After scratching his itch to experience the West, Mitchell Kaplan found himself at a crossroads. “Like a lot of other English majors, you graduate and you panic a little bit, which is what I did,” says the Miami-born Kaplan about what he felt after attending the University of Colorado. “I ended up going to law
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After her husband, Paul, was killed in an auto accident in Texas that also left her and her son, Dustin, hospitalized, Abby Mosher was confident that she and Dustin would return home to Broward County to resources to help them process their grief. Mosher, who was then working with the Coconut Creek Elementary PTA, was
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For Ryan Zuckerman and his father, Andy, going to work every day isn’t just about making a living. It’s about continuing a family legacy that’s nearly a century old. They are business partners, along with Andy’s brothers, David and Steven, at Zuckerman Homes, the beginnings of which are told through photographs on the walls of
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Before Glenn Sime started working for Coconut Creek 17 years ago, he worked for six other municipalities—some bigger and some smaller. But the code compliance supervisor agrees that, of all the cities for which he’s worked, Creek’s government tries to do everything it can to make the city a good place for residents. One way
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Less than 24 hours after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Coconut Creek police officer Michael Leonard became the face of Broward County’s first responders when he stood in front of the nation’s news cameras and recounted how he apprehended the person responsible for one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. Since
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Though Robert C. Mattes majored in outdoor recreation and psychology at Plymouth State University, it took becoming the recreation director for the city of Hopkinton, New Hampshire, to see that working in parks and recreation could be, to use his word, “wonderful.” “It really wasn’t until I started that career that I realized this isn’t
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When Kyle Woodard started teaching music last year at Dave Thomas Education Center, one of the first things he did was paint the room a bright orange, which he believes enlivens students when they come in for class. And on a recent day at the Coconut Creek school, it was obviously so. On a TV
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The newest Creek Idol shares his experiences When Louis Sanders was expanding his musical talent at Polk State College (then Polk Community College), he discovered that while he could write songs, he couldn’t seem to play them. Whether he attempted to learn how to play piano or pluck a bass guitar, his fingers “just wouldn’t
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More than 20 years ago, Joan and Bob Nast often would visit local hospitals and pray for sick children. Though they saw many children recover and go on to lead happy lives, they also saw a lot of pain—pain they felt they could help alleviate in some way. “Bobby and I said to each other
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When Leo Moleiro became Coconut Creek’s special events planner in June 2016, he was confident about what his job would entail. But something kept coming up. “When I first started working here, [everyone said], ‘Hey, you’d better get ready for the Butterfly Festival,’ ” Moleiro says. “I was like, ‘Well, it’s June. I’ve got eight
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At Coconut Creek Elementary School, Christine Bazos doesn’t just teach first-graders about math, reading and social studies. She’s also a caretaker for the children growing up to become leaders. “We try to teach them, even at a very young age, to be the best person they can be—to help others, to not think of themselves
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Though David Hochfeld worked a variety of jobs over the years, including 10 years in the restaurant industry, a part of him was always stifled. “I was always an actor at heart,” Hochfeld says. “I was in every play in school.” Hochfeld didn’t find an outlet for his talent until he attended the Renaissance Festival
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