Community & Philanthropy

Flowers and music and lighting and linens, oh my! Planning and designing an event as meaningful (and, potentially, as complex) as a wedding can become overwhelming in no time at all. As an event designer and owner of luxury floral design and management company Alorè Event Firm, I’m asked by clients to create experiences that

Photos by Eduardo Schneider A casual observer of the group of teens who were gathered on a Tuesday night at the Coconut Creek public services building might mistake them for a Harry Potter fan club. But a closer look would reveal the black T-shirts the teens were wearing are only inspired by the aesthetics of

From the outside, everything at 10812 Buttonwood Lake Drive in the gated Hidden Lakes community in Boca Raton appeared normal. The three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot, two-story house was well-maintained, the lawn was mowed, the hedges trimmed. The tenants, Alfonso Baldonado Jr., 46, and his wife, Sophia Manuel, 41, were a friendly couple who owned a successful staffing

Photos courtesy of Honor Flight South Florida The singing started about 5:30 a.m., just as the chartered Spirit Airlines Flight 1941 taxied down the runway at Fort Lauderdale International Airport. The impromptu rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” began softly, with a few warbled baritone voices rising from the back of the plane. Slowly, more and

Pictured above: Creek celebrated 30 years as a Tree City USA in 2018; Vollmer is pictured far left, holding a special award from the foundation With its standing as home to Butterfly World, events like the Butterfly Festival, and a butterfly garden at City Hall, most people can see why Coconut Creek is known as the Butterfly

Photo by Eileen Saavedra   Chickens. It was thousands of chickens that started Coconut Creek resident Brook Katz on his crusade of rescuing animals. Before moving to South Florida in 2006 to care for his aging parents, Katz lived for 10 years in Maui, Hawaii. There, he noticed huge metal sheds on a site where

Though youth remain at the heart of the formidable work being done throughout the state by Children’s Home Society of Florida, it’s the family core that’s driving the esteemed nonprofit organization’s bigger intentions. Since its inception more than a century ago in Jacksonville, CHS has been one of Florida’s most prominent and persistent voices when

Pictured above: Festival founder Kate Reed, host chef Angelo Elia, and festival vice president Phillip Marro   Bringing in celebrity chefs from Los Angeles and New York to draw crowds is a recipe that works for other food festivals. But as the framework for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Food & Wine Festival began to take shape,

Rarely does a high school student’s excuse for missing a final exam come off sounding like Ivy League material. Then again, how many teenagers have to be in Washington, D.C., on a school night because the nonprofit organization they helped to create is being honored with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award? In the

When Samantha Novick remembers Jaime Guttenberg, she thinks of the way she interacted with others during programs run by The Friendship Journey, an organization that promotes fostering relationships with individuals with special needs and developing a more thoughtful understanding of that community. Jaime’s friends, Novick says, couldn’t wait to see her every week. “She had

For years, Coconut Creek staff has looked for a way to share current and upcoming projects with residents. They experimented with tables and online portals, but, says Sustainable Development Director Sheila Rose, they were never user-friendly. Recently, the city introduced a solution: a web application from ESRI, a digital mapping company whose software is used

Runners who live in Coconut Creek recognize North Creek Presbyterian Church as the site of the annual North Creek Explorer 5K (pictured above), a race that benefits the Coconut Creek Police Department Explorers. But the church, which has been a Creek staple for more than 20 years, also reaches out to the community through other