Pamela Larkin finds truest self in her studio
Pamela Larkin Caruso sets her coffee down next to a laptop at her kitchen counter in Jupiter Heights – her virtual art sales office – then heads into a garage-turned studio in this suburban area east of Donald Ross Road. In a sunlit work space also housing the family bicycles, Larkin (she uses her maiden name professionally) mixes her colors and resumes work on a painting in progress. For the Pleasantville, NY-born Larkin, art means representational, contemporary works, mostly oil paintings on canvas incorporating her favorite themes of hearts, satirical figures and botanical elements. She works on canvas and other materials in mostly large sizes several feet across and always full of color, always changing and in revision until the moment she finally signs a painting. Larkin produces about 75 to 100 artworks a year and has been featured in exhibitions mostly in Florida, Texas and New York, all places where she has lived. “I paint swiftly, and I don’t sketch out and design paintings – I just go to the canvas and draw and paint,” said Larkin, a self-described working mother with a bachelor of fine arts from the State University of New York College at Oswego and a master of fine arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology, both in New York. READ MORE
Struggling Gardens school to be transformed
The Medical Science Academy at Howell L. Watkins Middle School in Palm Beach Gardens will undergo a $10,000 transformation this summer. When the sixth, seventh and eighth graders return to school on Aug. 15, the former home-economics room will look more like a hospital and less like a kitchen. “Right now, the construction is our No. 1 priority,” Principal Glenda Sheffield said about the renovation of Room 3-103. “We need to build fidelity into the program.” The program, a three-year medical magnet intensive, teaches youths about career opportunities in the healthcare field. The hands-on, laboratory-style courses have drawn middle schoolers from as far south as Boynton Beach, and as far west as Loxahatchee, to the Title 1 school, where 85 percent of the children receive free or reduced-price lunches. “Watkins used to be a premiere school,” Sheffield said. “I am determined that before I leave H.L. Watkins, they will be knocking down the doors. We are determined to make a difference.” READ MORE
New hope for age related brain disorders
Scripps researchers have identified five separate drug compounds that hold promise toward effective control of some currently fatal neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Fronto-Temporal Dementia and others. The research has also revealed links between these human diseases and so-called “prion” diseases, i.e., Mad Cow disease. The researchers themselves include Corinne Lasmezas, DVM, PhD, working with a team of other scientists at the Scripps Research Institute’s Department of Infectology in Jupiter. Prion diseases are caused by prions – altered forms of normal cellular protein. In humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a rare prion disease that is inherited, can occur for no known reason or through exposure to contaminated products. READ MORE
The Morning Glories spread joy and love to the aged
The elderly man in the wheelchair smiled wider than anyone in the room when the woman in the red sweater got down on one knee and sang to him. Another resident at St. Joseph’s Assisted Living Community pushed aside her walker and reached out for a kiss from the lyrical lady in the glittery hat and vest. The Morning Glories, a troupe of 22 women who bring songs and joy to nursing homes and hospitals throughout the county, gave an infectious performance at the Jupiter facility that left the infirm audience grinning and giddy. “It really brought that joy to them, and they were able to get out of their shells,” said Sonia Carmona, activities director at the center. The Morning Glories presented an intimate show that included choreography and costume changes, hymns and prayers, tambourines and wind chimes, and lots of hugs and handholding. “And they really brought it out,” Carmona said. “They brought it out through music, through props, through gestures and through dance. I thought it was beautiful.” READ MORE
Camps spark arts interest by young
School’s out, but there are plenty of arts activities available during the hot months to keep young minds active, engaged and learning. From music and singing lessons, dance classes, theater, art, set and costume design, to jamming in a rock band, creating found eco-art, cartooning and ceramics, the possibilities for young people ages 3 through high school are plentiful this summer: Here are some highlights from some of the local summer arts programs: • Write and produce your own original show at the Eissey Campus Theatre. • Learn the Suzuki violin method, or take lessons in piano, guitar, or even ukulele at the Jupiter Academy of Music. • Rock out in a band during the Atlantic Arts Academy’s 3-week rock band intensive program. • Study ballet with professional dancers at Florida Classical Ballet Theatre’s ballet workshops, including classes for 3-year olds. • Collaborate with professional actors and directors and star in a theatrical production of Honk, Jr. or Footloose at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s Conservatory of Performing Arts. Or tour the Everglades with the Blue Earth Summer ArtCamp at the Lighthouse Center for the Arts. READ MORE
Baseball legend leads cystic fibrosis fishing tournament into 12th season
Baseball Hall-of-Famer Mike Schmidt will step up to the plate for the 12th time during the annual Winner’s Circle Invitational fishing tournament to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The longtime Admiral’s Cove resident and former Philadelphia Phillies third baseman will hustle a team of 29 boats over to the Bahamas for the three-day event. The tournament will raise an estimated $150,000 to help patients fighting the chronic, incurable condition. “I have a lot of respect now for the disease, as well as all of the people our tournament touches,” Schmidt, 61, said. “Everything that I do from a charitable standpoint ends up being connected to CF.” Schmidt’s connection to CF came through his daughter, who attended The Benjamin School in North Palm Beach with Brett Weinstein, the tournament’s honoree. Brett died at the age of 20 while awaiting a double lung transplant. The Schmidts and the Weinsteins became close family friends during the children’s high-school years and took a boating trip to Abacoa together when Brett was a junior. READ MORE
Keeping kids from overdosing on meds
When it comes to labels, you could call Robert Terwilliger, CEO of AccuDial Pharmaceutical in Palm Beach Gardens, calculating -- and not willing for risk to be part of the equation. His company’s product solves a problem and fills a need -- containers for child medicines that make kid tampering and accidental under-and-over dosing by parents impossible. Children in close proximity to medicines spell trouble, which is why we’ve had some kind of childproof caps for quite a while. But most are not childproof, Terwilliger said. “They are only tamper resistant.” And then there’s the other problem – parents miscalculating doses. “The directions on most children’s medications are vague. So Kaplan of Palm Beach Gardens created the double label concept that would make calculating the right amount of medicine foolproof, and Terwilliger, a Singer Island resident and successful businessman whose latest ventures included launching three startups and taking one of them public, offered his expertise to bring it to market. READ MORE
Belly dancing: A celebration of feminine energy, beauty and sensuality
The atonal sounds of Egyptian shaabi (ghetto folk music) music fill the air. Low-slung hip scarves with gold and silver coins jingle-jangle, finger cymbals clang, and a small group of women undulate hips and shimmy shoulders, following the lead of belly dance instructor Dawn Gündüz as she shivers and sways to the rhythm of a record called Ayazono. Gündüz, dressed in a traditional bedlah, or sequined bra top with billowy pantaloons adorned with a fringed and ornate hip scarf, demonstrates the proper execution of a move known as the “Egyptian hip circle.” Students bend low at the waist, shadowing Gündüz, and make a large clockwise circle from the waist up, while holding hair out of the way. The group kicks and pliés sashaying hips from left to right to left to the beat of the plaintive music. And so begins Gündüz’s Sunday afternoon intermediate belly dance class at her Imperial Belly Dance Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens. READ MORE
Jewish Community Center gets land, and $1 million pledge
The Jewish Community Center (JCC) of the Palm Beaches has secured a 14-acre site in Palm Beach Gardens and a $1 million pledge by a local philanthropist. The gift from Peggy S. Brown puts JCC two-thirds of the way toward its goal of $15 million for a 37,000-square-foot facility with daycare, aquatics center, summer camps, sports fields and a full-scale gymnasium. The JCC said the center will offer working families affordable, high-quality care for infants and children up to pre-kindergarten age and will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will also be after-school and adult programs, said Michelle Wasch Lobovits, JCC executive director and founder of the Jewish Women’s Foundation. “It’s a very exciting, new vision,” Lobovits said. “I think the community’s also excited to have this coming.” Last week, JCC contracted to purchase 14 acres off Hood Road, just west of Central Boulevard, for about $4 million. Plans call for preserving the existing forest and wetlands and adding walkways, pavilions and a ropes course to highlight the natural setting. READ MORE
Old instruments make beautiful new music
Wendy Maus is on a mission to drag some old players out of the closet. She’s not afraid of the sax. Or of the trumpet, timpani and drums. But she is concerned there are too many music students who could use a forgotten instrument. Even an old oboe can make new sounds. So Maus and other volunteers at Jupiter Performing Arts Fund started New Life For Old Notes, a concerted effort to put unused musical instruments into the hands of eager students in the public schools. The Fund is a registered not-for-profit group that assists students and band directors. Members will pick up and refurbish unwanted or unused instruments and the donor receives a tax deduction. The effort has netted 26 instruments so far, including drums and a French horn at the high school, a xylophone for a middle school and an impressive baby grand piano that occupies its own practice room at Jupiter Middle School. “We just saw a great need for it in the schools,” said Bari Axelband, president of the Fund. “We try to raise money for unbudgeted items and there is a continuous need for instruments. READ MORE
Max Planck research goes on even as walls go up
Workers topped out the last beam last week on Max Planck Florida Institute’s new home, a 100,000-square-foot biomedical research laboratory adjoining Scripps Florida on the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University. “We’re taking a moment to celebrate putting the final beam in place,” said Dr. David Fitzpatrick, CEO and scientific director for Max Planck Florida. Fitzpatrick told a gathering of supporters and local dignitaries the lab’s focus will be on understanding neural circuits and the roles those circuits play in health and disease. Fitzpatrick pointed out an image of the goddess Minerva on the final steel beam, noting it is the symbol for Max Planck. In Greek mythology, Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter, king of the gods. “It’s about jobs, educational opportunities and creating a dynamic economy for north Palm Beach County,” Jupiter Mayor Karen Golonka said. “This center for innovation and discovery has created a sense of pride in our community.” READ MORE
Winning driver rides away on high note
After driving away with high honors for a quarter-century, Jupiter Island’s Tucker Johnson is trading applause and the cheers of equestrian enthusiasts for more time at school and at family functions. Having driven with and against the best horsemen in the world, Johnson said finishing at the top of his game made retiring from competitive four-in-hand driving a bit easier. Drivers work the horse teams at several speeds, through arduous obstacles -- including water -- across hills and through improbably narrow paths marked by traffic cones. Fans see an exciting, intense show as the horses, driver and grooms hurtle about the course, while impeccably dressed in crisp, formal wear. “There are probably few circumstances in my life where tens of thousands of people will be clapping for me,” said Johnson, a six-time U.S. champion. “He’s a fierce competitor and wants to win,” said Chester Weber, a top driver from Ocala who’s shared two team USA silver medals with Johnson in international competition. READ MORE
