Palm Beach Perspective

Talked with Sarah Smedley, Talking Books Manager and Chris Jankow, System Activities Coordinator, Palm Beach County Library. Sarah works with the Talking Books division. It's a free service for folks who qualify (Doctor authorization required). It provides Braille and recorded material to Palm Beach County residents who are certified legally blind, visually impaired or physically handicapped and c...

Talked with Mike Durkee, Exec. Dir., Wounded Veteran's Relief Fund formerly Wounded Warriors of SF and Chase Malcolm, Board Member, Teach the Beach. Wounded Veterans Relief Fund is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization providing immediate emergency financial assistance to eligible disabled veterans who have served in the wars and conflicts since 9/11. They work in conjunction with the V.A. Hospital to...

Talked with Margaret Dyer, Chair for 32nd annual Salt Water Sisters Fishing Tournamnent. It's through the Stuart Sailfish Club Foundation. The Stuart Sailfish Club was formed more than 75 years ago in 1936 and incorporated in January of 1941. It is one of the oldest sportfishing clubs in the United States, formed for the purpose of promoting the conservation of gamefish and encouraging visitors to...

Talked with Hanna and Mindy Guttentag from Crohn's Colitis Foundation. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) affect more than 1.6 million Americans. That’s one in every 200 Americans living with one of these debilitating, medically incurable diseases that attack the digestive system. The fastest growing patient population is children under the age of 18. Croh...

Talked with Lauren and Kaitlyn from Peggy Adams Rescue League. Their mission at Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League of the Palm Beaches, Incorporated is to provide shelter to lost, homeless and unwanted animals, to provide spay and neuter and other medical services for companion animals, and to care for, protect, and find quality homes for homeless and neglected companion animals, to advocate animal...

Talked with Jamie Bond, Place of Hope's Advancement Officer for Treasure Coast. Place of Hope has campuses in Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach, Hobe Sound, Port St Lucie and Boca Raton. It's a state licensed children's organization that provides family-style foster care (emergency and long-term): family outreach and intervention; maternity care; safety for domestic minor sexually trafficked vic...

Talked with Rich and Melody from Special Olympics Florida - Palm Beach County. Special Olympics is a charity that provides year-round sports training and competition to children and adults 8 years of age and older with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They offer 15 different sports to choose from including bowling, track and field, bocce, stand up paddle board, basketball, swimming, et...

Talked with Zara, Courtney and Chelsea from Big Dog Ranch Rescue. They all volunteer with BDRR and definitely recommend it as a great way for students to meet their community service hours. They just did an open house at their new location and have several fundraisers coming up in August including a paint your pottery night at Picasso and Metaluscious concert at Boston's on the Beach. And they rec...

Talked with DeAnna Warren, CEO and Keisha Henry, LCSW of Genesis Community Health. Genesis is a Florida 501(c)3 non-profit organization created to provide health care to all economic levels, with special sensitivity to the needs of economically disadvantaged people of diverse cultural backgrounds in and around Palm Beach County. Genesis Community Health is an access point of care for patients who...

Talked with Josh Davis and Jessie Venture, Lifeguards w Ocean Rescue in the Jupiter area. They are part of the professional nonprofit United States Lifesaving Association, USLA, for beach lifeguards and open water rescuers. Their goal is to reduce the number of deaths/injuries in the aquatic environments via: public education, national lifeguard standards, training programs, and promoting high lev...

Talked with Kathi Kretzer, Kretzer Piano Music Foundation. the charity offers, music enrichment for inner city/disadvantaged youth, public performances, Music of the Mind at the Harriet Himmel, Local Nursing Homes/ALFs/Hospitals. They also have 2 fundraisers coming up. Music of the Mind Tuesday 7-18 at the Harriett Himmel, with a Jazz quartet and “The Company” by M and M production (proceeds from...

Talked with Bibi Baksh, Public Relations Specialist for PBC Parks. They manage 85 of the parks in Palm Beach County. There are a wide variety of parks including 2 water parks (Calypso Bay and Coconut Cove), disc golf, equestrian trails, basketball, golf, bicycling, boating, camping and more. There are also 3 dogs parks and we talked about their upcoming Grand Opening of Lake Woof - Saturday, July...

Talked with Elizabeth Dashiell, Col. Trent Stephens, Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival and Carmime/Maverick, WILD 95.5 about July 4th events, upcoming Shakespeare festival. This year they are performing Love's Labors Lost. The shows are free to the public, held at Carlin Park in Jupiter, FL on July 6-9 and July 13-16th. There is a $5.00 suggested donation to help defray costs. If listeners want to p...

Talked with Rachel Gustafson and John Backman from the Norton Museum of Art. They are offering free admission during their renovations. Coming up on Tuesday is the "topping out" ceremony - part of the building process. Then on June 29 they are opening the summer exhibition of French Connections: Photography. For more info, listeners can go to www.norton.org

Talked with Jennifer and Yuleika from the Alzheimer's Association. June is Alzheimer's and Brain health awareness month. As part of that, they are encouraging listeners to create their own fundraiser for 6/21 (the longest day) and share their pics on Facebook and Twitter. They have a fantastic website that has information about the disease and lists all of the resources. Listeners can go to www.al...

Talked with Glenna Parris, Helping People Succeed. They offer a wide variety of programs and Helping People Succeed's goal is to help each person to reach their potential so they may have a successful future, enjoying their life fully and participating as productive taxpaying citizens. For example their Building Readiness Among Infants Now or "BRAIN" program starts with Newborns in Martin/St. Luci...

Talked with Glenna Parris, Helping People Succeed. They offer a wide variety of programs and Helping People Succeed's goal is to help each person to reach their potential so they may have a successful future, enjoying their life fully and participating as productive taxpaying citizens. For example their Building Readiness Among Infants Now or "BRAIN" program starts with Newborns in Martin/St. Luci...

Talked with Derek Hurwitch, Sr. Dir. Marketing & Communications, Alpert Jewish Family and Children's Serivces; Michael Lifshitz, Producer, MNM Production and Elizabeth Dashiell, Public Relations. Alpert Jewish Family Services has started in 1974 and the provide a wide variety of programs/services for the community (all faiths) from ages "3 to 103" as they like to say, addressing the well-being of...

Talked with Tony Schebel, President of Nam Knights PBC division. The Nam Knights are a motorcycle group made up of Vietnam Vets, Police Officers active/retired, active military and patriotic minded members as well. They meet the first Thursday of the month at the VFW on Claire Ave in WPB. They do several fundraisers throughout the year in support of vets, Vetsville ceasefire house, adaptive sports...

Spoke with Suzanne Davis, Sponsorship Director, IBRA; Sergio Nativi, VP of IBRA; Bob Pontek, Race Director, Stuart Sailfish Regatta. This year's event will be 5/20-21 with VIP events starting on Friday 5/19. The Stuart Sailfish Regatta was created to help promote local charities, stimulate the local economy and to raise environmental awareness. To accomplish those goals, they collaborate with the...

Talked with Heidi Reever, Community Investment Mgr., Feeding South Florida. They have lots of programs in the community. Their backpack program is converting to a school pantry program that we enable them to provide food for the entire family and include fresh produce too. Their next big event is the Stamp Out Hunger Campaign on May 13th in conjunction with the Post Office. Listeners will receive...

Talked with Amy Blackman, Recreation Superintendent, City of Boynton Beach and Owen, Clinics Can Help as well as Golf Great Dana Quigley. Amy recommended several tips for listeners to help prevent drowning: learn how to swim (kids and adults), add door alarms to alert you if your child goes outside and also, fencing in your pool area. Folks can reach out to www.watersmartpbc.org for lots of info a...

Talked with Natalie M. Alvarez, VP/Director Sabadell Bank & Trust regarding Executive Women of Palm Beach County. Exceutive Women is a group created to empower women to succeed, lead and inspire integrity, equality and leadership in the workplace and our community. They are holding one of their big fundraisers, WILA - Women in Leadership Awards Luncheon on May 11th. At the luncheon, Executive Wome...

Talked with Andy Villabona, Denise Mariani,No Kid Hungry and Chef Lindsay from Regional Kitchen and Public House plus Sally Severeid from Kool 105.5's Morning Show about the upcoming Taste of the Nation fundraiser at the Kravis Center. It's being held on April 20th from 6-10p and tickets are available online at www.tasteofthenation.org/palmbeach . There are regular, VIP and VIP Deluxe (that includ...

Talked with Dr. Zwick, Gastroenterologist about G.E.R.D. (Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease. Gastroenterologist treat diseases of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon and rectum, pancreas, gallbladder, bile ducts and liver. Some of these include Crohn's and Colitis as well as GERD. Gastroesophageal reflux is a physical condition in which acid from the stomach flows backward up into the es...