Category: Community

Marjory’s Garden is more than just a garden. It’s a safe haven for students and teachers, fauna and flora, and so much more.

Ground was first broken on this project in May 2016 after dozens of portable classrooms were removed from a field behind Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD). Following the suggestion of science teachers Kyle Jeter and Sean Simpson, the principal at the time, Ty Thompson, allotted a long strip of land next to the tennis courts for the purposes of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) project. Mr. Jeter, Mr. Simpson, and others began brainstorming ideas and created a sketch of what would become Marjory’s Garden.

When you walk into the garden, the first things you might see are the flower beds with eye-catching zinnias up front. These specific flowers are perfect for two of the garden sponsors, Mr. Jeter and Mr. Simpson, who teach astronomy. This is because zinnias were the first flower to ever be grown in space! If you like that fun fact (or learning in general), you should keep walking past the flower beds to the outdoor classroom.

The outdoor classroom is exactly what it sounds like, with a handful of benches all facing a stage for optimal teaching (covered by shade for those hot Florida days, of course). Many teachers love using this area as a change of setting during school hours, especially the STEM teachers. In fact, in the 2022-23 school year, there will be a botany class taught by Mr. Davis, and he will use the garden.

The outdoor classroom is also where the school hosts its garden movie nights. The Climate Change Club, for example, recently watched “The Lorax” in Marjory’s Garden. Along with movie nights, there are many other special events held in the garden, such as Astronomy Nights and a “Not-So-Scary Halloween” event hosted by Mrs. Herzfeld and the spectacular MSD Drama program. As you can see, Marjory’s Garden is as versatile as it is beautiful, which is why it is split up into different sections, or zones.

The zones consist of multiple areas including vegetable and flower beds, a butterfly garden, and a “food forest” created by Mrs. Beaty. There’s also a corn and okra field courtesy of Lt. Col. Mark Anders, and a giant bamboo cone supporting bean-sprouting vines (designed and built by Mr. Davis). There is a “Reflection Garden” with a small fountain and 17 large, polished stones, donated and built by Brightview Landscaping in 2018.

The garden is an officially recognized wildlife habitat as well. It is home to countless species of fauna, including mice, butterflies, bees, sawflies, rabbits, iguanas, and, recently, baby birds. The “Everglades Zone,” designed by Mr. Garner, features indigenous plants such as sawgrass and is a prime example of how the garden is nurturing our Florida ecosystem.

Other amenities include the “Little Library” (donated by MSD Media Center specialist Diana Haneski), the “Kindness Rocks” stand (maintained by Roxanne Haubrich and many others), and an area for games such as chess and cornhole. Finally, and perhaps most uniquely, Marjory’s Garden is home to an observatory with an 8-inch Cassegrain reflecting telescope!

Besides being a beloved location by MSD students and staff, there are academic benefits to visiting the garden: Students can earn two service hours for helping out in the garden on Sundays (beginning at 9 a.m. sharp). There are always a variety of projects to work on, such as maintaining the garden, planting new flora, painting, construction, and much more. The most meaningful day to volunteer is on the Day of Service, an annual event hosted by MSD on the anniversary of the tragedy. Students not only earn service hours but also contribute very special and meaningful work to the garden.

Another great feature of being a student at Marjory’s Garden is the lunch held in the garden every Wednesday. On garden lunch days, there is always a faculty member present. Dr. McBride, for example, supervises the latter of the two lunch periods weekly, and Mr. Davis supervises the first. The garden lunch gives students a mental refresher and brain break from school and academics. During these lunches, students usually relax in the outdoor classroom or sit on the benches placed throughout the garden.

The garden also uses hydroponics, with a nutrient solution and tubes of flowing water to grow an assortment of plants, such as lettuce and peppers. The original hydroponics was created by Mr. Simpson in 2016; however, the garden is going to team up with Mrs. Reich and her STEM classes to create a new and better version of hydroponics in the future. The school is also installing electrical outlets and a permanent water valve in the front of the garden, for powering lights and other electronics at night, and of course, pumps for the hydroponics. This is an expensive task, however, so a lot of donors were recruited to get the job done, including Eagles’ Haven, Cutler-Rader, Hard Rock Classic Casino, Broward Health, and Roman Consulting. Without School Board member Lori Alhadeff leading the fundraiser, this could not have been accomplished!

Marjory’s Garden continues to be a vibrant and beautiful green space at MSD, thanks to the amazing students, staff members, community volunteers, and donors. The faculty leadership team consists of Lt. Col. Anders, Mr. Cochenour, Mr. Davis, Mr. Garner, Mrs. Herzfeld, Mr. Jeter, Ms. McAuley, Mr. Simpson, and Mr. Walsh. A special thanks goes to Ken and Sharon Cutler for supporting the garden from the very beginning. Mr. Cutler is currently the vice mayor of Parkland and Mrs. Cutler is a long-time MSD business teacher and DECA advisor. The school is also extremely grateful to all of the community and parent volunteers. Marjory’s Garden is a very enjoyable learning space for all, and it couldn’t have been created without the support of the whole Eagle family.

If you’d like to support this dynamic project, please go to https://gofund.me/cccf2fc7 for the GoFundMe, managed by former MSD teacher (and garden guru) Stephanie Beaty.

We all know how important exercise is to our health. But the reasons that we have for not getting started or staying committed to exercising are numerous:

• Have no time
• Too tired at the end of the day
• Don’t like to exercise alone
• Need motivation
• Get bored easily
• It’s not fun
• Too old/out of shape
• Can’t stick with it
• Too expensive
• Don’t fit in

Sound familiar?

Diego Velasquez had a deep-rooted connection with sport. He wanted to help to transform people’s lives for the better by encouraging them to join daily individual and group physical exercises combined with social responsibility to help the community.

In 2011, he helped create the group Race Junkies. A nonprofit that’s free to join, Race Junkies’ mission is to promote health and exercise. The group’s core belief is that through sport, there is the power to change lives. They seek to bring inspiration to every person, see possibilities where others see only challenges, create a culture where people feel they belong, and encourage people to train. The nonprofit group works with local sponsors to get donations that directly enable the group to promote exercise by helping fund team uniforms, cycling equipment, and race entry fees.

Some members of Race Junkies simply enjoy running, cycling, or swimming, and others are marathoners and triathletes, often traveling and supporting each other in local, national, and international events. Members coordinate training programs, with the most seasoned athletes becoming leaders and mentors to newer members. The team is enriched by the diversity of cultural and professional backgrounds, and everyone is welcome: kids, adults of all ages, elite athletes, and non-athletes.

Starting an exercise routine is not easy. Some of the biggest barriers to exercising regularly are fitting it into your schedule, accountability, needing motivation from others, diversity, and the challenge to keep exercise from becoming boring.

With Race Junkies, there are always people biking, running, and swimming at different times, on different days, at different speeds, and in different locations in Coral Springs and areas nearby. This suits Thiago, who joined Race Junkies two years ago, just fine. He finds the time and motivation to train despite having a newborn, driving kids to school, and working all hours of the day with people around the world in different time zones. His goal is to finish the Ironman 70.3 later this year.

“You will never be alone if you don’t want to,” said Thiago. “The beauty is the motivation others bring to the group. You always have a partner or a group to train with.”

Added Kevin, who, after “plenty of sedentary and self-indulgent behavior,” decided he wanted to exercise to set a good example for his daughter, and now has run the New York City marathon and many half-marathons and aspires to compete in a full Ironman. “There are a lot of tools available as well. I for sure wouldn’t have access to the amazing swim coaches there are or the bike resources.”

It’s easy for a “no can do, no way no how, it’s just not me” attitude to sabotage one’s exercise goals. But Race Junkies members find those obstacles can be overcome surprisingly easily, even if at first, they think that exercising and competing are impossible for them. “Once they join, people realize they didn’t even know there were goals they could push themselves toward,” said Kevin. “It goes from painful, to I don’t know why I’m doing this, to I can’t stop doing this. And it happens very quickly.”

While they are inspired by other members, Race Junkies often find that training at their own pace and not comparing themselves to others is a winning formula. Certainly, this was true for Lorena, Diego’s wife. The triathlon bike (tribike) that Diego gave her sat untouched in their garage for two years before she started riding. Initially unsure and intimidated by people more athletic than she imagined she would ever be, since joining Race Junkies nine years ago, Lorena has completed three 70.3 Ironman races. When she turned 50, she ran the New York City marathon.

The how and why members have gotten involved with Race Junkies varies, but the sense of health, strength, and well-being it fosters, and the desire to mentor and give back to the group, is a common experience.

As Roberto, a member of Race Junkies for five years and marathoner who “never tries to win anything, only to compete with himself,” said, “We have all types of people with all types of goals, but we come together and support each other. I try to give back as much as I can as a ride leader with the group, hosting two rides per week, helping with bike mechanics, and offering a bike clinic for the group. But even more than supporting each other in sports, we support each other in life.”

Everyone is welcome to train with Race Junkies. To learn more about the group, contact them on social media:

• Instagram: racejunkiesusa
• Facebook: Race Junkies—www.facebook.com/groups/1835441360110979

As part of the art class in my 55+ community, we go on field trips to different art museums and exhibits in the area, led by our teacher and artist-in-residence. For our most recent trip, he took us to the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach. There we discovered a gorgeous campus of buildings and gardens in the heart of the island.

Although we traveled there to see an exhibition called “In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870–1940”(which has since moved on), we got a lot more from this trip than expected. The Four Arts campus includes the spacious art gallery, “Campus on the Lake” cultural programs in various buildings, a library and children’s library, a sculpture garden, and a lush botanical garden.

Our group started in the spacious art gallery for the seasonal exhibition ($10 each, prepaid), and after viewing the impressive paintings in all of the rooms, we ventured outside, where we were greeted by tranquil gardens and more art.

The Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden and the Four Arts Botanical Gardens, two distinct gardens, have provided a natural oasis in Palm Beach since 1938. You can get away from stressful daily life and stroll through this peaceful maze of floral paths with ponds, benches, fountains, and lush foliage. One of my favorites was the unique Chinese Garden, where you can go through a pagoda-style entrance and grab a solitary moment to meditate and get lost in the quiet beauty of this walled-off part of the gardens.

The other gardens, or outdoor “rooms,” are the Fragrant Moonlight Garden, Palm Garden, Bromeliad Garden, Jungle Garden, Spanish Façade Garden, Formal Garden, Tropical Garden, and Madonna Garden — each one more breathtaking than the last.

The sculpture garden gave our art class more culture to soak in outside. The heart of this garden is a plaza paved in quartzite encircling a beautiful octagonal fountain. Bronze figurative sculptures are scattered throughout the garden in settings both formal and informal. Our group of budding artists enjoyed wandering around and stopping to take in the sculptures at our own pace. We moved wherever our spirit took us. It was a perfect field trip for our group.

The Society of the Four Arts has lots more for visitors to do and plenty of parking space to accommodate them. In addition to viewing the art in the Esther B. O’Keeffe Gallery, which changes every so often with temporary, traveling exhibits, one can enjoy workshops, lectures, music, films, book discussions, and plenty of programs for children, including floral design and storytime.

Examples of upcoming book discussions on campus include “You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War” (May 17), “Robert Macomber, Code of Honor” (June 8), and “The Churchill Sisters: The Extraordinary Lives of Winston and Clementine’s Daughters” (June 21).

Or just go to the Four Arts to take in the fragrant, verdant gardens and get inspired by your surroundings. You’ll be glad you did.

For more information, go to fourarts.org.

At the crossroads of Florida Street and the River of Grass lives Gerald Motes, a man who has called the Everglades his home for the past 12 years. Motes, who lives full-time in Old Glory, one of a small number of historical cabins built in the middle of the Everglades back in the 1950s, spent close to 10 years rebuilding the cabin after a lightning strike set it on fire in 2000.

“It’s a good thing it burned down,” laments Motes. “I hate to say it because it was a historical cabin, but it was so badly rotted.” It took him roughly 10 years to rebuild the new structure, as he spent weekends off from work transporting all of his supplies — including lumber and tools — to the camp entirely by airboat. “I bet I didn’t miss three weekends in 10 years out here,” he says with a laugh. “I did maybe as much as 80% of the work by myself.”

Old Glory is not the only historical cabin Motes owns. “East of here is Judge’s Camp,” he explains, pointing to a map of Water Conservation Area 2A, the section of the Everglades where he lives. “The people who had it weren’t able to take care of it. They held onto it until it rotted and then turned it over to the state. When I heard the state was going to remove it, I talked to them and they turned the lease over to me. I tore it down, rebuilt it, and now have a five-bedroom cabin over there.”

There are a total of 87 cabins in the Everglades registered with the state, with new building now prohibited.

Motes’ cabin has been featured in a number of movies and television shows, including “Swamp People,” “The Bachelor,” and “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” With 20 beds, two couches, and two generators, Old Glory has the capacity to host quite a few guests.

Despite its remote location, the cabin has modern amenities including air conditioning, an indoor toilet, shower, and wireless internet. “We’ve got satellite dishes out here. Heck, I’ve even got TV,” jokes Motes, who uses his internet connection to post regular updates on his Facebook page under the handle “@OldGloryCamp.” Motes writes about weather conditions, visitors to his camp, what he’s up to for the day, and sometimes what he’s cooking — recently gator tongue after hosting a teen alligator hunt.

While Motes eats off the land some of the time, cooking up fish, and sometimes frogs, he estimates that about 90% of his food comes from the grocery store. Supply runs were one of the many adjustments that he made in moving out there full-time.

The first was mindset. “The adjustment is to let your world calm down,” reflects Motes. “Slow down. That’s the biggest thing.” And while he enjoys slowing down, there are always things that need attending to at Old Glory.

“Gasoline is my biggest challenge,” notes Motes. “I’ve been having to go into town twice a week for gasoline.” On recent trips, Motes has needed more than 180 gallons of gas at a time in order to fuel his booming airboat tour business. Because all of his supplies are transported via airboat, he collects the gas in five-gallon containers.

In addition to tours, Motes runs a rescue service as well. “I do a tremendous amount of recovery out here. Sunk boats. Turned-over boats. Wrecked boats,” he says.

Other challenges that Motes highlighted were repairs and keeping his boats running. “Fortunately, I’m able to order parts online now and Sawgrass Recreation Park will accept my packages and hold them for me. I drove for them for years and we’ve gotten to be very good friends.” The park is also where he keeps his truck.

Maintaining the property comes with its own set of demands, and Motes is the first to admit that he needs help. He’s constantly pulling back vines so they don’t overrun the manmade island his home sits on, and making structural repairs. “I’ve got tons of dock work and stuff that needs to be looked at before it gets too bad,” he says.

“I made a mistake in the beginning because it was just the way it was done back then, and I put telephone poles underneath the building,” explains Motes. “They’re gonna rot out. I need to go down and start replacing some of them and it needs to be done when the water is down. Once it goes down, I might only have a week.”

The water level where Motes lives can fluctuate by up to three feet, meaning at times, a large percentage of his lawn is underwater. The fluctuation depends on when flood water is released from other areas, such as Lake Okeechobee, which is all a part of the water management system in place in the Everglades.

“Water management is a miserable failure at trying to compete with Mother Nature. And I wouldn’t have her job for nothing in the world,” emphasizes Motes.

As we cross the wooden bridge that leads to an outdoor shower and bathtub, Motes stops to explain some of the plants growing beneath the platform, pointing toward a leafy green one. “It’s called a mallow plant and it grows in marshy areas. The derivative of the root of that plant was used to make the original marshmallow that we know of today. That’s the marshmallow plant.”

Extremely knowledgeable about the plant and animal life in the Everglades, Motes easily explains which species are natural and which are invasive.

For more information on Motes, to schedule an airboat tour, visit Old Glory, or even offer help, check out the Old Glory Facebook page or www.evergladesairboatexcursions.com.

When former Coral Springs resident Tyler Merren and his American teammates play for the world championship in their sport during this fall’s Paralympic Games, they will need to rely on their ears as much as other body parts to succeed.

That is because the sport in which Merren and his teammates compete is goalball. It is a sport designed specifically for athletes who are visually impaired. Participants compete in teams of three and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it into the opponents’ goal. Players, using ear-hand coordination, must use the sound of the bells to judge the position and movement of the ball. Athletes play the sport indoors, usually on a volleyball court.

Merren, who lives in Fort Wayne, will participate this fall in his fifth world championship as a member of the U.S. men’s goalball team. The results will play a crucial role in determining qualification for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Specifically, the top two men’s and women’s teams at the world championships earn an automatic berth for Paris. The Paralympics games are for physically disabled athletes.

Merren, 37, was born with an eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa in both of his eyes. It is a group of rare, genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and loss of cells in the retina. As a result, he is legally blind, meaning he has less than 10 percent vision.

Merren, who grew up in a family of athletes, used to play other sports. But as his vision got worse, he had to stop. Then, a sports education camp for visually impaired youth at Western Michigan University introduced him to goalball and other adapted sports such as swimming, track and field, and wrestling.

Merren had never heard of goalball before the camp. He said that a fellow camper observed him play, thought he was good, and asked him if he wished to continue to play. Merren stuck with the sport. And today, his former fellow camper is his teammate on the U.S. Paralympic team.

Altogether, Merren has competed in 15 countries and 28 states. He has been competing with the U.S. men’s goalball team for more than 20 years. He credited their success to the work the players put in off the court.

“We run ourselves into the ground training day after day,” Merren said. “Like any athlete out there, we want to be the best we can be. I enjoy the process of trying to perfect my game and my athleticism.”

Individually, Merren said that his accuracy throwing the ball is “pretty good.” As a result, he gets many opportunities for penalty throws.

During the 2010 world championships, Merren was the fourth-highest goalscorer in the world.

However, he said that he values team victories more than individual statistics and accomplishments. “Sometimes that means handing the ball off to a teammate,” he said.

How does it feel to qualify for the world championships?

“It’s gratifying and affirming at the same time,” Merren said. He added that the U.S. has a “pretty strong” goalball program. “I would have been shocked if [we] had not qualified,” he said.

The former Coral Springs resident described goalball as a combination of soccer, handball, and volleyball.

“It’s not quite like anything else that people have played before,” he said. “The cool thing about goalball is that no matter how much vision I might lose, the sport stays the same. It’s based off of my work ethic and skill as opposed to my vision loss.

“Being visually impaired doesn’t change the fact that I’m a competitive athlete, and goalball gives me that opportunity to compete at an elite level.”

Goalball has existed since 1946. Its first purpose was to help rehabilitate veterans who had lost their sight during World War II. Players remain on their hands and knees to defend their net and score against their opponents. A goalball court measures about 60 feet long and almost 30 feet wide. String taped to the markings on the court allows players to feel the lines and orient themselves.

Goalball’s Paralympic premiere came in 1976 in Toronto. Organizers added a women’s event at the 1984 Paralympic Games in New York. The sport’s first world championships took place in 1978 in Austria. The International Blind Sports Federation is the official governing body for the sport.

Merren, who is originally from southwest Michigan, lived in Coral Springs from 2013 to 2019. While in South Florida, he worked at a 24 Hour Fitness location as a master trainer and an assistant fitness manager. He is also a motivational speaker and has a Facebook page. To find it, go to www.facebook.com and search for “Tyler Merren Speaks” in the search bar. Following Merren’s Facebook page will, among other things, allow you to keep up with his goalball team’s progress. For more information on the International Blind Sports Federation and goalball, visit https://ibsasport.org/.