AlexB

Andrea O’Rourke introduced Luke Lynch and Jordan Hernandez during our Club’s Zoom meeting: she recalled for us that Luke had talked to the Club last year when he was a senior at Boca High. He had been working on building a large metal fish trash container that would allow residents to be reminded of saving the ocean ecosystem by keeping the beach and walkways clutter free and putting the waste in the large fish-like trash container.    Luke then gave the club an overview of how this new “#coronacant” move got going. Hernandez, an [...]

Pictured above is Ken Romer, Volunteer for the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) and Club President Vanessa Havener.   PBSO recruits many volunteers to help the Sheriff’s office conduct services outside of public safety. Volunteers Against Scams Team (VAST) assists citizens of Palm Beach County who have been targeted as victims of financial crimes. BAST objectives include preventing additional victimization and providing assistance in recovering from crimes involving identity theft, fraud and other mainstream financial crimes.    Another primary goal of VAST is to educate citizens to help them prevent financial crimes and victimization. [...]

Our Club was pleased to have Debbie Vance of Vancouver Island, BC be our guest speaker. Debbie creates wonderful graphics as a volunteer program for Rotary. Her images are free or all to use. The Rotary graphics she creates can be found at Debbie Vance - Rotary Graphics on Facebook.  She also personalizes these graphics for Clubs, Districts and other Rotary organizations in return for their making a donation to The Rotary Foundation in any amount, for any cause and in anyone's name.   Debbie shared that she worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for [...]

Pictured above are a middle school student and Nicholas Metropulos, Executive Director of the Marine Education Initiative which educates and empowers socio-economically disadvantaged middle school students to preserve their marine ecosystems. The Marine Education Initiative has two core programs: 1) and education program for middle school students to teach them about marine life (called the Responsible Angling Program) and how to fish with a fishing rod and 2) fish preparation and donation program (called the Fishing Tournament Donation Program). The Responsible Angling Program includes: 30-WEEK E-STEM CURRICULUM Conservation centric environmental STEM after school programming [...]

Pictured above are Eda Viner and her daughter Niki Knopf (Executive Director). The Foundation supports comprehensive college scholarships for graduating high school seniors in Boca Raton and Delray Beach.    The foundation began in 2015 and currently has 114 active scholarship students attending a Florida public university. They are adding 30 or more new students each year.    However, Viner scholarships are a “Last dollar” scholarship - the student first must access other potential sources of financial aid prior to applying. This ensures that the student who’s most in need and who has exhausted [...]

Pictured above are Club President Vanessa Havener with Mayor Scott Singer. Scott provided a well-organized ‘State of Boca Raton’ presentation which is below. Click here for the "State of Boca Raton" Presentation A few major points: The new Brightline station is expected to open in early 2021. Guiding principles: Financially sound city World class municipal services Strong partnership with the community Vibrant and sustainable city Top three priorities for 2019-2020 Comprehensive Traffic and Connectivity Planning Public School Safety Infrastructure Innovation and Business Technology Hub Lowest Property Tax, Water/Sewer, Fire & Library in South Florida [...]