Lianne Epstein’s love of tennis is rivaled only by her passion for helping the needy.

“I love being on a tennis court, but nothing can beat the feeling that you get when you lend a helping hand to people who really need it,” said the Coral Springs resident.

It was a trip to Camp Boggy Creek in Eustis with her dad that kindled her desire to help others, Epstein said. “The camp looks after children with chronic or life-threatening diseases. Going there with Dad really opened my eyes. I’m glad I went with him.”

The camp, which opened in 1996, is run completely by donations from corporations, individuals and foundations. “The place has almost everything for children but I noticed that it did not have a tennis court,” said Epstein, who won the Silver Knight award this year in the athletic category. “I began thinking of what I needed to do to make that happen.”

After she came back to Coral Springs, Epstein started working toward her goal. “As I love tennis, organizing tennis tournaments to raise money seemed like the right thing to do,” she said. “I went to businesses in the community and sought their help. Tennis companies Prince and Tail donated racquets and clothing that were auctioned off to raise money.”

After the success of the first tournament, Epstein organized two more. “People were incredibly generous. With all the support we got, we were able to raise $13,500 for the camp. Some day, the tennis courts will be built.”

Read the complete article in the July 17 issue of the Coral Springs Forum.

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Jennifer Senn, was one of three students who received scholarships from the Coral Springs Craft Guild. Senn is the daughter of Lisette and Leon Senn of Coral Springs. She plans to attend the University of Florida in the fall where she wants to study psychology.

Other scholarship winners included Alexandra Lytle, who will major in fine arts with interest in fashion design and painting at St. Andrews Presbyterian in North Carolina, and Edgaryn Abreu, who will major in fine arts with an interest in web design at Florida International University.

PHOTO: Jennifer Senn, left, and Ginger Miller, scholarship committee chair, hold photographs Senn submitted to the competition. Submitted photo
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Joyce Sweeney still remembers the 8-year-old girl who looked out of a window at the Museum of Natural History in Ohio spellbound.

“I saw birds, wildlife and nature. Sitting down right there, I began writing. I don’t remember much, but that is the first poem I wrote,” said the Coral Springs resident.

Much has happened in her life since, including success as a fiction writer for young adults, but Sweeney has now let her first love reclaim her. “Impermanence,” her first collection of poems, was released recently.

Sweeney felt poems “coming to her,” when her mother developed Alzheimer’s Disease in 2005. “That put me in a much more serious frame of mind," she said. "I had much more serious emotions. I couldn’t write fiction. It did not come to me, but poems did.”

Kathy Macdonald, who is a member of the writing group that Sweeney teaches Thursday nights in Fort Lauderdale, praised her mentor. “The poems are beautiful," she said. "She has a strong narrative voice completed with a lyrical sensitivity. Of the poems in the collection, 'Mother’s Day,' and 'Lost Horizon' are my favorites.”

Read the complete article in the June 19 issue of the Coral Springs Forum.

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As Broward County Spelling Bee champion Vincent Medina shook everyone's hands after being recognized by the Coral Springs City Commission, City Manager Mike Levinson decided to test the boy's spelling skills.

"He asked me to spell 'onomatopoeia.' It was easy for me," said Vincent, a seventh-grader at Ramblewood Middle School in Coral Springs . "I expected someone there to ask me to spell a word. It happens to me a lot."

Vincent said spelling words comes naturally to him.

"I have been doing this for a couple of years," he said. "I won the county competition at the elementary level when I was in fifth grade, but they wouldn't let me go to the nationals as I was too young."

In a few days, Vincent will get his chance to test his mettle at the national level, when he travels to Washington D.C. to take part in the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 26 to 30.

"There is a lot more pressure now that I am competing against the world's best," he said.

"He is the best person I know when it comes to spellings," said Ryan Domitz, Vincent's friend. "He is smart and very good at studies. I think he is going to win the national competition."

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Alicia Anfossi's dreams of making learning easier for children with cognitive disabilities has taken a definite shape.

The Coral Springs resident opened LearningRx in West Boca Raton. The center helps children overcome their learning struggles and improve their self-confidence,

“LearningRx is an international program created by Dr. Ken Gibson. This is the first center in South Florida,” Anfossi said. “We work with children having a variety of cognitive deficiencies like attention deficit disorder, ADHD, autism and reading problems. We help students performing poorly in schools. We also work with gifted students.”

The program has been effective with autistic children and those who are mentally challenged, Anfossi said.

“Cognitive skills are trainable. Here, we train the brain," she said. "Studies have found that there is a 10 to 15 percent improvement in such children. For a normal child, the average gain is about 20 percent. We work with children from age 4 up to the college level.”

Call the Boca Raton LearningRx Learning Center at 561-488-6188.

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