Things We Loved in December–Year End Edition

Community Greening, a Delray non-profit, was one of the year’s bright spots. Among the many projects completed by volunteers was an effort to plant 100 trees in a two-acre retention area in the Lake Ida neighborhood.

Things we loved in December

Congratulations to Sgt. Steve Hynes who retired in December to take a senior position with the Federal Emergency Management Agency based in Atlanta.

Steve was a fine officer and a good guy.

He contributed a lot to emergency management policy in Delray before returning to the road a few years back.

We’ve been friends for years and I always enjoyed our conversations about local government, organizational leadership and how things work (or often don’t) and why.

I wish him well at FEMA. It’s a good move. And much deserved.

Kudos to Delray based Community Greening, a wonderful non-profit that has planted over 3,300 trees at schools, parks and neighborhoods since 2016.

Recent highlights include planting more than 150 trees on the campus of Village Academy and creating a “food forest” in West Palm Beach with 53 fruit trees. How cool is that?

Good to see this wonderful organization grow bigger and better every year.

Congratulations also to former Boca police chief Dan Alexander. Chief Alexander started his new job as director of school district police.

He will do a great job.

Boca Lead continues to impress us.

Pastor Bill Mitchell delivers timely and useful messages the first Thursday of every month at Boca Community Church. There’s also a new dinner series the first Thursday as well if you can’t make the lunch meeting.

The event is a secular affair and attracts a wide range of business, civic, non-profit and educational leaders.

Check out Pastor Mitchell’s free e-books, they are terrific and think about getting tickets to Boca Lead. But hurry they go fast.

Also congratulations to Bill and his lovely wife Elizabeth on his 10 years as pastor at Boca Community. To access the e-books visit www.heisherebooks.com.

Random Thoughts

Happiness is Shake Shack on a beautiful December day. Nothing beats sitting outside and savoring a great burger.

I love the Corner Bakery…there I said it.

We bid a fond farewell to Coastal Tire and Auto Service which closed up shop in Boca after 52 years of loyal service.

Coastal Tire was a favorite of locals and they were successful in forging lifelong friendships with generations of valued customers. That’s a rarity these days.

The land was sold and that prompted the closing. We thank Coastal Tire for their half century of service. The moms and pops are local treasures and they are precious parts of the community that we should savor, support and celebrate.

Congratulations to the City of Boca on the Brightline deal.

Visionary thinking + Strong leadership = a bright future.

Eliot Winokur has a lot to be happy about these days

The 75-year-old Delray Beach man won five swimming events in his 75 to 79 age group and placed third in the other in the annual Florida Senior Games. Oh and he set a slew of age group records along the way. Amazing.

When a container storing holiday gifts sprung a leak and ruined a slew of toys collected by the Delray Beach Police Department it could have been a disaster.

But thanks to big hearts and generosity, the community stepped up to replace the toys ensuring that hundreds of needy children would have gifts for Christmas. Bravo!

Congratulations to Roby & Suze on their return to Channel 12.

The dynamic duo will bring their Rise+Live show to CBS 12 on January 3 at 9:30. That will be the regular time so make sure to tune in every Friday.

If you prefer to see these great personalities live and in person check them out every Friday at 8:30 at The Heart of Delray Gallery.

The show also streams on YouTube, Facebook and their website.

Good to hear Coco Gauff will play an exhibition before a hometown crowd at the Delray Open.

Also good to see the frivolous lawsuit against the event settled.

On a sad note, Joseph Segel, the founder of the QVC shopping network and a resident of Delray passed in December. He was a true pioneer of TV and retailing. There was a wonderful tribute to Mr. Segel in the Wall Street Journal. He also founded the Franklin Mint.

Some restaurant notes.

The bison burger at Harvest is terrific.

Caffe Luna Rosa makes the very best chicken sandwich.

We discovered Mana, a Greek restaurant in Boynton and it’s terrific.

Rose’s Daughter continues to impress.

The new renovations at Prime Catch in Boynton Beach are something to see.

Please support your local businesses especially those in Pineapple Grove impacted by the construction of The Ray Hotel. Can’t recommend Papas Tapas, Brule, Joseph’s Wine Bar and Christina’s enough. They are standouts.

Have a happy and safe New Year!

Things We Loved in December–Year End Edition

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