If ever a cable series suggested its own sequel that promised to be just as or more captivating than the original, A Handmaid’s Tale would be it. And local writer Nadean Stone has provided a true-life look at how such a shocking dystopia can play out in the next generation.
In No Stone Unturned, the debut author and Coral Springs resident traces her 44-year search for her mother, who was among the hundreds of thousands of unwed mothers across Canada, from 1945 until the 1970s, forced to give up their babies for adoption. The Canadian government has only recently come to grips with its lead role in what became a program of stigmatization and illegal coercion, which provinces and territories carried out, largely in secret, with the help of religious and charitable organizations. Stone, one of the more than 600,000 babies deemed “illegitimate” in Canadian census records from the period, tells a tale that’s often raw with emotion, recounting a grim childhood and her winding, but determined journey to find her birth mother — and herself. A must-read in these times of forced family separations and dystopian fantasies come true.
Casey McGovern
is the Florida health department’s Drowning Prevention Program Manager for
Broward County —raising awareness about water safety is her job.
But preventing
deaths by educating people about the possible consequences of not being aware of
water-related dangers is her passion.
Nine
years after McGovern’s daughter drowned in a backyard pool, the mother of three
is still haunted by what she didn’t know then and driven by what she wants
parents to know today.
On Aug. 3,
2009, McGovern found her 19-month-old, Edna Mae, floating face-up in the pool where
“Em” had been playing in just hours earlier. The toddler died eight days later.
“You
think you are going to hear it — people think they are going to hear flailing
and splashing and yelling,” McGovern said.
But the
unthinkable can happen quicker than you think, she said. “A drowning can occur
in as little as 60 seconds.”
Mom to
three girls, who were then ages 10, 3, and 19 months, McGovern placed Em in a
chair in the family room, across the counter from where she was putting away
groceries.
McGovern
stepped away to chat with her husband. She was only gone a minute.
Today,
McGovern, of Coral Springs, talks openly about the experience, acknowledging some
of the ways Em’s death might have been prevented. She needs other parents to
know how such a tragedy happens.
At the
time of her daughter’s death, the family pool was encircled by a child safety
fence, but McGovern said the fence gate was not latched that day.
McGovern
also said there was nothing in place at the time to raise an alert to potential
trouble, such as chimes on the sliding door leading to the pool deck. “Drowning
is silent,” she said, encouraging parents to find ways to put sound to danger.
McGovern
said she also wasted precious minutes searching for her daughter inside the
house.
Whether you
have a pool or you’re at the pool or the beach, she tells parents today, check
the water first.
“We
thought we were doing everything right,” McGovern said. “There are so many
things I didn’t think about, wasn’t educated on.”
According
to the Florida Department of Children and Families, In the past two years, 12
children ages four and younger drowned in Broward County. The deaths occurred
in family pools, community pools, lakes, the ocean, and in canals. With its
125,000 backyard pools and miles of waterways, Broward offers ample risk of
drowning.
“Because
our county is covered in water and it’s swim season all year long, year after
year our statistics show we are one of the highest counties in state of Florida
for drowning fatalities,” McGovern said.
Among
her high-priority recommendations, McGovern said children should start swim
lessons as soon as they start to crawl.
The
county Children’s Services Council backs that advice by providing a $40 swim
voucher to Broward kids ages six months to four years. The voucher is available
annually, up until the fifth birthday.
“I think
knowledge is power and I think the more people who relate and connect to my
story may cause changes,” McGovern said.Sallie James writes for the Florida Department
of Health in Broward County.
Michelle
Kefford is pumped. And while spasms of enthusiasm seem to come with the job
when you’re a school principal, the new principal of Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High has plenty of legitimate reasons to be excited.
“It’s
coming back home,” Kefford, 44, said.
Those
four words explain almost every reason she’s back at the Parkland school,
coming full circle from where she began her career 20 years ago as a biology
teacher.
Kefford,
who begins work at Douglas on July 1, replaces former principal Ty Thompson, who stepped down in May,
and co-principal Teresa Hall.
The principal at MSD when a former
student opened fire at the school, leaving 17 dead and as many injured on Feb.
14, 2018, Thompson had been under investigation by Broward Schools and reassigned
to different duties at Douglas. A popular and exuberant figure at the school,
Thompson cited personal reasons for resigning after six years as principal. The
investigation, which district officials expected to complete by May, remains
ongoing.
Thompson’s departure widened the administrative
hole needing to be filled at Douglas. In the wake of 2/14 and the local and
state probes that followed, three assistant principals were transferred and a
second principal was named. Kefford’s hire is not only a move to fill that
void, but to begin building anew.
Kefford declined to speak specifically about past events at
the high school but did say she will be re-evaluating policies and procedures
going forward.
She has been working on her transition from Flanagan High, where she served as
principal for eight years. Her efforts at the Pembroke Pines school blossomed
these past two years as Kefford was named Broward’s 2018 Principal
of the Year, then in March earned the Florida Board of Education Principal of
the Year honor for 2019.
“I
love what I do,” she said. “It’s rewarding to work with kids.
“I’m
driven by their success. I want to prepare our kids for graduation and what
comes next in life.”
A
wife and a mother of two, Kefford and her family reside in Parkland. Her oldest
son attends Douglas, while the younger boy is a student at West Glades Middle
School.
Valerie Wanza, the district’s School Performance and
Accountability director, was Kefford’s first supervisor.
“I watched her career grow in the school district and watched
as her leadership grew at Flanagan,” Wanza said. “Under her guidance, Flanagan became a
consistently A-rated, high-performance school — not just academically, but as an
overall school experience.”
Describing her as a highly accomplished school leader, Wanza
believes Kefford is the right person at the right time to take the reins at
Douglas.
“Michelle will seize this opportunity to go home, help the
community recover, heal, and move forward,” Wanza said.
Michelle Kefford (center) is flanked by Broward Schools officials, including superintendent Robert Runcie (right) at a May 13 press conference to announce her hire as principal at Douglas High. (WLRN photo
Robert Runcie, at a May 13 press conference announcing
Kefford’s appointment, said, “We are grateful to Michelle for taking on this
challenge. It speaks volumes to the type of leader she is.”
The Broward Schools superintendent cited the “culture of
pride” Kefford built with the staff and students at Flanagan.
“Given her qualifications and her background, we couldn’t be
more proud — and lucky — to recommend someone that’s so qualified to fill this
important role,” Runcie said.
For Kefford, the most fulfilling aspect of the job is witnessing
the success of her students.
“I get to see these kids from their awkward adolescence
through to young adulthood,” she said. “Watching (them) attain their
goals, receive scholarships, graduate, walk across the stage, go on to college,
and to know I’ve made a difference in their life is very satisfying.”
The daughter of two retired educators, Kefford once thought
she’d become a veterinarian. She said it was her mom who encouraged her to teach,
because of her passion for biology.
“I tried it out
and never looked back,” she said.
Just 19, barely past his freshman year at Lynn University,
James Okina is already well-traveled, very savvy, and passionate about his
work. In fact, he’s a man on a mission.
At 15, in his hometown of Calabar, Nigeria, a city not
unlike Boca Raton with its greenery and coastal proximity, he founded a nonprofit
called Street Priests designed to help the children living in the streets.
By the time he reached 17, Okina says he became obsessed
with solving this problem on a global scale and began to study why, despite
increasing efforts to address the issue, this problem is growing and persists
worldwide.
An estimated 100-150 million children live on the streets
around the world, while 250,000 die every week from disease and malnutrition,
and 10 million are child slaves, according to Womenaid International.
In the U.S., almost 2.5 million kids under age 18 — that’s 1
in 30 — experience homelessness each year. In Palm Beach County alone, more
than 4,400 children are counted as homeless, according to the county’s Homeless
Coalition.
Kids living on the street are often victims of violence and
crime, and later often fall prey to abuse and drug addiction. They are
especially vulnerable to the human rights violations inherent in gangs, sexual
exploitation, and abuse and neglect.
As an adolescent, Okina had been tempted into gang life. He is
thankful he escaped — and it inspired him. “I rose above my own difficulties
when my parents divorced when I was 8, and many people helped me along the way.”
He remembers a cousin who came to stay where he lived with his father. Okina
told NPR in 2017, “I saw that he led a more quiet, dignified life.”
Okina had already made international news by his late teens,
as Street Priests drew attention, help, and funding. Trying to find a framework
that would help the nonprofit reach children across different cultures and
societies, he moved to South Florida to study at the Watson Institute at Lynn. Okina
is part of an inaugural cohort of scholars from around the world studying to
earn a degree in social entrepreneurship while working on issues they are
passionate about.
“The first word that comes to mind when I think of
James is unstoppable,” Tyler Tornaben, director of programs for the Watson
Institute, said. “He is majoring in his mission every day.”
In his first year at Lynn, Okina met Isaac King, 23, who
also feels driven to solve the worldwide crisis of homeless children.
King spent six months in the Dominican Republic after high
school. The Ocala native learned Spanish and was drawn to the island’s street children,
known as palomos — literally translated as “doves,” but in street slang,
meaning “rascals.” King later spent a year in Brazil, working with the homeless
“beach kids” of Rio de Janeiro.
At Lynn, joined in common cause, Okina and King set out on a
self-proclaimed “audacious” trip back to the Dominican Republic to dive deeper
into the street culture there.
Okina (right) and Isaac King flank Ana María Domínguez, Governor of Santiago Province, paying their respects during a recent visit to the Dominican Republic.
Over a period of eight days last March, the two traveled the
island, interviewing more than 60 kids, community members, police officers, and
government officials for a documentary.
“The stories and plights of both the Haitian and
Dominican children we met left a deep and burning desire in us to commit to
this problem and create a long-lasting change in our world,” Okina said.
A few of the children living in the streets in Santo Domingo. (Photo courtesy of James Okina)
The two will travel to London this summer to present their
findings at the Map the System Global Challenge, part of the Skoll Centre for
Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School at Oxford University.
King calls his mission partner an inspiration.
“James is a leader in every sense of the word,” King
said. “He embodies everything he talks about. When you hear his conviction,
you know it comes from a place of compassion and empathy.”
In the fall, Okina is set to help tackle gun violence in
Palm Beach County. Partnering with Angela Williams, founder of Mother’s Against
Murderers Association in Rivera Beach, they hope to design a plan of action to
work with kids in the community to interrupt the cycle of gun violence.
Even if he can’t solve all the world’s problems, it seems
likely Okina will at least provide sparks of inspiration and fellowship in
lending a hand. Engaging with kids is the first step.
“The future won’t create
itself. Young people must take an active role,” Okina said. “We are only 25
percent of the population, but we are 100 percent of the future.”
The mental image the phrase “public library” frequently
evokes involves metal shelving filled with worn bindings, with a severe-looking
librarian perched behind the counter, index finger primed for shushing.
Certainly, those shelving units and librarians are real, but the Broward County
Public Library delivers so much more, and right to where you need it.
Take the Northwest Regional Library’s collection of eBooks (electronic
books) and audiobooks (recordings of books read aloud.) For the full-time
busybody, both options provide opportunities to enjoy stories without the
hassle of trying to get to the library twice. The offerings simply disappear
from your device after the loan period concludes, thus erasing the need to keep
track of a book for longer than the day or two you need to read it. eBooks and
audiobooks checked out through the Broward system don’t have late fees! Audiobooks
are a nifty companion for the daily commute and road trips, often playable
through your car’s sound system.
What’s that? You don’t have a device to download eBooks or play
audiobooks? Worry you’re your local library shall provide. Digital tablets can
be checked out for three months and renewed for another three months — that’s
half a year. That might get a person a sixth of the way through their reading backlog!
For kids on summer break, Northwest Regional has
child-friendly tablets that come with educational games, no internet required.
These Launchpad Learning Tablets can be checked out for 21 days with two 7-day
renewals.
It helps, too, that these kinds of technological upgrades
make reading more accessible for the dyslexic, the visually impaired, and the
otherwise disabled. While Broward Library has made plenty of impressive high-tech
upgrades to its community services (virtual reality devices, portable wi-fi
hotspots, amateur robotics labs, and more) throughout the region, what stands
out is its dedication to making its services available to every resident,
regardless of mobility or income level.
Impressive examples include accessible computer software
that turns websites into braille for the blind, which is offered at several
library locations; as are assistive listening devices that amplify sound but
minimize background noise, aiding those with hearing loss. West Regional
Library has a sign-language story time for children who have speaking and
hearing difficulties. The county library even distributes specialized phones
for people with any hearing, seeing, or speaking disability — at no charge.
According to the 2017
census, 22.5 percent of Broward’s population is composed of seniors and just
under 7 percent of non-seniors have a disability, so these additions to the
library’s offerings have come at a time of need. They will join the dearly
loved but more analogue Books-By-Mail program in offering as many options to as
many residents as possible.
Look — up in the sky — it’s a bird, it’s a plane! No — it’s
the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s new headliner, Beyond the Cape! Comics and Contemporary Art.
The exhibition offers a new look at the relationship between
contemporary artists and graphic novels and comic books.
Many of today’s most high-profile artists have been
influenced by this genre and the exhibit takes a deeper look at how graphic
novels and comics address societal issues of race, class, gender and politics.
“It’s exciting to see younger audiences express strong
interest in this exhibition,” Kathleen Goncharov, the museum’s senior curator,
said.
Goncharov — aided by Calvin Reid, senior news editor at Publishers Weekly and a comic book
expert — has selected an eclectic, playful, and sometimes wickedly burlesque
collection of video, photographs, sculpture, prints, and drawings in addition
to rare comics and contemporary and historic animation for display.
The installation features more than 80 works by 40 artists,
including Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Elizabeth Murray, Joyce
Pensato, Raymond Pettibon, Peter Saul, Kenny Scharf and Michael Zansky among
others. Works by Takashi Murakami and Yositomo Nara, who specialize in Japanese
comics, or manga, are also highlighted.
Work by Japanese manga artist Takashi Murakami.
“There is a long history here, in Europe and in Japan,
between comics and fine art,” Zansky, whose work is prominently displayed, said.
“Comics have a large influence in the culture and on contemporary artists. This exhibit showcases artists who are
attracted to (the) quirky visuals and subversive content of adult comics.”
Michael Zansky’s Saturn Series, standing 19 feet high, was created with carved, burnt, and painted plywood. (Photo by Jan Engoren)
Zansky comes to the world of comics naturally. His father
was Louis Zansky, who drew for the circa 1940s Classic Comics series of graphic adaptations of famous literary works.
Michael Zansky’s Walking Figure, a 16-foot-high
carved, burnt, and painted plywood panel of a giant foot on an octagonal
foundation, is based on the Colossus of
Constantine, a gargantuan marble statue of the Roman Emperor Constantine
the Great.
The work is displayed at the entry to the exhibit, next to and
juxtaposed with Manuscript, a giant
hennaed hand by Indian American artist Chitra Ganesh.
The show looks beyond the 1960s Pop Art movement, led by New
York-centric artists such as Andy Warhol and Ray Lichtenstein, and features the
“other” art movements from the ‘60s and ‘70s such as the Hairy Who and Bay Area
Funk Art. Hairy Who artists Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, and Karl Wirsum,
along with works by underground comic book artists such as R. Crumb, Aline
Kominsky-Crumb, and Mimi Pond are also featured.
A highlight of the show is Chicago artist Kerry James
Marshall’s comic series Rhythm Mastr, which documents violence
in his hometown. Known for his flat, colorful paintings of contemporary black
America, Marshall’s work is in high demand.
Although comics and graphic novels are part of a genre
dominated by men, a number of women are highlighted in the show. New York
artist Jody Culkin, in particular, raises the feminist bona fides of the exhibit
with A Prophetic Drama. The 9-minute
animated comic is based loosely on a play about mummies coming to life in the
British Museum, written in 1875 by Harriet Hosmer, a celebrated 19th-century
sculptor who also enjoyed dabbling in science fiction writing.
Snapshot showing a scene from New York artist Jody Culkin’s animated comic A Prophetic Drama. (Photo by Jan Engoren)
Also featured are Chitra Ganesh, figurative artist Elizabeth Murray and Jamaican feminist artist Renee Cox, known for upending sexist and racist stereotypes with her art. Beyond the Cape! runs through Oct. 6.
Back in the 1960s, vocalist Lou Christie sang a pop tune
called Two Faces Have I. In the ‘90s,
two famed puppet/mask designers took that concept to create masks for the live
stage version of Disney’s The Lion King.
The idea not only worked, it roared.
Since The Lion King
debuted on Broadway in 1997, more than 90 million people worldwide have
experienced its visual artistry and reveled in its award-winning score.
Based on the eponymous animated Disney film, the stage
adaptation features music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice. Six indigenous
African languages are spoken throughout the show and extraordinary costumes often
exceed the expectations of show planners and audiences.
The Lion King has
just passed through South Florida. In mid-spring, the Serengeti was recreated
behind the footlights at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm
Beach. The production, with its array of performers and elegant scenery,
completed its run at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami on May 26.
The show that packed those two venues combined the talents
of Disney Theatrical Productions with the redoubtable capabilities of Julie
Taymor, the show’s director, costume designer, and —with Michael Curry — mask
co-designer.
Julie Taymor, director of The Lion King and co-creator of the masks used in the stage show. (Photo courtesy of Broadway World)
Taymor is the first woman to win a Tony Award for Direction
of a Musical. Curry is owner and operator of Michael Curry Design, which
creates live performance-oriented devices for Cirque du Soleil, Super Bowl
shows, the Olympics, and was the creative force behind New York City’s
millennium event in 2000.
With a nod to Christie’s song title, the masks for most lead
characters are attached to the top of the actors’ heads, meaning their faces as
well as their animal avatars can be identified. The masks drop to cover faces
when characters reveal their more animalistic sides.
Background performers are fitted with more stylized devices
or puppet-style gear, including bicycle-like equipment for herds of running
gazelles; stilts and neck extensions for giraffes, and a vast amount of rigging
and structuring for elephants. The stampede, critical to the plot, is artfully
crafted in a manner that defies explanation. But it appears so real and works
so well in the show.
Taymor said once she discovered she needed to show both the
human and animal traits of The Lion King characters,
she labored to convince Disney of her concept. That involved creating three
versions of the character Scar, three Zazus, and two Timons, and presenting all
to Disney’s then-CEO, Michael Eisner. He gave the thumbs-up.
The musical is a sweet love story between a father and son —
Mufasa, the lion king at the opening and his son and successor, Simba. Later
comes the sweetheart tale of the mature Simba getting to know his betrothed,
Nala.
Masks used in The Lion King, on display at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Dale King)
Taymor explained the imagery of the masks. “Obviously,
Mufasa is the sun. That’s why you have the circle [the song, Circle of Life]. He’s very much about
symmetry and radiation, the sun god. Simba and Nala are in that world of
Mufasa.”
Of her experience with The Lion King, Taymor said: “It’s the
most fun thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
The Atlantic hurricane and storm season officially starts on
June 1, and lasts through the end of November.
The 2019 hurricane season is projected to be relatively smaller,
with scientists from the Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project
predicting 13 named storms, five hurricanes and two major hurricanes this year —
fewer in number than in previous seasons, but just as dangerous to our region.
All it takes is one hard landfall to cause major damage here
— not only to our own homes and property, but to many of the essential services
and infrastructure we count on our local community governments for.
Given the widespread acceptance at the local, county, and even
state levels of the realities of climate change and the rising sea levels South
Florida is experiencing, are local city governments better prepared to respond
and recover from a major storm?
***
Most Florida cities have improved, even streamlined their
preparedness planning over the years. Planning, after all, the most important
aspect of facing a storm, surviving it, and recovering from it — and Florida’s
cities have had plenty of practice in preparing.
But in recent years, there are three key elements local
governments have been implementing with more regularity. It starts with
emergency operations preparation, coordination between departments, and public-safety
communications. With better training in place now and better planning from
responders, emergency supplies and materials are readily available before,
during, and after a hurricane.
Most city websites, if not all, have massively improved providing
essential information to citizens. Implementing mobile alerts and text messages
makes information and updates more frequently available for local residents.
Most of the time, these media play a supplementary role to the usual way we get
local info — either by email or snail mail from the utility company. But during
storms and hurricane situations, mobile alerts and texts are taking a more prominent
role in counties and municipalities getting official word out about basic facts
that save lives and help their residents stay safe: what plans and services are
in place if evacuation becomes necessary, and also when it’s not necessary, and
what is being done as a storm happens.
Government assistance has become more effective as well,
according to local officials. Funds are more available for relief and recovery
and for housing for those in need.
***
In these times of budget cuts and belt-tightening, is there
enough staffing for city departments?
Ideally, when threatened by a hurricane, the last thing we
expect are staffing shortages. Communities are supposed to provide safe havens,
and when it gets down to the nitty-gritty, there is indeed safety in numbers. But
some cities have struggled with having enough staff to assist with such
hands-on work as shelter operations, and probably will continue to struggle. Even
the American Red Cross, which used to staff all shelters in emergency
situations, said they are unable now to provide the same level of staffing.
Organization, especially the coordination of official
efforts, is key in making sure people are prepared for evacuation before a
major storm. Are people going to listen to their local leaders and depart in a
timely manner? Will shelter capacities be adequate for those who decide to
stay?
Valid questions, anyone would agree, as beachfront cities
like Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, Delray Beach, and more are
trying to be proactive in their planning. But coordination among cities and
counties isn’t what it could be, and with state and federal officials wading in
along with nonprofit organizations, sometimes it seems as though the agencies
that are supposed to help are the most in need of it.
***
Beyond the immediacy of safeguarding human life, how are
cities managing sewer systems overburdened with rising sea levels, more intense
hurricanes, and worsening flooding?
South Florida’s sewage systems are already strained, given their
antiquated state, the ever-increasing population, and the slow and expensive progress
that’s been made both on shoring up the infrastructure in place and building
new treatment plants and storage wells. Many cities’ water and sewage treatment
plants are inadequately prepared to handle heavy rains, which often leads raw
sewage released into our streets and homes. That means maintenance is a must,
and some local infrastructure needs emergency upgrading.
But local communities, which have largely led the charge in figuring
out how climate change affects them and seek ways to address it, can’t afford
to wait until the wet season to prepare for disasters. Building construction
codes and regulations to prevent flooding are being toughened, with some local regulations
now requiring homes and buildings to be constructed to higher flood-protection
levels.
South Florida’s deteriorating infrastructure and restrained local
budgets will make it more difficult to cope with the many ways climate change
affects our area.
Still, however much more
intense storms and hurricanes are, however worse the flooding and other dangers
hurricanes bring, the story for South Floridians is the same every year: Be prepared,
stay alert, follow the news, and heed information provided by local officials.
If
you’re not up for braving the South Florida heat this summer, these local
venues offer family-friendly activities available during the quiet — and less
hot — afternoon and evening hours.
Gumbo
Limbo’s environmental complex in Boca Raton is an indoor / outdoor nature
center with several aquariums and exhibits. A variety of group programs,
including guided nature trail walks, sea turtle talks, and animal feedings, are
offered throughout the week. A popular activity that only takes place on summer
nights is the Turtle Walk and Hatchling Release, where participants have the
opportunity to learn about Florida’s native sea turtles, walk to the nearby
beach, and watch a nesting Loggerhead or see baby turtles race for the sea.
View
Gumbo Limbo’s calendar of events for information on how to register.
Where: 1801 N. Ocean Blvd, Boca Raton
When: Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 4
p.m.
Cost: Free ($5 suggested donation); free parking
Details: GumboLimbo.org
Hugh Taylor Birch State Park
Hugh Taylor Birch State Park features a canoe-kayak launch in its long list of amenities. (Courtesy photo)
Favorite
activities at Birch State Park range from live animal presentations to guided
mangrove and trail walks, and all are excellent opportunities for families to
explore Florida’s natural ecosystems and wildlife, and learn about the history
behind this local state park. The two-mile loop surrounding the natural habitat
is bike- and rollerblade friendly, while the Intracoastal Waterway allows for
easy access to fishing and makes for a perfect sunset-viewing picnic spot.
Birch State Park offers paddleboard rentals for those looking to visit Fort
Lauderdale’s stretch of beaches along A1A. In addition, the park is home to
Camp Live Oak, an immersive nature program for children ages 5-13, as well as a
variety of scheduled tours, educational classes, and events.
Where: 3109 E. Sunrise Blvd, Fort Lauderdale
When: Every day, 8 a.m. to sunset
Cost: $6 per family/group vehicle
Details: FloridaStateParks.org/HughTaylorBirch
Bark Beach at Spanish River
Park
Release
the leash and let Fido roam free on the sands of Spanish River Park’s beach!
Bark Beach is sectioned off from the rest of the park to ensure dogs don’t run
too far and other park visitors remain unscathed by licks or wet paws. Summer
hours are conveniently scheduled in the early morning and late afternoon. Bark
Beach is open to all families of Boca Raton who have purchased a dog permit at
their nearest community center. A single weekend pass is also an option,
allowing unlimited access to Boca’s best dog-friendly beach from Friday through
Sunday.
Where: 3001 N. State Rd A1A, Boca Raton
When: Friday through Sunday, 7-9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to sunset
Cost: Bark Beach dog permit required; $11 weekend pass; parking
$17 weekdays, $19 weekends OR free with annual beach pass
Details: MyBoca.us
INDOOR DESTINATIONS
Children’s Science Explorium
Located
inside Boca’s Sugar Sand Park, the Children’s Science Explorium is a must-visit
attraction. Activities during the summer include a variety of interactive,
science-geared exhibits and exciting educational programs. The Grab ‘n’ Go Eco
Pack gives young children and their families the opportunity to embark on a
scavenger hunt throughout Sugar Sand’s nature trails and explore the park’s
plants, birds, and insects. Kids-only activities include the one-week Summer
Science Camp — open to youngsters in grades kindergarten through 5th — and the
after-hour Friday Nights @ the Museum, featuring a cool experiment and movie
night! Check the events calendar in early June for a list of summer exhibits
and more info on registering.
Where: 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton
When: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday and
Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: Free ($5 suggested donation); free parking
Details: ScienceExplorium.org
Young At Art Museum
Young At Art Museum’s ArtScapes features works that explore a child’s perspective on the world. (Photo courtesy Young At Art Museum)
What’s
one thing that makes the Young At Art Museum unique? Through its program YAA
for ALL: Access to Lifelong Learning, the museum has developed special programs
and events for children and adults with autism and other disabilities. In
addition to its pre-scheduled classes and exhibits, the YAA opens one hour
earlier every second Sunday of the month, giving exclusive access for families
with disabled children. Specialized activities include the Sensory Studio Art
Class, which creates a warm and friendly environment of hands-on art-making
alongside specially trained staff members.
Where: 751 SW 121st Ave, Davie
When: Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday and
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Cost: $14 for adults/children; $12 for seniors and Broward County
residents; $11 for military families. Membership and group rates available.
Details: YoungAtArtMuseum.org
Museum of Discovery and
Science
The Museum of Discovery and Science’s AutoNation IMAX and 3D Theater. (Courtesy photo)
In
addition to its array of science exhibits and children’s Discovery Camp, a
distinctive feature of the Museum of Discovery and Science is its in-house IMAX
3D theater, which presents a number of documentaries and Hollywood films. With
numerous showtimes throughout the day, as well as wheelchair-accessible and
sensory-friendly screenings, this theater is a great pick for families. This
summer, the Museum’s featured exhibit, Hall
of Heroes, immerses visitors in the superhero world of crime-catchers,
Batmobiles, spy gadgets, and more.
Where: 401 SW Second St, Fort Lauderdale
When: Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to
5 p.m.
Cost: $17 for adults; $16 for seniors; $14 for military families
and children ages 2-12; free for children ages 1 and under; parking $6-$10.
Museum membership rates available.
Details: MODS.org
(Note: The IMAX 3D Theater has its own hours and
admission fees. Please visit the MODS website for details.)
Like Tibetan sand mandalas, which are swept up and
scattered on the water, the Temple of Time is about the moment, the process, the
creation, and the transitory nature of life itself.
The beech-plywood temple on Sample Road, created by artist
David Best, is the first of five public art installations in Coral Springs and
Parkland that are part of the series Inspiring
Community Healing After Gun Violence: The Power of Art.
The two cities, in partnership with the Coral Springs
Museum of Art, were awarded $1 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies to fund
the projects, which aim to use art to help heal the community after the
shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018.
With help from local residents, the Balinese-like temple rose
from the site of the old City Hall over a two-week span in early February, and opened
to the public one year after the Feb. 14 school shooting that left 17 dead and
as many injured.
What Best, his crew and community members created was an
object of great beauty out of shared loss.
The temple, where visitors are encouraged to leave
mementoes and write messages directly on the raw wood, has transformed into a
repository of the community’s hopes, fears, wishes, and dreams.
The Temple of Time, said Best, is a way of honoring
the time it will take for the community to process the feelings it shares from
a common tragedy.
The California-based artist has dedicated his life’s work
to designing and building ornate yet ephemeral temples for communities that
need healing.
In what some might say is a paradox, the 35-foot-high,
non-denominational structure will be set on fire and destroyed in May. It is
Best’s hope the community’s grief over the shootings and the loss of life on
2/14 and in the aftermath will dissipate with the flames.
Best began creating temples in 2000, as a way to honor a
friend killed in a motorcycle accident, and he and his 14-person Temple Crew
have become known for the elaborate structures they’ve built at the annual Burning
Man Festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
Best recently spoke about his work to the Miami New Times: “I make an empty
structure — it doesn’t mean anything; it’s just a pretty shape. And then people
come, and they put in their religion, their faith, their anger. Whatever
they’ve got, they put it [in the temple], and they develop their mythology. It
doesn’t matter what we believe. It matters what they believe.”
The Temple of Time in Coral Springs is very nearly
covered with the inspirational and heartfelt messages visitors have left on the
carved mosaic-like scrollwork. “Tell the sun and stars hello for me. We love
you, Gina Rose,” reads one of thousands of personal notes. Another states: “Hate,
anger, fear, indifference, and jealousy will never win.”
Hand-painted rocks emblazoned with “MSDStrong,” “A Little
Bit of Gratitude Goes a Long Way,” and “There is Always Hope,” adorn the temple
altars along with stuffed animals, photos, religious trinkets, hand-drawn
hearts, flowers, and a brown manila envelope full of shredded bully
testimonials from students at Pioneer Middle School.
Particularly poignant is a photograph from 18-year-old
Meadow Pollack’s kindergarten teacher saying, “Proud to have been your
kindergarten teacher, Meadow.” A senior at Douglas, Pollack was among the 17 killed
by a lone gunman at school that day.
On a cool weekday morning in March — the installation is
open every day from 7am until dusk — the temple was alive with visitors. Jonathan
Koota, a massage therapist and Coral Springs resident, came with friends Lynne
Mass, of Delray Beach, and Judy King, of Pompano Beach. They walked quietly
through the temple, discreetly taking photos and reading the temple’s messages
of love and hope to their grandkids.
Lanie
Hyman Shapiro visited the temple in February. The Coral Springs woman called
the temple “an amazingly powerful and intricate” tribute to MSD’s 17 victims.
“It’s a place to come together, to reflect,” Shapiro said. “It’s a place to
begin a catharsis.”
“We have a real Dr. Doolittle here,” is how Allan Rose,
executive director of Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital in Coral
Springs, describes Donna Fife, the hospital director. And with good reason.
His description reflects Fife’s dedication to saving wild
animals and her skill in treating them, although she is not a
veterinarian. On the day of my visit in
early February, about 50 animals were hospitalized at the center. Recent
arrivals included three doves, a gopher tortoise, and a blue jay suffering
spinal trauma. The blue jay was being given steroids and oxygen and fed through
a tube. Its chance for survival, Fife guessed, was about 50 percent.
The two doves had broken wings, which hospital staff set and
wrapped. Sometimes broken wings heal; sometimes they don’t. If a dove can’t fly
perfectly, it cannot be released into the wild and will have a permanent home
at the wildlife center. The gopher tortoise was treated for an eye infection.
As a “keystone” species, the tortoise is valuable in our eco-system because its
long tunnel-like burrows provide shelter for other endangered animals.
In addition to the hospital’s inpatient animals, Fife was
caring for nine orphaned baby raccoons in her home. The babies have to be fed
every few hours, so they couldn’t be left overnight at the hospital. “It’s like
having my own babies,” Fife said. The outlook for them is good, and she expects
they’ll eventually be released back into the wild.
Baby raccoon being bottle fed
One of the hospital’s patients hasn’t flown the coop. Ewok,
an Eastern Screech Owl, lives at the center and now serves as an educational
“ambassador” on school trips and events for wildlife education. When the owl
arrived, its head tilted to one side. An examination revealed a detached retina
in one of its eyes. Fife gave him a stuffed “mama owl” that he’d lean his head
against to try to straighten it. “He still loves it and grooms it,” she said.
Ewok is friendly enough that he also sometimes provides company for Rose,
sitting on the executive director’s desk.
Screech owl being fed with tweezer
Besides medical treatment, “we give the animals a lot of
TLC,” Rose said.
When injured animals arrive, Fife describes the work as
detective work. “We go by what we see, smell, and feel.” Among the wildlife
being treated during my visit was a possum found by the road about three weeks
earlier. It was in such bad shape that “it looked like an alien,” Fife said. It
was almost bald and had lost much of its muscle. The possum was treated with subcutaneous
(under the skin) fluid injections along with rounds of antibiotics and
nutritional supplements. At the time of my visit, the outlook for the possum
was promising.
Because possums eat rats, mice, ticks, and venomous snakes,
they’re great to have in your garden, Fife said. They happen to be the only
marsupial indigenous to North America. Even a dead possum is welcome at the
hospital, Rose said, because it could have babies in its pouch. (As a
marsupial, a possum’s very tiny babies crawl into the pouch after birth.)
The possum, along with Ewok the owl and the baby raccoons,
are just some of the nearly 1,000 injured or orphaned animals brought to the
center and hospital in a typical year. Some people make great efforts to save
wildlife simply because they love animals. Others, like Robin Reccasina, the
center’s operations and education director, believe every animal has an
important role in the ecosystem, and since humans are damaging it, we have a
responsibility to help.
Not all animals are welcome at the center. Animals of an
invasive species should not be brought to the hospital because they cannot be
released back into the environment. They include iguanas, Muscovy ducks, and
Egyptian geese.
Operating a non-profit organization almost always requires
two things: money and volunteers. The Sawgrass center and wildlife hospital
always needs the latter. The work isn’t easy, Fife said, and volunteers must be
committed. Some who don’t handle animals are needed in the busy kitchen, which
prepares meals for 100 or more animals of different species. Others transport
supplies.
Money also is always welcome. “We rely totally on donations,” Rose emphasized. “We are unique. If you love animals, this is a great place to donate.” To donate, volunteer, or learn more, call 954 752-WILD (9453), or visit SawgrassNatureCenter.org.
For more than a decade, area residents
have literally taken steps to bring about peace.
Each time Coral Springs’ Silent Peace
Walk participants gather, once a month, early in the morning, to walk for
peace, leader Audrey Ehlin reminds them how small steps can lead to a larger
impact. Specifically, peace within their hearts can lead to peace within their
families. Further, a peaceful community can spread to neighborhoods, the nation
and the world.
Ehlin, of Coral Springs, as well as
others gather at 7 a.m. on the first Saturday of every month at the International
Peace Garden, located behind the Coral Springs Center for the Arts. Birds chirp
and one can hear the soft sound of tree branches swaying in the breeze, but for
the most part, quiet reigns. Folks move forward in a single-file line for about
20 minutes. Ehlin estimated the walks attracts anywhere from seven to 20
people.
“I believe one person at a time can
make a difference,” she said.
Making a difference was on Coral
Springs resident Piero Falci’s mind when one day, back in 2006 or so, he was watching
the news. A horrific scene was unfolding in the Middle East, as a conflict
between Israel and Lebanon raged.
“I saw images on TV of this man, about
my age, in a residential area where bombs had fallen,” Falci said. “His house
had been hit by a bomb and neighbors were removing the rubble to retrieve the
bodies of his wife and two sons. I immediately thought about my family. I, too,
have two sons.”
Falci heard an inner voice: What are you going to do?
What
can I do? he wondered. After all, he was halfway around the globe. “But I
was deeply touched, and the command to do something persisted,” he said.
At the time, Falci also was reading books
about peace. An idea sprang to mind: He should start a peace walk. When Falci
approached Coral Springs city officials with designs for a monthly event at the
International Peace Garden, “the idea was received with enthusiasm,” he said.
“Many people ask why we do it,” added Falci,
author of the book Silent Peace
Walk: From Inner Peace toWorld Peace. “It is
our belief that cultivating inner peace will help bring peace to the entire
world.
“We think a lot about the survivors (of tragedies), and their pain,
and our heart aches for them. In a way, in the middle of the beautiful
International Peace Garden, we bring to our awareness how fortunate we are for
living in a safe environment, and we compassionately connect with those who
don’t have the same safety and comfort.”
Elizabeth Velez, of Tamarac, has
participated in the peace walk since 2011. She said doing so not only brings
her inner peace, but lets her meet like-minded people who enjoy connecting with
nature.
For Coral Springs vice mayor Joy
Carter, each time she makes the trek, she notices something different within
the garden – different colors amid the foliage, for instance.
Among the garden’s permanent features
is a peace pole bearing the words “May Peace Prevail on Earth” written in
several languages.
“I
find it’s a really good way to start my day,” Carter said. “It just brings a
balance to my persona, my soul. It keeps you centered.”
