Community & Philanthropy

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

Compelled to put brush to canvas following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, South Florida artist Maria Arango struggled to come up with a concept that would reflect the loss and sadness surrounding the tragedy. Nothing clicked—that is, until she saw so many high school students standing strong, challenging the political establishment and creating a

In the 20 months since a 29-year-old man staged the deadliest act of violence against the American LGBT community, activists in a support group for survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando had tried in vain to move the state legislative needle on any issue related to assault weapons. On Feb. 12, members of

Editor’s note: Two weeks before he was killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Alex Schachter composed the following free-verse poem, an assignment for a literary fair. His father, Max, recited the poem toward the end of the CNN town hall at the BB&T Center in Sunrise; his brother, Ryan, read the

It had been exactly one week since a gunman had shot and killed 17 students and teachers (and wounded 17 others) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But this wasn’t the night to grieve. This was the night to vent. And demand action. The survivors and parents who took the stage at BB&T Center in

By Grace Solomon   We awoke that morning to a day that felt like any other. We hurried through our morning ritual, a routine of tooth-brushing, cereal-pouring, lunch-making and other usual tasks that eventually led us out the front door and on the road to school. For some, it would be for the last time.

Students throughout the tri-county region refused to wait for the National School Walkout in March to make their voices heard in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. In the week following the Feb. 14 attack, high school students from Hialeah Senior High, Western High in Davie, Cypress Bay in

For some Marjory Stoneman Douglas students and families, rage over what happened on Feb. 14 turned into activism for gun control reform. For others, lingering questions and racing thoughts about that day resulted in nightmares and insomnia. And for an untold number of people, the aftershock has yet to reverberate. Perhaps, according to experts, it

Returning to School Jude: When they were calling attendance that first morning, and we didn’t hear the names of the [students] who died, that’s when everyone started getting sad. Ameer: It was a relief and it was sad, seeing everyone. You saw your friends who were there [when the shooting started], you gave hugs. I

We were in our fourth-period creative writing class, Room 1255. Miss Lippel’s class. That classroom was our safe place. We were just that big happy family. We would share and tell our stories; that’s what brought us together. We were all just really, really happy; the day was going to end great. It was Valentine’s

My name was thrown into the hands of the media by [fellow student] David Hogg; he and I were friends before all this. He figured he could use my help in keeping the media’s attention. My first interview was the night after the shooting with [CNN’s] Anderson Cooper, alongside Isabelle Robinson and Lex Michael. Members

I’m running on adrenaline, but I’m on a mission. There is no other time. It’s not too soon to talk about the issues surrounding what happened in Parkland. It’s too late. So I will be relentless in Tallahassee. And I will be relentless in Washington, D.C. There were failures on so many levels. Human failures.