Category: Community

At first glance, the word “brave” may spark several images in our subconscious, the iconic superman “S,” or a prince in shining armor. For less mystical minds, first responders may be synonymous with bravery. However, bravery also lies in more common, quotidian acts of everyday life.  Coconut Creek novelist Melody Maysonet perfectly displays a case of this “common bravery,” a special possession of valor required to produce something truly raw, honest and authentic. Maysonet has been writing ever since she can remember. As a young girl, her dreams were to become a writer and a teacher. She has already accomplished both. Maysonet’s previous work experience includes her positions as an English teacher, editor, columnist, and ghostwriter. It was not until her son, now 14 years old, started school that Maysonet decided to tackle her dream of becoming a published novelist. She began attending workshops and conferences to hone her writing skills, inching closer to her goal.

In 2015, Maysonet published her first novel, A Work of Art, and has since then achieved several accolades including Best Book of 2015 by YA Books Central. A Work of Art is a captivating story about a 17-year-old girl, Tera, who struggles to determine if her father is guilty of a crime he is accused of. Recently, Maysonet opened up about the inspiration for A Work of Art sparking from her own personal experience with sexual assault. “It just kind of came out on its own because the book… was a completely different story… I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to write about and so I scrapped it and started over,” Maysonet said. “I think I just needed to do it, and to start healing.”

In addition to the countless hours practicing her craft, Maysonet also attributes part of her success to the honest critique from her writers’ group, Tuesday Writers.  Tuesday Writers consists of six different writers and was founded by mentor and YA author, Joyce Sweeney. Sweeney started the group as an invitation-only writers’ group, requiring the writers to have a certain level of expertise.  “We were all beginners at one time,” Maysonet said, “and over the years, we’ve watched each other grow.”

Maysonet takes her writing very seriously; she has a very disciplined work ethic and always tries to improve.  Most recently, she took on the insurmountably difficult task of reading deprivation, as recommended by her workbook titled, The Artist’s Way. “It really was helpful and I’m not sure exactly why but I’ve been thinking about doing it again,” Maysonet said. Currently, Maysonet is revising her second YA novel, tentatively titled, What We Wish For, about a 15-year-old girl living with her alcoholic mother who wishes for a different lifestyle. It is as Maysonet describes, “a genie-in-the-bottle story,” when “things are never what they seem.” Maysonet is also starting the first draft of her third novel. It is too early for Maysonet to confirm the synopsis but it’s intended for an adult audience. 
With A Work of Art, Maysonet fearlessly ignited a much-needed conversation about the highly stigmatized topic of sexual assault. In addition to her groundbreaking novel, Maysonet continues to tackle more ordinary struggles whether it is becoming a better creator through The Artist’s Way workbook or fighting her introversion by attending conferences.  Maysonet truly encapsulates what it means to be brave. In her Tuesday Writers blog, Maysonet writes, “I’m going to play the “What if” game. And I’m going to search the hidden cavities of my soul to find what it is I’m afraid to write about, because someone once told me that those types of stories—the ones we don’t want to touch—are the ones that push us to the next level.”

“Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength,” the current Dalai Lama has said. “ By examining tragedy, as painful as it is, we hope to make sense of it. A new exhibit by Coral Springs photojournalist Ian Witlen opening at the Coral Springs Museum of Art on Sept. 14 and running through Nov. 9, titled, “Anguish in the Aftermath: Examining a Mass Shooting,” proposes to do just that.

On Feb. 14, 2018, Witlen, received the assignment from the Miami New Times to cover the shootings and its aftermath at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and teachers were shot and killed. Witlen rushed to the scene and was on-site snapping photos and documenting the tragedy as it unfolded of this now scarred-in-our-memory event. As it happens, Witlen, now 36, graduated from MSD, so the events had a special resonance for him. “After the shooting I was at the school every day.” says Witlen. “I had many students and teachers coming asking me how can we get our stories told?”

A world traveler and internationally published photojournalist, Witlen’s work has appeared in Time, der Spiegel, CNN and Vanity Fair, among others. A self-described apolitical person, Witlen was in shock and unnerved by what he saw and driven to express all the emotions and tumult he was witnessing the best way he knew how – through photography.

Over the past 12 months, in his spare time and during nights and weekends, Witlen interviewed more than 75 students and teachers who were in the freshman building at MSD  on that fateful day. To remain neutral in his role as a photojournalist, Witlen asked the participants only two questions: What was your experience that day? And what would you like to see come of it? Out of that project emerged the exhibit, a collection of black-and-white portraits and audio recordings from each of the participants.

Museum-goers can listen to the audio of the responses and hear what the students are saying at that exact moment Witlen captured them on film. Julie Andrews, executive director of the Coral Springs Museum of Art was introduced to Witlen through former Coral Springs City Commissioner Lou Cimaglia. “When I saw Ian’s masterful photography and heartfelt stories I knew I had to find resources to help him continue his work,” says Andrews. “His photographs are the perfect intersection between art and the humanities,” she says.

Artist Nicoelle Danielle Cohen, 41, understood Witlen’s motivation.  She created the Healing Hearts Project, and works with Parkland survivors to heal and honor the victims. “I think what Ian is doing is incredible,” says Cohen, who spent part of her summer working with the Shine MSD Camp to provide healing through the arts. While Witlen says his message is a humanitarian one, not a political one, Cohen is open about expressing her views.

“As an MSD alum and mother of a 7-yr. old, I want to use my art to raise awareness, create healing and to continue the conversation about common sense gun laws,” she says. “I look forward to seeing Ian’s show,” says Cohen. “He’s working hard and I know the emotional toll it takes.” “My dream is that we are all inspired to use whatever talents we have to help make changes in the laws,” Cohen says. “We owe it to our children.”

The Coral Springs Museum of Art offered Witlen an artist-in-residence opportunity and hope to have the exhibit to travel to other museums and educational institutions across the country. For Witlen, too, his life was changed forever on that fateful February day. Witnessing all the horror and speaking to so many people directly affected by the tragedy, Witlen says he experienced vicarious trauma along with much heartbreak.

The project helped him get through those dark days. “This was a cathartic and therapeutic experience for myself and many of the students,” says Witlen. He was surprised that many of the students and teachers voiced a sense of relief. “They expressed a desire to help others, and I was moved to tears knowing I had a positive effect and helped someone in their time of need,” he said.

Witlen hopes the community will feel the same way. “It’s an opportunity for these students, teachers and families to unburden themselves, give them a voice and help them heal in some small way,” he says. “These kids want to make a better world where others are treated with kindness.  Despite the hardship, these students and families have kept on.  They are an inspiration to me,” he says.  “The least I can do is to do my part.”

For more information about this exhibit, contact the Coral Springs Museum of Art at (954) 340-5000 or museuminfo@coralsprings.com and online at coralspringsmuseum.org. Meet the artist at a complimentary meet and greet reception on Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 6 pm.

Wahoo can be caught year-round off South Florida, but the full moon in August is the absolute best time to catch one of the big, speedy, tasty gamefish.

The wahoo fishing is so good around the full moon, which is Aug. 15, that you don’t even need a powerboat to catch one.

“To me, August is the prime time to get those monster wahoo,” said Joe Hector, who fishes out of a kayak and also runs kayak fishing tournaments out of Pompano Beach. His ExtremeKayakFishing.com tournament two years ago in August produced eight wahoo, including a 71.9-pounder and two others over 50 pounds.

No one knows why wahoo are so abundant in South Florida around August’s full moon, and those who catch them don’t really care. The hard-fighting fish take off when they’re hooked, typically running out several hundred yards of line. Once an angler gets a wahoo close to the boat or kayak, the fish often take off again.

Anglers also love wahoo because they are delicious. Their firm, white flesh is great grilled or seared. The daily bag limit is two wahoo per angler.

Given their choice, most captains and anglers would fish for wahoo before and after the August full moon.

“I’ve caught them all the way out from a week before the full moon to a week, a week and a half after the full moon,” said Hector, whose personal-best wahoo was a 65-pounder.

Capt. Skip Dana, of Deerfield Beach, who runs charters on his center console Pop-A-Top out of Pompano Beach, prefers to fish “three to four days before a full moon and then a few days after. The day of the full moon is usually slower, with the best bite at mid-day.”

Many wahoo anglers troll lures or dead baits or a combination of both using planers, which are metal plates that help get the lures and baits 30 to 40 feet below the surface. But Dana said live baits are especially effective around the full moon in August as well as in September.

“You get more bites live-bait fishing than any time of year. I’d rather catch one on live bait than 10 trolling a lure on a planer,” said Dana, who starts fishing in the morning by putting up two fishing kites, each with three lines. The kites get the baits away from the boat and suspend them at or just below the surface. He also puts out two flat lines with live baits that can swim wherever they want, along with two lines with sinkers to get those baits down deeper.

“Once the sun is up, I’ll start slow-trolling for them. I’ll go out to 200, 300, 400 feet and put out goggle-eyes, blue runners, speedos, little bullet bonitos. All you’re doing is bumping the motors in and out of gear to keep the lines tight as you move.

“I’ll put a flat line 200 yards back, and one 50 or 60 yards back. I’ll put a downrigger bait on each side of the boat and stagger them. I’ll start at 75 and 125 feet down, and if I get a bite on the deeper one, I’ll go to 125 and 200 feet.”

Dana fishes Penn Fathom high-speed reels spooled with 20-pound Momoi Orange Crush monofilament line on 7-foot medium-action 20-pound rods. He uses a 15-foot 30-pound Momoi fluorocarbon leader. To prevent cut-offs from sharp-toothed wahoo, he adds a three-foot piece of 30-pound Knot 2 Kinky nickel-titanium leader wire attached to the fluorocarbon with an 80-pound Spro swivel. The other end of the leader is tied to a 6/0 VMC hook attached by a short piece of No. 6 wire to a 4/0 VMC stinger hook.

Hector, who uses spinning outfits with 30-pound monofilament, a 50-pound leader and a 6- or 7-inch piece of 30- or 40-pound wire, also prefers live bait for wahoo. Before heading to the beach to launch his kayak, he buys five goggle-eyes and three pilchards from a bait shop. He keeps them in a 5-gallon bucket with a battery-powered aerator. Once he catches a wahoo, he heads back to shore, which is why he doesn’t need a lot of bait.

“When I’m targeting wahoo, my trips are short and sweet,” he said. “I’ll put out my first gog on the way out in 80 feet, then set up a drift. I fish a pilchard on top with a gog below. If you put out two gogs together, you’re going to end up with a tangled mess.

“Believe it or not, I’ve caught more wahoo on a big pilchard than on gogs. Some of my best catches have been on a 6-inch pilchard.”

That ties in with something Capt. Cory Burlew said about why he trolls smaller lures than most captains.

Burlew, whose GoddessCharters.com fishes out of Deerfield Beach, likes to troll dark-colored lures for big wahoo, such as black-and-red, blue-and-black and black-and-purple. Instead of fishing 12-inch lures, his lures are 8 to 10 inches long to better match what wahoo eat. “Sometimes the smaller ones seem to catch more fish and bigger fish because wahoo feed on flying fish and small tuna,” Burlew said. “I feel like the big ones are lazy. They’d rather eat a small bait. It’s like walking by a buffet, are you going to pick up a French fry or a baked potato?”

New group set for WWII boogie-woogie

The Victory Dolls are just about ready to march.

The nine women who make up the newly formed patriotic vocal ensemble — all familiar performers on the South Florida theater circuit — have spent nearly a year perfecting their vintage, Andrews Sisters-inspired harmonies with a modern twist. They are already booked for two performances in September and hope to schedule more as their melodies, talents, and stories about the 1940s era and the Greatest Generation gain popularity.

The group — the first of its kind in South Florida — is planning annual tours of the Sunshine State and beyond, and will call several regional theaters home each season, including the Delray Beach Playhouse, Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center in Boca Raton, and the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center.

A meeting between a longtime theater manager and an award-winning singer who had created a World War II-style production led to the creation of a troupe that will sing tunes from the decade of war bonds, FDR’s “fireside chats,” ration stamps, victory gardens and a radio in every home.

Kevin Barrett, manager of the Delray Beach Playhouse and former director of the Coral Springs Performing Arts Center earlier this year traveled to New Orleans for the opening of the National World War II Museum.

Formerly the National D-Day Museum, the New Orleans venue recreated the legendary Stage Door Canteen, which features a production of World War II-era songs by the resident musical group, the Victory Belles.

“I thought, this would kill in Florida,” Barrett said.

“I remembered that Shelley Keelor did a World War II show here [at the Delray Playhouse] two years ago, so I pitched her the idea of creating one similar to the museum production. She loved it.”

Keelor, a stage and musical theater veteran who created the popular one-woman show Sentimental Journey: Songs of WWII, gathered a group of talented singer/actresses together and dubbed them the Victory Dolls. They’ve been rehearsing a program of 1940’s-era tunes since then.

The Victory Dolls roster of performers includes Keelor, of Jupiter, as leader of the pack, along with Sabrina Lynn Gore, Amy Miller Brennan, Leah Marie Sessa, Julie Kleiner, Jeanine Levy, Aaron Bower, Katie Angell Thomas, Jinon Deeb, and Ann Marie Olsen.

Phil Hinton creates original arrangements for the troop-praising troupe, and Carbonell Award-winning keyboardist Caryl Fantel is musical director.

Shows will feature classic hits from the war years: “When the Lights Go on Again,” “We’ll Meet Again,” “Hot time in the Town of Berlin,” “White Plains of Dover” and many of the Andrews Sisters’ hits such as “Rum and Coca Cola,” “Shoo Shoo Baby,” “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”

Performances will benefit organizations including Honor Flight of South Florida, Gary Sinise Foundation, and Wounded Warriors Families Support.

The Victory Dolls’ signature show, I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen, will debut Fri., Sept. 20 in Delray Beach (DelrayBeachPlayhouse.com). The group will perform in Boca Raton (MiznerParkCulturalCenter.com) on Sat., Sept. 21. Tickets are $35 and $45. Future shows will have different themes, such as Rockin’ with the Dolls (1950s/’60s top hits), Home for the Holidays and All Dolled Up (Great American Songbook selections).

Exhibition reveals pre-stardom Cobain, Nirvana

Most people know two, maybe three things about Kurt Cobain. He founded the band Nirvana in Seattle, ground zero for grunge music. He was married to former stripper and punk-grunge bad girl Courtney Love. And he died at age 27 of a suicide said to be fueled by drug use and depression, just as the band reached its pinnacle.

Cobain was the straw-haired Nirvana front man who made his mark with crazed on-stage antics and blazing guitar riffs punctuating the band’s performances throughout the U.S. and Europe. Despite his and the band’s meteoric rise to super stardom, Cobain had a somber, lonely side —one not shown on stage or to the public until now.

“I was a friend of Kurt. He was a very sensitive, quiet, gentle person,” said Bruce Pavitt, co-founder of Sub Pop Records which put Nirvana’s early tunes on disc. The record man and former DJ spent eight days touring with the band in 1989, taking candid photos throughout, including some that capture Cobain in private, unguarded moments.

Pavitt’s photos have been published in Experiencing Nirvana, a book of 350 images. Selections from the book are on display at Pompano Beach Cultural Center, which on July 12 premiered the exhibition of 13 large-format frames from Pavitt’s collection.

“We were touring in Europe with two other grunge bands, Tad and Mudhoney,” Pavitt said. “The tour took a toll on Kurt. He was somewhat depressed in Rome and he had a breakdown. He smashed a guitar and climbed a 14-foot speaker tower, threatening to jump off.”

Cobain, exhausted from a dizzying zig-zag of European tour dates, worried the band might not perform up to par at an important concert in London.

“Spending six months on the road was pretty tough on Kurt. He was exhausted and downcast. But the tour brought the band together in a super tight way. When they played England, it was great.”

Not just great. The usually jaded British press proclaimed Nirvana was “Sub Pop’s answer to the Beatles.” The performance rocketed Nirvana and grunge to fame and is a seminal moment in rock ‘n’ roll history.

Pavitt’s exhibit is a photographic story of an iconic music breakthrough amid the early stages of what would become an equally iconic mental breakdown.

One particularly expressive photo in the display of 16-by-20-inch prints on aluminum shows Cobain outside a hotel in Rome, sitting with his head in his hands. Pavitt said it was taken the morning after Cobain’s meltdown.

In early 1994, Cobain went missing for six days after returning home from touring. On April 5, an electrician found his body. Dead of a head wound, Cobain had a shotgun lying across his chest and, nearby, a scrawled suicide note. An autopsy showed Valium in his bloodstream along with a high concentration of heroin.

Pavitt said Cobain’s passing was a death knell for grunge music, though other groups in the genre, Soundgarden in particular, continued to succeed.  “Kurt was a recluse,” he said, “he was not seen much socially. The more famous he got, the more reclusive he became.”

Helping wildlife … and veterans

Breanna Frankel knows it takes patience to make friends with a Great Horned Owl. And over time, she developed a rapport with one named Mini — “a good relationship,” Frankel said, “built on food.”

Mini arrived at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) on Sanibel Island, off the coast of Fort Myers, with a chunk of a wing missing. The injury upset the bird’s natural balance, according to Frankel, CROW’s rehabilitation manager. Now, Mini sometimes leans against Frankel’s neck or chest, seeming to cuddle.

“That’s not love,” Frankel said. “it’s Mini leaning on Breanna to keep her balance.” Frankel is the only one at CROW who can interact with Mini this way, but it took months for Mini to trust her. A hair dryer has now strengthened their relationship. Mini likes to be blown dry after getting wet and learned how to make it happen. Great Horned Owls secrete an oily substance from a gland that waterproofs their feathers. If their feathers were soaked, the owl would be unable to fly. But that doesn’t work on Mini’s amputated wing. It doesn’t get waterproofed. One time when it got wet, Frankel decided to blow-dry it. Mini’s enclosure is partly covered and partly open to the sky. When it rains, Mini may run out in the rain and then come back looking for Frankel to blow-dry her feathers. (Maybe she’s a wise old owl indeed.)

Besides being displayed to educate us, Mini is a valuable resident of CROW because she is an effective “foster mother” to orphaned baby owls. When caring for young ones, she’s so protective that no one can enter her enclosure, not even Frankel.

I learned this and more during Frankel’s 35-minute presentation about owls – the kind of presentation about various animals made most mornings at 11:00 o’clock at CROW.

One of the “take home facts” I’ll remember is about an owl’s ears. Perhaps you think those two things sticking up atop the owl’s head are ears. They are not. They are just tufts of feathers revealing an owl’s emotions. The owl’s ears are actually holes in each side of its head. Unlike ours, they are not symmetrically placed directly across from each other. One is higher than the other. The higher one hears things above the horizon and the lower ear hears sounds closer to the ground.

CROW is a very busy place. Mini was one of 4,760 animals among 160 species treated at CROW last year. Most of them are injured for an unknown reason. Some are hit by cars. Some are birds that fell from a nest. Some are attacked by another animal. At the time of my visit this spring, CROW was treating 215 animals and had treated more than 1900 since the start of the year. At that pace they’ll exceed last year’s numbers.

As a teaching hospital with an on-site dormitory for veterinarians in training, CROW is “dedicated to saving wildlife through state-of-the-art veterinarian care, research, education, and conservation.”

The visitor center gives viewers a peek of that medicine in practice on large screens. The screens show what’s happening live in six areas of the center, including the “in-take” room where injured animals arrive and are examined.

To visit the CROW visitor center on Sanibel, the fee is $12 for adults, less for children. For an additional $13, you can be guided through the grounds to an aviary, a large cage where birds are practicing to fly again, large water tanks with sea turtles, a pelican compound, an area of shallow pools with ladders to encourage mammals to climb, and other animal habitats. You can visit the animal hospital as well.

Among the informative exhibits in the visitor center is a poster with a quote from the well-known anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall that reflects the purpose of the CROW organization. It reads: “Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, will they be saved.”

Albert Wilson has not forgotten what it’s like to be “normal.”

That’s how the Miami Dolphins receiver describes the seven years of his childhood spent in Florida’s foster care system — for Wilson, being a foster kid felt normal.

And if it were up to him, the children now being raised in foster care, torn between homes and families, would never have to feel this “normal” again.

Wilson spent seven years of his childhood in Florida’s foster care system. He found that to be rather normal at the time as he was in the system twice — when he was six years old for a one-year stint, then again for six years when he reached 12 years old, basically for much of his years growing up.

The reason Albert spent much of his teenage years in foster care was because his parents were in jail. But that did not deter Albert from staying in contact with his parents on a regular basis, communicating with them by phone and any other means.

It was a bit of a different parent-child relationship given the circumstances, yet Albert made the best of it on that front as well as with the Bayleys, his foster family, with whom he lived from the 10th grade on. The Bayleys already had eight adopted children.

Feeling secure and happy during those years, Albert considered the Bayleys his family as well. It was a balanced life; it was an organized and a structured life. There were family activities together with all the children, and school was an important priority.

Albert moved in with the Brown family after finding out that they were actually distant cousins with origins in the small town of Maysville in South Carolina. His dad’s family is from Maysville. He learned about that talking with his Port St. Lucie high school friend Moe Brown.

Guided by his father, Albert turned to football, in particular, from a very young age. It was a way to use sports for a better way in life. Albert was fully dedicated and committed to football in high school and it paid off as he earned a scholarship at Georgia State. And that eventually propelled him to the NFL where he was signed as a rookie free agent by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2014. After four years in Kansas City, Albert is now back in his home state with the Miami Dolphins in the middle of a three-year contract valued at $24 million.

It is football that now allows Albert the opportunity to give his time and invest his money in something that he considers very important and takes close to his heart. He has created the Albert Wilson Foundation which places all its attention in helping kids in foster care. Albert held his fourth annual football, track, and cheer youth skills camp at Lawnwood Stadium in Fort Pierce on June 22, giving the boys and girls the opportunity to showcase some of their athletic aptitudes.

With that type of financial resources available, Albert knew he had an obligation to give back to the community, and not forget the early part of his life’s journey. He created his foundation to help kids in foster care, more importantly to help with scholarship programs for those kids who were in foster care at least two years, but did not get out of it.

In early June, because of his involvement with this type of program, Albert was honored by the Eckerd Connects’ Project Bridge as a Community Hero for his work with foster children, and ChildNet presented him with the nonprofit Champion of Children Award.

Both the Browns and Baileys remain close to heart for Albert and he considers them an important part of his life. What also is important is that Albert cares and is dedicated to the community work he does. That is something to respect and admire.

Hope for peace springs from conservation efforts

JERUSALEM — For Dr. Gerald Sussman, a water shortage a world away in the Middle East, amid tensions between Israelis and Palestinians ever ready to boil over, was never too big a project to tackle.

The head of international programs for the Coral Springs-Parkland Rotary Club and the club’s past president, Sussman saw in Israel’s water crisis not so much a problem as an opportunity. A researcher by training, with a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, the 83-year-old Coral Springs man is the epitome of Rotary’s can-do optimism and its commitment to working with young people.

His initial idea was to examine how rainwater harvesting could help alleviate water scarcity in Israel and neighboring countries, if done locally by individual communities. By partnering with the Rotary Club of Lod, a small city southeast of Tel Aviv, a small cross-cultural group began to teach students at the school there how to conserve water through harvesting.

“In a short time, the rainwater harvesting was supplying all of their water needs, from kitchens to toilets, and so much more,” Sussman said. “But Israel only has a few months of rainwater during the year, and water that is harvested is unusable after about two weeks. So, we quickly realized that this method wasn’t sustainable.”

Still, Rotary International had the project on its radar. The community service organization, which has an estimated 33,000 chapters and 1.2 million members worldwide, saw what was then called Rainwater Harvest as a prototype for the projects it now funds through its global water initiative.

Rotarians in Israel, in the meantime, introduced Sussman to Dr. Amnon Shefi, founder and director of Hi-Teach, which develops educational programs focused on engineering and technology. In Sussman’s project, Shefi saw a bridge — one that could bring together different middle- and high-school student populations in Israel.

While some integrated schools exist in Israel, most are separated by religion or ethnicity, whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or Druze.

And thus, in 2011, Rotary’s Hands Across Waters project was born. The project brings together students from different schools to work on science projects relating to water conservation. Through inter-school collaboration and joint field trips, students not only become more educated in the science behind global water conservation technologies, but also learn more about each other.

Every year, students choose a research project on an area of water conservation and sanitation. Some groups find ways to address the water leakage problems, while others research the role of robotics in conservation or study the structure of antique wells. The students visit each other’s schools and take trips together, including to the Water Technology and Environmental Control Conference in Tel Aviv.

Sussman is passionate about Israel. He also wishes to see a peaceful Middle East. With the growth and development of Hands Across Waters, Sussman and members of the local Rotary chapter are helping to lead what he sees as a “building block for peace.”

Sussman believes the key to overcoming hate is generating peace from the bottom up.

“It’s been over 70 years, and the politicians haven’t achieved much,” he said in a recent interview, referring to the long-standing conflict in the region since Israel declared independence. “If we’re going to get along, it’s got to start in the schools.”

And indeed, the project has been extremely successful. Hands Across Waters has received two global grants from Rotary International and a commendation as one of its 20 notable projects. While the program hoped to reach 50 schools by its third phase of funding, it has already reached 54 during its second!

Hands Across Waters is now seeking funding for a School Twinning Program, which would pair up schools around the world to raise awareness about water conservation. Each school would research the status of water supply and sanitation in their part of the world, then share their findings with each other and learn about technologies being used to save water worldwide, many of which were developed in Israel.

Sussman says he hopes to see the students who participate in this project continuing on to college, including at places like Ben Gurion University in central Israel and the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology in Haifa. On a larger scale, he hopes this project can be a model for other countries experiencing ethnic violence. “This is a special program that’s having great significance in Israel and could have greater significance in the Middle East and worldwide.”