Enjoying the beautiful, dynamic Marjory’s Garden

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.

6888th: Heroes of the Central Postal Directory Battalion

In early 1945, as the Battle of the Bulge concluded, Army officials reported that a lack of mail was hurting morale. Warehouses were filled with millions of pieces of mail destined for the seven million Americans serving in the European theatre. The task of getting that mail to its intended recipients fell on the 6888th, nicknamed the “Six Triple Eight” Central Postal Directory Battalion.

Except for a few smaller units of nurses, the Six Triple Eight was the only all-Black unit from the Women’s Army Corps to serve overseas during World War II. Major Charity Edna Adams was selected to command the battalion and became the first Black woman to hold a commission in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

The Six Triple Eight confronted the packed warehouses in Birmingham, England. These buildings were unheated and dimly lit, and the windows were blacked out to prevent light from showing during nighttime air raids. As it was a cold winter, they wore long johns and extra layers of clothing under their coats while working in these warehouses.

The unit members were organized into three separate shifts daily, so work continued around the clock, seven days a week. They tracked individual service members by maintaining about seven million locator cards, including serial numbers to distinguish different individuals with the same name. They dealt with “undeliverable” mail that was sent to their location for redirection. They investigated insufficiently addressed mail for clues to determine the intended recipient, and they handled the sad duty of returning mail addressed to service members who had died.

Once the immense backlog in Birmingham was gone, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion sailed to France in 1945, shortly after V-E Day. They encountered another backlog of undelivered mail dating back as far as two to three years, which again would take an estimated six months to process.

While in Rouen, the 6888th experienced a tragedy. On July 8, 1945, PFC Mary J. Barlow and PFC Mary H. Bankston were killed in a jeep accident, and Sergeant Dolores M. Browne died on July 13 from injuries resulting from the accident. Because the War Department did not provide funds for funerals, the women of the 6888th pooled their resources to honor their deceased members. First Lieutenant Dorothy Scott found three unit members who had experience with mortuary work to take care of the bodies, and unit members paid for caskets. Memorial services were organized and held for the deceased, and Major Adams wrote to inform their families in the United States of their fate. Sergeant Browne, PFC Barlow, and PFC Bankston were buried with honors in the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer (there are only four women buried there).

In February 1946, the remainder of the unit returned to the United States and was disbanded at Fort Dix, New Jersey, without further ceremony. There were no parades, no public appreciation, and no official recognition of their accomplishments, although Charity Adams was promoted to lieutenant colonel upon her return to the U.S.

This is not a story about the mail. This is a story about 855 Black women, who found a way to serve when the nation needed them most. In 2019, a bipartisan effort was started to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 6888th. Both senate and house passed the measure and President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan bill on March 14.

Blackfin tuna, abundant and delicious

South Florida offshore anglers have their pick of species in May, and many of them put blackfin tuna at the top of their fish wish list. Even though the grouper season opens on May 1, and fried grouper is delicious, those fish can be difficult to catch.

Blackfin tuna, however, are abundant this month. They can be caught with live bait, dead bait, and trolling lures, and they are exceptionally tasty grilled, or pan-seared on the outside and rare on the inside.

Unlike grouper, there is no minimum size limit for blackfins, although most of them range in weight from 10 to 30 pounds. The daily bag limit is two tuna per angler or 10 per boat, whichever is greater. That means two fishermen can keep 10 blackfins and six anglers can keep a total of 12 fish.

The first step in catching blackfins is finding water where they hang out. According to Capt. Skip Dana of Deerfield Beach, purple-blue water is ideal, but tuna can also be caught in green water. More important than the water’s color is the presence of baitfish.

“I tell people to find water that’s alive, where it’s got baits and activity,” Dana said. “If you find that good, alive water, the tuna will find you.”

When he fishes in tournaments, Dana will drift with live baits such as pilchards, sardines, and goggle-eyes on flat lines, which his crew casts out behind the boat, as well as live baits on kite lines, which splash on the surface suspended from a fishing kite.

“When the conditions are right, you want a full spread out,” said Dana, who also has his crew put chunks of sardines in the water to attract the tuna, but not too many chunks.

“I think some guys over-chunk,” said Dana, who uses frozen sardines sold by tackle stores. “Don’t get crazy. You want a slow, steady stream of chunks, but not too much.

“There are so many sharks, you can’t chunk that much, otherwise you’ll have sharks up in the chum, and triggerfish.”

Local anglers lose a lot of blackfins to sharks, often reeling in only the head of a tuna after it’s been chomped. So after hooking a tuna, it’s essential to reel in the hard-fighting fish as quickly as possible.

Capt. Bouncer Smith said anglers can also chunk for tuna using a 25-pound flat of herring or squid. “You can cut it up in advance or cut it as you chunk it,” he said.

Smith noted that even when your chunking attracts tuna behind your boat, the fish won’t always eat a bait drifted back on a hook. When that happens, anglers need to go lighter and smaller with their tackle. So if you usually fish with 30-pound leaders and size 5/0 circle hooks, you might want to downsize to 20-pound leaders with a 2/0 or 1/0 hook.

Dana said that most anglers would do fine using two spinning rods with 3/0 to 5/0 hooks. Using dead or live baits, he’d put one on the surface and the other down with a 1-ounce sinker and drift in 150-220 feet.

Be aware that multiple hookups can occur when the tuna are chummed up and in a feeding frenzy. That can result in crossed lines, so it’s important for anglers to pay attention to where their fish are headed so they can go over or under a fellow angler’s fishing line.

The time of day also can be a factor in tuna fishing success.

As Capt. Mario Coté of Hollywood pointed out, blackfin tuna have big eyes that allow them to take a careful look at a bait. He uses 20-pound conventional outfits with 15-foot leaders of 40-pound fluorocarbon, which is invisible in the water. He also likes to fish for tuna early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and on cloudy days, because that’s when the sunlight is less intense.

“If you were in the water on a sunny day and you had to look up to see something, it wouldn’t be easy,” Coté explained.

Coté fishes with live pilchards on two flat lines and on two weighted lines, one down about 50 feet and the other close to the bottom. He hooks the pilchards through the nose, although other anglers hook the baits toward the tail so the pilchards swim down.

Now is also a great time to catch a tuna from a kayak. Joe Hector of the Extreme Kayak Fishing tournament series uses live bait and jigs for blackfins. His live-bait outfit is straight 30-pound monofilament with a 2/0 to 3/0 hook on a medium-heavy spinning rod. “I know the 2/0 hook is small, but I’ve had way more tuna bites on a 2/0,” said Hector, of Deerfield Beach.

“They’re definitely deep as well, so I would definitely recommend taking a jigging rod and hitting the deeper wrecks and jigging your butt off,” added Hector, who uses a vertical jig, a long, heavy piece of metal with one or two hooks attached to it. “Start at 250 feet if you’re drifting in and 80 if you’re drifting out.”

No matter how you catch a blackfin tuna, and whether you marinate it in soy sauce or teriyaki sauce or sprinkle it with olive oil, salt, and pepper before grilling or searing it, you’ll forget all about fishing for grouper once you taste it.

Changing life through sport

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

Society of the Four Arts: Soaking in art, culture, nature, and inspiration

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.

Meet the man living in the middle of the Everglades

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.

Paralympic goals

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/.

May’s marvelous skies

What a month ahead for stargazers! The month of May offers a little bit of everything for us astronomy enthusiasts. There’s a meteor shower early in the month, a total lunar eclipse mid-month, and a parade of planets in the morning skies near the end of the month. Pretty cool!

This month’s challenge for beginners: It’s a great time of the year to follow an old saying and “arc to Arcturus.” Arcturus is the fourth brightest star in the entire night sky and has a beautiful orangish color (due to its relatively “cool” temperature).

First, find the Big Dipper by looking north. Then, follow the arc of its handle but extend the arc until you curve to Arcturus. If you continue the arc, you can then “speed on to Spica,” which is a brilliant-white star (due to its relatively hot temperature) located in Virgo.

This month’s astrophotography challenge: Take your pick — you can stay up late for the eclipse or wake up early for the planets. Either offers the opportunity for beautiful pictures with or without a telescope. Good luck!

Sky highlights this month:

  • May 6. Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower. This is a reliable meteor shower of a medium rate. This year it will be at its best due to moonlight not being a factor (a waxing crescent that evening, which will set early). For best results, view from a very dark location after midnight.
  • May 15–16. Total Lunar Eclipse. The full eclipse begins at 11:29 p.m. local time. Look for the Moon’s slight reddish hue as sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere gets scattered onto it. The eclipse maximum occurs at 12:11 a.m. The full eclipse ends by 12:54 a.m.
  • May 15–16. Full Moon. Of course, it’s also a Full Moon, because you can only have a lunar eclipse during a Full Moon. This one was nicknamed the “Flower Moon” by some ancient Native American tribes for the time of year when, obviously, many flowers are in bloom.
  • May 22–29. Conjunction Week! OK, that’s not an official title — just one I made up — but I think it’s apropos. In the morning skies of late May, we will be treated to a parade of all the naked-eye planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) and a crescent Moon (some nights). It should be magnificent and worth setting the alarm clock for a pre-dawn walk.
  • May 30. New Moon. This is the best time of the month to venture out to a dark area and view/photograph deep-sky objects (nebulas, star clusters, galaxies, etc.). Please consider joining the South Florida Amateur Astronomers Association for information on the best places for sky-watching (www.sfaaa.com).

It’s a terrific month for astrophotography. If you post any cool pics, be sure to tag the Parklander® and me on Instagram (@theparklander and @jeterk1971)— We’d love to see your work!

Kindred spirit at the dog park

I was such a cheerleader from the sidelines. Usually in a conversation, I am the one who is defending animal rights or educating people about them, but recently I observed my kindred spirit. I live part of the year in Colorado, and going to the dog park when the temperatures are below freezing is not an activity I typically partake in, but recently we had a nice surprise. The temperatures were in the high 50s, so I went with my daughter and her dog to the local dog park. Now Coloradans don’t care what the temperature is. They will go to the dog park if it is 5 degrees below zero.

So on this day, the dog park was busy. I believe that everyone in Colorado has more than one dog. I could overhear a man and a woman talking passionately about something related to the man’s sick dog. It obviously had nothing to do with the malamute that he was throwing the ball to. That dog was running at full speed, not caring what was between him and the ball, as he was completely focused on getting that ball and preventing other dogs from touching it. What I could hear was that his puppy Monty was in the local animal hospital fighting for his life with parvovirus.

Parvovirus is a killer. If a puppy gets it, there is a 50/50 chance of its survival, even if it gets the best care at the best hospital. Parvovirus targets rapidly dividing cells in the body such as the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the bone marrow, so the puppy will have explosive diarrhea and vomiting. The integrity of its GI tract will be compromised, allowing bacteria to enter the bloodstream, and because the bone marrow is also affected, the puppy won’t have the ability to fight off the infection. Most people will never know a puppy is affected by parvo, because veterinarians vaccinate all puppies four times starting when they are 2 months old, and they are typically revaccinated again at a year old, then every three years.

I did hear the woman in the conversation ask the man if he had had his puppy vaccinated, and he said he doesn’t “do vaccines anymore.” He didn’t get COVID vaccinated, he doesn’t get flu shots, and he won’t get the shingles vaccine no matter how much his doctor and girlfriend ask him to. The woman asked if the malamute, named Aspen, was vaccinated and he said that he was, but he is not going to do it anymore. The woman then told the man that parvovirus is incredibly contagious and typically transmitted through the stool to other dogs. She told him that Aspen is probably doing so well because he was vaccinated, and if his puppy was positive for parvovirus last week, most likely he was passing parvovirus in his stool. Therefore, if he defecated at the park, he could infect young dogs not fully vaccinated.

The man was getting uncomfortable as others were joining the conversation. People in Colorado are uber-protective of their pets. That dog park had regulars, and they were not happy that someone had potentially brought an infectious disease to their dog park. The man stopped throwing the ball and started to walk toward his car. I must have looked empathetic to him because he muttered to me to “watch out for the Fauci liberals over there.” I was about to educate him about infectious disease when my daughter grabbed my arm and gave me the look, “Not today.”

Ironically, Colorado was not a mask-happy-wearing state, but if COVID affected dogs, believe me, you would see dogs in designer masks. Please don’t bring unvaccinated puppies to dog parks.

Loving life at Loxahatchee wildlife refuge

Where can you find 250 species of birds, 60 species of reptiles and amphibians, 40 species of butterflies, many types of mammals, a ring of levees in an extensive dike system, an assortment of wet prairies and sawgrass ridges, and a 400-acre cypress swamp?

That would be at Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, a huge, biodiverse, forested cypress swamp community at the northernmost part of the Florida Everglades. The refuge contains 226 square miles of everglade ecosystems. Loxahatchee is one of the largest urban wildlife refuges in the country, with more than 145,000 acres of land, and is one of three water conservation areas in South Florida.

The headquarters area, accessed from Lee Road in western Boynton Beach, contains the visitor center, the boardwalk trail, observation platforms, boat launches, levees, and more. This beautiful wildlife refuge also is adjacent to Parkland on the southern end. Some people go biking, to fish, or to boat. I recently went there to bird-watch, hike, and look for alligators with relatives visiting from the north.

Behind the Visitors Center is the Cypress Swamp Boardwalk, a half-mile trail through the natural cypress forest. The cypress swamp features pond cypress trees with peculiar-looking “knees,” at ground level, that I’d never seen anywhere else, along with lichens, ferns, and all kinds of wildlife.

We started our visit to Loxahatchee on the boardwalk trail, and my group was impressed with the beautiful nature all around us. Many of the trees had silvery-gray Spanish moss hanging high from their branches. Some of it had landed on the boardwalk, and we got to pick it up and explore it closely, a rare thrill for my aunt from Maine.

After doing the boardwalk trail, we drove over to the Marsh Trail, which has its own parking lot.  The trail is about 0.9 miles in length, and it follows a square path. We set out to walk along it and take in the peaceful setting. Just as we reached an observation tower about halfway along the trail and started to climb its steps, the sky opened up and rain drizzled down, followed by a quick downpour. It was lucky timing for us, as we stayed dry under the wooden roof of the tower. We watched as two separate groups of people made a quick dash from other parts of the trail to take cover with us. We all enjoyed looking out over the bucolic vista in the rain.

Just as quickly as it started, the rainstorm stopped, and we climbed down the steps to continue on our little hike. After finishing that part of the refuge, we headed over to the final stage of our outing: to climb up on a levee and walk along the trail there.

We had never been on a levee before, and we looked up the definition: “a continuous dike or ridge (as of earth) for confining the irrigation areas of land to be flooded.” There was a long, flat trail up there that was flanked by water on either side. Birds were singing all around us as we walked. We continued down the endless trail, past the canoe and kayak rentals, and enjoyed the striking views. We took photos of the landscapes and used a smartphone to identify some of the birds we saw. We watched someone fly fishing. We walked along the quiet levee until we decided to turn around to come back. The area was open, vast, and empty, and we enjoyed the solace on this nice Friday morning.

There is much more one could do at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. I’ll be going back and trying more activities there. I recommend you check it out some time.

Looking for hope this Easter

It’s that time of year! Chocolate bunnies, candy eggs, and pastel colors can only mean that it is time for Easter.

Many of us have grown up with excitement about the Easter Bunny and receiving a basket full of goodies on Easter Sunday. As exciting as an egg hunt may be, many are not sure exactly why this holiday is so significant.

To the Christian, Easter is one of the most important days of the year because it symbolizes hope. Hope is defined as a desire for a certain thing to happen. Easter is when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many people today are struggling with hope based on what we see in the news or in our own circumstances. We get so used to hearing bad news that many are living in a place of hopelessness.

Easter provides hope because it shows how the God of this universe loves us all. He overcame every struggle we could face. He did that when he defeated death on the cross. Three days later he rose from the dead, and because Jesus had the power to defeat death, he has the power to give you eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Imagine being one of the followers of Jesus on Good Friday, the day that He was beaten and hung on a cross to die. It looked like a hopeless end, much like many of us are feeling today. But hope was just around the corner.

Are you looking for hope? No matter how dark your circumstances may seem, Easter is an opportunity for us to change our old ways and enter into our new abundant life with Christ. This is something worth celebrating. Happy Easter!

Steve Daigle is the Campus Pastor of Calvary Chapel Parkland.

Celebrating resilience and freedom this Passover

“In each and every generation a person is obliged to regard him/herself
as if he/she had come out of Egypt.”

—Haggadah

Each year, the holiday of Passover returns during the springtime, recounting the story of the Israelites liberated from Egyptian slavery. Jews tell this story, with the assistance of a Haggadah, to remind us that in every generation, throughout time, all Jews regardless of status, age, or gender are to feel as if we personally made this journey as our ancestors had. We are obligated to retell this story because our freedom is not to be taken for granted — it is a sacred redemption. The “Exodus” is a powerful spiritual liberation, not just a physical one. The quote above talks about how each and every generation has this responsibility. The generations are not only time-bound, for every human within them carries this obligation. This narrative celebrates resilience, renewal, and freedom.

Passover falls on the eve of the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan, lasting for seven or eight days depending on if you are an Israeli or a Reform Jew or if you are an Orthodox or Conservative Jew living in the diaspora. It is one of only a few holidays celebrated privately in homes, centered around a meal, making it one of the most celebrated holidays by Jews next to Chanukah and the High Holy Days.

The traditional meal called a Seder (meaning “order”), is outlined in a book called the Haggadah, which is read aloud at the dinner table. Haggadah means “the telling” of the story — the exodus from Egypt. The Haggadah also lists the order the story is told as well as the ritual foods that are blessed first and then eaten.

The number 4 comes up many times throughout the Haggadah. There are four sons described, four questions asked and answered, four cups of wine blessed, and four terms used by God in Exodus to describe the redemption. However, there are six symbolic foods on the Passover Seder plate: maror (the bitter herbs), charoset (chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon, and sweet red wine), karpas (parsley), chazeret (lettuce), zeroah (shank bone), and beitzah egg. They all have a unique symbolism to remind us of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt, the Passover sacrifice of a lamb in ancient Jerusalem, and the renewal of life in the spring.

The most commonly recognized food for Passover is the unleavened bread, or matzah, which reminds us of how our ancestors fled quickly from Egypt when freed, not having enough time to fully allow their bread to rise. “They baked the dough that they took out of Egypt into unleavened cakes [matzot], for it was not leavened, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay; nor had they prepared provisions for themselves” (Exodus 12:39). It became known as the bread of affliction as there were few ingredients given to the Hebrews at the time, but it also became the symbol of freedom. At the seder, the middle matzah is broken in half by the leader and then hidden for children to find after the main meal. It must be returned to the leader, for a small reward, for the seder to finish with this as the dessert.

I wish all who are celebrating this holiday to have a meaningful seder experience with family and friends while fulfilling our sacred obligation to retell the story as we appreciate the freedoms we have today. “Chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach.” Have a happy and blessed Passover!

Rabbi Melissa Stollman is a major gifts officer for the Union for Reform Judaism.