Community & Philanthropy

Just west of Wynwood, near Miami International Airport, one of Florida’s tallest murals stretches more than 13 stories high. Artist Rey Jaffet spent nearly four months hand-painting the piece—splashed in vibrant red, purple and yellow hues and titled “We Are One”—onto the eastern façade of Pinnacle Heights, an affordable housing community created by Pinnacle Housing

It’s Wednesday morning at Liberty Elementary School on the Margate-Coconut Creek border, and fifth-grade teacher Keri Carrow is reviewing a science lesson with her students. Next to one fifth-grader is someone you usually wouldn’t see in a fifth-grade class: Stephanie Vargas, a senior from Monarch High School. While the class takes the science test on

The Margate-Coconut Creek Kiwanis Club has raised money and hosted events for children in the community for 45 years, and its president and soon-to-be lieutenant governor, John Francis, has memories for more than a quarter of them. Though Francis has plenty of memories of helping children during his 16 years with the Kiwanis Club, there

Photos by Paul Miller It’s a Wednesday morning at North Broward Preparatory School, but in Anastasia Hall’s first-period class, students aren’t huddled over desks or textbooks. In Entrepreneurial Studies I, teams of students walk to the front of the classroom group by group to present the logo and mission of fictional brands they’ve created. After

By Anna Noriega / Photos by Matt Rice Photography / Photographed at the Deering Estate The holidays are here, and what better hallmark of the season than a wreath? We display ours to better deck the halls and share end-of-year cheer, but they can hang on your front door to greet guests all season long.

Photo by Eduardo Schneider Noel Glacer walked into a seminar earlier this year being hosted by a fledgling nonprofit in Parkland. His son, Jake, then a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, had witnessed four classmates being shot (one of whom died). Like so many other parents in the aftermath of the Feb. 14

Margate-Coconut Creek Fire Department Capt. Matt Whiteshield remembers hearing about a 7-year-old boy who was visiting his grandmother for Christmas a few years ago. He was upset because he wouldn’t be home for Christmas and thought Santa Claus wouldn’t be able to find him. But Whitefield made sure Santa paid him a special visit. “His

Eight years ago, student Stefano Selorio began his professional journey, thanks to Junior Achievement of South Florida. It started when he was in the fifth grade and participated in JA BizTown program, which teaches youths how to run companies through hands-on role playing and handle their personal finances. BizTown resembles an indoor business hub with

While campaigning for a spot on the Coconut Creek city commission in 2008, Mikkie Belvedere got a taste of the city’s diversity but was disheartened to hear some residents lacked local connections. “When I would say to a resident, ‘Could you introduce me to your neighbor?’ [they would say] ‘Well, I don’t know my neighbor.

In the nearly six months since 17 people were killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, consensus has been hard to find. Gun-reform issues have sent people to their respective corners. The work of student advocates has been equally polarizing. And lawmakers at the national level have been unable to advance game-changing

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

In the weeks following the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, the words and actions of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas resonated from coast to coast, prompting a nationwide discussion and, at the state level, legislative change to Florida’s gun laws. But it’s the future of students at Stoneman Douglas that prompted action by a Boca