delraylibrary.org
4/22 - Versed in Verse: Poetry
Reading with Poets on the Fringe and Community Open Mic at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. 5-6:30 pm. Free. Registration: 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
Wednesday - 4/23 - Charcoal Dramatic Still Life & Reflective Surfaces at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 10 am-12:30 pm. $65. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/23 - From Memory to Memoir by Barbara Cronie at the Creative Arts School, 51 N. Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. Learn a writing process and record those important events. Every W 6-8 pm. 6-week class: $240/residents; $280/non-residents. 212-677-4278
4/23 - Indigo Ferns in Watercolor at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 6-8 pm. $40. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
Thursday - 4/24 - Exhibition Opening: Glasstress Boca Raton 2025 at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real. Runs through 10/12 during regular hours: W/F/ Sat/Sun: 11 am-6 pm; Th: 11 am-8 pm. $16/adults; $12/ages 65+; free/member & children under 15. 561-392-2500; bocamuseum.org
4/24 - Concert: Duo Beaux ArtsClassical Piano at Highland Beach Library, 3618 Ocean Blvd. 5:30 pm. Free. 561-2785455; highlandbeach.us
4/24 - Town Hall Talk: Double Take: Boca de Ratones - A True Etymological Reassessment w/Humberto Ruiz at The Schmidt Boca Raton History Museum, 71 N Federal Hwy, Boca Raton. 6 pm check-in/ refreshments; 6:30 pm lecture. Free/BRHS member; $10/guest. RSVP: 561-395-6766 x100; bocahistory.org
4/24 - Write Your Best Fiction with Barbara Cronie at the Creative Arts School, 51 N. Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. For beginning and advanced writers who want to improve their writing skills with the intent to publish. Every Th 6-8 pm.
4/24 - Friends Virtual Book Club: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett presented by Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 6:30-7:30 pm. Free. 561-393-7968; bocalibrary.org
4/24-26 - Barrett-Jackson Auction at South Florida Fairgrounds. 9067 Southern Blvd. West Palm Beach. Automobile and classic car auctions, exhibitor marketplace, food courts, games and rides. 9 am-6 pm
4/24-27 - Dry Powder at The Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th St. Runs through 5/4. Th-Sat: 7 pm; Sat/Sun: 1 pm. $59-$69. 561-272-1281; delraybeachplayhouse.com Friday - 4/25 - Landscape Reimagined: Abstracting Nature’s Essence in Paint at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 10 am-12:30 pm. $65. 561-3309614; artswarehouse.org
4/25 - Intro to Creativity with Paul Klee at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 10:30 am-12:30 pm. $55. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/25 - 2025 Boynton Beach First Responders Awards Luncheon at Benvenuto Restaurant, 1730 N Federal Hwy, Boynton Beach. 11:45 am-1:30 pm. $50. Register: 561-395-4433; bocaratonchamber.com
4/25 - Introduction to Alcohol Ink - Landscape, Seascape & Trees at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 2-4 pm. $45. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/25 - Arbor Day Tree Planting at Spanish River Athletic Park, 1000 Spanish River Blvd, Boca Raton. 3:30 pm. Registration: 561-927-8733; communitygreening.org
4/25 - Artist Blow Out featuring Fabiano Zanchi at Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts, 1105 2nd Ave S, Lake Worth. 6:30-9:30 pm. $20. Reservations: 561-5087315; benzaitencenter.org
4/25 - Stray Dogs at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 8 pm. $35-$40. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
4/25-26 - Dances We Dance at FAU University Theatre, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton. F/Sat: 7 pm; Sat: 2 pm. $18-$25. 561-297-6124; fauevents.com
Saturday - 4/26 - Bold & Real: Male Portraits in Acrylic at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 10 am-1 pm. $75. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/26 - Abstract Flow: Simple Expressive Watercolor Landscapes at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 10:30 am-12:30 pm. $50. 561-3309614; artswarehouse.org
4/26 - Artist at Work - Ellen Burr - Glass Mosaic at Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real. 3-4 pm. $5/member; $10/nonmember. 561-392-2500; bocamuseum.org
4/26 - Taste of Boynton 2025 - 2nd Annual Food & Wine Festival at Centennial Park, 120 E. Ocean Ave, Boynton Beach. 4-10 pm. $50-$75/food & drink sampling ticket. 561-742-6000; boyntonbeach.org
4/26 - Night of Magic & Mentalism at Sol Theatre, 3333 N Federal Hwy, Boca Raton. Age 18+. 6 & 8 pm. $30-$40. comiccure.com/boca-raton
APRIL 27-MAY 3
Sunday - 4/27 - 4th Annual Delray Beach Concours D’Elegance at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave. 10 am-4 pm. Free/spectators. 561-927-8605; delrayconcours.com
4/27 - Exhibit Opening Reception at Artist’s Eye Gallery Boutique, 604 Lucerne Ave, Lake Worth. Runs through 5/18. 2-4 pm. Free. 561-586-8666; lwartleague.org
4/27 - The Boneshakers featuring Jenny Langer at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 7 pm. $40-$45. 561450-6357; artsgarage.org
Monday - 4/28 - Hamnet A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O’Farrell at Delray Beach Library, 100 W Atlantic Ave. Part of Afternoon Book Group 1 pm. Free. Registration: 561-266-0196; delraylibrary. org 4/28 - Monday Movies - Feature Film: The Innocent directed by Louis Garrel at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave.
Tuesday - 4/29 - Symphonia Concert V at The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. 7 pm. $55-$90. 561-3763858; thesymphonia.org
Wednesday - 4/30 - Lunchbox
Matinee: Dry Powder at The Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th St. Noon. $54. 561272-1281; delraybeachplayhouse.com
4/30 - Garden Lecture: Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants of Florida w/ Ellen Kamhi presented by Delray Beach Historical Society at St. Paul’s Historic Parish Hall, 188 S Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. 5:30 pm. $10/person; free/DBHS members. Registration: 561-274-9578; delraybeachhistory.org
4/30 - Trivia Night at Boca Raton Library, 400 NW 2nd Ave. Adults. 6-7:30 pm. Free. 561-393-7906; bocalibrary.org
4/30 - Coastal Creature Conversations: The Bottlenose Whale w/Harrison Albert at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton. Adults. 6:30-8 pm. Free. 561-544-8605; myboca. us/calendar.aspx?CID=47
4/30-5/1 - Color Theory Basics 2-Day Workshop at Arts Warehouse, 313 NE 3rd St, Delray Beach. 4:30 am-7:30 pm. $90/2days. 561-330-9614; artswarehouse.org
4/30-5/4 - My Way at The Wick Theatre & Costume Museum, 7901 N Federal Hwy, Boca Raton. Runs through 5/18. Th/F/Sat 6:30 pm; W/Th/Sat/Sun 1 pm. $27/adults; $20/students. Reservations: 561-995-2333; thewick.org
Thursday - 5/1 - Coffee & Culture at Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, 601 Lake Ave, Lake Worth Beach. Networking breakfast for new employees at cultural organizations and creative professionals who are new to the area. 9-10:30 am. Free. 561-471-2901; palmbeachculture.com 5/1 - Concert: Skobin Duo - Classical Piano at Highland Beach Library, 3618 Ocean Blvd. 5:30 pm. Free. 561-278-5455; highlandbeach.us
Friday - 5/2 - 8th Annual Play4JA Golf Tournament at Palm Beach Par 3, 2345 S Ocean Blvd. Presented by/benefits Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches & Treasure Coast. 7:45 am check-in; 9 am shotgun start; Noon lunch. $1000/ foursome; $200/individual golfer. 561-3108749; palmbeachtreasurecoast.ja.org
5/2 - First Friday @ 5 Concert: No Big Deal Band at Centennial Park & Amphitheater, 120 E Ocean Ave. Featuring food trucks, artisan market, children’s activities and music. 5-9 pm. Free. 561-7426024; boynton-beach.org
5/2 – The Art of Laughter with Headliner Mike Rivera featuring Michael Murillo - Class Is In Session at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 8 pm. $35. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
Saturday - 5/3 - Theatre: The Monkey King - A Kung Fu Musical at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. the Family Series. Ages 3-12. 2 pm. $10. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org
5/3 - Run for the Roses at Old School Square Amphitheater, 51 N Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. Featuring food, live racing, derby festivities, best dressed & hat contest. Proceed to benefit Annual Scholarship Fund and various charitable projects throughout Delray Beach. 5-8 pm. 561-243-1077; delrayoldschoolsquare.com/ events
5/3 - The Smoogies: A Live Jazz Experience Like No Other at Arts Garage, 94 NE 2nd Ave, Delray Beach. 8 pm. $30-$35. 561-450-6357; artsgarage.org 5/3 - Sheena Easton at The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. 6 pm & 8:30 pm. $55 and up. 561-203-3742; thestudioatmiznerpark.com
Contemporary gem in Boca Raton
From the entryway to 2391 Areca Palm Road, located in the exclusive Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, you will encounter a stunning two-story great room with walls of glass, a gas fireplace as well as stairs and an elevator. There is also a formal dining room with a glass wine closet.
The home has five bedrooms, six full baths and one half bath. One ensuite bed/bath is downstairs.
Upstairs contains a great loft area that has a custom lacquer and quartz bar; along with the other four bedrooms.
All the bedrooms are oversized and ensuite with ample closet space and storage.
Other amenities include a complete array of impact windows, two laundry rooms, and a three car + golf cart attached garage.
It is offered fully furnished at $9,950,000.
Contact Joyce Schneider, Broker/Owner, Castles By The Beach Realty, 889 E. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, FL 33432. Office: 561-392-9770. Cell: 561-212-4403. Joyce@castlesbythebeach.com or www. CastlesByTheBeach.com
This modern estate of 8,691 total square feet in Boca Raton was built in 2021 and is in a well-established,
in
Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club.
LEFT: The private, expansive backyard is a tropical haven with a beautiful 36-by-15 pool, outdoor loggia and summer kitchen with built-in grill. RIGHT:
An exquisite primary suite has two large closets, a morning bar, balcony and ensuite bath with dual sinks, a soaking shower and separate tub.
The custom kitchen has double-thick-edge Quartzite counter tops, Miele appliances, custom cabinets, a large pantry and Carrara European imported 48-by-48 porcelain tile.
