R.JacksonArt working on a piece from a photo

In the actual category of “thinking outside the box”, Natalie Prieto and Carlos Franco of the Children’s Art Gallery at Cauley Square are hard to beat. They can find ways to incorporate art into almost anything and they are completely devoted to making life better through art in many mediums.  So, Natalie goes into Armstrong Ford in Homestead to buy a car. In the way that happens, conversations flow during the process. As luck would have it, Armstrong Ford has a large covered area where they do special promotions throughout the year such as holiday sales and so forth. Well, if you can do that, why not an art exhibit featuring cars?

On Saturday, March 7th, the artists and car guys came together and it was an excellent combination. Painting and sculptures were on display, the local artists were available to talk with people, and I’m not sure how many unsuspecting customers dropped in and were surprised to find themselves in the middle of an art exhibit. If you haven’t been to Cauley Square lately, do stop in and see what all is going on. (http://www.childrensgalleryartscenter.org)

Forgot to get the artist’s name on this one.

I was at the Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards luncheon yesterday and there were six categories of business and individual awards presented. There was a nice crowd since the names of the nominees had been sent to people and the winners kept quiet until the presentations. As the Chair of the Committee said, it was difficult to choose among the nominees because so many of them were strong candidates. The key criteria was in working to help make the community a better place as well as carrying out whatever business was involved. In the case of the Citizen of the Year and the Volunteer of the Year, they were individuals whose service to the community included activity with multiple organizations. Not everyone is in a position to do volunteer work and for a lot of Baby Boomers, it is something we can choose to do in our semi-retired or second (third, etc.) career lives.

This year’s awardees were: Large Business of the Year was Keyes Realty; Small Business was Lumo Graphics; Non-Profit was WeCare; Agriculturist was Medora Krome; Volunteer of the Year was Pastor Brock Schiffer, and Citizen of the Year was Sharon Haxton. I know all the ones selected and many of the nominees, and it was indeed a tough choice. It was good to see everyone recognized and it was an effort on the part of people who nominated them to take the time to do so. These are the type of moments that bring a smile to your face.

I truly intended to post yesterday before we left for the Homestead book fair and that obviously didn’t happen. One of the many fun things about a book fair is when you meet other authors that you don’t know, and in this case it was the recent release of a family history book that took a very unexpected turn. Leonard Mowry of the Homestead pioneering Mowry family began to chronicle his family’s story and vague tales he had heard of his grandfather’s first wife led him down a different path. Cyrstal in the Clouds (Amazon.com has it) was the book that emerged, the fascinating capture of the woman who was the first known female parachutist in the area, a woman who broke multiple aviation records, a woman who was truly a pioneer in the sky.

I haven’t finished the book yet and we are planning to arrange to have it for sale in the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum soon. If you like 1920s-1940s history and especially tales of strong women who didn’t allow their gender to keep them from a dream, this is a book to consider.

It is also a point that I make in my presentation about capturing family history that you frequently don’t know where the research will lead you. It may be routine or you might uncover something very much different than you anticipate. Mr. Mowry certainly did.

Anyone who has spent approximately five minutes in the South Florida heat is looking for relief. If you’re engaged in outdoor activities though, escaping into the air conditioning isn’t the answer. And if you’re an agricultural worker, that isn’t remotely an option. Hats, hydrating, and sweating up a storm is how that goes.

With that in mind, two local artists, Suzanne Moe and Marcela Noriega (SUMA) are combining art, ingenuity, and compassion into their project Community Art Cool Ties. It’s the special technology of wetting a specific fabric that you then tie around your neck to help with the heat. What makes this “Cool Tie” extra special is not just the way in which it brings some relief, but also because each tie is locally artisan made, and Suzanne and Marcela have pledged to donate 7,000 ties to local agricultural workers. The ties sell for $15.00 and they also accept donations to try and meet their goal.

They will be having an event Sunday 28 Sept 12-4 p.m. at La Playa Grill at Homestead’s Bayfront Park. The usual entrance fee is supposed to be waived if you tell them you are attending the event (on the other hand, you can think of it as a two-fer in supporting the park and pay the fee), and there will be music as well as La Playa’s good food for sale. For those who haven’t been to La Playa, it’s a great view out across Biscayne Bay, but they don’t take credit cards. (They do have an ATM machine available). So if you’re looking for something different and to help a good cause, put this on your calendar

That’s www.CommunityArtCoolTies.com for more information.

I spent my Saturday doing one of those things that make you look around with pride. Noreen Legault Mendonza is the founder of the organization and you can read the details about the team and the background at their web site of http://www.geekigirl.org

I met Noreen literally by accident one day when she was on the end of a meeting with a woman who I was meeting with next. Although I don’t qualify for the Geeki in the sense of being tech-savvy or inclined to science, math or engineering, I have most assuredly made my way in non-traditional roles. I was glad to sign up to be one of the presenters at the breakout sessions and have lunch in between. There were around 100 girls in attendance at the South Dade High School, ranging from middle school through seniors. The Miami-Dade County Public School System has incorporated the STEM/STEAM academy into many of their schools as a voluntary track. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math is the basic STEM and schools can elected to add the “A” in either Art or Aeronautics. Studies consistently show that middle school is where girls start backing away from math, etc.,. and so the focus for yesterday was to encourage girls to enter the STEAM academy that does have “Art” as the “A”. Indeed, one of the morning speakers was an engineer who had started in art, then moved into architect, and finally engineering having never thought that was something she would pursue. Geeki Girls emphasizes marrying art and technology and this impressive young woman was a perfect representative for that approach.

The presenters covered quite a range – Air Force Officer, Cisco Code Writer, Police Detective, Entrepreneur, Physician, Model, Animator, and so forth. Not surprisingly, the “CSI” and film making were among the most popular breakout sessions, but those of us with less exciting topics had a good time. During lunch when they asked us to be sure and sit with girls that we hadn’t interacted with yet, it was a special treat for me to have one of them say she was in JROTC and planned to go into the Army through college ROTC and one of the other girls was looking at the Air Force. That really was a coincidence of where I sat down.

I have mentioned the value of mentoring in other posts and while Saturday’s session wasn’t quite that, it was an opportunity for role modeling to girls that the world is truly open to them.

I have highlighted a number of organizations that do wonderful work in different areas and written about the people behind the idea. And even though I don’t have a huge following, I am asking that you help me spread the word about Farm Share, not only because of the good work they do, but because Patricia Robbins, the President and CEO, has developed a system that is, and can be, a model for similar undertakings throughout the country. She was not some billionaire who turned to altruism. She is a woman who worked hard all her life, then determined that she wanted to take on the task of re-packing fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown away and provide those at no charge to organizations that feed the hungry. By being located in the heart of South Florida’s agricultural center and having a career in the wholesale seafood business, Patricia set out to harness her business and logistics expertise into Farm Share with phenomenal numbers to show their success. The real story is told on their web site at http://www.farmshare.org but I will throw out a few facts to make the point.

They work in a public-private partnership with the state (as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture programs) to maximize support that can be provided to more than 500 organizations they give food to. They also have periodic Food Distribution events where volunteers join them to support hundreds and sometimes thousands of families in a four-hour period. They maintain a small staff to keep their administrative costs down to under 3% – a remarkable achievement for a non-profit, and through the techniques they have honed, they can provide 11.5 pounds of food per every $1 of donation. On average, they distribute  more than 15 million pounds of nutritious food to approximately 600,000  low-income households across Florida each year. In fact, their reputation for efficiency means they have farmers from a multi-state area that make food available to them. Their system enables them to often have a mere twenty-four hour turnaround from receipt of tractor trailers filled with goods to that same food being repackaged and into the hands of soup kitchens, food pantries and similar organizations. Much of Farm Share’s cost goes to paying for the transportation of the food because again, they do not charge one cent to the organizations they support. They have also begun to be offered non-food items such as truckloads of bicycle helmets and child car seats, but when tight dollars can’t fund transportation for both, food is given the priority in keeping with their primary mission.

Farm Share now operates out of the original location, plus two others in Florida and they would love to expand. They are more than happy to share their knowledge and give tours of the packing house to show their operation. If you are looking for a charity that is making a tremendous difference in people’s lives, productively utilizing what would be tons of wasted food, and doing so with remarkable stewardship, then Farm Share is one such group.