Category Archives: Awesome People

Amazing Talent….

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I’ve mentioned last week and this are extra busy and I’m not going to get into everything added in for next week. One of the events was/is attending Aida, the first summer production of our community theater, The Seminole Players. Other than “A Christmas Carol” in December, the performances have all been musicals. This year, the Director decided to go with something less well-known – the Broadway musical version of Aida, done by Elton John and Tim Rice. Most of us were puzzled and much of the community was unclear as to what it was about. The theatre PR folks sent out clips to look at/listen to and snippets from rehearsals. Our regular group split up a bit as to which performances to attend. Two went to opening night last Friday and when we saw them at another event on Saturday, they gave it rave reviews. With a cast of around 30, the range of talent was from very good to great. At almost two-and-a-half hours (a short intermission), there was a level of energy though to keep it from dragging.

Those of us who went to the Sunday matinee were still not quite prepared for the incredible voices, the excellent choreography and the smoothness of the flow. The songs were good and I suspect the bits of humor thrown in might not have been in the original opera. The tragic theme remained, however, and played true to the love triangle caught up in dynamics beyond their control.

Facebook has been filled with photos and compliments which I hope will translate into full audiences for this weekend. Attendance has been good, but not quite what the staff was looking for. On the other hand, when you try something new, reluctance to embrace it is not uncommon. Word is spreading and we’ll see what the final count turns out to be.

No doubt the August show, “The Little Mermaid”, will be a sell-out as was “Annie” last year.

Not That We Miss It……

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A tricky maneuver for demonstration

When we made the decision to relocate here, it was because of the scuba diving. I could write anywhere and being in a place with an active military base was not one of our criteria. It would have been a nice “plus”, but unlike quite a few people we know, it was not a deciding factor. Even though Homestead Air Reserve Base (HARB) has few benefits for us, in our work with the community paper, we always have “first cut” on any military related event. When people ask us if we miss the military, the answer is, “no”, as our time has come and gone. That doesn’t mean we don’t tell “war stories” as all of us are prone to do.

It is nice though to occasionally spend time around the military and yesterday was one of them. The U.S. Army Parachute Team, the Golden Knights, come here for three months each year for their winter training. They appear at different events and this year for the first time, they invited other teams to come in for this final week for them to do what is referred to as joint and interoperability training. That means training with units you don’t normally train with. In this case, they had two other Army teams – one from Fort Bragg, NC and one from Fort Benning, GA. The U.S. Navy team was in from San Diego, CA, and the U.S. Air Force Academy Team from CO. The British Team rounded things out.

Due to an oddity of timing, Hubby and I actually spent about four hours with them as they went up and then did maneuvers in the air and made these incredible landings on a fairly small field. They were doing multiple drops which means groups are split, go up, drop, land, repack their parachutes and go again. Hubby actually went up in the plane to get some interior shots and I opted to stay on the ground. (It’s very noisy on those aircraft and they are

not built for comfort. I did enough of that when I was on active duty.)

It was tiring, but fun and the piece I did for the paper was short since it was primarily a photo opportunity. I did take pages of notes though since I had the extra time.

 

Demonstration Parachute Team from Fort Bragg – The Black Daggers

Heartbreaking and Heartwarming….

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Last Saturday was worse than usual from a time-management perspective. Hubby had to guide a dive, but the Camera Club was also having a tent at the City’s Eco Fair and that happens to be our tent. So, I had to drop the tent and other items at the park, then go to a nearby location to cover a story for the paper, then get back to the museum (across from the park) to open it early since the Eco Fair started at noon and our director doesn’t usually come in until 1:00, the regular time. Then it was a late lunch, take lunch to Hubby who had come straight from work, and home for a bit to get ready to go to the football game in my Chamber of Commerce Board Member role. (We did only stay for the first quarter, but that took us until almost 8:30) This litany is not to garner sympathy, but rather to semi-explain why I wasn’t wildly enthusiastic about going to cover the story. Except, this is another of those occasions where I met a young woman with a remarkable story. The piece will run in tomorrow’s paper.

The woman, who founded Sadie’s Daughter and later Sadie’s Kids, did so because she was placed into foster care at age seven and remained in the system until age eighteen. The abuse and childhood trauma she had suffered were heartbreaking to hear and even though she was determined to make a better life through education, there was the teenage pregnancy to deal with and several different paths she took before settling on the right one for her. In the “not your usual” angle, she did become an automobile mechanic and did some modeling on the side. And yes, in looking at her, the modeling was easy to see. Her non-profit is dedicated to mentoring foster children/teens and teaching life skills such as financial literacy, how to prepare for a job interview, etc., Her own experiences give her solid credibility and each of her now three children as well as her husband often join her in helping. She ultimately decided to major in Psychology, works her actual job with autistic children and is chipping away at a Masters. Give yourself a lift and check out https://www.sadiesdaughter.org

A Remarkable Young Man…

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This is actually a follow-on to the post about STEM and STEAM. I just sent in the article for this week’s South Dade News Leader, so consider this as an “insider” preview.  Each year non-profit grants are awarded by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). These are special funds put in place after Hurricane Andrew that will expire in another few years. The CRA has different grant programs and one is focused on non-profits that support education, enrichment, etc., within a specified area of town where many families struggle economically. There are always more applicants than funding and the committee carefully reads all proposals to determine which ones are most likely to be able to have an impact and responsibly manage the funds.

Brandon Okpalobi, founder and CEO of DIBIA Athletic Development, established Dibia Dream in 2014 as a non-profit in order to expand their community outreach to students. While this is not uncommon within corporations, Brandon’s background, success, and sincerity in what he does is truly heart-warming. Originally from New Orleans, he was removed from his second grade class for being such a disruptive influence. In the way alternative classes are supposed to work, his life was pointed in the right direction and he learned to channel his tumultuous emotions correctly. I may be able to hear the whole story someday, but he left New Orleans later, was a walk-on to the U of Miami basketball team and in founding his business, he’s won a string of awards. From the very beginning, he did outreach for under-served youth because he knows it can make a difference.  All their different programs are listed on their website of https://dibiadream.org

Even though there are moments when trying to juggle writing for the paper and other things is tiring, getting to meet people like Brandon is always worthwhile.

 

Very Pleasantly Surprised…..

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I have mentioned before we don’t really do musicals, but have been to some of the performances at our Seminole Theatre to support the theater. In view of the fact we’ve had almost non-stop events and company all the way through Jan 2, looking at our tickets for the show F”orever Young, Your Life, Your Music” on Jan 4th gave us pause. On the other hand, we did have the tickets and we did have time to enjoy dinner before going to the theater. There was a decent-size crowd, but timing no doubt affected a number of decisions about attending. We said hi to friends, chatted with the theater director who told us it wasn’t really a musical; more like a music revue. Okay, we’re good with that.

What a great time we had. “Based on a true story” doesn’t always mean that, but for the sake of this, we’ll assume it’s close. Five guys who love playing baseball together in NYC hang out in a basement and all discover different songs they really love. They go through all the teen things one goes through, certain songs making memories. The five split into their separate ways; a couple of them in fact as singers; one a baseball player. At some point, they each come to realize music is what they are truly passionate about and want to have a shot at. They individually start performing, and ultimately make their way to Branson where there are lots of singing gigs available. One of the guys teams with his brother to capture all this by creating Forever Young.

The 2-hour show with intermission was not-stop, high energy, and incredible voices. There is narration as opposed to dialogue, but everything flows together seamlessly and the range of songs are from the 1950s to more or less current. It was a terrific evening and I’m glad we went.

Forever Young is set in a NY basement. Great show.

(https://www.foreveryoungbranson.com)

You Never Quite Know….

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In the course of writing for our weekly community paper, I’ve run across some people who’ve done some remarkable things “back in their day”. As time passes, their accomplishments are certainly dimmed, if not forgotten. In a case like this, it was something not locally known. The full article I wrote is here: http://www.southdadenewsleader.com/eedition/page-a/page_95874306-7dde-54f3-841a-d10e560a297f.html

One of the guys on active duty reached out to the newspaper publisher to tell him about Joyce Kutsch, one of two women to be the first to go through U.S. Army Airborne training in 1973. That was during the initial phases of closing out the Women’s Army Corps (as well as the other women’s services) and integrating women into the regular services. Jump school, as it is commonly referred to, has never been easy. Yes, people who sky dive for fun can go out and get a quick lesson, especially if they’re planning a tandem jump of jumping together with a professional. Military jumping is quite different and in Joyce’s case even more so. She was to go to jump school because it was a prerequisite to being a parachute rigger. This was one of the male-only fields (except for necessity during WW II) opened to women in 1973. While the specialty does mean packing parachutes for soldiers, it also involves packing for equipment drops; everything from pallets of supplies to vehicles. Try figuring out how to rig a 5-ton truck for a drop and you get the idea of skill required.
In addition to being a rigger, Joyce was assigned to Fort Bragg in support of the 82d Airborne Division and finding a more testosterone-filled unit would be difficult. Like many “inadvertent pioneers” at the time, Joyce wasn’t looking to make history, but she and the other women weren’t going to let skepticism and derision nor the intense physicality of the training/follow-on duties stop them.
Despite forging the way for other women, Joyce didn’t stay for a career and she wound up here and has been a postal carrier for more than twenty years. Interviewing her was a delight and we’ll be staying in touch.

 

Veterans Day and Memories…..

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For most people today, the idea of women in the military is considered so normal they don’t realize the different women’s services were actually in effect until the 1970s. In other words, the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), the Women’s Army Nurse Corps, Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES) for the Navy, and Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) were all separate organizations with distinct rules as to how women could be assigned and were controlled by women. The structure was for women to be assigned only within the female service and while they had duty assignments with men, they came under the administration of other women. There were also rules such as a woman could be married, but not remain in service if she had children. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I came in during the transition period when women were being phased into the regular services and therefore I met a number of senior women who had only been familiar with the separated services. As usually happens in a major organizational shift, there were those who looked forward to the new opportunities and those who were not able to adapt.

There was of course tremendous resistance in some cases, both male and female who didn’t think integration could be successful. It was probably true there was more reluctance on the male side because they had difficulty in imagining women could handle jobs in traditionally male fields. Part of the transition was the restriction of women going into branches of Infantry, Armor, Artillery, Field Artillery and Combat Engineers. Those branches were restricted until such time as they could work out physical requirements and the psychological impact of women being placed at the “front lines”. As the type of warfare shifted so “front lines” became blurred, the very real issue of physical requirements for certain things also underwent changes due to technology advances. Some tasks that required brute strength such as lifting 50-plus pound artillery rounds were made easier by auto-loaders. In other cases, there is simply no way to lessen the muscle-driven demand. It’s not that some women aren’t as strong as some men; they, however, are the exception rather than the average. And so, when people ask me if I think it’s fair when women are still restricted from specific duties, my response is, “the mission must always come first”.

And Another Good Cause…..

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I often do a post after I submit an article for the paper when it comes to non-profit groups. Almost everyone who writes for our weekly paper is a stringer, but we do have more-or-less “beats”. It’s no surprise I focus on the military, but also non-profits, certain aspects of education, and generally heart-warming things. I do, at times, get the heart-breaking as well, but thankfully those are less frequent.

In this case, there was a piece I intended to do months ago, but other topics kept bumping it back since it wasn’t time-sensitive. Among our tourist attractions, we have the Everglades Alligator farm with air boat rides, plenty of gators and so forth. When the kids were here right after Christmas, we thought two-and-a-half for Amelia was probably still a bit young for that, but we also have the Everglades Outpost Refuge. It is actually on the way to the other and I thought it would be more age-appropriate. A plus was that before son was diverted by his passion for dance, he intended to be a wildlife ecologist and work with restoring animal habitats. So off they went and had a wonderful time. Their description of the place was far different from what I was expecting and I mentally filed away a story.

Anyway, back in 1991, a couple who had some acreage in Redland officially established an animal refuge since in truth, they’d been doing that in an unofficial capacity. The founder had his first pet alligator around age six and there are both odd laws and illegal activities that cause non-native animals to be in a situation to need rescue. Basically, when the Florida Wildlife agents conduct a raid and find something like a tiger, they need somewhere to put it. In other cases, there are native animals hurt that need rehabilitation. The website for the Outpost has all sorts of stories, photos, and some video clips. https://www.evergladesoutpost.org

In essence, they are on “speed dial” for the Florida Wildlife agents and they are linked with other groups around the state. The resident camel that certainly can’t be released into the Florida wild was at another place in Florida and the owner was having too many issues with him. The three gray wolves (mostly wolf with a little bit of dog) were born into captivity, yet again, they aren’t native to Florida. They’ll be in residence unless someone else is willing to adopt them. As I mention in the article I did for the paper last week, there is never a shortage of good causes to support. This is one I can vouch for if helping wild animals is something you care about.

Another Musician From Our Time….

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Ah, Aretha Franklin, whom I never heard in concert, but did admire. A voice lost to us as have been others in the past few years. Now, as I mentioned a few months ago, we did go see Jimmy Buffet and the Eagles together in concert which was amazing. In fact, last night we went to one of our regular restaurants that has this one guy who plays and sings on Thursday. He takes requests, but mostly does 60s, 70s and 80s with the mix of Croce, Fogelberg, Atlantic Rhythm Section, etc.,. He was good and those songs do bring back memories.

I have often said you know you’re getting older when you are in a music section and look at the top songs unable to tell what the title is from the name of the band. Or you don’t even bother with the Top Tunes stations and instead have Classic Rock or something similar as your pre-programmed stations. C&W is a little different because in general, the top selling new artists aren’t terribly far afield from those of the 70s and beyond. Granted, you go back to the 50s and there will be some noticeable changes.

At any rate, The Queen Of Soul did give us some great songs and I say Rest in Peace with all respect.

What Spirit Does……

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I would say I can’t believe nearly an entire week slipped past me, but there’s been a fair amount of turmoil swirling around the non-profits I work with and some other obligations. The irony of course is this is “the slow time of year” for a number of organizations/individuals. As I’ve explained in previous posts, that doesn’t hold true for Hubby and me.

Anyway, in writing for our weekly community paper, “heartwarming” is one of the areas I specialize in. A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a Facebook post from one of our council members who has a great non-profit of, This Is For The Kids. It’s another one of those that began quietly and small and they’ve steadily grown it. Not beyond local size, but still quite respectable. They do different things throughout the year, but their big event is an annual Rib Fest. In the summer, they select 5 non-profits that mostly (or exclusively) support kid causes. The proceeds from the Oct Rib Fest is then split among the selected five. So, the founder is always on the lookout for other situations and he ran across one a few weeks ago that I then picked up on for a story. It was the the lead piece in the July 20th edition (http://www.southdadenewsleader.com/eedition)

The summary is a young man who was a very promising athlete had swapped from track and field into football. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind he would be a college star with a decent shot at the pros. That was before the automobile wreck where his two best friends were killed and he was left paralyzed from the waist down. You can imagine the impact on the families and fellow students. This is a “small town” despite a rise in population and the track and field coach for one of the other high schools knew of the young man’s athleticism. No one here is involved in adaptive sports, but the coach was sure Isaac would have the ability if he was willing to make the effort.

They worked together for him to focus on wheelchair races, discus, javelin, and shot-put. Not only has he excelled, he is being invited to be a motivational speaker by some notable area athletes. In raising money for him to be able to go to the Junior Olympics last week, he brought home more medals and made more contacts. The hope is he can get a scholarship to one of the colleges/universities where they have an adaptive sports program.